Quotation Identification: Match the following quotations with the correct author from the box below. Answer options may be used once, more than once, or not at all.

  1. Our Constitution is so simple, so practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has ever seen. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations. And it is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly equal, wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. AB
  1. The mistaken tendency to believe that a democratic government, being nothing more than the composite will of its individual citizens, has no more moral power or authority than they do as individuals has adverse effects in other areas as well. It fosters civil disobedience, for example, which proceeds on the assumption that what the individual citizen considers an unjust law—even if it does not compel him to act unjustly—need not be obeyed. St. Paul would not agree. “Ye must needs be subject,” he said, “not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.” C
  1. You should not destroy what is our common protection, the privilege of being allowed in danger to invoke what is fair and right. D
  1. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience? — in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. B
  1. Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom—the great achievement of our time, and the great hope of every time—now depends on us.Our nation, this generation will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future.We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage.We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail. E
  1. I was like the rest. What did they do? Right or wrong, justifiable or unjustifiable -- which I need not discuss today -- it changed the world. For four long years the civilized world was engaged in killing men... The little children played at war. The toddling children on the street. Do you suppose this world has ever been the same since? AC
  1. Now in speaking like this, it doesn't mean that we're anti-white, but it does mean we're anti-exploitation, we're anti-degradation, we're anti-oppression. And if the white man doesn't want us to be anti-him, let him stop oppressing and exploiting and degrading us. Whether we are Christians or Muslims or nationalists or agnostics or atheists, we must first learn to forget our differences. If we have differences, let us differ in the closet; when we come out in front, let us not have anything to argue about until we get finished arguing with the man. AD
  1. I have, in several instances, spoken in such a tone and manner, respecting religion, as may possibly lead those unacquainted with my religious views to suppose me an opponent of all religion. To remove the liability of such misapprehension, I deem it proper to append the following brief explanation[…] between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference—so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. […] Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels. A

Multiple Choice—Choose the letter of the correct answer. Unless specifically directed to do otherwise, please choose only ONE answer.

  1. Thoreau wrote “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” in response to which war?

a. The Spanish American War / d. The American Revolution
b. The Civil War
c. The Mexican War / e. The War of 1812
  1. Identify the word that belongs in the blanks in the following passage from Thoreau’s “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience”:

“______does not keep the country free. ______does not settle the West. ______does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have been done somewhat more, if ______had not sometimes got in its way.”

a. government / c. war
b. religion / d. justice
  1. “Thus the State never intentionally confronts a man’s sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest. […] When I meet a government which says to me, “Your money or your life,” why should I be in haste to give up my money?”

The above statement by Thoreau suggests that he would have been in closest agreement with

a. Orwell / c. The Melians
b. The Athenians / d. Darrow
  1. Because of its ______, Thoreau’s argument is less convincing than it might otherwise be. This is also true of ______.

a. complex sentence structure; Malcolm X’s speech / c. condescending tone; the Athenians’ tone in “The Melian Dialogue”
b. nature similes; FDR’s speech / d. unclear thesis; Feblowitz’s “The Hero We Create: 9/11 and the Reinvention of Batman”
  1. Thoreau urges his readers to

a. break any unjust law if they can do so without violence / c. devote their lives to fighting the only the most enormous wrongs
b. oppose any and all injustices / d. break only those laws that require them to be unjust to others
  1. Had Thoreau lived to hear Roosevelt’s “Inaugural Address,” his immediate reaction likely would have been

a. approval that Roosevelt was following his conscience / c. horror at the possibility of an increase in government power
b. approval of the idea of the American people as an army / d. mild disapproval since he would have liked most of FDR’s ideas except for those about the government offering jobs to the unemployed
  1. The “reinvented” Batman of The Dark Knight is willing to torture others in order to save lives. How would Thoreau view this sort of “ends justify the means” approach to justice?

a. He would say that the good of the many outweigh the importance of the individual’s decision. / c. He would approve, since Batman is following his conscience, even though he might be breaking the law in doing so.
b. He would view it as Batman conforming to the morally corrupt practices of a controlling and unethical government. / d. He would be appalled. For Thoreau, it is never acceptable to become an instrument of injustice against another person.
  1. Had Thoreau heard Darrow’s closing argument, his reaction most likely would have been

a. to agree that the judge should not be swayed by the majority’s views of justice and punishment / c. dissatisfaction with Darrow’s suggestion that justice must be tempered by mercy
d. to argue that Leopold and Loeb should be
b. to criticize Darrow for asking the judge to consider the effect of his ruling on the families and the public / executed since life in prison is no real punishment at all, since no building can really imprison a man
  1. Feblowitz argues that Christopher Nolan’s first two Batman films

