When cold season approaches, many people take precautions to avoid colds and flu. The flu shot is a first line of defense. Doctor's offices and pharmacies dispense shots. Many clinics, community groups, and public health departments offer free shots. Healthy eating, drinking plenty of fluids, and getting enough sleep are also important guards against winter illness.

The most important step of all, in order to stay well during cold season, is washing your hands frequently. Colds and flu are transmitted through your hands. The most common cold virus is the rhinovirus. You pick up and pass on flu and cold viruses whenever you touch surfaces contaminated by other people. Doorknobs, handles, faucets, food-cart and basket handles, elevator buttons, public phones, tables, and trays, to name a few, can all carry viruses and bacteria. Touching your nose or rubbing your eyes after an outing are the quickest way to pick up germs on your hands. So, pay attention and keep washing!

In three to five sentences, identify the main claim of the passage and explain some examples of supports for that claim. Identify a sentence in the second paragraph that contains an irrelevant detail.
Please make it simple and like a kid wrote it.

1 answer

The main claim of the passage is that washing your hands a lot is the best way to stay well during the cold season and avoid getting sick. Some supports for this claim include how germs from colds and flu can be on things we touch, like doorknobs and elevator buttons. It also mentions that we can easily spread these germs to ourselves by touching our face. The sentence about the rhinovirus being the most common cold virus is not really important to the main idea.