Question

1.2.7 quiz: analyze the declaration
question 10 of 10
read this excerpt about the kings actions from the declaration of independence:
for taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments: for suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
how is parallelism used here to strengthen the argument?
a. the overuse of commas forces the reader to pause and think about the impact of the kings actions.
b. the utilization of short words adds a sense of urgency and nervousness to the document.
c. the repetition of for followed by negative verbs emphasizes that there is a long list of bad things the king did.
d. the capitalization of certain words helps the reader to skim the document and arrive at the conclusion more quickly.

Explanation:

Parallelism in writing involves repeating a grammatical structure. In this excerpt, the repetition of "For" (a preposition) followed by negative actions (e.g., "taking away", "abolishing", "altering", "suspending") is an example of parallelism. This repetition emphasizes the numerous negative actions of the king.

• Option A is about commas, not parallelism.
• Option B is about word length (short words), not parallelism.
• Option D is about capitalization, not parallelism.
• Option C correctly identifies the parallel structure (repetition of "For" + negative verbs) and its purpose (emphasizing the king's bad deeds).

Answer:

C. The repetition of for followed by negative verbs emphasizes that there is a long list of bad things the king did.