The book“In to the Wild”Krakauer introduces some themes of the book. Note & discuss
below:

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.

- "about the claims : -

making a claim is just a fancy way of saying that you're stating your main point.' claims are not just opinions. a claim tells what you think is true about a topic based on your knowledge .

about the country claims : -

a counterclaim is just the opposite of a claim. counterclaims are also provable and supportable by reasons and evidence. not just, 'because i said so.' when you're planning an argument, you need to know what the counterclaim might be so that you can make sure that you disprove it with your reasons and evidence your research." - (catherineroberts)