Practical Reading Strategies

Meeting 1

2. Pertanyaan tentang Main Topic

Selain Main Idea, pada soal reading

biasanya Anda akan ditanyakan tentang
Main Topic, yaitu pertanyaan tentang topik
utama yang dibahas dari keseluruhan teks
atau setiap paragraf.
Main topic atau topik utama bertujuan
untuk menunjukkan kepada pembaca
tentang inti pembahasan utama dari
keseluruhan teks yang didukung dengan
penjelasan atau contoh. Kata-kata yang
Source: google muncul beberapa kali dalam teks dapat
menunjukkan bahwa itu adalah topik
pembahasan di teks tersebut.
Pertanyaan tentang “main topic” biasanya selalu mengarah pada “tentang
apa” teks tersebut. Pilihan jawaban biasanya akan berbentuk “noun phrases”.

Model pertanyaan ini umumnya seperti berikut:

1. The main topic of the passage is ...
2. What is the main topic of the passage?
3. What does the passage mainly discuss?
4. The passage is primarily concerned with ...

Bagaimana cara menjawabnya?

Pertama, bacalah keseluruhan teks secara cepat dan tepat. Perhatikan kalimat
pertama pada tiap paragraf. Kemudian, perhatikan kosakata yang sering atau
beberapa kali muncul atau saling berkaitan di dalam teks tersebut. Apabila
hanya terdapat satu paragraf, coba perhatikan kalimat pertama karena biasanya
main topic terdapat di kalimat pertama. Setelah itu, coba jawab pertanyaan “Apa

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yang dibicarakan penulis pada keseluruhan teks?”. Terakhir, jawab pertanyaan

“Bagaimana semua dapat tersambung menjadi satu topik utama/main topic?.

Agar Anda lebih memahami cara menemukan main topic, mari perhatikan contoh
berikut ini:

The Peales were a distinguished family of American artists. Charles Willson

Peale is best remembered for his portraits of leading figures of the American
Revolution. He painted ………………………………………………………………………………………… .
Charles Willson Peale gave up painting in his middle age and devoted his life
to the Peale Museum, which he founded in Philadelphia. The world's first popular
museum of art and natural science, …………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Three of Peale's seventeen children were also famous artists. Raphaelle
Peale often painted still lifes of flowers, fruit, and cheese. His works show the same
luminosity and attention to detail that the works of the Dutch masters
show. …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. . His
brother Rembrandt studied under his father and painted portraits of many noted
people, …………………... Another brother, Rubens Peale, painted …………….

Mari Anda coba terapkan cara mencari main topic seperti yang disebutkan
sebelumnya. Pertama baca keseluruhan paragraf. Paragraf di atas menyebutkan
The Peales were a distinguished family …. Kemudian di kalimat awal paragraf
kedua, Charles Willson Peale….. . Pada paragaf ketiga tertulis Three of Peale's
seventeen children were …. .

Setelah membaca ketiga kalimat tersebut, Anda dapat melihat kata yang saling
berhubungan yaitu “The Peales” (nama keluarga), “family”, dan “children”.
Sehingga main topic dari paragraf tersebut pasti mengenai anggota keluarga
Peales. Coba Anda lihat dari pilihan jawaban apakah ada yang berkaitan dengan
keluarga atau family.

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Berikut adalah pilihan jawabannya

(A) The life of Charles Willson Peale
(B) Portraiture in the 18th century
(C) The Peale Museum
(D) A family of artists

Jawaban: D. A family of artists

Contoh soal di atas sepertinya cukup mudah ditebak, namun jika tidak teliti Anda
mungkin bisa memilih jawaban yang salah. Pilihan jawaban A dan C terlalu
spesifik hanya membicarakan Charles Wilson Peale, padahal paragraf
selanjutnya membahas anggota keluarga yang lain. Sedangkan pilihan jawaban B
terlalu umum/too general.

Sehingga, untuk menjawab pertanyaan mengenai main topic jangan lupa untuk
melakukan empat langkah seperti yang sudah disebutkan di atas ya ^^

Bila sudah memahami materi ini, mari menuju file berikutnya untuk
mengasah kemampuan Anda dalam mencari main topic.

