This one is quite tough. The OA is C, so let's evaluate that.
Let's look at the facts provided -
1) Pope visited in 1998 and told the world (outsiders) that a political opening (falling of communism) was to be anticipated.
2) Even after 8 years of this, communism lives on.
The wording is complex but reduced to the above two facts, what does this tell us? That the pope's prophecy/anticipation was unfounded/never came to be. Let's evaluate the options on this backdrop.
I hope this helps. Please discuss, as I might have missed points and would like to hear from experts if there's any other explanation for (C).
Prajat wrote:
In 1998 Pope John Paul II visited Cuba, prompting outsiders to await a political opening of the kind that brought down communism in his native Poland. Sadly, even two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Cuba remains one of the handful of countries around the world where communism lives on. Illness forced Fidel Castro to step down in 2006, but his slightly younger brother Raul, is in charge, flanked by a cohort of elderly Stalinists. ______
Which of the following best completes the paragraph?
(a) Skeptics will note that Fidel Castro opened up the island's economy a little in the early 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the withdrawal of its subsidies, only to stop when he found a new benefactor in Venezuela's Hugo Chevez. => Irrelevant. Nothing is discussed about the economy in the passage. Only a political shift is discussed.
(b) No active dissent in one-party rule is allowed : dozens of opponents of the regime are arrested ahead of any dignitary's visit. => This could complete a general discussion (indeed, I got it wrong because of this) but does it tie back to the rest of the information? The information provided gives - 1. An expected outcome of the pope 2. What actually happened (which was not as expected). One-party rule and dissent in it / arresting of dignitaries could be useful additional information, but does not complete the given premises well.
(c) When a pope next visits the island, expectations will be more muted. Correct. Given a prior announcement (expectation) and facts contradictory to it (events happened which defy the pope's prediction), the public won't get expectations up a lot by the next visit of the Pope. In general, the pope's visit did nothing last time other than raising hopes. This time, that won't happen because last time's hopes were not materialized.
(d) Yet a momentous change has begun in Cuba in the meantime : The country has started on the road towards Capitalism; and that will have big implications on the United States and the rest of Latin America. => This does not fit in the given timeline (meantime changes discussed at the end? wrong). Also, implications in the given information indicate that there has been no move toward capitalism at all.
(e) The political effect of the papal visit remains to be seen. => It's been eight years (at least) and effects observed are clearly stated. They don't "remain to be seen".