What is the main idea thomas paine was conveying in this exerpt

 Freedom is costly, but anything truly worthwhile comes at a high price.

Explanation:

What Thomas Paine is saying is that we don't value things that we acquire easily, but we value greatly the things for which we struggle to acquire. He compares Freedom to a gift as important as eternal life in Heaven, deeming that the cost of Christ's death is the extent of the price which Freedom will cost—and rightly so, in his opinion. 

affirmative action refers to the policies that take gender, race, or ethnicity into account in order to promote equal opportunity.

employers subject to title vii are prohibited from taking race or sex into account in any employment decisions. aa is a penalty for having any job group substantially statistically "underutilized" in any race or either sex. the employer must take steps to eliminate the underutilization, then stop, ending its aa efforts

an earnest tone.

because portia wants to know why brutus has been acting strange lately.