UNDERSTANDING

MAIN IDEA

IELTS READING
IELTS READING

IELTS READING module checks your ability to

answer 40 questions in 60 minutes from three
passages which is contain around 2700 words
HOW PARAGRAPHS
ARE STRUCTURED

Every paragraph has general

idea and supporting
information.

General idea = main idea

GENERAL INFORMATION &
SPECIFIC INFORMATION
Topic Sentence general idea of a paragraph

At the beginning of a paragraph, second sentence or last.

Specific Information supporting detail

TOPIC VS MAIN IDEA
Topic : subject matter (what is it about)

Ex.: Titanic
Topic: a love story of two lovers on the Titanic
Main idea: The film describes the story of Jack and Rose, two
lovers from radically different circumstances, who fall in love
during the maiden voyage of the ship Titanic and who
tragically sink with the ship.
ANOTHER EXAMPLE

The topic of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s stone: a boy with
special skills entering a school for wizards.
The main idea: Harry Potter a young boy with magical
talents, is send to school for wizards where he meets loyal
friends who help him fight evil enemies
LITERARY WORKS

Topic of The Great Gatsby : the wasteful lives of the New York
wealthy during Jazz Age.

Main idea: The Great Gatsby, the story of a young man who moves
to New York and who becomes involves in the affairs of the idle
rich, offers a commentary on the materialism and lack of morality
of 1920s in America
REMEMBER!!
Topic refers to SUBJECT MATTER

Main Idea refers to A COMPLETE STATEMENT (the point the

writer is making about the topic)
 PRACTICE
Smoking has been proven dangerous to people’s health, yet
many continue to smoke for various reasons. For young
people, smoking often represents maturity and individuality.
Many smoke as a way to reduce tension. In addition, the
regular smoker becomes addicted psychologically and
physically to the nicotine in cigarettes.

Topic: a. Health b. Addiction c. Smoking d. Nicotine

Main Idea:
a. Smoking has been proven dangerous to people’s health in various ways.
b. Regular smokers become addicted to nicotine.
c. Although smoking is dangerous, people continue doing it for various reasons.
d. Nicotine is what smokers become addicted to, both psychologically and
physically.
MAIN IDEA VS
SUPPORTING DETAIL

Details: explain, illustrate,

elaborate upon main idea

Main idea statements are

general and more broad.
PRACTICE
There is some evidence that colors affect you
physiologically. For example, when subjects are exposed to
red light respiratory movements increase; exposure to blue
decreases respiratory movements. Similarly, eye blinks
increase in frequency when eyes are exposed to red light
and decrease when exposed to blue. This seems consistent
with intuitive feelings about blue being more soothing and
red being more arousing. After changing a school’s walls
from orange and white to blue, the blood pressure of the
students decreased while their academic performance
improved. (DeVito, qtd. in McWhorter 136)
USEFUL TERMS
The main idea statement is called a topic
sentence in a paragraph.
The main idea statement is called a thesis
statement in an essay or article.
In literature, the main idea id referred to as
the theme.
PLACE FOR TOPIC
SENTENCE IN PARAGRAPH

Topic sentence
Supporting detail
Supporting detail
Supporting detail
PRACTICE

Americans even differ in their preferences

for “munchies.” The average consumer
eats 21 pounds of snack foods in a year
(hopefully not all at one sitting), but people
in the West Central part of the country
consume the most (24 pounds per person)
whereas those in the Pacific and Southeast
regions eat only 19 pounds per person.
PRACTICE
Americans express a remarkably high agreement that
pornography should be restricted. An overwhelming
91 percent of all Americans think that the law should
limit or forbid its distribution—48 percent favoring
laws that forbid the distribution of pornography to
persons under eighteen, and another 43 percent
favoring laws that would keep pornography from
people no matter what their age. Females feel even
more strongly about this matter than do males, with a
full 50 percent wanting to entirely forbid the
distribution of pornography (Langan 37).
MAIN IDEA NOT ALWAYS
THE FIRST SENTENCE

Unlike people in the United States, who believe that different

individuals have different abilities, the Japanese believe that all
students have much the same innate ability and that differences in
academic performance must be due to differences in effort.
Therefore, the key to superior performance is hard work, which
begins at an early age. Before most Japanese children even enroll
in school, their parents—usually their mothers—have taught them
numbers, the alphabet, and some art skills. By age four, more than
90% of Japanese children are attending preschool in order to
receive a head start on their education. The typical Japanese
student spends six to seven hours a day in school, five full days a
week and a half-day on Sunday. (Curry et al, Sociology for the
Twenty-First Century, qtd in McWhorter 144)
STRUCTURE OF PARAGRAPH WITH TOPIC SENTENCE
IN THE MIDDLE

Detail
Detail
Detail
Detail

TOPIC
SENTENCE

Detail
Detail
Detail
Detail
TOPIC SENTENCE
MAY BE AT THE END

Supporting
Supporting detail
detail
Supporting
Supporting detail
detail
Supporting
Supporting detail
detail

