In Paragraph 4 of "A Witch Trial at Mount Holly," the author uses the words mob and populace to describe the crowd gathered to watch the witch trial. How do these words affect the meaning of the article? A. The words hint at how the people are understanding the situation. B. The words indicate that the people believe in witches. C. The words imply that the people are thinking and acting as a group. D. The words describe how the people are ignoring the facts.

C.The words imply that the people are thinking and acting as a group.

Explanation:

The article "A Witch Trial at Mount Holly" recounts the story of how two people who were accused of witchcraft agreed to be tried and tested along with two of their accusers. The whole scenario presents a rather comedic yet tragic scene where the common people, guided by their popular belief, tried to find ways to justify themselves while putting the accused on trial.

The words "mob" and "populace" generally refer to a large gathering of people who are mobilized together for a certain purpose. The author mentions them in his description of how the trial was organized, writing that "a lane through the populace was made from the justice’s house to the scales" so that "the justice’s wife and the rest of the ladies might see the trial, without coming amongst the mob". These two words imply that the people or masses are acting and thinking as a group in putting the accused on trial.  

Thus, the correct answer is option C.

overnment is strong when they have the ability to persuade those they govern to believe government has enough power to force them or should be forcing them to do government’s will.

when enough of the citizenry do not believe government can force them or should force them to do its bidding, government has lost or will lose its strength and power to coerce.

when enough of the citizenry do believe government can force or should force them to do its bidding, they become passive at the least or actively pro-government and repeat government’s own rhetoric to pass on what they have been persuaded by government’s propaganda.

a true majority isn’t always needed to govern or to stop government. many times all that is needed is a strong minority. if a determined 30% of the population rises up against government in a concerted effort to bring it down, this size minority usually will succeed as long as those actively opposing the minority are less in force than the minority. so if 41% of the population sits at home watching tv rooting for one side or the other, they don’t matter. it’s the active parties who make a difference.