General Clinton, concerned about what General Howe was planning and doing, made use of a mask to write a secret message in a letter to General Burgoyne. Before writing the letter, Clinton had placed an hourglass-shaped mask on a piece of paper and then had formed the secret message within that shape.

The unmasked letter had enough false information in it to fool any American who happened to see it. But when Burgoyne viewed the letter with the mask, he read Clinton's view of the real situation: Howe has made a bad move; I don't have enough men to do anything about it.

The author’s main purpose in this excerpt is to

describe a form of code writing using an example.
explain the mistakes of General Howe during the war.
entertain the reader with a humorous story of miscommunication.
argue that using a mask is the best method for sending secret messages.

Which lines in this excerpt from act ii of william shakespeare’s romeo and juliet reveal that mercutio thinks romeo would be better off if he stopped thinking about love? mercutio: i will bite thee by the ear for that jest. romeo: nay, good goose, bite not. mercutio: thy wit is a very bitter sweeting it is a most sharp sauce. romeo: and is it not well served in to a sweet goose? mercutio: o here's a wit of cheveril, that stretches from an inch narrow to an ell broad! romeo: i stretch it out for that word 'broad; ' which added to the goose, proves thee far and wide a broad goose. mercutio: why, is not this better now than groaning for love? now art thou sociable, now art thou romeo; now art thou what thou art, by art as well as by nature: for this drivelling love is like a great natural, that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole. benvolio: stop there, stop there. mercutio: thou desirest me to stop in my tale against the hair. benvolio: thou wouldst else have made thy tale large. mercutio: o, thou art deceived; i would have made it short: for i was come to the whole depth of my tale; and meant, indeed, to occupy the argument no longer.