TOPIC
SENTENCE
EXAMPLE

We can measure the radioactivity of plants and animals today and

compare this with the radioactivity of ancient organic matter. If we
extract a small, but precise, quantity of carbon from an ancient
wooden ax handle, for example, and find it has one-half as much
radioactivity as an equal quantity of carbon extracted from a living
tree, then the old wood must have come from a tree that was cut
down or made from a log that died 5730 years ago. In this way,
we can probe into the past as much as 50,000 years to find out
such things as the age of ancient civilizations or the times of the
ice ages that covered the earth.
(Hewitt, Conceptual Physics, qtd. in McWhorter 143)
TOPIC SENTENCE STATED IN
BEGINNING AND AGAIN AT
END
The study of prehistoric humans is, of necessity, the study of fossil remains.
To begin to understand who our ancestors were and what they were like,
we must be able to interpret the fragments of them that are coming to the
surface in increasing numbers. Given fairly reliable methods to determine
their age, we can now turn with more confidence to primate fossils for an
answer to the all-important question: How do we tell monkeys, apes, and
humans apart? For present-day species this is no problem; all have evolved
sufficiently so that they no longer resemble one another. But since they all
have a common ancestor, the farther back we go in time, the more similar
their fossils begin to look. There finally comes a point when they are
indistinguishable. The construction of a primate fossil family tree is essential
if we are ever going to discover the line of descent from early hominid to
modern human.
(Campbell and Loy, Humankind Emerging, qtd. in McWhorter, 144)
REVIEW ABOUT MAIN
IDEA
The main idea statement in a paragraph
is called a topic sentence
The topic sentence may be the first
sentence
The topic sentence may be the last
sentence
The topic sentence may be in the middle
of the paragraph
The topic sentence is sometimes the first
and also the last sentence
PRACTICE
Birds that roost in communities keep warmer and save
more energy than those who roost separately. Another
advantage to staying in flocks is that many birds are
more likely to find food and detect danger than a
solitary bird—several pairs of eyes are better than one.
In addition, birds that eat on the ground with their flock
can more easily escape attack because at least one
member of the flock will alert the others. Then, when
all the birds fly upward to escape together, they cause
confusion, turning a predator’s interest away from any
one individual. Several small birds may even act
together to “mob” a larger intruder and drive it away.
(Langan 41)
HOW TO FIND MAIN IDEA
IN LONGER SELECTIONS

 Look carefully not at just the first sentence

but the first paragraph or two. Quite often,
the thesis will be in the introductory
paragraph (main idea in beginning).
 Many times, the thesis will be presented in
the introduction but also restated in the
concluding paragraph (main idea in
beginning and end).
CONTINUED

 Sometimes the main idea will be in the middle, often after a

paragraph or two which may be used to engage the reader
or to provide background information (main idea in middle).

 Last, there will be times when the main idea is implied. You
then need to identify the topic, examine all the supporting
details, and then try to express the larger idea that unites
the details as an implied main idea statement (implied
main idea).
MAIN IDEA
PARAGRAPHS ESSAYS
• Topic sentence may be first • Thesis often is in the
sentence. introductory paragraph.
• Topic sentence may be last • Thesis may be presented
sentence. at end.
• Topic sentence may be first
• Thesis may be stated in
sentence and also at the
beginning of essay and
end.
also restated at the end.
• Topic sentence may be in
the middle. • Thesis may be in the
middle of the essay.
• There may not be a topic
sentence. Main idea is • There may not be a thesis.
implied. Main idea is implied
SUMMARY

 The topic of a selection is the subject matter. It usually can be

expressed in a word or phrase.
 The main idea of a selection is a complete sentence, what the
writer wants you to understand about the topic.
 The main idea statement of a paragraph is called a topic
sentence.
 The main idea statement of an essay is called a thesis or
thesis statement.
 The main idea of a literary work is referred to as a theme.
CONTINUED

 It is important to recognize the difference between the main

idea statement and the supporting details.
 The topic sentence of a paragraph may be the first sentence,
or the last sentence , or both first and last sentences, or even
in the middle. Sometimes there isn’t a topic sentence and it is
implied.
 The thesis of an essay may be found in the introductory
paragraph, may be in the concluding paragraph, may be in
both introductory and concluding paragraphs, or may be in the
middle. Sometimes the thesis is not present and it is implied.
PRACTICE
A penny for your thoughts? If it’s a 1943
cooper penny, it could be worth as much as
fifty thousand dollars. In 1943, most
pennies were made out of steel since
copper was needed for World War II, so the
1943 penny is ultra-rare. Another rarity is
the 1955 double die penny. These pennies
were mistakenly double stamped, so they
have overlapping dates and letters. If it’s
uncirculated, it’d easily easily fetch $25,000
at an auction. Now that’s a pretty penny.
PRACTICE
Before you put on that skeleton costume and
rove door-to-door pandering for candy, take a
minute to reflect on this tradition. Halloween
is believed to have come from ancient Celtic
festival dating back some 2,000 years.
November 1st was the Celtic New Year and
marked the end of Summer to the Celts. They
celebrated on its eve by wearing costumes
made of animal skins and dancing around
bon fires. Over the next millenia, this
primitive celebration grew to be the candy
fueled costume ball that we know today.
PRACTICE
When we hear the term “reality” applied to a show,
one might expect that the events portrayed
occurred naturally or, at the least, were not
scripted. This is not always the case. Many reality
shows occur in unreal environments, like rented
mansions occupied by film crews. Such living
environments do not reflect what most people
understand to be “reality.” Worse still, some
involved in the production of “reality” television
claim that the participants were urged to act out
story lines premeditated by producers. With such
accusations floating around, it’s no wonder many
people take reality TV to be about as real as the
sitcom.
PRACTICE
It is often said that lightning never strikes
twice in the same place, but this isn’t
true. Go ask the forest rangers. Rangers
who spend their summers as fire-fighters
will tell you that every thundershower
brings several bolts of lightning to their
lookout stations.
PRACTICE
Costs were low that year and the output high.
There was a good person for each job and the
market remained firm. There were no losses
from fire. All in all it was the best years in the
history of the company.
PRACTICE
There are great numbers of deer around
here. This whole area is great country for
hunters and fishermen. There are bears,
mountain lions, and coyotes. To the east
there are streams full of trout, and there are
ducks and geese.