Read the paragraph below and answer the questions that follow it.
(1) According to a study conducted by the United Nations, Americans work much longer hours than Europeans. (2) In the United States, about 86% of men and 66% of women work more than 40 hours per week. (3) In contrast, few Europeans ever work over 40 hours per week, and full-time workers in several European counties, such as France, work as little as 30-35 hours per week. (4) The average American puts in 1,800 hours per year on the job; in some European counties, full-time workers put in as few as 1,400 hours per year. (5) Companies typically give their full-time American employees only two week's paid vacation every year whereas they give European workers 4-6 week's annual vacation leave. (6) European counties have laws that guarantee workers a minimum amount of vacation time and limit the length of the workweek to a maximum of 48 hours. (7) The United States, however, has no such laws for its workers.
-Select the number of the topic sentence in the paragraph above.
A) Sentence 1
B) Sentence 2
C) Sentence 7

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The topic sentence of the paragraph is the first sentence, which introduces the main idea that Americans work longer hours than Europeans. Sentence 2 provides statistics to support this idea, while the following sentences go on to explain the differences in working hours and vacation time between the two regions. However, it is the first sentence that sets the stage for the entire paragraph.

Read the Paragraph Below and Answer the Questions That Follow