Given that Option B supports the author's argument in the passage—that liberalism has historically changed to meet obstacles—the author is probably in agree with the statement. Rather than blaming liberalism's success for having being a dominant goal for the previous century, the author highlights liberalism's capacity to handle internal issues and reform.
Option A: The author might take issue with this statement since it goes against the demand to reform liberalism by implying that we should accept the decline of liberalism and look for a replacement.
Option C: The author acknowledges liberalism's present problems and shortcomings while highlighting the movement's historical capacity for self-improvement. Consequently, the author may not entirely agree with the idea that assertions regarding the demise of liberalism are merely false impressions that are exaggerated.
Option D: The author believes that liberalism comprises a variety of philosophical traditions and answers to the trade-off between rights and duties, hence the author may disagree with this statement since it oversimplifies the essence of liberalism.
The correct option is (B): liberalism was the dominant ideal in the past century, but it had to reform itself to remain so.
“Why do they pull down and do away with crooked streets, I wonder, which are my delight, and hurt no man living? Every day the wealthier nations are pulling down one or another in their capitals and their great towns: they do not know why they do it; neither do I. It ought to be enough, surely, to drive the great broad ways which commerce needs and which are the life-channels of a modern city, without destroying all history and all the humanity in between: the islands of the past.” (From Hilaire Belloc’s “The Crooked Streets”)
Based only on the information provided in the above passage, which one of the following statements is true?