TODAY'S S.A.T. PRACTICE:

Europe and America: A Cultural Divide? (Russell A. Berman, Hoover Digest, Fall 2003)

[W]hen asked to choose between the freedom to pursue one’s goals without state interference and, alternatively, the power of the state to guarantee that nobody is in need, 58 percent of Americans opted for freedom. The results in Europe are very different. In no European country was there majority support for individual freedom as opposed to the power of the state. In Great Britain, only 33 percent chose freedom, in France 36 percent, in Italy 24 percent, and in Germany 39 percent. Interestingly, the importance of individual freedom attracts greater approval in parts of the developing world than in Western Europe: Guatemala is at 61 percent, Ghana at 63 percent, Nigeria at 61 percent, India at 53 percent, and Pakistan at 61 percent—levels of support for freedom that put Europe to shame. On this issue so crucial to the relationship between state and economy, American individualist attitudes are closer to the rest of the world than is the European trust in the role of the state.

I'm helping my niece prepare for the SAT's, and this suggests a reading comprehension question. Supplement the above information with the fact that the 9/11 terrorists spent much of their lives in Europe. The author is suggesting that Europe is to wickedness as:
(A) An African swamp in the rainy season is to malaria.
(B) Happy hour in a college dorm on the last day of finals is to vomit in rest rooms.
(C) The wicked witch of the west is to flying monkeys.
(D) Ted Kennedy is to the death of chivalry.

Posted by Paul Jaminet at December 4, 2003 6:49 PM