Isn’t the last sentence the author’s opinion instead of the first one? The first one seems like the topic sentence.
Similarly, I thought that the last sentence is the main idea since the first one talks about what is normally believed but the last one is where the author summarises and maybe gives his opinion.
My interpretation/process:
Sentence 1- Okay so there’s a debate
2- ok so debate is regarding the ending which is ambiguous
3- Contention #1
4- More about contention 1
5- Contention #2
6- More about contention 2
7- More about contention 2
8- Author thinks the ambiguous ending is such a Robert Frost thing.
So Main Idea - yeah its definitely about the debate concerned with the 2 different interpretations of the poem’s ending. Has to be sentence 1.
If it was the last sentence, the passage would be talking about Robert Frost’s mastery of poetic ambiguity. But instead the passage talks about the debate between critics with the two different interpretations.
Here’s a test to check if what you’ve got the right sentence for the main idea. The passage should, to a considerable extent, talk about this sentence. It is the “main” idea, not author’s idea, not some other idea, the MAIN idea.
Sentence 1 : Common belief - The arrival of digital technology impacts work.
2: Example 1
3: Example 2 (in the past, some dude thought new tech will be bad)
4: Example 3 ( in the past, some dude thought new tech will be good)
5: Some think its bad, some think its good, but they all agree there is impact.
So you see, how all sentences are pretty much talking about sentence 1?
Nice approach!
This makes a lot of sense, I did not consider it like this before. I’ll practice some more and see if I can arrive at the correct answer through this approach.