TEXT C For a long time we have
worked hard at isolating the individual family. This has increased the mobility
of individuals; and by encouraging young families to break away from the older
generation and the home community, we have been able to speed up the acceptance
of change and the rapid spread of innovative behavior. But at the same time we
have burdened every small family with tremendous responsibilities once shared
within three generations and among a large number of people—the nurturing of
small children, the initiation of adolescents into adulthood, and care of the
sick and disabled and the protection of the aged. What we have failed to realize
is that even as we have separated the single family from the larger society, we
have expected each couple to take on a range of obligations that traditionally
have been shared within a family and a wider community. So all
over the world there are millions of families left alone, as it were, each in
its own box —parents faced with the specter of what may happen if either one
gets sick, children fearful that their parents may end their quarrels with
divorce, and empty-handed old people without any role in the life of the next
generation. Then, having reduced little by little to almost
nothing the relationship between families and the community, when families get
into trouble because they cannot accomplish the impossible, we turn their
problems over to impersonal social agencies, which can act only in a fragmented
way because they are limited to patchwork programs that often are too late to
accomplish what is most needed. Individuals and families do get
some kind of help, but what they learn and what those who work hard within the
framework of social agencies convey, even as they try to help, is that families
should be able to care for themselves. The author implies that ______.
A.social agencies in America can be very helpful B.the help to American families from social agencies is limited C.the government should do more to improve patchwork programs D.the fragmentary nature of the American family is unique