Question

Read the excerpt from The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone, by James Cross Giblin. The hieroglyphic passage took the longest to translate, partly because the hieroglyphs were the least understood of the three languages, and partly because so much of the text was missing. Champollion succeeded in deciphering a large part of the passage, but the meaning of many hieroglyphs was still unknown when he did his major work in the 1820s. Which line from the excerpt best states the central idea? The hieroglyphic passage presented the biggest challenge of the three inscriptions. Most of Champollion’s major work was accomplished in the 1820s. Champollion’s persistence helped him decipher a large part of the hieroglyphic passage. Hieroglyphs were the least understood because scholars had misinterpreted their meaning.

Answer 1

A. The hieroglyphic passage presented the biggest challenge of the three inscriptions.

Option “A” is the best response because it most clearly states the central idea of the excerpt.  The thing to always keep in mind when looking for the central idea of a paragraph is that the paragraph should usually have a topic sentence, and this topic sentence will typically be the first sentence of the paragraph.  The sentences in the middle of the paragraph will be support/elaboration, and the final sentence will wrap things up by alluding to or reiterating the topic sentence, which will be the paragraph’s central idea.  You can kind of think of paragraphs like mini essays in how essays will have a thesis statement (central argument or idea) that will be supported in the body paragraphs then reiterated in the conclusion.  Thus, when we look at the excerpt you provided, we can see how it begins by mentioning the difficulty of understanding hieroglyphs and ends with it, too.  The middle of the paragraph is an elaboration. 

Answer 2

Answer:

a

Explanation:

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