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Identifying the Main Idea of a Paragraph: Part 1

Opposite the paragraphs below, drag and drop the statement that indicates where the main idea of each paragraph, or the point the writer is making about the topic, is located.
at the beginning of the paragraph in the middle of the paragraph at the end of the paragraph implied idea

  1. Heat keeps us warm, cooks our food, drives our engines, and in a thousand ways makes life comfortable and pleasant, but what should we do without light? How many of us could be happy even though warm and well fed if we were forced to live in the dark where the sunbeams never flickered, where the shadows never stole across the floor, and where the soft twilight could not tell us that the day was done? Heat and light are the two most important physical factors in life; we cannot say which is the more necessary, because in the extreme cold or arctic regions man cannot live, and in the dark places where the light never penetrates man sickens and dies. Both heat and light are essential to life, and each has its own part to play in the varied existence of man and plant and animal. Light enables us to see the world around us, makes the beautiful colors of the trees and flowers, enables us to read, is essential to the taking of photographs, gives us our moving pictures and our magic lanterns, produces the exquisite tints of stained-glass windows, and brings us the joy of the rainbow. We do not always realize that light is beneficial, because sometimes it fades our clothing and our carpets, and burns our skin and makes it sore. But we shall see that even these apparently harmful effects of light are in reality of great value in man's constant battle against disease.
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  2. The body is very exacting in its demands, requiring certain definite foods for the formation and maintenance of its cells, and other foods, equally definite, but of different character, for heat; our diet therefore must contain foods of high fuel value, and likewise foods of cell-forming power. Although the foods which we eat are of widely different character, such as fruits, vegetables, cereals, oils, meats, eggs, milk, cheese, etc., they can be put into three great classes: the carbohydrates, the fats, and the proteids. It has been estimated that 300,000,000 blood cells alone need daily repair or renewal. When we consider that the blood is but one part of the body, and that all organs and fluids have corresponding requirements, we realize how vast is the work to be done by the food which we eat.
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  3. One of the most beautiful and well-known phenomena in nature is the rainbow, and from time immemorial it has been considered Jehovah's signal to mankind that the storm is over and that the sunshine will remain. Practically everyone knows that a rainbow can be seen only when the sun's rays shine upon a mist of tiny drops of water. It is these tiny drops which by their refraction and their scattering of light produce the rainbow in the heavens. The exquisite tints of the rainbow can be seen if we look at an object through a prism or chandelier crystal, and a very simple experiment enables us to produce on the wall of a room the exact colors of the rainbow in all their beauty.
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