For the Chinese people, rice is the staple food in everyday meals. They eat it as Westerners do with bread. Rice is cooked by boiling or steaming, till it absorbs as much water as it can. There is a rich collection of rice dishes in China.
It is easy to identify a main idea that is directly expressed in the text. 1  Main ideas are often found at the beginning of paragraphs. 2  Main ideas are also found in the concluding sentences of a paragraph.
The main idea sentence sets the stage for a paragraph. It may help a writer come up with the details of a paragraph first and then decide on a topic sentence that ties everything together. By leading with such a sentence, the reader gets a preview of what he will be reading about in the paragraph to follow.