President Richard Nixon is most famous for his participation in the 1970s Watergate political scandal, a convoluted tale of criminality and eroded ethics involving a constellation of associates such as Attorney General Richard Kleindienst and Republican Party official Robert Mardian. But Nixon's legacy is complex: he has been praised for his role in opening relations between the United States and China, and he once made an attempt at reforming United States health care policy that is arguably a precursor to the Affordable Care Act. which became law during the Barack Obama administration.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
Explanation
Context: A passage notes that Nixon is most famous for Watergate and the associates caught up in it. The underlined sentence then calls his legacy complex, citing his role in opening relations with China and an early health care reform attempt. The task is the underlined sentence's function.
Answer: B) It offers information suggesting that a particular perception of a historical figure is an oversimplification.
Why? "But" turns the passage away from the Watergate framing set up in the first sentence, and the achievements that follow show that judging Nixon by the scandal alone leaves out real parts of his record.
Traps:
- A) Only Nixon's own record is weighed; Obama is named to date the Affordable Care Act, not as a figure whose achievements are set against his.
- C) The sentence pushes back on the opening claim about Nixon and his associates rather than supporting it, and Kleindienst and Mardian do not appear in it.
- D) It lists accomplishments without saying historians disregard them or explaining why they might.