I Have A Dream

Instructions for Student

Read the question carefully and select the best answer.

Which example of figurative language best states what the author hopes will happen when he returns to the South after his speech?

• A. “... we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.”

• B. “... transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.”

• C. “Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.”

• D. “... we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”

Instructions for Student

Read the question carefully and select the best answer.

The repetition of the phrase “Let Freedom Ring…” adds to the power of the author’s message mainly by .

• A. showing all the physical locations the speaker imagines his message being heard

• B. reminding his audience that freedom is important

• C. emphasizing to his audience that we are all one nation

• D. revealing to his audience how many places he has visited

Instructions for Student

Read the question carefully and select the best answer.

To what is the speaker most closely referring with the phrase withering injustice in the passage below (paragraph 2)?

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

• A. the experience of enslaved Africans before the Emancipation Proclamation

• B. the weather on the day of the march

• C. the cruelty African Americans continue to experience in the present

• D. the personalities of the politicians who were in power during the speaker’s time

Instructions for Student

Read the question carefully and select the best answer.

How does the speaker mainly appeal to different races of people in his speech?

• A. He uses the pronouns “we” and “us” throughout his speech.

• B. He gives the speech at the national monument where many different kinds of people come together.

• C. He specifically mentions the white people in attendance and says “we cannot walk alone.”

• D. Dr. King is only interested in speaking to the African Americans in the audience.

Instructions for Student

Read the question carefully and select the best answer.

Which inference is best supported by the passage below (paragraph 3)?

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

• A. Despite centuries of struggle, African Americans still suffer from discrimination in the 21st century.

• B. The United States is a vast ocean of material prosperity.

• C. This speech is a dramatization of the African American situation.

• D. The Emancipation Proclamation did not greatly improve the lives of all African Americans.

Instructions for Student

Read the question carefully and select the best answer.

Which statement from the speech best supports the correct answer to Question 5?

• A. “It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.”

• B. “But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free.”

• C. “One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.”

• D. “And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.”

Instructions for Student

Read the question carefully and select the best answer.

What is most closely the central idea of the passage below (paragraph 7)?

• A. The nation is in a very urgent moment.

• B. Most people hope that this collective anger will end soon.

• C. African Americans will continue to revolt until they are granted their rights.

• D. The bright day of justice is about to arrive.

Instructions for Student

Read the question carefully and select the best answer.

Which sentence from the passage best supports the correct answer to Question 7?

• A. “And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.”

• B. “And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.”

• C. “It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.”

• D. “Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.”

Instructions for Student

Read the question carefully and select the best answer.

Which meaning of persecution most closely matches its meaning in the following passage (paragraph 14)?

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

• A. | noun | hostile or ill treatment

• B. | noun | persistent annoyance

• C. | verb | to chase another person

• D. | verb | to treat someone poorly