2. Which of the following sentences, if added between Parts 5 and 6 in the second paragraph, would be most consistent with the writer’s purpose and intended audience?

A) All the “good” countries are, of course, representative democracies.

B) Most of the nations following this pattern are either in Western Europe or in the countries that European countries colonized.

C) Many of the nation states affecting this governmental system of organization were originally populated by those who fled tyrannical despotisms in other areas of the world and who, therefore, prize the democratic ideology.

D) Most folk in these places know that democracy is a bumpy road where freedom’s wagon constantly teeters between liberty and anarchy.

2. The correct choice is B.

Choice A is incorrect because it is a value judgment that does not fit the tone of the selection. Choice C uses inappropriately elevated vocabulary, and Choice D combines informal language with a rather silly metaphor. By the process of elimination, Choice B is correct. The passage below had Choice B inserted in red between Parts 5 and 6.

(1) Democracy is a form of government in which final authority rests in the people’s hands. (2) There are, however, very few modern examples of governments where all the citizens actually participate in deciding all important issues. (3) The Greek root word for democracy means “rule of the people.” (4) A few small towns in New England still hold annual or semi-annual town meetings at which important issues are decided by majority votes, but even those are now rare.

(5) Many national governments are, instead, representative democracies where all citizens are able to vote for the people who make the laws.

Most of the nations following this pattern are either in Western Europe or in the countries that European countries colonized.

(6) A true representative democracy requires that at least two viewpoints be widely available so that citizens have an actual choice. (7) Governments which hold elections but allow only “official” candidates are not true democracies. (8) Although widely criticized, these governments defend their practice by claiming that the “party” already knows what the people want. (9) Whether the group in power actually does know best or not, it is certainly true that the free speech and free assembly usually required by a representative democracy is often lacking in these one party states.