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Reading Module #3 On Your Own

This activity in Reading Module 3 gives you two reading passages to practice applying the Three-Step Method for determining stated main ideas. Directions: Complete the activity by reading each passage and answering the questions. Do not forget to spell check and proofread your work. Note: Clues will be provided after each question to guide you in your answers for Reading #1. Clues will not be provided in Reading #2. Reading #1: The Industrial Revolution Living in the new industrial cities often meant settling for poor housing, sometimes with little heat and no sanitation. Factories offered jobs, but the pay was low, the hours were long, and the work was back-breaking and often dangerous. Many jobs involved rigid and monotonous routines amid smoke and deafening noise; moreover, supervisors closely monitored their workers and tolerated no complaint. In short, companies treated workersespecially immigrants, who spoke little Englishas little more than muscle power. Because they needed wages to live, and because they were not organized to demand better working conditions, workers had little choice but to take whatever work they could find. Most of [the immigrant workers] who came to the United States to pursue their dreams found that life was far from easy.
[Adapted from College Reading and Writing (3 ed.). (2007). Pearson Custom Publishing, p. 556.]
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Topic of the Passage To determine the topic, ask yourself, "Who or what is the passage about? Clue: Look for words that are repeated throughout the passage. For example, I notice that the words immigrants, life, living, live, and workers are repeated several times. State the topic of the passage: The topic of this passage is that immigrant workers faced many hardships when they came to the United States, including work and living conditions.

Key Supporting Details What key words or phrases does the author use to support the topic? Clue: I notice details about housing, jobs, and working conditions. List the key supporting details (words and phrases): Back-breaking dangerous tolerated no complaint little more than muscle power life was far from easy The use of the authors choice of wording makes his topic even more relevant. By applying words that demonstrate that immigrant workers were no more than just laborers, the author is proving to us that immigrant life was no cake walk.

Main Idea What is the authors point about the topic? Clue: Which sentence makes a general statement about the life of immigrants during the Industrial Revolution? Which sentence in the passage presents the stated main idea? Most of [the immigrant workers] who came to the United States to pursue their dreams found that life was far from easy. The last sentence of the paragraph is was outlines the authors point. By adding it as the last sentence, the author also adds emphasis to what he wants to prove.

Reading #2: Crime in the U.S. Although recent crime trends in the United States are downward, by world standards the U.S. crime rate is high. There were 15,517 murders in the United States in 2000, about one every half-hour around the clock. In large cities such as New York, rarely does a day pass with no murder; in fact, more New Yorkers are hit with stray bullets than people deliberately gunned down in most large cities elsewhere in the world. Overall, the U.S. violent crime rate is about five times greater than Europes; the U.S. property crime rate is twice as high. The contrast is ever greater between our society and the nations of Asia, including India and Japan, where rates of violence and property crime are among the lowest in the world.
[Adapted from College Reading & Writing (3 ed.). (2007). Pearson Custom Publishing, p. 594]
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Topic of the Passage To determine the topic, ask yourself, "Who or what is the passage about? State the topic of the passage: This passage is about the United States quickly escalating crime and violence rates.

Key Supporting Details What key words or phrases does the author use to support the topic? List the key supporting details (words and phrases): There were many phrases that support the authors topic, but I believe that using the following, There were 15,517 murders in the United States in 2000, about one every half-hour around the clock, really makes his point come across because it is a good use of a statistic.

Main Idea What is the authors point about this topic? Which sentence in the passage presents the stated main idea? Although recent crime trends in the United States are downward, by world standards the U.S. crime rate is high. This would have to be the point because the author sets up the contrasts that he later presents in his paragraph.