This is a nation founded on a conundrum, what Mario Cuomo has characterized as "community added to individualism." These two are our defining ideals; they are also in constant conflict. Historians today bemoan the ascendancy of a kind of prideful apartheid in America, saying that the clinging to ethnicity, in background and custom, has undermined the concept of unity. These historians must have forgotten the past, or have gilded it.

–"A Quilt of a Country,"
Anna Quindlen

Which statement best summarizes the central idea of this paragraph?

The ideals of individualism and community are no longer part of America.
The ideals of individualism and community have always been in conflict with one another in America.
The ideals of individualism and community have never really existed in America.
The ideals of individualism and community coexist harmoniously in America.

Question

This is a nation founded on a conundrum, what Mario Cuomo has characterized as "community added to individualism." These two are our defining ideals; they are also in constant conflict. Historians today bemoan the ascendancy of a kind of prideful apartheid in America, saying that the clinging to ethnicity, in background and custom, has undermined the concept of unity. These historians must have forgotten the past, or have gilded it.

–"A Quilt of a Country,"
Anna Quindlen

Which statement best summarizes the central idea of this paragraph?

The ideals of individualism and community are no longer part of America.
The ideals of individualism and community have always been in conflict with one another in America.
The ideals of individualism and community have never really existed in America.
The ideals of individualism and community coexist harmoniously in America.

LARENZIE · Answer

Is it B......?