Recognizing Rhetorical Techniques in a Speech Quiz Flashcards
Read the excerpt from “A Latina Judge’s Voice” by Hon. Sonia Sotomayor.
If I had pursued my career in my undergraduate history major, I would likely provide you with a very academic description of what being a Latino or Latina means. For example, I could define Latinos as those peoples and cultures populated or colonized by Spain who maintained or adopted Spanish or Spanish Creole as their language of communication. You can tell that I have been very well educated. That antiseptic description, however, does not really explain the appeal of morcilla—pig’s intestine—to an American-born child. It does not provide an adequate explanation of why individuals like us, many of whom are born in this completely different American culture, still identify so strongly with those communities in which our parents were born and raised.
What does Sotomayor accomplish by using the words “morcilla—pig’s intestine”?
Sotomayor brings the audience’s attention to the uniqueness of her culture
The term pathos is best defined as
An appeal to emotions
Read the excerpt from “A Latina Judge’s Voice” by Hon. Sonia Sotomayor.
I also hope that by raising the question today of what difference having more Latinos and Latinas on the bench will make will start your own evaluation. For people of color and women lawyers, what does and should being an ethnic minority mean in your lawyering? For men lawyers, what areas in your experiences and attitudes do you need to work on to make you capable of reaching those great moments of enlightenment which other men in different circumstances have been able to reach? For all of us, how do [we] change the facts that in every task force study of gender and race bias in the courts, women and people of color, lawyers and judges alike, report in significantly higher percentages than white men that their gender and race has shaped their careers, from hiring, retention to promotion, and that a statistically significant number of women and minority lawyers and judges, both alike, have experienced bias in the courtroom?
What is Sotomayor’s intended purpose in posing three powerful questions in a row?
Sotomayor wants the audience to pose serious questions of their own about diversity on the bench
Read the excerpt from a speech petitioning people to adopt animals in need.
I am here today to persuade you to see the benefit of adopting your next pet from the animal shelter instead of purchasing it from a pet store. It is crucial to see the value in adopting animals and hopefully putting pet stores out of business. The health and well-being of our animal friends is what is at stake here. Many people think it would be fun to get a cute designer animal from a boutique pet shop, but once we all know the truth behind their practices, we will be lining up at the shelter to fall in love with an animal in need. Your new dog may not be a purebred dog with official papers and a customized small size, but you will know that your animal is healthy and eternally grateful that you provided him with a warm home.
Which ideas from the excerpt would be most appropriate to include in a summary? Select two options.
Animals bred through pet shops suffer health problems
People need to adopt animals instead of going to pet shops
B and C
Read the excerpt from President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural address.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
This much we pledge—and more.
To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do—for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.
Which statement best summarizes the central idea in this excerpt?
We will do whatever it takes to preserve our freedom, but will get more done working together
Read the excerpt from “A Latina Judge’s Voice” by Hon. Sonia Sotomayor.
My Latina soul was nourished as I visited and played at my grandmother’s house with my cousins and extended family. They were my friends as I grew up. Being a Latina child was watching the adults playing dominos on Saturday night and us kids playing lotería, bingo, with my grandmother calling out the numbers which we marked on our cards with chickpeas.
How do Sotomayor’s descriptions of her family most likely affect readers?
They give readers images of the importance of family
Read the excerpt from “Ain’t I a Woman?” a speech given by Sojourner Truth, a formerly enslaved person, in 1851.
Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ‘cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
The tone of this speech most expresses a feeling of
Frustration
Read the excerpt from “Ain’t I a Woman?” by Sojourner Truth.
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man—when I could get it—and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?
Which rhetorical techniques does the speaker use in this excerpt? Select three options.
A, C, and D
Read the excerpt from activist Cesar Chavez’s 1984 address to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco.
All my life, I have been driven by one dream, one goal, one vision: To overthrow a farm labor system in this nation which treats farm workers as if they were not important human beings.
Farm workers are not agricultural implements—they are not beasts of burden to be used and discarded. . . .
. . . My motivation comes from my personal life—from watching what my mother and father went through when I was growing up—from what we experienced as migrant farm workers in California.
That dream, that vision, grew from my own experience with racism—with hope—with the desire to be treated fairly and to see my people treated as human beings and not as chattel.
It grew from anger and rage—emotions I felt 40 years ago when people of my color were denied the right to see a movie or eat at a restaurant in many parts of California.
It grew from the frustration and humiliation I felt as a boy who couldn’t understand how the growers could abuse and exploit farm workers when there were so many of us and so few of them.
Which ideas from the excerpt would be most appropriate to include in a summary? Select two options.
A and D
Read the excerpt from a speech by the class president petitioning the principal to build a new stadium.
Our stadium is crumbling, and the effects have been felt for generations! If we built a new stadium, our community would benefit, and millions would flock to town for the home games. Profits would soar, as local businesses would be flooded with new clients on game nights. And your legacy as the best principal ever would be established for all to see.
Which rhetorical technique is the speaker using?
Overstatement
