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TOEFL Reading Multiple Choice Exercise 24

Read the passage and choose the best answer to each question.

1. Which of the following statements best expresses the main idea of what the speaker is wanting to communicate in the first paragraph?

    She is wanting to explain that she was under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted in the election as she had no lawful right to vote as a women

    She is wanting to prove that by voting she had simply exercised her citizen's rights and had not committed a crime.

    she wanted to outline the rights that she was entitled to as a citizen which were guaranteed by the National Constitution.

2. The phrase "exercised my citizen's rights" in the first paragraph is closest in meaning to:

    to have done research to establish what her rights were as a citizen

    to have brought attention to her citizen's rights

    to put to use her personal rights which belonged to her by virtue of citizenship

3. The word 'preamble' in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to:

    an introduction

    an explanation

    a preliminary or preparatory statement

4. All of the following are true about the speaker's interpretation of the Federal Constitution EXCEPT:

    the Constitution was formed to secure liberty to half of the citizens of the U.S.A

    the Constitution was designed to protect the rights and liberty of all the citizens of the U.S.A and not just men

    It is unfair to suggest that women can enjoy their liberty when they don't even have the right to vote.

5. In paragraph 5 the speaker is implying which of the following?

    These women may have strong views about racism, sexism and the aristocratic oligarchy that governs. They may also resent that men are treated as sovereigns and women as subjects

    The government has not been elected taking into account the viewpoints of the female citizens of the U.S.A.

    The population of the U.S.A has no trust in the government and the manner in which it uses its powers.

6. The word 'oligarchy' in paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to:

    a superpower

    a small group of people having control over a country or organisation

    a group of aristocrats who abuse their power

7. The following sentence can be added to the passage: "Surely the answer to this is yes." Where would it best fit in the passage?

    Space B

    Space A

    Space C

8. In the last sentence of the passage what does the writer mean by 'null and void'?

    having no validity or legal force; unenforceable

    of no interest or importance; not relevant

    not compatible with modern thinking or ideas

On Women's Rights to Vote (1873)

"Fellow people in this here world": I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that me thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen's rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny.

The preamble of the Federal Constitution says: "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people - women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government - the ballot.

For any state to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people, is to pass a bill of attainder, or, an ex post facto law, and is therefore a violation of the supreme law of the land. (SPACE A) By it the blessings of liberty are forever withheld from women and their female posterity.

To them this government has no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the rich govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters, of every household - which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord, and rebellion into every home of the nation.

Webster, Worcester, and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in the United States, entitled to vote and hold office. (SPACE B)

The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? (SPACE C) And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no state has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against women in the constitutions and laws of the several states is today null and void."

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