Argumentative Text
Learner Directions: Read the following selection. Then answer the questions.
An Ideal with a Price
(1) In our society, people throw around phrases such as "freedom of choice" and "my rights" without too much thought. The most trivial preferences are proclaimed a "choice," whether the "choice" concerns which brand of snack food to buy, which singer to vote for in an Internet poll-or which presidential candidate to support.
(2) In our culture, everything seems to come down to individual tastes and preferences, however small or insignificant. What people do not seem to appreciate is that freedom in our country is a hard-won gift. It is not something that nature or the supermarket-gives us free of charge. Freedom is the gift of generations of struggle.
(3) In that struggle, those who benefited from the gift often turned right around and gave it to others. Some of the brightest examples of the way the gift of freedom can be passed along come from the history of the Underground Railroad.
