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Read the passage from Ronald Reagan's "Tear Down This Wall" speech. Where four decades ago there was rubble, today in West Berlin there is the greatest industrial output of any city in Germany—busy office blocks, fine homes and apartments, proud avenues, and the spreading lawns of park land. Where a city's culture seemed to have been destroyed, today there are two great universities, orchestras and an opera, countless theaters, and museums. Where there was want, today there's abundance. . . . From devastation, from utter ruin, you Berliners have, in freedom, rebuilt a city that once again ranks as one of the greatest on earth. . . . In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted: "We will bury you." But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind—too little food. Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor. Which statement best describes Reagan’s main message for his audience in this excerpt? The Berlin Wall is a reminder of the past and of the war. The United States is more powerful than the Soviet Union. Democracy leads to greater prosperity than communism does. Berlin is a thriving city that can boast of many accomplishments

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Final answer:

President Reagan's speech centers on the assertion that democracy fosters prosperity, using West Berlin's revival and economic success as a testament to the benefits of freedom over communism.

Step-by-step explanation:

President Reagan's main message in this excerpt from his "Tear Down This Wall" speech is that democracy, embodied in the concept of freedom, leads to prosperity and advancement over communism. He contrasts the thriving condition of West Berlin, under a democratic system, with the deprivation and stagnation of the Communist states. Reagan connects the success and reconstruction of West Berlin with the virtues of freedom, attributing the economic and cultural growth to the political system that champions liberty.

Reagan cites the remarkable recovery of West Berlin from the ruins of World War II, emphasizing how freedom has allowed for a revival in industrial output, culture, and living conditions. Meanwhile, he addresses the shortcomings of the Communist world, including technological backwardness and basic shortages, as seen in the Soviet Union's inability to feed itself.

The speech was a powerful advocacy for the democratic system over communism during the Cold War era, highlighting the tangible benefits that freedom can provide to nations and their people.

User Latishia
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Answer:

the answer is c on edge

Step-by-step explanation:

cause I just did it

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