Read Excerpt A below about immigration and answer the vocabulary question which follow. Do the same for Excerpt B.

Question

Excerpt A
The United States is the most racially-ethnically diverse society in the world. This can be our central strength, with our many groups working together to build a harmonious society, a stellar example for the world.
Throughout its history, the U.S. has both welcomed immigration and feared its consequences. The gates opened wide for a massive wave of immigrants in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During the past 20 years, a second great wave of immigration has brought close to a million new residents to the United States each year. Unlike the first wave, which was almost exclusively from western Europe, this second wave is more diverse. In fact, it is changing the U.S. racial-ethnic mix. If current trends in immigration and birth persist, in a little over 50 years, the “average” American will trace his or her ancestry to Africa, Asia, South America, the Pacific Islands, the Middle East—to almost anywhere but white Europe.
In some states, the future is arriving much sooner than this. In California, ethnic and racial minorities already constitute the majority. California has 17 million minorities and 16 million whites.
Californians who request new telephone service from Pacific Bell can speak to customer service representatives in Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Cantonese—or English.

The underlined word stellar most nearly means
a. starry.
b. astral.
c. leading.

Answer 1

c. leading.