Common Core: 11th Grade English Language Arts : Read and comprehend literary nonfiction: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.10
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Example Question #15 : Common Core: 11th Grade English Language Arts
Adapted from the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson (1776)
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
What is the best description of the offenses committed by England according to the passage?
They have revoked the right of representation from the colonies
They have perpetrated grievous, numerous, various injustices against the colonies for some time
They have fought with the colonies in open battles on the content
They have taxed the colonies beyond possibility of payment
They have perpetrated grievous, numerous, various injustices against the colonies for some time
Throughout the last few sentences, the passage speaks of "trains of injuries" and "repeated injuries" caused by England. These offenses are cited as having necessitated the action of the colonists, namely "dissolv[ing] the political bands" connecting them to England. The implication is, whatever the particular offenses of England, they have been long-lasting and continuous. This is the primary accusation leveled in this selection—not any of the particular ones that are offered as other potential answers.
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