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Consider these lines: "The rights protected by Magna Carta had been granted by the king, and, in theory, a future king or queen could take them away. The natural rights Locke described, however, had been granted by God and thus could never be abolished by human beings, even royal ones, or by the institutions they created." According to the quoted lines, what most distinguishes natural rights from the rights in Magna Carta?
ANatural rights applied only to English barons in revolt
BMagna Carta rights covered property while natural rights did not
CNatural rights were written down while Magna Carta was unwritten
DNatural rights could never be revoked, unlike rights granted by a king
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: D. Natural rights could never be revoked, unlike rights granted by a king
1. The quoted lines build a two-part contrast marked by the pivot word however.
2. Magna Carta rights came from the king, so a later monarch could, in theory, withdraw them.
3. Locke's natural rights came from God, so no human being or institution could abolish them.
4. The distinguishing feature is therefore revocability: one set of rights can be taken back, the other cannot.
5. Option D captures exactly that contrast.
6. Option A misassigns the barons detail, which belongs to Magna Carta's original scope, not to natural rights.
7. Option B invents a property difference; the quoted lines never say natural rights excluded property.
8. Option C invents a written versus unwritten contrast that the quoted lines never draw.
_Source: OpenStax American Government 3e (CC BY 4.0), Ch 2 "The Constitution and Its Origins", section 2.1 The Pre-Revolutionary Period and the Roots of the American Political Tradition_
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