Name: ____________________________________ Date: _________________ Score: _______

Identifying and Formulating Topic Sentence

Study the paragraph below. Then, identify their topic sentences if they expressed and formulate
them if they are implied.
1. A few stars which are hardly bigger than the earth are known, but the majority of stars are
so large that hundreds and thousands of earths could be packed inside each and still leave
room to spare. Here and there we come upon a giant star large enough to contain millions
and millions of earth. And the total number of stars in the universe is probably something
like the total number of grains of sand on all seashores of the world. Such is the littleness
of our house in space when measured against the total substance of the universe.
2. We may distinguish two sorts of goods. There are goods of which individual possession is
possible, and there are goods which all can share. The food and clothing of one person are
different from the food and clothing of another. If the supply is insufficient, what one man
has is obtained at the expense of another. This applies to material goods generally and
therefore to a greater part of the present economic life of the world. On the other hand,
mental and spiritual goods do not belong to the exclusion of another. If one is great artist
and poet, that does not prevent others from painting pictures or writing poems but even
helps to create the atmosphere in which such things are possible. If a person is full of
goodwill toward others, that does not mean that there is less goodwill to be shared among
the rest. The more goodwill one is likely to share with others. Any increase anywhere tends
to produce an increase everywhere.
3. A tree is an underground creature with its tail in the air. All its intelligence is in its roots.
All its senses are in its leaves. Think what sagacity it shows in its quest for food and drink!
Somehow or another, the rootlets which are its tentacles find out that there is a pool at a
moderate distance from the trunk of the tree, and they make for it with all their might.
When spring and summer come, they let their tails grow, and they delight in whisking them
about in the wind or letting them be whisked by it; for these tails are poor, passive things
with little will of their own and bend in whatever direction the wind chooses to make them.
4. Science holds hope for the future; present conditions often seem desperate. Pessimists tell
us that society is disintegrating, that the human race is degenerating, and that our
civilization is going the way of ancient Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and Rome. But though
nations have risen and fallen, though cultures have waxed and waned, the major
movements of history have been forward. After civilization had once been attained, it has
not completely disappeared from the earth. The torch of culture was handed on from Egypt
and Greece to Rome and to us. One often hears of lost arts and civilizations, but best
elements of any culture are immoral
5. The only possible remedy for our present deplorable condition is not less but better science
and education. Science must recognize hat search for truth is the whole life, that both
scientific reality and religious ideality are necessary are necessary to normal, happy, useful
living. Science keeps our feet on the ground of facts but religions lifts our heads into the
atmosphere of ideals. From the earliest years, education must teach love rather that war,
service rather that selfishness. It must instill reverence not only for truth but also beauty
and righteousness.