In "there will come soft rains," why does the author turn the house into a mechanical creature? a. to stress how well run the future will be b. to keep readers from realizing at the start that no humans are present c. to stress how scientific advances can create the perfect society d. to compare the present with the earlier, non-mechanical times

I think the correct answer is D. to compare the present with the earlier, non-mechanical times.

Letter A. is incorrect because the text brings us to the conclusion that Earth is not suitable for biological life anymore. There has been a nuclear war or something like that and the only things that "survived" are the mechanical ones like the haouse or the mice. Some animals are still alive but have miserable lives.

Letter B. is also incorrect because since the beggining we can observe that no humans live there anymore. The chores the mechanical house keeps doing make clear they are gone.

Letter C. states that scientific advances create the perfect society but despite these advances humans ruined an entire planet leaving no room for a society itself.

Letter D. is the correct answer because as the mechanical house keeps doing its chores, it shows us how people lived in the past. The kids played, the family had breakfast, the man mowed the lawn, etc. Now the times changed and nothing of that exists anymore.  

The correct answer is B. to keep readers from realizing at the start that no humans are present.

Indeed, Bradbury’s story is intended to warn readers that the inevitable consequence of an all-out nuclear war is the extinction of the human race. His story is inspired by the much earlier poem from American poetess Sarah Teasdale, who wrote the poem of the same title in the aftermath of World War I, which until then had been the most devastating conflict in the history of the world at that time.

Since the house is a mechanical entity; it stresses the fact that it was built by humans but since no humans are present anymore, their absence is all the more noticed and the, dramatic impact for readers is stronger and everlasting.

1. read the following excerpt from franklin d. roosevelt's "fireside chat 19":

on the other side of the picture, we must learn also to know that guerilla warfare against the germans in, let us say serbia or norway, us; that a successful russian offensive against the germans us; and that british successes on land or sea in any part of the world strengthen our hands.

remember always that germany and italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the united states at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with britain or russia. and germany puts all the other republics of the americas into the same category of enemies. the people of our sister republics of this hemisphere can be honored by that fact.  

the true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. when we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as against immediate evil. we americans are not destroyers — we are builders.

analyze the effectiveness of this excerpt. how does it function within the speech as a whole? how does the structure of the excerpt to convey the speech's purpose and key points? support your argument with evidence from the speech. (10 points)