Drawing Generalizations About Social Science or History Passages - ACT Reading

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Adapted from Common Sense by Thomas Paine (1776)

Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil, in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence that in every other case advises him out of two evils to choose the least. WHEREFORE, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever FORM thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.

In order to gain a clear and just idea of the design and end of government, let us suppose a small number of persons settled in some sequestered part of the Earth, unconnected with the rest; they will then represent the first peopling of any country, or of the world. In this state of natural liberty, society will be their first thought. A thousand motives will excite them thereto, the strength of one man is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for perpetual solitude, that he is soon obliged to seek assistance and relief of another, who in his turn requires the same. Four or five united would be able to raise a tolerable dwelling in the midst of a wilderness, but ONE man might labor out the common period of life without accomplishing any thing; when he had felled his timber he could not remove it, nor erect it after it was removed; hunger in the mean time would urge him from his work, and every different want call him a different way.

The author of this passage is most interested in                     .

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Answer

The author of this passage is most interested in “theoretical ideas about the necessity of government.” We can see this especially at the start of the second paragraph, when he states, “In order to gain a clear and just idea of the design and end of government, let us suppose . . .” Furthermore, in the first paragraph, he reasons his way to the conclusion that the government that can best ensure its citizens’ safety is the preferable one. While he discusses people living in the wilderness, this is a consideration made to demonstrate a theoretical point about the government. Nothing in the passage suggests that the author is interested in moving to an area away from society, and while he complains about the government, he does not urge his readers to rebel against it. He also doesn’t any practical plans about how taxes should be collected.

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