Locate the topic sentence. tell which paragraph shape and pattern type this paragraph is. 1the art of letter writing seems to have declined sharply in recent years. 2perhaps the rising cost of stationery and postage is a factor. 3most people today are so busy with their jobs, their families, and their hobbies that they do not feel they have time to write letters. 4to a certain extent, television and personal computers have replaced communicating with friends as a form of entertainment. 5the advent of the telephone and the use of e-mail, however, are probably the most significant factor in the decrease of letter writing, because they give instant access to friends and loved ones. topic sentence: paragraph structure "shape": pattern:

Read the excerpt from the code book. without much hope of a theoretical breakthrough, cryptanalysts have been forced to look for a technological innovation. if there is no obvious way to reduce the number of steps required for factoring, then cryptanalysts need a technology that will perform these steps more quickly. silicon chips will continue to get faster as the years pass, doubling in speed roughly every eighteen months, but this is not enough to make a real impact on the speed of factoring—cryptanalysts require a technology that is billions of times faster than current computers. consequently, cryptanalysts are looking toward a radically new form of computer, the quantum computer. if scientists could build a quantum computer, it would be able to perform calculations with such enormous speed that it would make a modern supercomputer look like a broken abacus. the author’s purpose in this paragraph is to convince the readers to pursue a career in analysis. explain the need for faster technology in cryptanalysis. entertain with interesting stories about supercomputers. argue for more money to develop a quantum computer.