How can a driver like hal and a driver like francois be regarded the same?

they both care for their dogs.

they can't be compared because they are so very different.

neither character has the dogs for long.

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.

conversing outside - a.