Choice D is the best answer. In lines 25-29, Burke describes the contract between a person and society as one that is “not a partnership in things subservient only to the gross animal existence of a temporary and perishable nature. It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection.” Describing that contract as a partnership in all things indicates its seriousness, while describing it as not being a “temporary and perishable nature” implies its permanence.

Choice A is incorrect because line 27 states that the contract between a person and society is not “temporary or perishable,” meaning it is not brief. Choices B and C are incorrect because the passage does not compare the contracts in terms of complexity or precision.

Choice D is the best answer. In lines 1-9, Burke explains that people have “consecrated the state” to “avoid . . . the evils of inconstancy and versatility,” and that people should examine “the faults of the state . . . with pious awe and trembling solitude.” Burke then explains that society is taught to “look with horror on those children of their country who want to hack that aged parent in pieces” (lines 10-12). Burke is arguing that children want to revise the state, or “this aged parent,” by amending its faults. In this context, “state” refers to a political entity, or government, that attempts to protect its citizens from “the evils of inconstancy and versatility.”

Choices A, B, and C are incorrect because in this context, “state” does not mean style of living, position in life, or temporary condition.

Choice A is the best answer. In lines 17-29, Burke argues that “subordinate contracts,” are simply business agreements over traded goods, while the state is not merely “a partnership agreement in a trade . . . or some other such low concern . . . but a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection.” In this context, Burke is stating that the state is not a contract consisting of “low” or petty concerns. Choices B, C, and D are incorrect because in this context, “low” does not mean weak, inadequate, or depleted.

Choice D is the best answer. In lines 41-43, Paine asserts that “Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generations which preceded it.” He later states that deceased citizens of a state should no longer have “any authority in directing who shall be its governors, or how its government shall be organized, or how administered” (lines 61-63). Paine doesn’t believe, in other words, that the decisions of previous generations should dictate the conditions of modern life and government.

Choices A, B, and C are incorrect because they do not accurately characterize the way Paine views historical precedents.

Choice B is the best answer. In lines 30-34, Burke describes societal contracts as long-term agreements that preserve the interests of past generations and link the living and the dead into a “partnership.” Paine, however, states that past generations have no “control” over the decisions made by living (line 71) because the dead have “no longer any participation in the concerns of this world” (lines 59-60).

Choices A, C, and D are incorrect because they do not accurately characterize how Paine would respond to Burke’s claim that societal contracts link past and current generations.

Choice D is the best answer. Lines 67-72 provide the best evidence that Paine would respond to Burke’s statement that society is a “partnership” between past and current generations (lines 30-34) with the explanation that the current generation cannot know what judgments the dead would make about contemporary issues. In these lines Paine explains: “What possible obligation, then, can exist between them; what rule or principle can be laid down, that two nonentities, the one out of existence, and the other not in, and who never can meet in this world, that the one should control the other to the end of time?”

Choices A, B, and C are incorrect because the lines cited do not provide the best evidence that Paine would respond to Burke’s statement that society is a “partnership” between past and current generations (lines 30-34) by arguing that the current generation cannot know what judgments the dead would make about contemporary issues.

Choice D is the best answer. Paine concludes Passage 2 with the argument that because social issues change over time, the living should not try to adhere to decisions made by former generations (lines 73-80). Burke, however, states that living citizens exist within a “universal kingdom” (line 35) comprised of the living, the dead, and those who are not yet born. Burke argues that the living do not have the right to change their government based on “their speculations of a contingent improvement” (lines 36-37). Therefore, Burke would disapprove of Paine’s concluding argument, as he believes the living do not have sufficient justification for changing the existing governmental structure.

Choices A, B, and C are incorrect because they do not accurately describe how Burke would likely have responded to Paine’s remarks in the final paragraph of Passage 2.

Choice D is the best answer. Lines 34-38 provide the best evidence that Burke would disapprove of Paine’s remarks in the final paragraph of Passage 2: “The municipal corporations of that universal kingdom are not morally at liberty at [the living’s] pleasure, and on their speculations of a contingent improvement, wholly to separate and tear asunder the bands of their subordinate community.” In these lines, Burke is arguing that the living do not have sufficient justification to change the existing governmental structure.

Choices A, B, and C do not provide the best evidence that Burke would disapprove of Paine’s remarks in the final paragraph of Passage 2, as Burke believes the living do not have sufficient justification for changing the existing governmental structure.

Choice A is the best answer. The primary argument of Passage 1 is that an inviolable contract exists between a people and its government, one that is to be “looked on with other reverence” (lines 24-25). Passage 1 suggests that this contract exists between past and future generations as well; in effect, current and future generations should be governed by decisions made in the past. Passage 2 challenges these points, as it argues that current and future generations are not obligated to preserve past generations’ beliefs: “The Parliament or the people of 1688, or of any other period, had no more right to dispose of the people of the present day, or to bind or to control them in any shape whatever, than the parliament or the people of the present day have to dispose of, bind, or control those who are to live a hundred or a thousand years hence” (lines 48-54).

Choices B, C, and D are incorrect because Passage 2 does not offer an alternative approach to Passage 1, support an idea introduced in Passage 1, or exemplify an attitude promoted in Passage 1.

Choice B is the best answer. Passage 1 argues that the government is sacred (lines 3-6) and that no person should interfere with it (lines 6-9). Passage 2 argues that people have the right to make changes to their government: “The circumstances of the world are continually changing, and the opinions of men change also; and as government is for the living, and not for the dead, it is the living only that has any right in it” (lines 73-76).

Choices A, C, and D are incorrect because they do not identify the main purpose of both passages.