Name: _________________________________________ Main Idea, Details,

and Summary

Directions: Read the passage below to determine the main idea and two supporting details.

Recreation is as common among animals as it is among our own children; and they seem
always to be artistic and even skilled in their play. Young goats and lambs skip, jump, run races,
throw flips in the air, and gambol; calves have interesting frolics; young colts and mules have
biting and kicking games; bears wrestle and tumble; puppies delight in biting and tussling; while
kittens chase everything from spools of thread to their own tails.

But animal children grow up, and stop playing to a certain extent as age advances, precisely
as human children do. Each settles down into a more practical condition of life. They dislike to
have their games and play disturbed, and if the mother dog growls because her playful son has
continuously tumbled over her while she was sleeping, or the cat-mother slaps her kitten because
he plays with her tail—it is a display of the same kind of emotion that prompts a human mother to
rebuke her child in the nursery for making too much noise, or for throwing toys out of the
window. Animals, like ourselves, feel every sensation of joy, happiness, surprise, disappointment,
love, hope, ambition, and through their youthful games an entire index of their future lives may be
obtained.

1. The main idea of the paragraph is ______________________________________________________

2. Two details that tells about the main idea are :

Detail # 1 ______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Detail # 2 ______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

3. Write a one sentence summary for each paragraph in the text.

First Paragraph - ____________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Second Paragraph - __________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________
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 Name: _________________________________________ Main Idea, Details,
and Summary

4. The best title of the text would be _____________________________________________________

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