Name__________________________
Week 27 Bellringers (3/6-3/10)
Monday, March 6, 2017
Read the following passage by Linda Monk, Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the
Constitution. From “We the People …”
The first three word of the Constitution are the most important. They clearly state that the
people—not the king, not the legislature, not the courts—are the true rulers in American government.
This principle is known as popular sovereignty.
But who are “We the People”? This question troubled the nation for centuries. As Lucy Stone,
one of America’s first advocates for women’s rights, asked in 1853, “‘We the People’? Which ‘We the
People’? The women were not included.” Neither were white males who did not own property,
American Indians, or African Americans—slave or free. Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African
American on the Supreme Court, described the limitation:
For a sense of the evolving nature of the Constitution, we need look no further than the first
three words of the document’s preamble: ‘We the People.’ When the Founding Fathers used this phrase
in 1787, they did not have in mind the majority of America’s citizens . . . The men who gathered in
Philadelphia in 1787 could not . . . have imagined, nor would they have accepted, that the document
they were drafting would one day be construed by a Supreme court to which had been appointed a
woman and the descendant of an African slave.
Through the Amendment process, more and more Americans were eventually included in the
Constitution’s definition of “We the People.” After the Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment ended
slavery, the Fourteenth Amendment gave African Americans citizenship, and the Fifteenth Amendment
gave black men the vote. In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote
nationwide, and in 1971, the Twenty-sixth Amendment extended suffrage to eighteen-year-olds.
1. What is the central idea of the above text excerpt?
2. What is the tone of the above text excerpt?
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Use the passage from yesterday’s bellringer to answer the following questions.
1. Use the context clues to define evolving.
2. Use the context clues to define construed.
3. Use the context clues to define suffrage.
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Read the following passage excerpt from Martin Luther’s biography and answer the questions.
The church eventually moved to stop the act of defiance, and in October 1518 the
pope ordered Luther to recant his Ninety-Five Theses. Luther said he would not renounce his
theses unless scripture proved him wrong. He went further, stating that he did not believe the
pope had the authority to interpret scripture.
4. Use the context clues to define defiance.
5. Use the context clues to define recant.
6. Use the context clues to define renounce.
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Allusion is a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or
political significance. It does not describe in detail the person or thing to which it refers. It is just a passing comment
and the writer expects the reader to possess enough knowledge to spot the allusion and grasp its importance in a text.
For instance, you make a literary allusion the moment you say, “I do not approve of this quixotic idea,” Quixotic
means stupid and impractical derived from Cervantes’s “Don Quixote”, a story of a foolish knight and his
misadventures.
Underline the allusions.
1.
This place is like a Garden of Eden.
2.
Hey! Guess who the new Newton of our school is?
3.
The basketball team’s upset was a true David and Goliath story.
4.
When you get your first job and start paying Uncle Sam, you’ll understand.
5.
It was a short trip but it felt more like an odyssey.
Friday, March 10, 2017
Read the follow excerpt from Bob Dylan’s biography and answer the following question.
Folk rock singer-songwriter Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24,
1941, in Duluth, Minnesota. While attending college, he began performing folk and country
songs, taking the name "Bob Dylan." In 1961, Dylan signed his first recording contract. Dylan
has continued to tour and record in recent years.
1. Is the excerpt objective? ______________________
2. What is the tone of the passage? _________________