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Year 7 English — Main idea and supporting detail

Find what a passage is mainly about, tell a supporting detail apart from the main idea, and separate what a passage says from what it does not.

Name: ________________________

  1. 1.Sort each sentence by whether it is a main idea or a supporting detail.

    Groups: Main idea · Supporting detail

    • Bicycles are a good way to get about a town.
    • They cost nothing at all to run.
    • They take up very little space to park.
    • A book can take you to a country you have never seen.
    • Reading widens what you know.
    • Even a short story teaches you new words.

  2. 2.Which of these is a supporting detail from the passage about the well, rather than its main point?

    • a) The village got its water back.
    • b) Students cleared the well and the water came back.
    • c) Clearing the well changed the village.
    • d) Its steps were cracked and its walls were furred with weeds.

  3. 3.Answer in one word. According to the bee passage, what sticks to a bee's body as it moves between flowers?

  4. 4.Read this second passage. "The old well at the edge of the village had not held water for thirty years. Its steps were cracked and its walls were furred with weeds. Then a group of students began clearing it, bucket by bucket, after school. Two monsoons later the well was full again, and the hand pumps in the lanes nearby, which had run dry every summer, kept working all year." What is the main idea?

    • a) Hand pumps stop working in summer.
    • b) Students cleared an old well, and it brought the village its water back.
    • c) The monsoon comes twice a year.
    • d) Weeds grow quickly on old walls.

  5. 5.The bee passage says: "Nearly a third of the food we eat depends on insects doing this work." What work?

    • a) Living together in hives
    • b) Making honey
    • c) Carrying pollen between flowers
    • d) Stinging animals that come too close

  6. 6.Which would be the best title for the bee passage?

    • a) Fruit trees in blossom
    • b) How to keep bees
    • c) The life of a farmer
    • d) More than honey

  7. 7.Answer in one word. In the passage about the well, in which season did the hand pumps run dry every year?

  8. 8.Which sentence in a paragraph gives the main idea?

    • a) The last sentence
    • b) The sentence that all the others explain or support
    • c) The sentence with the most facts in it
    • d) The longest sentence

Answer key — Year 7 English — Main idea and supporting detail

  1. 1. Bicycles are a good way to get about a town. → Main idea; They cost nothing at all to run. → Supporting detail; They take up very little space to park. → Supporting detail; Reading widens what you know. → Main idea; A book can take you to a country you have never seen. → Supporting detail; Even a short story teaches you new words. → Supporting detail
  2. 2. d) Its steps were cracked and its walls were furred with weeds.
  3. 3. pollen
  4. 4. b) Students cleared an old well, and it brought the village its water back.
  5. 5. c) Carrying pollen between flowers
  6. 6. d) More than honey
  7. 7. summer
  8. 8. b) The sentence that all the others explain or support