<span>The only place for the topic sentence is in the beginning as its purpose is to attract readers so that they would like to read a work till the end. So, to answer your question, the topic sentence should never be in the last lines, where the conclusion <span>of the whole work is written.</span></span>
The correct answer here is A.
The word "gross" in this line from Frederick Douglas's famous speech named
<span>“What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” </span>means flagrant or extreme. This term is often used with the word "injustice" and it means unacceptable and obvious which is definition for flagrant as well.
I’m assuming it means that the pencil made a loud noise as it was being sharpened?