One of the main ideas of the second paragraph (copied below) is that:
Growing up in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Jacob, an average though not exceptional student was not
exactly exposed to a climate of forward thinking. The local economy was a traditional if unimaginative, one.
Most of the infrastructure had been built during the Reconstruction to support the railroad industry. In the
summer of 1919, when Jacob was born, the town seemed frozen in the late 19th century, with bootblack,
locksmith, and apothecary shops that seemed more at home in pre-industrial times. This lack of innovation
deepened Jacob's disinterest in personal or academic enterprise. His impression was that there was little
interest to be discovered outside of Gettysburg, save a patchwork of towns as predictable as the repeating
pattern of black and white tiles on a checkerboard.

A: It was hard for Jacob to find a job with mainly preindustrial types of merchants.
B: Jacob lacked motivation for his studies because he planned to work for the railroad.
C: Due to the nature of Gettysburg, Jacob did not have much desire to travel elsewhere
D: Jacob imagined a better architectural plan for the town's older building