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Meeting 1
SOAL LATIHAN FINDING MAIN TOPIC

Bacalah paragraf-paragraf berikut ini dan tentukan dengan cermat apa main
topic untuk masing-masing paragraf. Cara terbaik untuk mengerjakan
pertanyaan-pertanyaan ini adalah pertama-tama bacalah paragrafnya.
Kemudian, dengan kata-kata Anda sendiri, nyatakan kembali apa yang menurut
Anda coba dikatakan oleh penulis dan tentukan inti dari teks. Dari pilihan
dibawah ini, pilihlah satu pernyataan yang paling mendukung main topic
paragraf tersebut.

Paragraph 1:
The Northwest Ordinance was passed by Congress in 1787. It set up the government
structure of the region north of the Ohio River and west of Pennsylvania, then called the
Northwest Territory. It set the conditions under which parts of the Territory could become
states having equality with the older states. But the ordinance was more than just a plan for
government. The law also guaranteed freedom of religion and trial by jury in the Territory. It
organized the Territory into townships of 36 square miles and ordered a school to be built for
each township. It also abolished slavery in the Territory. The terms were so attractive that
thousands of pioneers poured into the Territory. Eventually, the Territory became the states of
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
1. What is the main topic of this passage?
(A) The structure of government
(B) The provisions of an important law
(C) The establishment of schools in the Northwest Territory

Paragraph 2:
The story of the motel business from 1920 to the start of World War II in 1941 is one of
uninterrupted growth. Motels spread from the West and the Midwest all the way to Maine and
Florida. They clustered along transcontinental highways such as U.S. routes 40 and 66 and
along the north-south routes running up and down both the East and West coast. There were
16,000 motels by 1930 and 24,000 by 1940. The motel industry was one of the few industries

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that was not hurt by the Depression of the 1930's. Their cheap rates attracted travelers who
had very little money.
2. What does the passage mainly discuss?
(A) How the Depression hurt U.S. motels
(B) The impact of transcontinental highways
(C) Two decades of growth for the motel industry

Paragraph 3:
Every scientific discipline tends to develop its own special language because it finds
ordinary words inadequate, and psychology is no different. The purpose of this special jargon
is not to mystify non-psychologists; rather, it allows psychologists to accurately describe the
phenomena they are discussing and to communicate with each other effectively. Of course,
psychological terminology consists in part of everyday words such as emotion, intelligence,
and motivation, but psychologists use these words somewhat differently. For example,
laymen use the term anxiety to mean nervousness or fear, but most psychologists reserve the
term to describe a condition produced when one fears events over which one has no control.
3. The main topic of this passage is
(A) effective communication
(B) the special language of psychology
(C) two definitions of the word anxiety
(D) the jargon of science

Paragraph 4:
Gifford Pinchot was the first professionally trained forester in the United States. After he
graduated from Yale in 1889, he studied forestry in Europe. In the 1890's he managed the
forest on the Biltmore estate in North Carolina (now Pisgah National Forest) and became the
first to practice scientific forestry. Perhaps his most important contribution to conservation
was persuading President Theodore Roosevelt to set aside millions of acres in the West as
forest reserves. These lands now make up much of the national parks and national forests of
the United States. Pinchot became the Chief Forester of the U.S. Forest Service in 1905.
Although he held that post for only five years, he established guidelines that set forest policy
for decades to come.

4. The passage primarily deals with

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(A) Gifford Pinchot's work on the Biltmore Estate

(B) the practice and theory of scientific forestry
(C) the origin of national parks and national forests in the United States
(D) the contributions Gifford Pinchot made to American forestry

