Read the excerpt from "A Latina Judge's Voice" by Hon. Sonia Sotomayor. First, as Professor Martha Minnow has noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise . Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life. What is the purpose of Sotomayor's use of the word wise ?
Read the excerpt from Justice Sotomayor's speech "A Latina Judge's Voice." For me, a very special part of my being Latina is the mucho platos de arroz, gandules y pernir —rice, beans and pork—that I have eaten at countless family holidays and special events. My Latina identity also includes, because of my particularly adventurous taste buds, morcilla , pig intestines; patitas de cerdo con garbanzo , pigs' feet with beans; and Ia lengua y orejas de cuchifrito , pigs' tongue and ears. I bet the Mexican-Americans in this room are thinking that Puerto Ricans have unusual food tastes. Some of us, like me, do. How does the speaker’s use of Spanish names for food most affect the tone and meaning of this excerpt?
Read the excerpt from Ronald Reagan's "Tear Down This Wall" speech. While we pursue these arms reductions, I pledge to you that we will maintain the capacity to deter Soviet aggression at any level at which it might occur. And in cooperation with many of our allies, the United States is pursuing the Strategic Defense Initiative—research to base deterrence not on the threat of offensive retaliation, but on defenses that truly defend; on systems, in short, that will not target populations, but shield them. By these means we seek to increase the safety of Europe and all the world. Which type of appeal is used in this part of the speech?
Read the passage from Ronald Reagan's "Tear Down This Wall" speech. Where four decades ago there was rubble, today in West Berlin there is the greatest industrial output of any city in Germany—busy office blocks, fine homes and apartments, proud avenues, and the spreading lawns of park land. Where a city's culture seemed to have been destroyed, today there are two great universities, orchestras and an opera, countless theaters, and museums. Where there was want, today there's abundance. . . . From devastation, from utter ruin, you Berliners have, in freedom, rebuilt a city that once again ranks as one of the greatest on earth. . . . In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted: "We will bury you." But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind—too little food. Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor. Which statement best describes Reagan’s main message for his audience in this excerpt?
Read the passage from chapter 17 of The Prince. Among the wonderful deeds of Hannibal this one is enumerated: that having led an enormous army, composed of many various races of men, to fight in foreign lands, no dissensions arose either among them or against the prince, whether in his bad or in his good fortune. This arose from nothing else than his inhuman cruelty, which, with his boundless valour, made him revered and terrible in the sight of his soldiers, but without that cruelty, his other virtues were not sufficient to produce this effect. How does the author’s diction affect the tone in this passage?
Read the passage from chapter 17 of The Prince. against my will, my fate A throne unsettled, and an infant state, Bid me defend my realms with all my pow'rs, And guard with these severities my shores. In this passage by the Roman poet Virgil, Queen Dido speaks about the responsibilities of a ruler. How does the phrase infant state in the second line affect the tone?
Read the excerpt from "A Genetics of Justice” by Julia Alvarez. My father and mother were once again trapped in a police state. They laid low as best they could. Now that they had four young daughters, they could not take any chances. For a while, that spark which has almost cost my father his life and which he had lighted in my mother seemed to have burnt out. Periodically, Trujillo would demand a tribute, and they would acquiesce. A tax, a dummy vote, a portrait on the wall. To my father and other men in the country, the most humiliating of these tributes was the occasional parade in which women were made to march and turn their heads and acknowledge the great man as they passed the review stand. What is the central idea in this paragraph?
Read the excerpt from "A Genetics of Justice” by Julia Alvarez. My mother must have been intrigued. She knew nothing of the horrid crimes of the dictatorship, for her parents were afraid to say anything—even to their own children—against the regime. So, as a young girl, my mother must have thought of El Jefe as a kind of movie star. She must have wanted to meet the great man. What is the central idea in this paragraph?
Read this passage from chapter 5 of The Prince . There are, for example, the Spartans and the Romans. The Spartans held Athens and Thebes, establishing there an oligarchy: nevertheless they lost them. The Romans, in order to hold Capua, Carthage, and Numantia, dismantled them, and did not lose them. They wished to hold Greece as the Spartans held it, making it free and permitting its laws, and did not succeed. Which features of the passage are typical of a compare/contrast structure? Choose three correct answers.
Read this passage from chapter 5 of The Prince . There are, for example, the Spartans and the Romans. The Spartans held Athens and Thebes, establishing there an oligarchy: nevertheless they lost them. The Romans, in order to hold Capua, Carthage, and Numantia, dismantled them, and did not lose them. They wished to hold Greece as the Spartans held it, making it free and permitting its laws, and did not succeed How does the text structure help the author convey his central idea in this chapter?
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