Question

Which numbered sentence is the topic sentence?

(1) Defoe narrates the day-by-day adventures of a castaway who passes half a lifetime on a desert island. (2) Fielding spins a complicated plot about Tom Jones, whose difficulties resolve themselves in the final chapters like the parts of a mechanism falling into place. (3) Jane Austen keeps the reader interested in the quiet life of a village where nothing more exciting than a dance or an elopement occurs. (4) James Joyce relates, at great length, the adventures and thoughts of several people in Dublin through a single day. (5) What we call the novel is thus an immensely varied literary form.

Answer 1

The topic sentence in the given set of sentences is (5) "What we call the novel is thus an immensely varied literary form," as it introduces the broad theme of the variety within the novel genre.

Step-by-step explanation:

The topic sentence is usually the one that introduces the main idea around which the rest of the text revolves. In the given set of sentences, the one that stands out as the topic sentence is (5) "What we call the novel is thus an immensely varied literary form." This sentence presents a broad statement about novels as a diverse literary genre, setting the stage for the subsequent sentences to provide examples in relation to this broad theme. The other sentences discuss specific authors and their works, thereby supporting the notion presented in the topic sentence about the variety found within novels.

Answer 2

number 1 is the topic sentence because it states the main idea of the paragraph