Question

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. (1) It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. (2) But 100 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. (3) Malcolm X is a Negro. (4) One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. -"I Have a Dream" by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Choose the sentence that does not belong in the paragraph.
A) sentence marked 1
B) sentence marked 2
C) sentence marked 3
D) sentence marked 4

Answer 1

Sentence 3, "Malcolm X is a Negro," does not belong in the paragraph as it is out of context and does not support the central theme of the passage from Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech.

Step-by-step explanation:

The sentence that does not belong in the paragraph from Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech is sentence marked 3: "Malcolm X is a Negro." This sentence does not fit with the rest of the paragraph, as it introduces a different person and shifts the focus away from the Emancipation Proclamation and the plight of the Negro slaves.

This sentence is out of context and does not contribute to the flow or the central theme of the paragraph, which deals with the historical impact of the Emancipation Proclamation and the continued struggle for freedom and equality by African Americans one hundred years later. Unlike the other sentences, it neither elaborates on the historical significance of the Emancipation Proclamation nor on the state of racial injustice contemporaneous to King's speech.