Identify the main ideas of the paragraphs.
My answers are in parentheses.
It informs our history — New York City isn’t where it is because of dumb luck. Verrazzano and Hudson both stumbled into the greatest natural harbor on the Atlantic coast. Boston started as a peninsula sheltered by the inland water of Cape Cod. New Orleans sprang up at the terminus of our continent’s most important river system. (These were no accidents–geography played a huge role in the development of civilization.)
I think it might be the one I indicated or "It informs our history."
The first sentence is a detail. The last sentence is the main idea. So -- you're right.
Thanks! There's another one too:
It informs our perceptions, both true and false — one need look no further than the greatest tool of white supremacy in world history, the 1569 Mercator world map. Yes, a map. Gerardus Mercator’s wildly popular map was created with a huge distortion: the areas farthest away from the Equator were abnormally larger. Europe, North America and Russia are all greatly oversized. Europe is also placed squarely in the middle, as if the world revolved around it. Now, this was probably unintentional–Mercator was European, after all, and used a familiar vantage point–but this map has helped to color our perceptions of people and countries for many years. It’s important for kids to understand this.
I don't seem to get this one.
one need look no further than the greatest tool of white supremacy in world history, the 1569 Mercator world map.
The main ideas of the paragraphs are:
1. New York City, Boston, and New Orleans were not established in their respective locations due to luck, but rather because of the geographical advantages they possessed. (These were no accidents–geography played a huge role in the development of civilization.)
2. Geography has greatly influenced the history and development of civilization. (It informs our history.)