Exercise 3

● Exercise 3 ●

Analyze the verbs in the first two paragraphs (p. 1143) of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s second inaugural address, One-Third of a Nation. How would you describe the verbs FDR uses? How do they set the tone for the subject of his address? Do the verbs he uses provide a hint that his address has a message that goes beyond the usual inauguration speech? Cite specific examples to support your view.

When four years ago we met to inaugurate a President, the Republic, single-minded in anxiety, stood in spirit here. We dedicated ourselves to the fulfillment of a vision—to speed the time when there would be for all the people that security and peace essential to the pursuit of happiness. We of the Republic pledged ourselves to drive from the temple of our ancient faith those who had profaned it; to end by action, tireless and unafraid, the stagnation and despair of that day. We did those first things first.

Our covenant with ourselves did not stop there. Instinctively we recognized a deeper need—the need to find through government the instrument of our united purpose to solve for the individual the ever-rising problems of a complex civilization. Repeated attempts at their solution without the aid of government had left us baffled and bewildered. For, without that aid, we had been unable to create those moral controls over the services of science which are necessary to make science a useful servant instead of a ruthless master of mankind. To do this we knew that we must find practical controls over blind economic forces and blindly selfish men.

Question

ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
Exercise 3: Analyze the verbs in the first two paragraphs (p. 1143) of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s second inaugural address, One-Third of a Nation. How would you describe the verbs FDR uses? How do they set the tone for the subject of his address? Do the verbs he uses provide a hint that his address has a message that goes beyond the usual inauguration speech? Cite specific examples to support your view.