Question

Read the excerpt from Abraham Lincoln Second Inaugural Address March 4, 1865 President Lincoln gave his second inaugural address in March 1865.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.


Part A How does Lincoln's use of the words anxiously, dreaded, and destroy affect the paragraph?


A) They give the paragraph a controlled and objective tone.


B) They give the paragraph an informal and personal tone.


C)They give the paragraph an intense and foreboding tone.


D) They give the paragraph an angry and vicious tone.


Part B How do the tone identified in Part A and Lincoln's repeated use of the word all advance his purpose in the paragraph?

They convey the widespread sense of doubt regarding the chances of victory in the war.


They explain the broadly held view of war as a serious event that could easily have been avoided.


They clarify the universal dread of war felt by both sides even while engaging in it.


They show the general agreement to aggressively pursue national goals through war.

Answer 1

The first answer is A for the second question the best answer is C

Answer 2

Part A- The correct answer is C. Lincoln's use of the words anxiously, dreaded, and destroy give the paragraph an intense and foreboding tone.

Lincoln uses these words to give his speech a tone of reproach to the attitudes of those who, as he mentions, sought to unleash war. He speaks from a conciliatory position, but emphasizing that there were people who sought to harm the nation.

Part B- The tone identified in Part A and Lincoln's repeated use of the word all advance his purpose of explaining the broadly held view of war as a serious event that could easily have been avoided, if both the fear and the desire to avoid the conflict had prevailed over the interests that caused the Civil War to break out.