Reading Comprehension Success in 20 Minutes a Day, 3rd Edition

L E S S O N
Finding 
the Implied
Main Idea
L E S S O N S U M M A R Y
This lesson shows you how to determine the main idea of a passage
in which the writer has not provided a topic sentence or otherwise
spelled it out for you.
16
1 1 9

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H o w t o F i n d a n I m p l i e d
M a i n I d e a
Finding an implied main idea requires you to use your
observations to make an inference that, like a topic
sentence, encompasses the whole passage. It might take
a little detective work, but now that you know how to
find details and how to understand word choice, style,
and tone, you can make observations that will enable
you to find main ideas even when they’re not explicitly
stated.
Practice Passage 1
For the first example of finding an implied main idea,
let’s look at a statement from a parking garage manager
in response to recent thefts:
Radios have been stolen from four cars in our park-
ing garage this month. Each time, the thieves have
managed to get by the parking garage security with
radios in hand, even though they do not have a
parking garage identification card, which people
must show as they enter and exit the garage. Yet
each time, the security officers say they have seen
nothing unusual.
Now, there is no topic sentence in this paragraph,
but you should be able to determine the main idea of
this statement from the facts provided and from the
tone. What does the statement suggest?
1.
Which of the following best summarizes the
statement’s main idea?
a.
There are too many thefts in the garage.
b.
There are not enough security guards.
c.
There is something wrong with the security in
the parking garage.