Worksheet

How style and content give a speech its power

Grade 11 Reading Worksheet - Challenge Me

NameDate

Circle the best answer.

  1. Read this first

    Then We Must Be Bold (address)

    Background: [1] This passage comes late in President Kennedy's Rice University address of September 12, 1962. [2] The goal it defends was to land astronauts on the Moon before 1970, a deadline Kennedy had proposed to Congress the year before. [3] The address was given outdoors in the football stadium on a hot day. [4] Many in the crowd were students.

    From the address: [5] …But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun--almost as hot as it is here today--and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out--then we must be bold.

    [6] I'm the one who is doing all the work, so we just want you to stay cool for a minute.

    [7] However, I think we're going to do it, and I think that we must pay what needs to be paid. [8] I don't think we ought to waste any money, but I think we ought to do the job.… [9] …It may be done while some of you are still here at school at this college and university. [10] It will be done during the term of office of some of the people who sit here on this platform. [11] But it will be done. [12] And it will be done before the end of this decade.…

    Word notes: [13] An alloy is a blend of metals, and a celestial body is an object in space such as a moon. [14] The platform was the officials' stage, and the transcript records laughter after sentence 6.

  2. Ari fills the whole section map for this passage. Which map is right in every part?

    • Audience: the nation's rivals abroad; purpose: accept cost and boldness; sentence 5: a list held back until we must be bold; sentences 9 to 12: a repeated promise.
    • Audience: students and the nation; purpose: accept cost and boldness; sentence 5: a list of the program's yearly costs; sentences 9 to 12: a repeated promise.
    • Audience: students and the nation; purpose: explain how the rocket's alloys are made; sentence 5: a list held back until we must be bold; sentences 9 to 12: a repeated promise.
    • Audience: students and the nation; purpose: accept cost and boldness; sentence 5: a list held back until we must be bold; sentences 9 to 12: a repeated promise.

  3. Luz fills the judgment column for sentence 6. For this crowd on this day, does the joke work, and why?

    • It works, because a joke in the middle of any long speech wakes up a tired audience.
    • It works: just after comparing reentry heat with the day's heat, a joke about staying cool eases a crowd in the sun.
    • It works, because landing on the Moon was a goal the whole crowd already supported.
    • It would work better cut, since a joke makes a costly national program seem less serious.

  4. Jun fills a second map with a kairos line. Which map is right in every part?

    • Kairos: a hot day and a costly goal; sentence 6: a joke about the heat; sentences 7 and 8: a list of the rocket's parts; sentences 9 to 12: who will see it done.
    • Kairos: a hot day and a costly goal; sentence 6: the laughter the transcript records; sentences 7 and 8: a concession about money; sentences 9 to 12: who will see it done.
    • Kairos: a hot day and a costly goal; sentence 6: a joke about the heat; sentences 7 and 8: a concession about money; sentences 9 to 12: who will see it done.
    • Kairos: any crowd enjoys a speech about the future; sentence 6: a joke about the heat; sentences 7 and 8: a concession about money; sentences 9 to 12: who will see it done.

  5. Pia fills the judgment column for sentences 9 and 10. For this crowd, does naming students and officials work, and why?

    • It would work better addressed to Congress, which would vote on the money for the program over the next few years.
    • It works, because naming people in the audience is a good habit in any speech.
    • It works, because it promises that some students in the crowd will one day fly to the Moon.
    • It works: the students and officials in front of Kennedy hear that the goal will be reached in their own time.

  6. Bo tests revisions of sentences 9 to 12. Which change would most weaken them?

    • Joining all four into one sentence that says the goal should be reached by 1970, with no repeated it will be done.
    • Cutting sentence 11, But it will be done, since a sentence so short adds nothing.
    • Adding that the Moon goal mattered more than any other task the nation faced.
    • Changing this college and university to this university, keeping every repeated phrase as it is, and the order of the sentences.

  7. The Weather of New England (after-dinner speech)

    Background: [1] Mark Twain, who was then living in Hartford, Connecticut, gave this speech in New York City in December 1876, at the yearly dinner of the New England Society, a club for people with family roots in New England. [2] Each speaker at such a dinner answered a toast, a short topic announced to the guests, and Twain's toast was the weather of New England, a subject every listener in the room knew from experience.

