PRACTICE Reading Locating Topic Sentences Essays - Tort Law

PRACTICE: Reading: Locating Topic Sentences Directions: Underline the topic sentence in each of the following paragraphs. 1. The United States has a severe fire problem that if not addressed, will continue to worsen drastically. Fire s tatistics show that our nation, one of the richest and most technologically sophisticated countries in the world, lags behind its peer nations in fire security. Nationally, there are millions of fires, thousands of deaths, tens of thousands of injuries, and billions of dollars lost each yearfigures which far exceed comparable statistics for other industrialized countries. In 2001, for example, the direct value of property destroyed in fires was $11 billion ($44 billion if the World Trade Center loss is included). More recently in 2004, direct property losses from fires were estimated at over $9.8 billion. Loyd and Richardson, Fundamentals of Fire and Emergency Services, p. 12 2. The star system has been the backbone of the American film industry since the mid 1910s . Stars are the creation of the public, its reigning favorites. Their influence in the fields of fashion, values, and public behavior has been enormous. "The social history of a nation can be written in terms of its film stars," Raymond Durgnat has observed. Stars confer instant consequence to any film they appear in. Their fees have staggered the public. In the 1920s, Mary Pickford and Charles Chaplin were the two highest paid employees in the world. Contemporary stars such as Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise command salaries of many millions per film, so popular are these box-office giants. Some stars had careers that spanned five decades: Bette Davis and John Wayne, to name just two. Giannetti , Understanding Movies , p. 251 3. For decades, we have looked at our steadily increasing life expectancy rates and proudly proclaimed that Americans' health has never been better. Recently, however, health organizations and international groups have attempted to quantify the number of years a person lives with a disability or illness, compared with the number of healthy years. The World Health Organization summarizes this concept as healthy life expectancy. Simply stated, healthy life expectancy refers to the number of years a newborn can expect to live in full health, based on current rates of illness and mortality and also on the quality of their lives. For example, if we could delay the onset of diabetes so that a person didn't develop the disease until he or she was 60 years old, rather than developing it at 30, there would be a dramatic increase in this individual's healthy life expectancy. Donatelle , Health: The Basics, p. 6 4. Are you "twittered out"? Is all that texting causing your thumbs to seize up in protest? If so, you're not alone. Like millions of others, you may find that all of the pressure for contact is more than enough stress for you! Known as technostress, the bombardment is defined as stress created by a dependence on technology and the constant state of being plugged in or wirelessly connected, which can include a perceived obligation to respond, chat, or tweet. Donatelle , Health: The Basics , p.66 5. In the past, exposure to liability made many doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals reluctant to stop and render aid to victims in emergency situations, such as highway accidents. Almost all states have enacted a Good Samaritan law that relieves medical professionals from liability for injury caused by their ordinary negligence in such circumstances. Good Samaritan laws protect medical professionals only from liability for their ordinary negligence , not for injuries caused by their gross negligence or reckless or intentional conduct. Most Good Samaritan laws protect licensed doctors and nurses and laypersons who have been certified in CPR. Good Samaritan statutes generally do not protect laypersons who are not trained in CPRthat is, they are liable for injuries caused by their ordinary negligence in rendering aid. Goldman and Cheeseman, Paralegal Professional , p. 459