From edgar allan poe's "the black cat":
"for the most wild, yet most homely narrative which i am about to pen, i neither expect nor solicit belief. mad indeed would i be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. yet, mad am i not—and very surely do i not dream."
why is the passage an example of verbal irony?
the narrator is truthful
the narrator does not expect to believed
the narrator does not write his story
the narrator really is mad

The correct answer is B) the narrator does not expect to be believed.

The passage is an example of verbal irony because the narrator does not expect to be believed.

An author uses verbal irony when its words express something that is contrary to reality. We are talking about that the author is using sarcasm, writing something that is not believed, pretending to be true. That is why Poe wrote: "...I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it..."

Edgar Allan Poe wrote the story "The Black Cat" in 1845.

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)