Question

Read the passages.

Passage 1: Lives of Celebrated Women, by Samuel Griswold Goodrich

Jeanne Josephe Marie Antoinette, of Lorraine, archduchess of Austria, the unfortunate queen of Louis XVI. of France, was the daughter of Francis I. and Maria Theresa, and was born at Vienna, in 1755. She was educated with the utmost care, and nature had bestowed upon her the highest beauty of person. Her accomplishments, talents, grace, virtue, and uncommon loveliness, fitted her for the queen of a gallant nation; and as such she would have been honored in France, had she lived before oppression had roused the people to madness.

Passage 2: The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, by Charles Duke Yonge

Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne was the youngest daughter of Francis, originally Duke of Lorraine, afterward Grand Duke of Tuscany, and eventually Emperor of Germany, and of Maria Teresa, Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, more generally known, after the attainment of the imperial dignity by her husband in 1745, as the Empress-queen. Of her brothers, two, Joseph and Leopold, succeeded in turn to the imperial dignity; and one of her sisters, Caroline, became the wife of the King of Naples. She was born on the 2d of November, 1755, a day which, when her later years were darkened by misfortune, was often referred to as having foreshadowed it by its evil omens, since it was that on which the terrible earthquake which laid Lisbon in ruins reached its height. But, at the time, the Viennese rejoiced too sincerely at every event which could contribute to their sovereign's happiness to pay any regard to the calamities of another capital, and the courtly poet was but giving utterance to the unanimous feeling of her subjects when he spoke of the princess's birth as calculated to diffuse universal joy.

Which statement best synthesizes information from these passages?

Marie Antoinette's life was profoundly shaped by the historical context into which she was born.
Marie Antoinette was the youngest daughter and was unlikely to become queen.
The birth of Marie Antoinette incited anger in France and inspired rejoicing in Vienna.
The charmed childhood of Marie Antoinette foreshadowed her success in later years.

Answer 1

Marie Antoinette's life was profoundly shaped by the historical context into which she was born.

Both passages link her birth and family background to larger historical events and forces (court celebrations, the Lisbon earthquake omen, and the political oppression in France that later affected her fate), showing her life was shaped by context.