Read the following passage and answer the question given below. The new school of political history that emerged in the 1960’s and 1970’s sought to go beyond the traditional focus of political historians on leaders and government institutions by examining directly the political practices of ordinary citizens. Like the old approach, however, this new approach excluded women. The very techniques these historians used to uncover mass political behavior in the nineteenth-century United States—quantitative analyses of election returns, for example—were useless in analyzing the political activities of women, who were denied the vote until 1920. Which of the following best describes the structure of the passage? (a) Two scholarly approaches are compared, and a shortcoming common to both is identified. (b) Two rival schools of thought are contrasted, and a third is alluded to. (c) An argument is outlined, and counterargument s are mentioned. (d) A historical era is described in terms of its political trends.