Tham khảo tài liệu 'about gmat exam 8', ngoại ngữ, anh ngữ phổ thông phục vụ nhu cầu học tập, nghiên cứu và làm việc hiệu quả | Topic vs. Main Idea The topic subject is what the passage is about. The main idea is the overall fact feeling or thought a writer wants to convey about his or her subject. c. Utilitarianism is flawed as a foundation for moral action. d. Utilitarianism is often used to determine social policy. The only answer that can be correct is c because it is the only idea that is general enough to hold together all of the information in the paragraph. Choices a and b are both too specific to be the main idea they are not broad enough to cover all of the ideas in the passage which discusses three different problems with utilitarianism including the problems cited in choices a and b. Choice d is a contrasting idea used to introduce the main idea of the sentence and how utilitarianism is used to determine social policy is not even discussed in this paragraph so the idea expressed in d certainly does not hold together the entire paragraph. Only choice c is general enough to cover every sentence in the paragraph. It makes a general statement that all of the sentences in the paragraph work to support. The kind of texts you will see on the GMAT exam and in fact most of the texts you will read in graduate school will follow this basic pattern of general idea specific support. That is the writer will state the main idea he or she wants to convey about the topic and then provide support for that idea usually in the form of specific facts and details. This works on both the paragraph and essay level. That is in an essay each paragraph should work to support the overall main idea thesis of the text. But each paragraph should also have its own main idea in support of the thesis and each sentence within that paragraph should work to support that main idea. This can be outlined as follows Thesis overall main idea general assertion about subject Paragraph 1 Main idea general assertion in support of thesis Supporting sentence specific fact or detail supporting main idea Supporting sentence .
