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.

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.

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.

The first paragraph discusses the diversity of

American society and its role in history. The second