Paragraph 5:
Other major changes in journalism occurred around this time. In 1846, Richard Hoe
invented the steam cylinder rotary press, making it possible to print newspapers faster and
cheaper. The development of the telegraph made possible much speedier collection and
distribution of news. Also in 1846, the first wire service was organized. A new type of
newspaper appeared around this time, one that was more attuned to the spirit and needs of the
new America. Although newspapers continued to cover polities, they came to report more
human interest stories and to record the most recent news, which they could not have done
before the telegraph. New York papers and those of other northern cities maintained corps of
correspondents to go into all parts of the country to cover newsworthy events.
5. What is the most probable topic of the paragraph preceding this one?
(A) Other types of rotary presses
(B) Alternatives to using wire services
(C) Newspapers that concentrated on politics
(D) Other developments in journalism

Paragraph 6:
Settlement houses were institutions established to improve living conditions in poor city
neighborhoods in the late 1800's and early 1900's. They offered health, educational,
recreational, and cultural activities. The first to open in the United States was University
Settlement in New York City. It was established by the social reformer Stanton Coit in 1886.
The most famous example was Hull House, established by the well-known reformer Jane
Addams in Chicago in 1890. Settlement houses were usually staffed by idealistic young
college graduates who were eager to improve the condition of the poor.

6. The passage mainly discusses

(A) U.S. cities in the late nineteenth century
(B) the idealism of college graduates

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(C) settlement houses in the late 1800's and early 1900's

(D) the life of several American social reformers

Paragraph 7:
In most of Europe, farmers' homes and outbuildings are generally located within a
village, and tools and animals are housed there. Every morning, the farmers and farm
laborers leave their village to work their land or tend their animals in distant fields,
and return to the village at the end of the day. Social life is thus centripetal; that is, it
is focused around the community center, the village. Only in certain parts of Quebec
has this pattern been preserved in North America. Throughout most of North America,
a different pattern was established. It was borrowed from northern Europe, but was
pushed even further in the New World where land was cheap or even free.
It is a centrifugal system of social life, with large isolated farms whose residents go
to the village only to buy goods and procure services. The independence associated
with American farmers stems from this pattern of farm settlement. The American
farmer is as free of the intimacy of the village as the urbanite.
7. The main topic of the entire passage is
(A) a comparison of farming in northern and southern Europe
(B) the difference between farming in Quebec and the rest of North America
(C) European influence on American agriculture
(D) a contrast between a centripetal system of rural life and a centrifugal
system

Paragraph 8:
Soil is the most obvious and, from the human point of view, the most important result of
the weathering process. Soil is the weathered part of the Earth's crust that is capable of
sustaining plant life. The character of soil depends on the nature of rock from which it is
formed. It also depends on the climate and on the relative "age" of the soil. Immature soils are
little more than broken rock fragments. Over time, immature soil develops into mature soil,
which contains quantities of humus, formed from decayed plant matter. Mature soil is darker,
richer in microscopic life, and more conducive to plant growth.

8. The main topic of the paragraph is

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(A) a description of immature soil

(B) the growth of plants
(C) the evolution of soil

Paragraph 9:
The first Dutch outpost in New Netherlands was made at Fort Orange (now Albany) in
1624; it became a depot of the fur trade. But the most important settlement was at the
southern tip of Manhattan, commanding the great harbor at the mouth of the Hudson River.
Peter Minuit, first governor-general of New Netherlands, "purchased" title to the island from
the Canarsie Indians for the equivalent of twenty-four dollars worth of trinkets. However, the
Canarsie Indians might be described as tourists from Brooklyn; Minuit had to make a later
payment to the group that was actually resident there.
9. What is the main topic of the paragraph
(A) The first Dutch settlement in New Netherlands
(B) Peter Minuit's acquisition of Manhattan
(C) Tourism in Manhattan

Paragraph 10:
The term weathering refers to all the ways in which rock can be broken down. It takes place
because minerals formed in a particular way (say at high temperatures, in the case of igneous
rocks) are often unstable when exposed to various conditions. Weathering involves the
interaction of the lithosphere (the earth's crust) with the atmosphere and hydrosphere (air and
water). It occurs at different rates and in different ways, depending on the climactic and
environmental conditions. But all kinds of weathering ultimately produce broken minerals
and rock fragments and other products of the decomposition of stone.
10. The first paragraph primarily describes
(A) the process by which rocks are broken down
(B) the weathering of igneous rocks
(C) gradual changes in the earth's weather patterns