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

Which statement best traces the development of a
central idea from one paragraph to the next?

A. The first paragraph describes different groups of
Americans. The second paragraph discusses what
unifies them.

B. The first paragraph describes ideals shared by most Americans. The second paragraph describes how
these ideals sometimes differ.

C. The first paragraph describes immigrant groups.
The second paragraph discusses native-born Americans.

D. The first paragraph describes America during
peaceful times. The second paragraph discusses
America during times of war.