Cassius
messala!

messala
[standing forth] what says my general?

cassius
messala,
this is my birth-day; as this very day
was cassius born. give me thy hand, messala.
be thou my witness that against my will.
as pompey was, am i compell'd to set
upon one battle all our liberties.
you know that i held epicurus strong
and his opinion: now i change my mind
and partly credit things that do presage.
coming from sardis, on our former ensign
two mighty eagles fell, and there they perch'd
gorging and feeding from our soldiers' hands.
who to philippi here consorted us:
this morning are they fled away and gone;
and in their steads do ravens, crows and kites
fly o'er our heads and downward look on us
as we were sickly prey. their shadows seem
a canopy most fatal, under which
our army lies, ready to give up the ghost.

messala
believe not so.

cassius
i but believe it partly;
for i am fresh of spirit and resolved
to meet all perils very constantly.

what is the effect of cassius's story?

it creates suspense because messala may decide not to fight after hearing about the omens.

the bad omens of scavengers foreshadow his defeat.

the mixed omens illustrate his confused feelings.

it builds tension because cassius withholds the fact that he planned caesar’s assassination.

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)