Question

Read the following paragraph and select the correct answer. A prison taint was on everything there. The imprisoned air, the imprisoned light, the imprisoned damps, the imprisoned men, were all deteriorated by confinement. As the captive men were faded and haggard, so the iron was rusty, the stone was slimy, the wood was rotten, the air was faint, the light was dim. Like a well, like a vault, like a tomb, the prison had no knowledge of the brightness outside, and would have kept its polluted atmosphere intact in one of the spice islands of the Indian ocean. (from Little Dorrit, Book the First, Chapter 1, by Charles Dickens) What is the main idea of this paragraph? The prison was dark and empty. The prison was on one of the spice islands. "A prison taint was on everything there." "The prison had no knowledge of the brightness outside."

Answer 1

The main idea of this paragraph is 'A PRISON TAINT WAS ON EVERYTHING THERE'.
The main idea of a paragraph is also called the topic idea of that paragraph. The main idea of a paragraph is usually the most important sentence in the paragraph and all other sentences in the paragraph serve to support it.
Topic idea of a paragraph  are usually the opening sentence in the paragraph.
In the passage given above, you can see that the main idea of the paragraph is the prison taint that affects everything that is found in the prison environment, all other sentences in the paragraph build on this main idea.<span />

Answer 2

Answer:

The main idea of this paragraph is 'A PRISON TAINT WAS ON EVERYTHING THERE'.

Explanation: