Worked examples
Two examples
Example 1
Abraham Lincoln, second inaugural address, March 4, 1865, the day his second term as President began, spoken to the crowd at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. The Civil War was nearly over; the main Confederate army surrendered a month later.
For whom did Lincoln make this speech, and when, compared with the war?A. For his generals, after the war was overWith malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds …
B. For the crowd at the Capitol, as the war was nearly over
C. For Congress alone, at the start of the war
D. For the soldiers of the Confederate army, a year before the war ended
- Read the source line before the passage. It answers the card’s first questions before you read a word of the speech.
- Who made it: Abraham Lincoln, President. What kind of source: an inaugural address, a speech given when a President’s term begins.
- For whom: the line says he spoke it to the crowd at the Capitol. When: March 4, 1865. The line adds what was happening: the war was nearly over, and the main Confederate army surrendered a month later. So the answer is B.
- A has the timing wrong: the war was not yet over. C has the wrong audience and the wrong time: the war began in 1861. D names an audience the source line never mentions.
- Why does it matter? Knowing that he spoke to the country as the war was ending helps you read his words: “malice” means the wish to harm, and he asks his listeners to set it aside and “bind up the nation’s wounds.”
Answer: B
Example 2
From a letter written in 1911 by a young man in Brooklyn to his mother in Italy. He had come to New York the year before. He describes the funeral march for the workers killed in the Triangle fire, which he watched from a sidewalk in Manhattan. (An example written for this drill.)
Was the writer there for what he describes, and for whom did he write?A. Yes, he worked at the Triangle factory; he wrote for a newspaperIt rained all day, and still the people came, more than I could count, walking slowly behind an empty hearse. No one spoke. A woman next to me cried the whole time, and I did not know her name. Do not worry, Mamma. My shop is on the second floor, and there are two doors.
B. No, he read about it in the paper; he wrote for his mother
C. Yes, he watched the march from the sidewalk; he wrote for his mother
D. No, he was in Italy; he wrote for the people of Brooklyn
- Take the two questions one at a time.
- Was he there? The source line says he watched the funeral march from a sidewalk in Manhattan. And the letter shows it: “A woman next to me cried the whole time.” He was there for the march, though not for the fire itself.
- For whom? The source line says he wrote to his mother in Italy. You can hear it in the last lines: “Do not worry, Mamma.”
- So the answer is C. A is the trap of reading too much: he never says he worked at the Triangle factory; he says his own shop has two doors. B contradicts the source line. D mixes up the writer and the reader: his mother was in Italy, not he.
- Notice how the reader shapes the letter. Writing to a worried mother, he ends by telling her his shop is safe. A letter to a newspaper might have said something quite different.
Answer: C
Where this is taught: Skills Quiz 2, Primary and secondary sources: First, the idea · Skills Quiz 2: the worked example · Skills Diagnostic, Part 2
In your Kaplan book: Unit 3, Chapter 1, Lesson 3: Analyze Author's Purpose and Point of View · Map of the Terrain, topic 2: Primary and secondary sources
The drill
Ten questions
How many:
Read what is in the box first. Then tap your answer; a few questions ask you to choose words from a drop-down instead, the way the GED test does. Press Check my answers at the bottom.Read what is in the box first. Circle your answer; where there are brackets, circle the choice that fits. The answer key, with the reasoning, is on the last page.