What is the function of an introductory paragraph

Choose the letter of the word that most clearly expresses the tone in each passage. if you are unfamiliar with any of the words, look them up before you select the correct answer. we have come together this afternoon to mourn the deaths of sixteen miners—our friends and neighbors—who were trapped by fire yesterday, deep below the earth. they lived bravely and they died too soon, leaving behind grieving wives and bewildered children. we bid them a final farewell. question 1 options: forgiving sorrowful angry amused

Ineed simplifying this thesis and making it easier to understand for the reader (more concise) "no matter how religious one may be, one’s faith tends to change under unexpected and challenging circumstances."

The greatest gift the sumerians gave the world was the invention of writing. the sumerians were wealthy people. they needed some way to keep track of what they owned. they began drawing pictures. they used a reed as a pen. they drew on soft pieces of clay. the soft clay was then dried in the sun. the tablet became a permanent record. later, the sumerian drawings changed into wedge-shaped symbols. this kind of writing is called cuneiform. by putting symbols together, the sumerians could write entire sentences.