    From the speech: [3] …There is a sumptuous variety about the New England weather that compels the stranger's admiration—and regret. [4] The weather is always doing something there; always attending strictly to business; always getting up new designs and trying them on the people to see how they will go.… [5] …In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four-and-twenty hours.…

    [6] …I like to hear rain on a tin roof. [7] So I covered part of my roof with tin, with an eye to that luxury. [8] Well, sir, do you think it ever rains on that tin? [9] No, sir; skips it every time. [10] Mind, in this speech I have been trying merely to do honor to the New England weather—no language could do it justice.

    [11] But, after all, there is at least one or two things about that weather (or, if you please, effects produced by it) which we residents would not like to part with. [12] If we hadn't our bewitching autumn foliage, we should still have to credit the weather with one feature which compensates for all its bullying vagaries—the ice-storm: when a leafless tree is clothed with ice from the bottom to the top—ice that is as bright and clear as crystal; when every bough and twig is strung with ice-beads, frozen dew-drops, and the whole tree sparkles cold and white, like the Shah of Persia's diamond plume.…

    Word notes: [13] Sumptuous means rich and splendid, vagaries are unpredictable changes, and a plume is a showy feather ornament. [14] The cuts leave out an opening joke and several comic stories in the middle, including jokes about storms that hurt people.

  8. Milo fills the whole section map for Twain's speech. Which map is right in every part?

    • Audience: New Englanders at a dinner; purpose: amuse, then praise; sentences 3 to 10: a true weather report; sentences 11 and 12: a turn to real beauty.
    • Audience: New Englanders at a dinner; purpose: amuse, then praise; sentences 3 to 10: comic exaggeration; sentences 11 and 12: a turn to real beauty.
    • Audience: strangers visiting New England; purpose: amuse, then praise; sentences 3 to 10: comic exaggeration; sentences 11 and 12: a turn to real beauty.
    • Audience: New Englanders at a dinner; purpose: warn travelers to stay away; sentences 3 to 10: comic exaggeration; sentences 11 and 12: a turn to real beauty.

  9. Kira tests revisions of the tin-roof joke in sentences 6 to 9. Which change would most weaken the joke?

    • Adding a sentence that New England weather is in fact no worse than anyone else's weather.
    • Changing Well, sir to Well, ladies and gentlemen, so that the question speaks to the whole room.
    • Stating first that rain never falls on the tin, and only then telling why the roof was covered.
    • Changing part of my roof to the back of my roof, keeping the setup, question and answer in order.

  10. Ren fills a second map with a kairos line. Which map is right in every part?

    • Kairos: a toast to the weather for New Englanders; sentence 10: mock honor; sentence 11: the turn; sentence 12: jokes about storms that hurt people.
    • Kairos: a toast to the weather for New Englanders; sentence 10: mock honor; sentence 11: the turn; sentence 12: praise of the ice-storm.
    • Kairos: a dinner where any funny story would do; sentence 10: mock honor; sentence 11: the turn; sentence 12: praise of the ice-storm.
    • Kairos: a toast to the weather for New Englanders; sentence 10: mock honor; sentence 11: one more joke about storms; sentence 12: praise of the ice-storm.

  11. Esme fills the judgment column for sentence 12. For this dinner, does ending on beauty work, and why?

    • It works: after teasing the weather, Twain gives the New Englanders something to be proud of, so the toast ends in praise.
    • It would work better cut, since a serious ending spoils a speech that has been comic.
    • It works, because an ice-storm truly is the most beautiful sight anywhere in the country.
    • It works, because it shows that Twain secretly loved New England more than any other place.

