Read this excerpt from “my last duchess” by robert browning:

—and if she let
herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,
—e'en then would be some stooping: and i choose
never to stoop. oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,
whene'er i passed her; but who passed without
much the same smile? this grew; i gave commands;
then all smiles stopped together.

what conclusion can you draw about the speaker's character?

he seems passive.
he is extremely arrogant.
he has a stooping gait.
he is very somber.

The answer is indeed letter b. He is extremely arrogant.

The poem "My Last Duchess" has as its probable speaker the fifth Duke of Ferrara, Alfonso II d'Este. He married 14-year-old  Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici, who died at the age of 17 - rumor has it she was poisoned. In the poem, the Duke's arrogant and jealous nature can be noticed. His wife's beauty and gaiety seemed to irritate him. The fact that her smiles were not directed only to him made him want to have them stop completely. He "gave commands" and the smiles did, in fact, stop.

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)

b and d

explanation: