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 in the news of the lynching
of blacks, the denial of rights to women, the murders of gay
men. It is difficult to know how to convince them that this
amounts to "crown thy good with brotherhood," that amid all
the failures is something spectacularly successful. Perhaps
Mark this and return
Which statement best traces the development of a central
idea from one paragraph to the next?
○ 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.
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.
The first paragraph discusses the diversity of American
society and its role in history. The second paragraph
discusses the uniformity of American society and its role
in history.
Save and Exit
Next
Submit
​