  12. Noah tests revisions of sentence 12. Which change would most weaken it?

    • Replacing the crystal, the ice-beads and the diamond plume with the plain words the trees looked very pretty.
    • Changing bough and twig to branch and twig, while keeping each image in the sentence.
    • Adding at the end that other parts of the country have ice-storms too.
    • Cutting the opening words about bewitching autumn foliage, since the sentence is about ice.
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How style and content give a speech its power

Answer Key - Grade 11 Reading Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

  1. Read this first

    Then We Must Be Bold (address)

    Background: [1] This passage comes late in President Kennedy's Rice University address of September 12, 1962. [2] The goal it defends was to land astronauts on the Moon before 1970, a deadline Kennedy had proposed to Congress the year before. [3] The address was given outdoors in the football stadium on a hot day. [4] Many in the crowd were students.

    From the address: [5] …But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun--almost as hot as it is here today--and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out--then we must be bold.

    [6] I'm the one who is doing all the work, so we just want you to stay cool for a minute.

    [7] However, I think we're going to do it, and I think that we must pay what needs to be paid. [8] I don't think we ought to waste any money, but I think we ought to do the job.… [9] …It may be done while some of you are still here at school at this college and university. [10] It will be done during the term of office of some of the people who sit here on this platform. [11] But it will be done. [12] And it will be done before the end of this decade.…

    Word notes: [13] An alloy is a blend of metals, and a celestial body is an object in space such as a moon. [14] The platform was the officials' stage, and the transcript records laughter after sentence 6.

  2. Ari fills the whole section map for this passage. Which map is right in every part?

    • Audience: the nation's rivals abroad; purpose: accept cost and boldness; sentence 5: a list held back until we must be bold; sentences 9 to 12: a repeated promise.
    • Audience: students and the nation; purpose: accept cost and boldness; sentence 5: a list of the program's yearly costs; sentences 9 to 12: a repeated promise.
    • Audience: students and the nation; purpose: explain how the rocket's alloys are made; sentence 5: a list held back until we must be bold; sentences 9 to 12: a repeated promise.
    • Audience: students and the nation; purpose: accept cost and boldness; sentence 5: a list held back until we must be bold; sentences 9 to 12: a repeated promise.

  3. Luz fills the judgment column for sentence 6. For this crowd on this day, does the joke work, and why?

    • It works, because a joke in the middle of any long speech wakes up a tired audience.
    • It works: just after comparing reentry heat with the day's heat, a joke about staying cool eases a crowd in the sun.
    • It works, because landing on the Moon was a goal the whole crowd already supported.
    • It would work better cut, since a joke makes a costly national program seem less serious.

  4. Jun fills a second map with a kairos line. Which map is right in every part?

    • Kairos: a hot day and a costly goal; sentence 6: a joke about the heat; sentences 7 and 8: a list of the rocket's parts; sentences 9 to 12: who will see it done.
    • Kairos: a hot day and a costly goal; sentence 6: the laughter the transcript records; sentences 7 and 8: a concession about money; sentences 9 to 12: who will see it done.
    • Kairos: a hot day and a costly goal; sentence 6: a joke about the heat; sentences 7 and 8: a concession about money; sentences 9 to 12: who will see it done.
    • Kairos: any crowd enjoys a speech about the future; sentence 6: a joke about the heat; sentences 7 and 8: a concession about money; sentences 9 to 12: who will see it done.

  5. Pia fills the judgment column for sentences 9 and 10. For this crowd, does naming students and officials work, and why?

    • It would work better addressed to Congress, which would vote on the money for the program over the next few years.
    • It works, because naming people in the audience is a good habit in any speech.
    • It works, because it promises that some students in the crowd will one day fly to the Moon.
    • It works: the students and officials in front of Kennedy hear that the goal will be reached in their own time.

  6. Bo tests revisions of sentences 9 to 12. Which change would most weaken them?

    • Joining all four into one sentence that says the goal should be reached by 1970, with no repeated it will be done.
    • Cutting sentence 11, But it will be done, since a sentence so short adds nothing.
    • Adding that the Moon goal mattered more than any other task the nation faced.
    • Changing this college and university to this university, keeping every repeated phrase as it is, and the order of the sentences.

  7. The Weather of New England (after-dinner speech)

    Background: [1] Mark Twain, who was then living in Hartford, Connecticut, gave this speech in New York City in December 1876, at the yearly dinner of the New England Society, a club for people with family roots in New England. [2] Each speaker at such a dinner answered a toast, a short topic announced to the guests, and Twain's toast was the weather of New England, a subject every listener in the room knew from experience.

