Read the following paragraph and select the correct answer. a prison taint was on everything there. the imprisoned air, the imprisoned light, the imprisoned damps, the imprisoned men, were all deteriorated by confinement. as the captive men were faded and haggard, so the iron was rusty, the stone was slimy, the wood was rotten, the air was faint, the light was dim. like a well, like a vault, like a tomb, the prison had no knowledge of the brightness outside; and would have kept its polluted atmosphere intact, in one of the spice islands of the indian ocean. (from little dorrit, book the first, chapter 1, by charles dickens) what is the main idea of this paragraph?

the prison was dark and empty.
the prison was on one of the spice islands.
a prison taint was on everything there.
the prison had no knowledge of the brightness outside.

The prison had no knowledge of the brightness outside.

Explanation:

The excerpt tells of a prison that was in terrible condition. The men confined there were in a situation of darkness, rust, misery and decay. They had no idea how the world outside prison was different, of course, haughty and full of opportunity. The author himself speaks in the excerpt "the prison had no knowledge of the brightness outside".

1. read the following excerpt from franklin d. roosevelt's "fireside chat 19":

on the other side of the picture, we must learn also to know that guerilla warfare against the germans in, let us say serbia or norway, us; that a successful russian offensive against the germans us; and that british successes on land or sea in any part of the world strengthen our hands.

remember always that germany and italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the united states at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with britain or russia. and germany puts all the other republics of the americas into the same category of enemies. the people of our sister republics of this hemisphere can be honored by that fact.  

the true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. when we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as against immediate evil. we americans are not destroyers — we are builders.

analyze the effectiveness of this excerpt. how does it function within the speech as a whole? how does the structure of the excerpt to convey the speech's purpose and key points? support your argument with evidence from the speech. (10 points)