a. reimagine Batman villains as terrorists
b. reveal a fear that fighting terrorism means compromising U.S. ideals / c. reassure Americans that good can and will triumph over evil
d. analyze America’s response to 9/11
e. all of the above
  1. Feblowitz argues that these two Batman films do not go far enough because

a. The U.S. analogy could have been clearer / c. the villains’ motives are too easy for the audience to dismiss
b. good still triumphs over evil / d. they stopped short of really criticizing the moral compromises Batman made
  1. Batman’s rule about not killing most closely resembles the moral point made by

a. Douglass
b. Malcolm X / c. Scalia
d. Orwell
e. Thucydides
  1. Having read “The Melian Dialogue,” and knowing that Thucydides was an Athenian, one could argue that his attitude towards his country and its actions is most similar to that of

a. Bush towards America / c. Scalia towards America
b. King towards America / d. Roosevelt towards America
  1. In the opening of his “Inaugural Address,” Roosevelt borrows language from what source in order to help prove that he will handle things differently than President Hoover?

a. The oath taken by witnesses sworn in during a trial / c. The Declaration of Independence
d. The U.S. Constitution
b. The Lord’s Prayer
  1. Roosevelt’s careful choice of pronouns emphasizes

a. his role as a dictator-like leader
b. the difference between Americans / c. how we are all strong and independent individuals
and Europeans / d. unity and the common struggles we all share
  1. Roosevelt’s repeated use of ______throughout the “Inaugural Address,” clearly lays the groundwork for his final assertion that ______.

a. negative connotations; the future of America is very bleak / c. polysyndeton; the situation is so overwhelming that it is only with God’s help that America will pull through
b. Biblical allusions; we must become a more religious nation again if God is going to bless us once more / d. military language; he might need to invoke powers only given to a president in times of war
  1. At the end of his speech, Roosevelt is very careful to emphasize

a. that he would see any change in the power structure as a temporary response to an unprecedented set of circumstances / c. that the power he might assume would be a freely offered gift he would accept, not something he would steal.
b. the constitutionality of his authority and his duty / d. all of the above
  1. How would Thoreau respond to Roosevelt’s claim that “We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and our property to such discipline, because it makes possible a leadership which aims at the larger good”?

a. He would agree wholeheartedly
b. He would agree that all men must work together to better society, but would not agree that they need to give up their lives to do so. / c. He would say that we should be willing to give up our lives and property, but not for the kind of common cause Roosevelt has in mind.
d. He would say we must all work for the larger good, but not necessarily follow a leader
  1. What would Thoreau think of Scalia’s stance on the Constitution and religious authority?

a. that Scalia is unable to trace the stream of truth any higher than the Bible and the Constitution / c. that Scalia should not support the death penalty on moral or religious grounds, as he misinterprets Paul’s words
b. that Scalia’s interpretation of the Constitution as an “enduring document” means that he only sees the issues as problems of law or politics, and does not consider them in the light of his intellect or conscience / d. all of the above
e. A and B only
ac. A and C only
ad. B and C only
  1. Which of the following is NOT a purpose of Bush’s “Address to a Joint Session of Congress”?

a. to reassure the American public
b. to warn the Taliban and those who harbor terrorists / d. to bring Congress together
e. to thank countries around the world
ab. to rebuke anti-war protesters
c. to ready the U.S. Military forces
  1. Which of the following authors does not believe that the needs or lives of the many outweigh the needs or lives of the few?

a. Bush / c. FDR
b. Thoreau / d. Scalia
  1. Scalia argues that the West is opposed to the death penalty not because ____, but because ____.

a. they believe it is wrong; it is ineffective as a deterrent
b. of Christian objections; of democracy
c. of historical precedent; recent court cases where the executed were later discovered to be innocent / d. of legal reasons; of religious reasons
e. rational reasons; emotional reasons
  1. According to Scalia, from where does the U.S. government ultimately derive its moral authority?

