Read this passage from chapter 5 of The Prince. There are, for example, the Spartans and the Romans. The Spartans held Athens and Thebes, establishing there an oligarchy: nevertheless they lost them. The Romans, in order to hold Capua, Carthage, and Numantia, dismantled them, and did not lose them. They wished to hold Greece as the Spartans held it, making it free and permitting its laws, and did not succeed. So to hold it they were compelled to dismantle many cities in the country, for in truth there is no safe way to retain them otherwise than by ruining them. And he who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it, may expect to be destroyed by it, for in rebellion it has always the watchword of liberty and its ancient privileges as a rallying point, which neither time nor benefits will ever cause it to forget. And whatever you may do or provide against, they never forget that name or their privileges unless they are disunited or dispersed, but at every chance they immediately rally to them, as Pisa after the hundred years she had been held in bondage by the Florentines.

What is Machiavelli’s primary purpose in writing this passage?

A. to inform readers about the history of Rome and Sparta and how they built their empires
B. to inform readers about the fates of the cities conquered by the Spartans and the Romans
C. to persuade readers that a conquering prince must destroy a former republic if he hopes to hold it
D. to persuade readers that a republic will remember freedom and someday rebel against a conqueror

Read the passage from the opinion of the court in brown v. board of education, written by justice warren. minors of the negro race, through their legal representatives, seek the aid of the courts in obtaining admission to the public schools of their community on a nonsegregated basis. in each instance, they had been denied admission to schools attended by white children under laws requiring or permitting segregation according to race. this segregation was alleged to deprive the plaintiffs of the equal protection of the laws under the fourteenth amendment. in each of the cases other than the delaware case, a three-judge federal district court denied relief to the plaintiffs on the so-called "separate but equal" doctrine announced by this court in plessy v. ferguson, 163 u.s. 537. under that doctrine, equality of treatment is accorded when the races are provided substantially equal facilities, even though these facilities be separate. in the delaware case, the supreme court of delaware adhered to that doctrine, but ordered that the plaintiffs be admitted to the white schools because of their superiority to the negro schools. which statement best describes the passage? a. warren explains the students’ position, then describes how it has been previously handled by the courts. b. warren provides reasons why segregation is permissible, then offers evidence to support the reasons. c. warren claims that the students don’t have grounds to sue, then gives reasons why not. d. warren gives a history of segregation in america, then explains how the students fit into that history.