Question

read the excerpt from song, “brother, can you spare a dime?”
once i built a railroad, made it run,
made it race against time.
once i built a railroad,
now its done—
which idea is conveyed in the excerpt?
the speaker does not want to build rails anymore.
all the necessary railroad tracks have been completed.
the american railroads are the fastest in the world.
the speaker used to have work, but now there isnt any.

Explanation:

• Analyze Option 1: The excerpt focuses on past work (building railroad) and current lack, not on desire to stop building rails. Eliminate.
• Analyze Option 2: The song is about the Great Depression - related job loss, not literal completion of all railroads. Eliminate.
• Analyze Option 3: No comparison of American railroads' speed to others is made. Eliminate.
• Analyze Option 4: "Once I built..." shows past work; "Now it's done" implies current joblessness, matching the song's context of Depression - era unemployment.

Answer:

D. The speaker used to have work, but now there isn't any.