At the beginning of the twentieth century (1901-2000), the US was reaching adulthood. Unequal distribution of wealth and income persisted. One percent of American families possessed nearly seven-eighths of its wealth. Four-fiths of
Americans lived on a survival level while a handful lived in incredible luxury. In 1900, Andrew Carnegie earned about
$23 million; the average working man earned $500. The wealth of a few was increased by the exploitation of women
and children. One out of five women worked for food rather than fulfillment, earning wages as low as $6 a week. The
sacrifice of the country's young to the god of economic growth was alarming. One reporter undertook to do a child's
Job in the mines for one day and wrote, "tried to pick out the pieces of slate from the hurrying stream of coal, often
missing them; my hands were bruised and cut within a few minutes; I was covered from head to foot with cooldust,
and for many hours afterwards / was expectorating some of the small particles of anthracite I had swallowed."
Working conditions were equally horrifying in other industries, and for many Americans, housing conditions were as
bad or worse. One investigator described a Chicago neighborhood, remarking on the nithy and rotten tenements, the
dingy courts and tumbledown sheds, the foul stables and dilapidated outhouses, the broken sewer pipes, and piles of
garbage fairly alive with diseased odors. At the same time, the Vanderbilt summered in a "cottage" of seventy
rooms, and wealthy men partied in shirts with diamond buttons worth thousands of dollars. The middle class
experienced neither extreme. Its members did have their economic grievances, however. Prosperity increased the
cost of living by 35 percent in less than a decade, while many middle-class incomes remained fairly stable. Such
people were not poor, but they believed they were not getting a fair share of the prosperity.
Which sentence best expresses the impied main idea of this passage ?
At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were wide gaps between the income levels of America's rich
and poor
In 1901, the United States had the distinct classes of citizens the rich, the middle class, and the poor.
In 1901, the United States was finally becoming a strong country.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, a number of significant problems existed in the United States.