ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.5

o Example 1

o Example 2

o Quiz Questions

Standard 5: Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.

Quiz Questions for RI 5 StandardTop of Form

Read this extract from Malcolm X’s 1964 speech “The Ballot or the Bullet”, and then answer the questions that follow:

“So it's time to wake up. And when you see [whites] coming up with that kind of conspiracy, let them know your eyes are open. And let them know you -- something else that’s wide open too. It's got to be the ballot or the bullet. The ballot or the bullet. If you're afraid to use an expression like that, you should get on out of the country; you should get back in the cotton patch; you should get back in the alley. They get all the Negro vote, and after they get it, the Negro gets nothing in return. All they did when they got to Washington was give a few big Negroes big jobs. Those big Negroes didn't need big jobs, they already had jobs. That's camouflage, that's trickery, that's treachery, window-dressing. But it is true; you put the Democrats first and the Democrats put you last.

You take the people who are in this audience right now. They're poor. We're all poor as individuals. Our weekly salary individually amounts to hardly anything. But if you take the salary of everyone in here collectively, it'll fill up a whole lot of baskets. It's a lot of wealth. If you can collect the wages of just these people right here for a year, you'll be rich -- richer than rich. When you look at it like that, think how rich Uncle Sam had to become, not with this handful, but millions of black people. Your and my mother and father, who didn't work an eight-hour shift, but worked from ‘can't see’ in the morning until ‘can't see’ at night, and worked for nothing, making the white man rich, making Uncle Sam rich. This is our investment. This is our contribution, our blood.

Not only did we give of our free labor, we gave of our blood. Every time he had a call to arms, we were the first ones in uniform. We died on every battlefield the white man had. We have made a greater sacrifice than anybody who's standing up in America today. We have made a greater contribution and have collected less.

If you don't take this kind of stand, your little children will grow up and look at you and think ‘shame.’ If you don't take an uncompromising stand, I don't mean go out and get violent; but at the same time you should never be nonviolent unless you run into some nonviolence. I'm nonviolent with those who are nonviolent with me. But when you drop that violence on me, then you've made me go insane, and I'm not responsible for what I do. And that's the way every Negro should get. Any time you know you're within the law, within your legal rights, within your moral rights, in accord with justice, then die for what you believe in. But don't die alone. Let your dying be reciprocal.

1. In the first paragraph, the speaker tries to gain support by:

(A) showing the potential misfortune of those who will not conform to his beliefs (B) predicting the problems that will arise if his ideas are not accepted (C) asking rhetorical questions to appeal to the logic of the audience (D) offering multiple solutions to solve the problem of inequality

2. In the second paragraph, the author shows the weakness of his individual followers in order to:

(A) emphasize the hopelessness of the situation from the beginning. (B) show the contrasting image of their collective power later in the text. (C) show the permanent impact of the poor decisions they have made. (D) emphasize his own personal power.

Read this extract from The Declaration of Independence, and then answer the question that follows:

“Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive… it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. […] The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.”

3. Which of the following accurately describes the structure of the argument in this portion of the Declaration of Independence?

(A) A general belief is followed by a list of specific examples to support the belief. (B) An argument is presented, followed by a list of counter-examples to represent the opposing viewpoint. (C) A group opinion is presented, followed by a list of different individuals’ interpretations of that opinion. (D) A statement of concerns followed by a list of recommendations for ways to fix the problems.

Read this extract from Martin Luther King’s 1963 speech “I Have a Dream”Then, answer the questions that follow:

“I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’”

4. The repetition of the phrase ‘one hundred years later’ serves to:

(A) pinpoint the exact dates on which historical atrocities occurred. (B) emphasize that black people have been cheated of fair treatment for a very long time (C) show how little time has passed since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. (D) Remind the audience of the quickly approaching expiration date for the Emancipation Proclamation.

5. The author makes reference to the Emancipation Proclamation in order to

(A) criticize the American leader who signed the document. (B) criticize the language of the document. (C) prove its superiority to the Constitution and Declaration of Independence (D) remind the American government of an unfulfilled promise

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