PSAT Reading Practice Question 626

Question: 626

The following passage is adapted from a speech delivered on June 26, 1963, by President John F. Kennedy. The speech was given in the Western-controlled part of Berlin in Germany during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
I am proud to come to this city as the
guest of your distinguished Mayor, who has
symbolized throughout the world the fighting
spirit of West Berlin. And I am proud to visit
05the Federal Republic with your distinguished
Chancellor who for so many years has
committed Germany to democracy and
freedom and progress, and to come here in
the company of my fellow American, General
10Clay, who has been in this city during its great
moments of crisis and will come again if ever
needed.
Two thousand years ago the proudest
boast was "civis Romanus sum." ("I am a
15citizen of Rome.") Today, in the world of
freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein
Berliner." ("I am a citizen of Berlin.")
I appreciate my interpreter translating
my German!
20There are many people in the world who
really don't understand, or say they don't,
what is the great issue between the free world
and the Communist world. Let them come
to Berlin. There are some who say that
25communism is the wave of the future. Let them
come to Berlin. And there are some who say in
Europe and elsewhere we can work with the
Communists. Let them come to Berlin. And
there are even a few who say that it is true that
30communism is an evil system, but it permits us
to make economic progress. Lass' sie nach
Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin.
Freedom has many difficulties and
democracy is not perfect, but we have never
35had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to
prevent them from leaving us. I want to say, on
behalf of my countrymen, who live many miles
away on the other side of the Atlantic, who are
far distant from you, that they take the greatest pride
40that they have been able to share with
you, even from a distance, the story of the last
18 years. I know of no town, no city, that has
been besieged for 18 years that still lives with
the vitality and the force, and the hope and
45the determination of the city of West Berlin.
While the wall is the most obvious and
vivid demonstration of the failures of the
Communist system, for all the world to see,
we take no satisfaction in it, for it is, as your
50Mayor has said, an offense not only against
history but an offense against humanity,
separating families, dividing husbands and
wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a
people who wish to be joined together.
55What is true of this city is true of Germany—
real, lasting peace in Europe can never be
assured as long as one German out of four
is denied the elementary right of free men,
and that is to make a free choice. In 18 years
60of peace and good faith, this generation of
Germans has earned the right to be free,
including the right to unite their families and
their nation in lasting peace, with good will to
all people. You live in a defended island of free
65dom, but your life is part of the main. So let me
ask you as I close, to lift your eyes beyond the
dangers of today, to the hopes of tomorrow,
beyond the freedom merely of this city of
Berlin, or your country of Germany, to the
70advance of freedom everywhere, beyond the
wall to the day of peace with justice, beyond
yourselves and ourselves to all mankind.
Freedom is indivisible, and when one man
is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free,
75then we can look forward to that day when this
city will be joined as one and this country and
this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful
and hopeful globe. When that day finally
comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can
80take sober satisfaction in the fact that they
were in the front lines for almost two decades.
All free men, wherever they may live, are
citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man,
I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner."

As used in lines 8–9, the phrase "in the company of" most closely means

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