He wrote to a friend: "You tell me that I shall astonish the world if I make out the demotic inscription on the Rosetta Stone. On the contrary, I think it astonishing that It should not have been made out already, and that I should find the task so difficult.” In this excerpt, the author includes Thomas Young’s words to show that Young

has very little confidence in the ability of others.
places a great deal of pressure on himself.
feels that figuring out the inscription is useless.
seeks public praise for his accomplishments.

quite an interesting way to teach topic sentences, because the answer to this question is the best definition of a topic sentence that one can present, it is as if answering the questions taught you how to do it, this is some real teaching, it is terribly well-done.

the topic sentence in this paragraph is:

topic sentences writers stay on track and keep a paragraph from becoming an aimless collection of sentences about an idea.

which incidentally tells you what a topic sentence should be.

irony  

i hope this you and have a good day

~ashbelle

we have no idea what story or poem you mean? ?

explanation: