A Speech of Historic Importance
You are going to read an extract from a speech of historic importance. Analyse the language and facts presented in it.
Prove that the person this text is hypothetically attributed to was NOT the speaker delivering this speech in reality.
Guess and write who WAS the person delivering this speech. Make sure you spell the name correctly. Write 70-80 words using 3-4 facts or language peculiarities from the text showing that it is not possible that this speech was delivered by the said person.
Was this speech made by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68, US Baptist minister and civil-rights leader)?
Equality, in society, alike beats inequality, whether the latter be of the British aristocratic sort, or of the domestic slavery sort.
We know, Southern men declare that their slaves are better off than hired laborers amongst us. How little they know, whereof they speak! There is no permanent class of hired laborers amongst us. Twenty-five years ago, I was a hired laborer. The hired laborer of yesterday, labors on his own account to-day; and will hire others to labor for him to-morrow. Advancement – improvement in condition – is the order of things in a society of equals. As Labor is the common burthen of our race, so the effort of some to shift their share of the burthen on to the shoulders of others, is the great, durable, curse of the race. Originally a curse for transgression upon the whole race, when, as by slavery, it is concentrated on a part only, it becomes the double-refined curse of God upon his creatures.
Free labor has the inspiration of hope; pure slavery has no hope. The power of hope upon human exertion, and happiness, is wonderful. The slave-master himself has a conception of it; and hence the system of tasks among slaves. The slave whom you can not drive with the lash to break seventy-five pounds of hemp in a day, if you will task him to break a hundred, and promise him pay for all he does over, he will break you a hundred and fifty.
автор — Abraham Lincoln
This speech was not delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. First, it discusses "slavery" as a contemporary institution, which places it in the pre-Civil War era, long before King's lifetime (1929–1968). Second, the speaker references personal experience as a "hired laborer" 25 years prior, which does not align with King's life or timeline. Finally, the language and themes reflect 19th-century concerns about slavery and free labor, distinct from King's 20th-century focus on civil rights and racial equality.
whereof
burthen (archaic spelling of burden)
Автор примера — Анастасия Горленко, победитель олимпиады «Ломоносов» 2023/24. Этот ответ получил максимальный балл (10):
The speaker could not have been Martin Luther King, Jr. for several reasons. Most importantly, the speech deals with slavery in the United States, which was abolished decades before the civil-rights activist was born. Moreover, the speaker refers to Southern men as a group he does not belong to, while Martin Luther King, Jr. was from the South of the US. There are also some dated words and spellings such as ‘whereof’ and ‘burthen’, unlikely to be used in the twentieth century.
Possibly, Abraham Lincoln gave the speech.
Что такое «Ломоносов»?
«Ломоносов» — перечневая олимпиада, обычно I уровня, которую проводит МГУ. Почитать об особенностях этой олимпиады и посмотреть на примеры заданий, которые в ней появлялись, можно на странице олимпиады «Ломоносов» сайта Upwego. Также можно посетить официальную страницу олимпиады.
Чтобы получить диплом «Ломоносова», нужно уметь хорошо писать, разбираться в общих страноведческих вопросах, а также иметь широкий кругозор. В Олимпиадном марафоне Upwego есть много заданий, помогающих подготовиться к этой олимпиаде :)