Significant as the immigrant role was in politics and in the economy, the immigrant contribution to the professions and the arts was perhaps
even greater. Charles O. Paullin’s analysis of the Dictionary of
American Biography shows that, of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-
century figures, 20 percent of the businessmen, 20 percent of the
scholars and scientists, 23 percent of the painters, 24 percent of the
engineers, 28 percent of the architects, 29 percent of the clergymen, 46
percent of the musicians and 61 percent of the actors were of foreign
birth—a remarkable measure of the impact of immigration on American
culture. And not only have many American writers and artists
themselves been immigrants or the children of immigrants, but
immigration has provided American literature with one of its major
themes.

How does the paragraph develop the key idea that immigrants make
important contributions to America?
a. by providing data about the percentage of important contributions to
America that were made by immigrants
b. by showing that immigrants’ histories have been included in texts about
American history
c. by providing data that demonstrate that immigrants make up a large
percentage of the population
d. by giving an example of an immigrant’s scholarly analysis as evidence of
their professional contributions

Part B
How does the paragraph refine the key idea in Part A?
a. by including data that show the wide variety of fields in which
immigrants have made important contributions
b. by emphasizing that immigrants’ contributions extend beyond their
professional contributions
c. by establishing the idea that immigrants’ children have also made
important contributions to America
d. by suggesting that immigrants’ importance in America has been firmly
established because they have become a topic of scholarly research

3. The following question has two parts. Answer Part A first, and then Part
B.

Part A
What can you infer about Kennedy’s perspective on America as a “melting pot” in “The Immigrant Contribution”?

a. Kennedy believes that America has become a true melting pot with one,
common national identity.
b. Kennedy believes that becoming a true melting pot will erase ethnic
traditions and identities.
c. Kennedy believes that America cannot become a true melting pot
because many ethnic groups will not assimilate.
d. Kennedy believes that America is not yet a melting pot because not all
groups in America share the same opportunities.

Part B Which quotation from the text best supports the correct answer to Part A?

a. But the very problems of adjustment and assimilation presented a
challenge to the American idea—a challenge which subjected that idea
to stern testing and eventually brought out the best qualities in American
society.
b. The ideal of the “melting pot” symbolized the process of blending many
strains into a single nationality, and we have come to realize in modern
times that the “melting pot” need not mean the end of particular ethnic
identities or traditions.
c. Only in the case of the Negro has the melting pot failed to bring a
minority into the full stream of American life. Today we are belatedly,
but resolutely, engaged in ending this condition of national exclusion
and shame. . . .
d. Sociologists call the process of the melting pot “social mobility.” One of
America’s characteristics has always been the lack of rigid class
structure.