It may be asked: how could the soviet government have consented to conclude a non-aggression pact with such treacherous fiends as hitler and ribbentrop? was not this an error on the part of the soviet government? of course not! non-aggression pacts are pacts of peace between two states. it was such a pact that germany proposed to us in 1939. could the soviet government have declined such a proposal? i think that not a single peace-loving state could decline a peace treaty with a neighboring state even though the latter was headed by such fiends and cannibals as hitler and ribbentrop. which of the following statements explains a logical fallacy in this excerpt?   a. stalin veers off topic, distracting his audience rather than admitting he was wrong to sign the nonaggression pact.  b. stalin claims he was not wrong to pursue peace, and then he restates that same argument in different words instead of providing evidence.  c. stalin claims he was lying when he attempted to pursue peace, and then he suggests that he was in fact telling the truth.  d. stalin introduces the idea that everyone signs nonaggression pacts, suggesting that doing so was right because it was popular.

source text: from the sketch here given it will be seen, that our good grandmothers differed considerably in their ideas of a fine figure, from their scantily dressed descendants of the present day. a fine lady, in those times, waddled under more clothes even on a fair summer's day, than would have clad the whole bevy of a modern ball room. nor were they the less admired by the gentlemen in consequence thereof. on the contrary, the greatness of a lover's passion seemed to increase in proportion to the magnitude of its object—and a voluminous damsel, arrayed in a dozen of petticoats, was declared by a low-dutch sonnetteer of the province, to be radiant as a sunflower, and luxuriant as a full blown cabbage. certain it is, that in those days, the heart of a lover could not contain more than one lady at a time; whereas the heart of a modern gallant has often room enough to accommodate half a dozen - - the reason of which i conclude to be, either that the hearts of the gentlemen have grown larger, or the persons of the ladies smaller — this however is a question for physiologists to determine. add punctuation to the following excerpt. writing under the name of diedrich knickerbocker washington irving aimed his potent satire at as diverse topics as political rivals such as thomas jefferson to the very ideal of looking back on the past affectionately: a fine lady, in those times, waddled under more clothes even on a fair summer's day, than would have clad the whole bevy of a modern ball room. a voluminous damsel, arrayed in a dozen of petticoats, was declared by a low-dutch sonnetteer of the province, to be radiant as a sunflower, and luxuriant as a full blown cabbage. in those days, the heart of a lover could not contain more than one lady at a time; whereas the heart of a modern gallant has often room enough to accommodate half a dozen