Question

Read the excerpt from "Finding Unity in the Alabama Coal Mines.”

Nevertheless, the UMWA was able to bridge the racial divide in that state, forming a powerful interracial labor union fifty years before the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s would make racial integration the rule of the land.

What is the connotation of the word powerful?

muscular
loud
energetic
influential

Answer 1

The correct answer is D. Influential

Step-by-step explanation:

The connotative meaning of a word refers to the ideas or thoughts a word evokes for certain people or in a specific context and that usually differs from the literal meaning or the meaning the word has in the dictionary. In the case of the excerpt presented from "Finding Unity in the Alabama Coal Mines" the author explains the way in which the UMWA or the United Mine Workers of America that is a labor union in the U.S. went beyond the racial issues that divided the state and create an interracial labor union, emphasizing this happened even before the civil rights movement, which was the moment that ended segregation occurred. This means the UMWA play an important role by forming a union that supported the end of racial issues. Considering the word "powerful" is the one used to describe the UMWA "powerful interracial labor " the connotation or ideas this word evokes in this context is "influential" as the author aims to show the role of the Union in changing the social situation in the 20th century by describing it as "powerful".

Answer 2

Answer: D) Influential.

Explanation: The connotation or connotational meaning of a word, is the meaning we give it based on the context that word is in, or the emotions that word cause in the reader, it is the opposite of the denotation or literal meaning of the word. In the given excerpt from "Finding Unity in the Alabama Coal Mines” we can see that the connotation of the word "powerful" is "influential" because it says that the interracial labor union, helped to bridge the racial divide in that state.