Question

getting the main idea
read each paragraph below. choose which of the three sentences following each paragraph best states the main idea of that paragraph. write the letter of that sentence in the blank.

_____ 1. christopher columbus believed that the world was round. this belief was rejected by most sailors but accepted by many scientists at that time. since the world is round, columbus reasoned, he could reach asia by sailing west. sponsored by spain, columbus set sail from spain in 1492 to find a new route to asia. after a voyage of several months, he reached what he thought were the spice islands of asia. actually, columbus was very lost. instead of landing in asia, columbus really was in the caribbean islands off the coast of north america. columbus never knew that he had found a new continent.
a. columbus left spain in 1492 to discover the new world.
b. columbus landed in north america in 1492 without ever knowing that he had found a new continent.
c. all explorers knew that the world was flat.

_____ 2. most people think that columbus was the first person to discover america. this is not true. both the indians and the vikings arrived before columbus. many thousands of years before columbus was born, a group of people from asia followed animal herds across a narrow strip of land that once connected north america to asia. these people were the ancestors of present-day native americans. about the year 1000, leif ericson, a norwegian, led a group of vikings to the east coast of north america. because so many wild grapes grew there, they called the new land wineland. they had rediscovered what the indians had found long ago.
a. columbus was the first person to discover america.
b. the vikings reached america before the indians.
c. both the vikings and indians reached america before columbus.

_____ 3. in 1519, ferdinand magellan set out with five ships to sail around the world. the sailors aboard one of the ships mutinied. the sailors on two other ships deserted and returned home. the remaining sailors soon ran out of food and had to eat the rats on the ships. they narrowly escaped an attack by pirates in the moluccas, islands that are now part of indonesia. magellan himself was killed by natives in the philippines. only one ship and eighteen sailors returned. though the three-year voyage of magellan’s ship had been filled with dangers, it had finally proved that the world was round and that the americas were a new world.
a. although it was dangerous, magellan’s voyage around the world was important.
b. magellan was killed by pirates in the molucca islands.
c. most of magellan’s crew were cowards.

_____ 4. two explorers and soldiers of fortune named hernando cortés and francisco pizarro helped spain set up a huge empire in the new world. cortés fought and conquered the aztecs of mexico between 1519 and 1522. pizarro conquered the incas of peru in 1533. spain in time controlled all of south america (except brazil), central america, the west indies, florida, california, and the southwest part of america. huge amounts of gold and silver were mined and shipped back home to spain. for many years, its colonies in the new world made spain the richest and most powerful country in the world.
a. cortés conquered the incas, and pizarro conquered the aztecs.
b. the indians easily defeated the spanish explorers.
c. its new world colonies made spain rich and powerful.

Explanation:

Question 1

• Option A: Columbus's goal was to find a new route to Asia, not to discover the New World (he didn't know it was new), so A is incorrect.
• Option B: The paragraph says Columbus set sail in 1492, landed in the Caribbean (North America) and never knew he found a new continent. This matches the main idea.
• Option C: The paragraph says most sailors rejected the round - earth idea, but it doesn't say all explorers thought the world was flat. So C is incorrect.

• Option A: The paragraph starts by saying "Most people think that Columbus was the first person to discover America. This is not true." So A is incorrect.
• Option B: The paragraph says the Indians arrived many thousands of years before Columbus and the Vikings arrived around 1000, so the Vikings did not reach America before the Indians. B is incorrect.
• Option C: The paragraph clearly states that both the Indians (many thousands of years before Columbus) and the Vikings (around 1000) reached America before Columbus. This is the main idea.

• Option A: The paragraph describes the many dangers of Magellan's voyage (mutiny, desertion, lack of food, pirate attack, Magellan's death) but also says it proved the world was round and the Americas were new. So the voyage was dangerous but important. This matches the main idea.
• Option B: Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines, not by pirates in the Molucca Islands. So B is incorrect.
• Option C: The paragraph describes the hardships of the voyage, not that the crew were cowards. So C is incorrect.

Answer:

B. Columbus landed in North America in 1492 without ever knowing that he had found a new continent.

Question 2