Main Idea

Main Idea

By Tiffany Solod

Practice

Let's see if you can find the Main Idea of a passage that should look familiar if you did yesterday's assignment...

Multiple Choice

Picture this: a herd of elephants flies past you at sixty miles per hour, followed by a streak of tigers, a pride of lions, and a bunch of clowns. What do you see? It must be a circus train! One of the first uses of the circus train is credited to W.C. Coup. He partnered with P.T. Barnum in 1871 to expand the reach of their newly combined shows using locomotives. That's another word for train. You see, before trains, moving the circus was hard. They had to lug around all their animals, performers, and equipment with a team of more than 600 horses. Since there were no highways, these voyages were rough and took a long time. Circuses would stop at many small towns between the large venues. Performing at many of these small towns was not very profitable. Because of these limitations, circuses could not grow as large as the imaginations of the operators. After they began using circus trains, Barnum and Coup only brought their show to large cities. These performances were much more profitable and the profits went toward creating an even bigger and better circus. More stages or "rings" were added and the show went on. Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus relied on the train to transport their astounding show until they went defunct in 2017.

• All about the Circus

• Circus trains and how they worked.

• Circuses had a difficult time traveling and trains made it easier to do so.

• Circuses had animals and clowns.

Check your answer

Circuses had a difficult time traveling and trains made it easier to do so.

Notice how this Main Idea works with the original summary:

Circuses used to have a difficult time ​traveling and had to stop at many small towns along the way. Trains allowed circuses to travel easily from large city to large city.

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Being able to annotate, then summarize, will help you find the main idea easier in a larger text.

Let's practice with another

Multiple Choice

How do you say “Holy cow” in French? The fastest thing in France may just be the fastest ground transportation in the world. The TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse: French for very high speed) is France’s national high-speed rail service. On April 3rd, 2007, a TGV test train set a record for the fastest wheeled train, reaching 357.2 miles per hour. In mid 2011, TGV trains operated at the highest speed in passenger train service in the world, regularly reaching 200 miles per hour. But what you may find most shocking is that TGV trains run on electric power not petrol. Now if you’ll excuse me; I have a record to catch.

• All about how to say things in French.

• Fastest train ever made.

• The TGV is the fastest train ever.

• The TGV is the fastest wheeled train and fastest traveler train and it was made in France.

Answer: The TGV is the fastest wheeled train and fastest traveler train and it was made in France.

Now that you have the hang of it, you are going to work on an assignment in Canvas that puts all 3 skills to the test.

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Go to Canvas now & read the directions. Also, be sure to submit your results from this lesson + practice activity to your assignment today to receive credit.​

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