Which statement best traces the development of a central
idea from one paragraph to the next?
The first paragraph describes different groups of
Americans. The second paragraph discusses what
unifies them
Read the excerpt from "A Quilt of a Country"
What is the point of this splintered whole? What is the point
of a nation in which Arab cabbies chauffeur Jewish
passengers through the streets of New York—and in which
Jewish cabbies chauffeur Arab passengers, too, and yet
speak in theory of hatred, one for the other? What is the
point of a nation in which one part seems to be always on
the verge of fisticuffs with another, blacks and whites, gays
and straights, left and right, Pole and Chinese and Puerto
Rican and Slovenian? Other countries with such divisions
have in fact divided into new nations with new names, but
not this one, impossibly interwoven even in its hostilities.
Once these disparate parts were held together by a
common enemy, by the fault lines of world wars and the
electrified fence of communism. With the end of the cold
war there was the creeping concern that without a focus for
hatred and distrust, a sense of national identity would
evaporate, that the left side of the hyphen-African-
The first paragraph describes ideals shared by most
Americans. The second paragraph describes how these
ideals sometimes differ.
The first paragraph describes immigrant groups. The
second paragraph discusses native-born Americans.
The first paragraph describes America during peaceful
times. The second paragraph discusses America during
times of war.
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