Topic sentence

Hi

I have several just came to me.

First, I was reading a book called Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen. On the side cover (is that the right name?), it said,"..., I've never told a blessed soul." Here is the question: do we say blessed like "blessid" or "blesst"? And do we pronounce the same way when we say," She is blessed."?

Second, when I just started reading this book, I found there are many hard words. Since I don't have any resources to tell how to read efficiently or what is the best reading strategy for reading novels for college students (or ESL students if there is any differences), even though reading this book is for my own good, I hope someone can help me out. I am not sure which discipline of English teacher can best answer this question. No offence if anybody is offened. I have tried to look up the words after finishing like 4 to 5 pages but a friend of mine told me that we should guess the words and read at least a chapter before check up the words since the stops can affect the reading tempo ( i am not sure what that is called).

Third, I happened to do this book. Here is paragraph that has an implied topic sentence:

"Just inside the door of Filene's Basement, Boston's famous bargain clothing store, giant hanging signs explain that the longer an item remains in the store, the cheaper it becomes. All around the walls, floor-to ceiling racks are crammed with a random mix of shoes, sneakers, neckties, and handbags. Counters are cluttered with rhinestone rings, plastic sungalsses, and silk scarves. In the center of the floor, huge suare bins contain disorganized piles of shoes and clothes. Customers dig into these jumbled bins, pulling out yellow rain hats, pink suede pumps, even cheese graters and other items that belong in a kitchen department. Friends lose each other in the crowded aisles. Frantic shoppers often collide as items fly into the air. Some customers question whether any bargain makes this chaos worthwhile, but they always seem to return."

After I finished reading this, there is a question below it and it asked," The main idea of the paragraph is implied, not stated by a topic sentence. What is the main idea?

I went to ask teacher and he said the highlighted clause meant," the main idea of the paragraph is not stated by a topic sentence, and this is also meaning that the topic sentence is not provided."

However, I don't know if there is a gap for my English. I don't get how the teacher determine from the question that the topic sentence is not stated, only thing i know is that the main idea is not stated by a topic sentence. I am just wondering if the question (or the first highlighted part) has implied that the topic sentence is not provided by the paragraph. If it does, could you explain how it was implied.

Many thanks,