Question #13 (part a)

refer to the “declaration of independence,” and the video about the “declaration of independence.” the narrator of the video claims that the discovery “reveals an important shift in the founders’ thinking: that the people’s allegiance was to one another” (0: 45-0: 50). which quotation from the “declaration of independence” best illustrates this view of “the founders’ thinking”?

question 13 options:

a)
“. . our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.” (paragraph 30)

b)
“we have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here.” (paragraph 31)

c)
“. . that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do.” (paragraph 32)

d)
“. . with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.” (paragraph 32)

D) “. . . with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” (paragraph 32)

In this quote of the Declaration of Independence, the Founders state that they promise their lives, fortunes and honour. However, they do not promise it to the government, or to the country. Instead, they promise to "mutually pledge [it] to each other." Therefore, this shows the shift in thinking that the narrator of the video describes.

word count 168

serve the people! ,” smoothly translated by julia lovell, offers an initial sample of yan lianke’s writing to an english-speaking audience. a bluntly drawn, mildly erotic fable, it teases mao zedong by poking fun at a true believer who obeys the chairman’s precepts too literally. to a western sensibility, the broad strokes of yan lianke’s humor would seem to pose little risk of inciting rebellion, whether of the flesh or of the body politic. but then, part of the book’s attraction is that it doesn’t have a western sensibility. it lets the reader see — or rather, intuit — what jokes chinese officials don’t consider funny, and how very little it takes for a writer to be branded an incendiary in 21st-century china, more than three decades after the death of mao, a decade after the death of deng xiaoping and seven years since china entered the world trade organization, a move that would seem to signal a willingness (however wary) to mingle with the rest of the world.