What do paragraphs 1 and 2 of Tess of the d’Urbervilles most suggest about the old families rank? A. Before the nineteenth century, the families that ruled England did so fairly and with a sense of swift, if
brutal, justice.

B. The people of the nineteenth century resented the
continued domination of those families that had long had power in England.

C. By the nineteenth century, some of the ancient English families had lost their power, wealth, and influence.

D . Even in the nineteenth century being descended
from a powerful family guaranteed one status and
privilege in England.