Review: Topic Sentences, Answer 1.4

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Question:

I saw around Velva a release from what was like slavery to the tyrannical soil, release from the ignorance that darkens the soul and from the loneliness that corrodes it. In this generation my Velva friends have rejoined the general American society that their pioneering fathers left behind when they first made the barren trek in the days of the wheat rush. As I sit here in Washington writing this, I can feel their nearness. (from Eric Sevareid, "Velva, North Dakota")

Answer:

The answer people moved away from the cities in the late nineteenth century in search of fertile land for farming is not correct.

Explanation:

Sevareid argues that farming is destructive as a way of life, no matter what romantic notions are attached to it. He is not writing about the productivity of farms, his own life story (I grew up on a family farm), nor is his main point that people left the cities in the late nineteenth century.