Q: The Missouri Compromise of 1820, a legislative effort to mediate the radical differences between slaveholders and abolitionists, did not achieve its goal and thus is remembered by history as a failure, just the first of more than a half-dozen attempts to avert sectional civil war.

a)just the first of more than a half-dozen attempts to avert
b)just the first of a half-dozen more attempts to avert
c)and the first attempt of more than a half-dozen attempts to avert
d)and just the first of more than a half-dozen attempts averting
e)and just the first of more than a half-dozen attempts aimed at averting