    From the speech: [3] …There is a sumptuous variety about the New England weather that compels the stranger's admiration—and regret. [4] The weather is always doing something there; always attending strictly to business; always getting up new designs and trying them on the people to see how they will go.… [5] …In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four-and-twenty hours.…

    [6] …I like to hear rain on a tin roof. [7] So I covered part of my roof with tin, with an eye to that luxury. [8] Well, sir, do you think it ever rains on that tin? [9] No, sir; skips it every time. [10] Mind, in this speech I have been trying merely to do honor to the New England weather—no language could do it justice.

    [11] But, after all, there is at least one or two things about that weather (or, if you please, effects produced by it) which we residents would not like to part with. [12] If we hadn't our bewitching autumn foliage, we should still have to credit the weather with one feature which compensates for all its bullying vagaries—the ice-storm: when a leafless tree is clothed with ice from the bottom to the top—ice that is as bright and clear as crystal; when every bough and twig is strung with ice-beads, frozen dew-drops, and the whole tree sparkles cold and white, like the Shah of Persia's diamond plume.…

    Word notes: [13] Sumptuous means rich and splendid, vagaries are unpredictable changes, and a plume is a showy feather ornament. [14] The cuts leave out an opening joke and several comic stories in the middle, including jokes about storms that hurt people.

  8. Milo fills the whole section map for Twain's speech. Which map is right in every part?

    • Audience: New Englanders at a dinner; purpose: amuse, then praise; sentences 3 to 10: a true weather report; sentences 11 and 12: a turn to real beauty.
    • Audience: New Englanders at a dinner; purpose: amuse, then praise; sentences 3 to 10: comic exaggeration; sentences 11 and 12: a turn to real beauty.
    • Audience: strangers visiting New England; purpose: amuse, then praise; sentences 3 to 10: comic exaggeration; sentences 11 and 12: a turn to real beauty.
    • Audience: New Englanders at a dinner; purpose: warn travelers to stay away; sentences 3 to 10: comic exaggeration; sentences 11 and 12: a turn to real beauty.

  9. Kira tests revisions of the tin-roof joke in sentences 6 to 9. Which change would most weaken the joke?

    • Adding a sentence that New England weather is in fact no worse than anyone else's weather.
    • Changing Well, sir to Well, ladies and gentlemen, so that the question speaks to the whole room.
    • Stating first that rain never falls on the tin, and only then telling why the roof was covered.
    • Changing part of my roof to the back of my roof, keeping the setup, question and answer in order.

  10. Ren fills a second map with a kairos line. Which map is right in every part?

    • Kairos: a toast to the weather for New Englanders; sentence 10: mock honor; sentence 11: the turn; sentence 12: jokes about storms that hurt people.
    • Kairos: a toast to the weather for New Englanders; sentence 10: mock honor; sentence 11: the turn; sentence 12: praise of the ice-storm.
    • Kairos: a dinner where any funny story would do; sentence 10: mock honor; sentence 11: the turn; sentence 12: praise of the ice-storm.
    • Kairos: a toast to the weather for New Englanders; sentence 10: mock honor; sentence 11: one more joke about storms; sentence 12: praise of the ice-storm.

  11. Esme fills the judgment column for sentence 12. For this dinner, does ending on beauty work, and why?

    • It works: after teasing the weather, Twain gives the New Englanders something to be proud of, so the toast ends in praise.
    • It would work better cut, since a serious ending spoils a speech that has been comic.
    • It works, because an ice-storm truly is the most beautiful sight anywhere in the country.
    • It works, because it shows that Twain secretly loved New England more than any other place.

  12. Noah tests revisions of sentence 12. Which change would most weaken it?

    • Replacing the crystal, the ice-beads and the diamond plume with the plain words the trees looked very pretty.
    • Changing bough and twig to branch and twig, while keeping each image in the sentence.
    • Adding at the end that other parts of the country have ice-storms too.
    • Cutting the opening words about bewitching autumn foliage, since the sentence is about ice.