  1. God
  2. The Constitution
  3. The Bill of Rights
/
  1. The people
  2. The founding fathers

  1. At the beginning of the Melian Dialogue, the Athenians claim that they are speaking to only a few instead of to the entire population of the island because

a. the council is wise and will listen to reason
b. the Melians are afraid that the public will be swayed by the arguments of the Athenians
c. that is how civilized societies settle matters of state / d. the Athenians know that the people would rather die than surrender
e. only the council speaks the same language. The people would not understand them.
  1. In his defense of Leopold and Loeb, Darrow does all of the following EXCEPT

a. attempts to emphasize his clients’ youth by repeatedly referring to them as “boys”
b. tries to get the judge to see Leopold and Loeb as the victims
c. argues that the families of his clients are more to be pitied than the family of the Frank boy / d. make the decision about love and hate and not justice or the law
e. cites studies that give statistical evidence about the recent rise in crime
  1. If Scalia had been the judge listening to Darrow’s closing argument, he would most likely

  1. have been swayed by Darrow, and sentenced Leopold and Loeb to life in prison
  2. have condemned Leopold and Loeb to death
/ c. have been more swayed by the opinion of the general public than Darrow’s argument
d. have allowed a different judge to hear the case because he would have been too biased to be fair
  1. Which of the following make ultimatums that leave no room for neutral ground? [Mark ALL that apply!]

  1. Bush
  2. The Athenians
/ d. Scalia
e. Nolan’s Ra’s al Ghul
  1. The Melians

  1. Which of the following speakers make arguments in which their (or their nation’s) hegemony makes their argument more convincing? [Mark ALL that apply!]

  1. The Athenians
  2. Malcolm X
/ d. The Melians
e. Bush
  1. Thoreau

  1. Of the following, whom could you argue is motivated by revenge or ideas of justice as reciprocity? [Mark ALL that apply!]

a. Bush
b. Nolan’s Batman
c. Malcom X / d. Martin Luther King, Jr.
e. The public during the trial of Leopold and Loeb
  1. Which of the following pairs of authors would most disagree [CLARIFICATION: with one another]about the idea that justice should be determined by the will of the majority?

  1. Darrow/Thoreau
  2. King/Malcolm X
/ d. Bush/FDR
e. Scalia/Thoreau
  1. Darrow/Thucydides

  1. Scalia and Thoreau would both

  1. disapprove of FDR’s speech and Bush’s post 9/11 actions
  2. agree with Darrow’s argument about mercy
/ d. agree that justice canonly be achieved when each man follows his own conscience
e. approve of Thucydides’ praise of the Athenians
  1. agree with Martin Luther King Jr.’s arguments about civil disobedience

  1. Which of the following does NOT argue that the divine is on the side of/will save the morally just?

  1. Bush
  2. Martin Luther King Jr.
/ d. The Athenians
e. Thoreau
  1. The Melians

  1. In the aftermath of WWII, a psychological experiment called the “Milgram Experiment” was created to try to explain the actions of German war criminals who claimed that they were merely following orders. The experiment attempted to answer the research question: “For how long will someone continue to give electric shocks to another person if he is told to do so, even if he thought the person could be seriously hurt?” Experts predicted that only 1-3% of the subjects would continue giving shocks when they heard the screaming of the other subject and his complaints of heart trouble. They thought that you’d have to be a psychopath to continue shocking the person just because you were told to do so. In fact, not one of the test subjects stopped when the man said that he had heart trouble, and 65% of those tested continued shocking the man past the level labeled “Danger: Severe Shock” all the way to the highest level, which was merely labeled “XXX.”

The study described above is most relevant in helping us understand whose actions and motivations?

a. Roosevelt’s / c. Scalia’s
b. Feblowitz’s / d. Orwell’s
e. Bush’s
  1. Darrow is faced with the prospect of ______, while Feblowitz criticizes the second Nolan Batman movie for ______.

a. trying to convince the judge that the boys suffered from a disease; stigmatizing the insane
b. defending two cold-blooded, unremorseful killers; humanizing the terrorists / c. proving that his clients didn’t know what they were doing; excusing the actions of the terrorists
d. trying to create sympathy for people who committed a crime with no real purpose; making the Joker’s motive unknowable, and therefore making him almost inhuman
  1. Whose views of civil disobedience differ the most?

  1. Scalia/FDR
  2. King/Bush
/ d. Thoreau/Scalia
e. Malcolm X/Thoreau
  1. Darrow/Douglass

  1. Which of the following pairs would most disagree over their views of the death penalty?

  1. Darrow/Thucydides
  2. Scalia/Bush
/ d. d. Darrow/Nolan’s Batman
e. e. Scalia/Orwell
  1. Douglass/Malcom X

  1. Why doesn’t Orwell mention the crime committed by the man who is hanged?

  1. He cares so little about the prisoner that he never thinks to ask about the crime
  2. He is such a low level official that no one informs him of the crimes
/ d. He wants the audience to assume that the man is a murderer so that the British colonial system will look justified in its actions