"whether the independence of the continent was declared too soon, or delayed too long, i will not now enter into as an argument; my own simple opinion is, that had it been eight months earlier, it would have been much better."

—thomas paine, the crisis, 1776

which of the following best rewrites the sentence above?

the independence of the continent was declared too soon. i won't argue that we delayed too long. my own simple opinion is that it would have been much better if this had not happened eight months ago.
i don't want to argue. my own simple opinion is that it would have been much better to delay too long. to declare the independence of the continent eight months earlier was too soon.
i will not argue that we waited too long to declare the independence of the continent. my own simple opinion is that it is much better this way. eight months earlier would have been too soon.
i won't argue about whether we declared the independence of the continent too soon or delayed too long. my own simple opinion is that it would have been much better if we had declared it eight months earlier.

The answer is D: The option D rewrites best the sentence from The Crisis, by Thomas Paine because it states, in a different manner, exactly what he declared in the original sentence: 'I won't argue about'/ 'I will not now enter into as an argument' and 'it would have been much better if we had declared it eight months earlier'/'had it been eight months earlier, it would have been much better.'

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)