2.

 The textbook observes that Orthodox history is marked by a series of sudden political and national breaks. A) What, according to the author, was transformed by these sudden breaks, and B) what was never broken by them?

            The sudden breaks include such things as the capture of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem by the Arabs; the burning of Kiev by the Mongols; the two sacks of Constantinople; the subjugation of southeastern Europe, the Middle East and northern Africa by the Turks; and the Communist domination of Eastern Europe. A) These events changed the external appearance of the Orthodox world, yet B) they never broke the inward continuity of the Orthodox Church.