Question

wilsons war message to congress
april 2, 1917
gentlemen of the congress: i have called the congress into extraordinary session because there are serious, very serious, choices of policy to be made, and made immediately, which it was neither right nor constitutionally permissible that i should assume the responsibility of making.
on the 3rd of february last i officially laid before you the extraordinary announcement of the imperial german government that on and after the 1st day of february it was its purpose to put aside all restraints of law or of humanity and use its submarines to sink every vessel that sought to approach either the ports of great britain and ireland or the western coasts of europe or any of the ports controlled by the enemies of germany within the mediterranean....
it is a war against all nations. american ships have been sunk, american lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way. there has been no discrimination. the challenge is to all mankind. each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. the choice we make for ourselves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a temperateness /cr-vocab-1of judgment befitting our character and our motives as a nation. we must put excited feeling away. our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of human right, of which we are only a single champion....
with a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical character of the step i am taking and of the grave responsibilities which it involves, but in unhesitating
which excerpt from paragraphs 1 to 3 of wilsons \war message to congress\ appeals most to the audiences emotions?
on the 3rd of february last i officially laid before you the extraordinary announcement of the imperial german government...
american ships have been sunk, american lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of...
there has been no discrimination. the challenge is to all mankind. each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it.
the choice we make for ourselves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our character and our motives as a nation.

Explanation:

To determine which excerpt appeals most to emotions, we analyze each option. The excerpt "American ships have been sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of..." directly mentions the loss of American ships and lives, evoking feelings of outrage, sadness, and concern. The other excerpts are more factual or about decisions/announcements, lacking emotional language.

Answer:

The excerpt in the top - right box: "American ships have been sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of..."