Which two details, one from each excerpt, show how the two excerpts treat the concept of voting rights similarly?
right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.the amendment to the Constitution…has been ratified by the legislatures of . . . all twenty-nine statesIts organic law grants to all citizens a right to participate in the choice of elected officials without restriction by any state because of racepermits a private organization to practice racial discrimination in the election. Constitutional rights would be of little value if they could be thus indirectly denied.
- "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color," (excerpt talking about voting rights being protected regardless of race or color)
- "Its organic law grants to all citizens a right to participate in the choice of elected officials without restriction by any state because of race" (excerpt stating that all citizens have the right to vote without any racial restrictions)
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled …, That the following article be proposed …, which, when ratified by three fourths of said legislatures, shall be valid as part of the Constitution, namely:
Article XV.
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude—
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
And, further, … that the amendment to the Constitution…has been ratified by the legislatures of …all …states.
Passage 2
excerpt from United States Supreme Court Decision in Smith v. Allwright (1943)
Lonnie E. Smith, an African American from Texas, sued to overturn a 1923 state law declaring that only white citizens could vote in Texas’s Democratic Party primary elections. Lower courts had ruled that political parties were private organizations and could make their own rules. The Supreme Court’s landmark decision held that Texas’s all-white Democratic Party primaries were unconstitutional.
The United States is a constitutional democracy. Its organic law grants to all citizens a right to participate in the choice of elected officials without restriction by any state because of race. This grant to the people of the opportunity for choice is not to be nullified by a state through casting its electoral process in a form which permits a private organization to practice racial discrimination in the election. Constitutional rights would be of little value if they could be thus indirectly denied.
3
Select the correct answer.
Which conclusion about voting rights can be drawn based on these two excerpts?
A.
Because the Fifteenth Amendment did not apply to all states, people of color in Texas were barred from primary voting.
B.
The Supreme Court agreed that states should be able make exceptions to the Fifteenth Amendment.
C.
The Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed the right to vote in general elections but not in primary elections.
D.
Despite the Fifteenth Amendment, some states had wrongly blocked people of color from voting in all elections.
D. Despite the Fifteenth Amendment, some states had wrongly blocked people of color from voting in all elections.
Which sentence best sums up the author’s point of view in this section of the text?
adapted excerpt from "Some Rights of Children as Persons" in School Education
by Charlotte Mason
In another way, more within our present control, we do not let children alone enough in their work. We prod them continually and do not let them stand or fall by their own efforts. One of the features, and one of the disastrous features, of modern society, is that, in our laziness, we depend upon prodders and encourage a vast system of prodding. We are prodded to our social duties, to our charitable duties, and to our religious duties. . . . Perhaps it is a result of the hurry of the age that there is a curious division of labor, and society falls into those who prod and those who are prodded. Not that anybody prods in all directions, nor that anybody else offers himself entirely as a pincushion. It is truer, perhaps, to say that we all prod, and that we are all prodded. Now, an occasional prick is stimulating and wholesome, but the force of inertia1 in human nature is such that we would rather lean up against a wall of spikes than not lean at all. What we must guard against in the training of children is the danger of their getting into the habit of being prodded to every duty and every effort. Our whole system of school policy is largely a system of prods. Marks, prizes, and exhibitions are all prods; and a system of prodding is apt to obscure the meaning of must and ought for the boy or girl who gets into the habit of mental and moral lolling up against his prods.
The author's point of view in this section of the text is that children should be allowed to work on their own without constant prodding and external motivation.
Which phrase best states the author’s opinion on assisting children’s development?
adapted excerpt from "Some Rights of Children as Persons" in School Education
by Charlotte Mason
A very interesting and instructive educational experiment on these lines has lately been tried in Hackney, where Mr. Sargent got together some eighty boys and girls under the conditions of an ordinary elementary school . . . The results seem to have been purely delightful; the children developed an amazing capacity for drawing, perhaps because so soon as they were familiar with the outlines of the flower and foliage of a given plant, for example, they were encouraged to form designs with these elements. The really beautiful floral designs produced by these girls and boys, after quite a short art training, would surprise parents whose children have been taught drawing for years with no evident result. These children developed themselves a great deal on their school magazine also, for which they wrote tales and poems, and essays, not prescribed work, but self-chosen. The children's thought was stimulated, and they felt they had it in them to say much about a doll's ball, Peter, the school cat, or whatever other subject struck their fancy. "They felt their feet" as the nurses say of children when they begin to walk; and our non-success in education is a good deal due to the fact that we carry children through their school work and do not let them feel their feet.
The author's opinion on assisting children's development can be summarized as allowing children to develop themselves by engaging in self-chosen activities that stimulate their thoughts and allow them to "feel their feet" in their learning process.
Emma Goldman was a well-known anarchist, meaning someone who believed voluntary organizations should replace governments. In 1917, Goldman and fellow anarchist Alexander Berkman were put on trial for conspiring against the US government by publishing anarchist magazines. In the following speech, Goldman defends herself and Berkman.
The stage having been appropriately set for the three-act comedy, and the first act successfully played by carrying off the villains in a madly dashing automobile—which broke every traffic regulation and barely escaped crushing everyone in its way—the second act proved even more ludicrous. Fifty thousand dollars bail was demanded, and real estate refused when offered by a man whose property is valued at three hundred thousand dollars--and that after the District Attorney had . . . promised to accept the property for one of the defendants, Alexander Berkman, thus breaking every right guaranteed even to the most heinous criminal.
Finally, the third act, played by the Government in this court during the last week. The pity of it is that the prosecution knows so little of dramatic construction, otherwise it would have equipped itself with better dramatic material to sustain the continuity of the play. As it was, the third act fell flat, utterly, and presents the question, Why such a tempest in a teapot?
Gentlemen of the jury, my comrade and co-defendant having carefully and thoroughly gone into the evidence presented by the prosecution, and having demonstrated its entire failure to prove the charge of conspiracy or any overt acts to carry out that conspiracy1, I shall not impose upon your patience by going over the same ground, except to emphasize a few points. To charge people with having conspired to do something which they have been engaged in doing most of their lives—namely their campaign against war, militarism and conscription2 as contrary to the best interests of humanity—is an insult to human intelligence.
____________________________________
1 These were the formal charges against Goldman and Berkman.
2 Militarism is the glorification of the military in society; conscription is the military draft.
5
Select the correct answer.
What is Goldman’s overall purpose in giving this speech?
A.
to argue that the government’s case has been flawed from start to finish
B.
to entertain the jury in order to distract them from the facts of the case
C.
to express her belief that anarchism is the only way forward and the court is illegitimate
D.
to inform the jury about how the police and prosecutor pursued her and Berkman
A. to argue that the government’s case has been flawed from start to finish
British prime minister Winston Churchill addressed Britain’s Parliament during World War II when the country was facing a potential invasion by Germany. The following excerpt is from the end of that famous speech.
Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall . . . , we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender . . .
4
Select the correct answer.
What is the most likely reason that Churchill ends the speech with the words in this excerpt?
A.
to strengthen his audience’s resolve against the possibility of surrender
B.
to provide detailed information about Britain’s military preparations
C.
to compare the superiority of the British military to Germany’s military
D.
to express with figurative language his nation’s general attitude of persistence