read the passage.
excerpt from "marie curie and the discovery of radioactivity" by mara rockliff
to the austrian mine owners who had sent the pitchblende ore, it was just dirt. after all, they had already taken out the valuable part—the metallic element called uranium—and dumped what was left over in a nearby pine forest. if a pair of eccentric french scientists wanted them to scoop up the worthless stuff and ship it, the mine owners were happy to oblige.
but marie and pierre curie knew the secret of the dull brown ore. hidden deep within it was a new chemical element. no one, the curies included, had ever seen this element. still, the husband-and-wife team had given it a name: radium. and marie was determined to prove radium was real.
it could be inferred that the word eccentric in the text means "odd."
which context clue best confirm this meaning of the word eccentric?
"scientists wanted them to scoop up the worthless stuff and ship it"
"after all, they had already taken out the valuable part…called uranium"
"no one…had ever seen this element"
"deep within it was a new chemical element"

The answer is:

"scientists wanted them to scoop up the worthless stuff and ship it"

Odd means strange, unconventional, or different from usual or expected.

In the excerpt from "Marie Curie and the Discovery of Radioactivity," the author Mara Rockliff makes use of the word eccentric to describe the French couple of scientists - Marie and Pierre Curie. The reason is they wanted to collect the leftovers of the gathering of uranium, which was thrown away and considered useless. However, the extraordinary Curies knew about a new chemical element that they later named radium.

1. read the following excerpt from franklin d. roosevelt's "fireside chat 19":

on the other side of the picture, we must learn also to know that guerilla warfare against the germans in, let us say serbia or norway, us; that a successful russian offensive against the germans us; and that british successes on land or sea in any part of the world strengthen our hands.

remember always that germany and italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the united states at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with britain or russia. and germany puts all the other republics of the americas into the same category of enemies. the people of our sister republics of this hemisphere can be honored by that fact.  

the true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. when we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as against immediate evil. we americans are not destroyers — we are builders.

analyze the effectiveness of this excerpt. how does it function within the speech as a whole? how does the structure of the excerpt to convey the speech's purpose and key points? support your argument with evidence from the speech. (10 points)