In one study, participants viewed two non-word strings . . . that appeared simultaneously on a computer screen, and on each trial had to select the non-word that they perceived to be more humorous. Which topic sentence would best introduce this paragraph?

A. Non-word strings are a series of letters that look and sound like words but have no meaning.
B. Non-word strings have interested scientists for decades, and they are the foundation of comedy.
C. Scientists are interested in what makes people laugh, and they conduct experiments to determine what is considered funny.
D. Scientists are responsible for conducting studies where participants are invited to be a part of the research process and experimentation.

Read this paragraph from chapter 5 of the prince. there are, for example, the spartans and the romans. the spartans held athens and thebes, establishing there an oligarchy: nevertheless they lost them. the romans, in order to hold capua, carthage, and numantia, dismantled them, and did not lose them. they wished to hold greece as the spartans held it, making it free and permitting its laws, and did not succeed. so to hold it they were compelled to dismantle many cities in the country, for in truth there is no safe way to retain them otherwise than by ruining them. and he who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it, may expect to be destroyed by it, for in rebellion it has always the watchword of liberty and its ancient privileges as a rallying point, which neither time nor benefits will ever cause it to forget. and whatever you may do or provide against, they never forget that name or their privileges unless they are disunited or dispersed, but at every chance they immediately rally to them, as pisa after the hundred years she had been held in bondage by the florentines. what idea is stressed in the passage? the desire for liberty the establishment of an oligarchy the dismantling of an acquired state the tendency toward rebellion