Question

Read the excerpt from President Ronald Reagan’s speech on the night before the 1980 presidential election.

A popular novel of the '60s ended prophetically with its description of a "kindly, pleasant, greening land about to learn whether history still has a place for a nation so strangely composed of great ideals and uneasy compromise as she.”

That is really the question before us tonight: for the first time in our memory many Americans are asking: does history still have a place for America, for her people, for her great ideals? There are some who answer "no”; that our energy is spent, our days of greatness at an end, that a great national malaise is upon us.

They say we must cut our expectations, conserve and withdraw, that we must tell our children . . . not to dream as we once dreamed.

Last year I lost a friend who was more than a symbol of the Hollywood dream industry; to millions he was a symbol of our country itself. And when he died, the headlines seemed to convey all the doubt about America, all the nostalgia for a seemingly lost past.

"The Last American Hero,” said one headline; "Mr. America dies,” said another.

Well, I knew John Wayne well, and no one would have been angrier at being called the "last American hero.”

Just before his death, he said in his own blunt way, "Just give the American people a good cause, and there’s nothing they can’t lick.” Duke Wayne did not believe that our country was ready for the dust bin of history, and if we’ll just think about it we too will know it isn’t.

Which ideas from the excerpt would be most appropriate to include in a summary? Select three options.

Answer 1

a,b,d

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

Popular novels from the past often ask provocative questions that are important to consider today.

Many Americans have given up and say that the nation is no longer great or a land of dreams.

President Reagan believed that John Wayne would argue that he was not the last American hero, because there are many more.

Step-by-step explanation:

The options you were given are the following:

• Popular novels from the past often ask provocative questions that are important to consider today.
• Many Americans have given up and say that the nation is no longer great or a land of dreams.
• John Wayne, nicknamed Duke, was an iconic Hollywood actor and filmmaker.
• President Reagan believed that John Wayne would argue that he was not the last American hero, because there are many more.
• Duke Wayne died as a symbol of the Hollywood dream industry.

A summary is a shortened version of a piece of writing (e.g. a paragraph, article, chapter, entire book). It should include the text's main ideas - the main points the author is making.

The given excerpt starts with a reference to a popular novel of the '60s, introducing the idea that popular novels from the past often ask provocative questions that are important to consider today. An important point of the passage is that many Americans have given up and say that the nation is no longer great or a land of dreams. Many considered John Wayne to be the last American hero. However, President Reagan believed that John Wayne would argue that he was not the last American hero, because there are many more. What he wants to say is that there is hope for America.

The first, second, and fourth options summarize the text well, including all its main points, which is why they are the correct options.