Final answer:
The best paragraph to paraphrase sentence seven from Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which should reflect on Ichabod's blend of naivety and fascination for spooky tales influenced by his environment, is the one detailing his tendencies to get lost in Cotton Mather's stories and his heightened imagination due to the eerie surroundings.
Step-by-step explanation:
In reviewing the provided passages for paraphrasing sentence seven from Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the ideal paragraph for rephrasing would encompass themes of apprehension, the supernatural, and the influence of a haunted environment on an individual's state of mind. The selection must parallel the original text's portrayal of Ichabod's vivid imagination and its susceptibility to the ghostly tales, which he consumed eagerly yet were also the source of his nighttime terrors. Taking into account these aspects, the following excerpt would be the best candidate:
“He was, in fact, an odd mixture of small shrewdness and simple credulity. His appetite for the marvellous, and his powers of digesting it, were equally extraordinary; and both had been increased by his residence in this spell-bound region. No tale was too gross or monstrous for his capacious swallow. It was often his delight, after his school was dismissed in the afternoon, to stretch himself on the rich bed of clover bordering the little brook that whimpered by his schoolhouse, and there con over old Mather’s direful tales, until the gathering dusk of evening made the printed page a mere mist before his eyes. Then, as he wended his way by swamp and stream and awful woodland, to the farmhouse where he happened to be quartered, every sound of nature, at that witching hour, fluttered his excited imagination... ”
This paragraph masterfully captures Ichabod’s intricate character and establishes the ambience of Sleepy Hollow that so potently affects him—hence, it offers a comprehensive background for understanding and rewording the seventh sentence.