Read the excerpt from "A Quilt of a Country."
America is an improbable idea. A mongrel nation built
of ever-changing disparate parts, it is held together by
a notion, the notion that all men are created equal,
though everyone knows that most men consider
themselves better than someone. "Of all the nations in
the world, the United States was built in nobody's
image," the historian Daniel Boorstin wrote. That's
because it was built of bits and pieces that seem
discordant, like the crazy quilts that have been one of
its great folk-art forms, velvet and calico and checks
and brocades. Out of many, one. That is the ideal.
The reality is often quite different, a great national
striving consisting frequently of failure. Many of the
oft-told stories of the most pluralistic nation on earth
are stories not of tolerance, but of bigotry. Slavery and
sweatshops, the burning of crosses and the ostracism
of the other Children learn in social-studies class and
Which statement best traces the development of a
central idea from one paragraph to the next?
O The first paragraph discusses the aspects of
American culture that unify Americans. The second
paragraph discusses the aspects of American
culture that tear Americans apart and cause friction.
O The first paragraph discusses the idea that
Americans are united as one despite their
differences. The second paragraph discusses the
idea that acts of intolerance make it difficult to
believe that Americans are united as one.
O The first paragraph discusses possible benefits to
living in a society like America. The second
paragraph discusses the disadvantages of living in
a society like America.
O The first paragraph discusses the diversity of
American society and its role in history. The second