The numbers that Major Tallmadge assigned to members of the Culper Ring were from a secret writing system he invented He substituted digits for words that would be used in messages. "Long Island," for example , was 728, "arms" was 7, and "city" was 88. There was a number for each month, such as 341 for "January." He made four copies of his codes. He kept one and gave the others to Woodhull, Townsend, and General Washington. For words that did not have a number code Tallmadge gave his agents a cipher. In a cipher,each letter in a message is replaced by another letter or a number. Which best describes the central idea of this excerpt? Major Tallmadge created a code that substituted numbers for words during the Revolutionary War. Major Tallmadge created a code in which "city"was "BB" during the Revolutionary War. During the Revolutionary War Major Tallmadge gave General Washington the key to his codes. During the Revolutionary War Major Tallmadge gave soldiers a cipher for words not included in the code.

## Step 1<br />The first step in solving this problem is to understand the main idea of the excerpt. The excerpt discusses Major Tallmadge's creation of a secret code during the Revolutionary War. This code involved substituting numbers for words, with each number corresponding to a specific word.<br /><br />## Step 2<br />The next step is to analyze each of the given options in light of the main idea of the excerpt. <br /><br />## Step 3<br />Option A states that Major Tallmadge created a code that substituted numbers for words during the Revolutionary War. This aligns perfectly with the main idea of the excerpt.<br /><br />## Step 4<br />Option B suggests that Major Tallmadge created a code in which "city" was "BB" during the Revolutionary War. This is not accurate as the excerpt does not provide any evidence that "city" was represented by "BB".<br /><br />## Step 5<br />Option C suggests that Major Tallmadge gave General Washington the key to his codes during the Revolutionary War. This is not accurate as the excerpt does not provide any evidence that General Washington received the key to the codes.<br /><br />## Step 6<br />Option D suggests that Major Tallmadge gave soldiers a cipher for words not included in the code during the Revolutionary War. This is not accurate as the excerpt does not provide any evidence that soldiers were given a cipher for words not included in the code.