Read the following passage and and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to to indicate the correct answer to each of the questionEducation was of primary importance to the English colonists and was conducted at home as well as in established schools. Regardless of geographic location or finances, most Americans learned to read and compute numbers. For many, the Bible and the other religicus usually made them good primers. Many families owned one or more of Shakespear’s works, a ...

Read the following passage and and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to to indicate the correct answer to each of the question

Education was of primary importance to the English colonists and was conducted at home as well as in established schools. Regardless of geographic location or finances, most Americans learned to read and compute numbers. For many, the Bible and the other religicus usually made them good primers. Many families owned one or more of Shakespear’s works, a copy of John Bunyan’s classic “A Pilgrim’s Progress”, and sometimes collections of English literary essays, poems, or historical speeches.

In 1647 the Massachusetts School Law required every town of at least 50 household to maintain a grammar school. The law was the first to mandate public education in America. In the middle colonies at the time, school were often dependent on religious societis, such as the Quakers and other private organizations. In the South, families employed private tutors or relied on the clergy to conduct education. At the outset, most elementary schools were for boy, but schools for girls were establishes in the eighteen century in most cities and large towns. In spite of the informal atmosphere of most American schools, the literacy rate in the colonies of mid-eighteenth century America was equal to or higher than that in most European countries.

Before the American Revolution, nine colleges had been founded, including Harvard, Willia and Mary, Yale; the College of New Jersey ( now Princeton ), Brown, Rutgers, Dartmouth, and King College ( later Columbia University ). By 1720 the natural sciences and modern language were being taught, as well as coures in practical subjects such as machanics and agriculture. At the end of the 18^th century, medical schools were estabished at the College of Philadelphia and at King’s College

The prase “ At the outset” in line 12 is closest in the meaning to which of the following ?