Question

Read the excerpt from Prime Minister Winston Churchill's "Their Finest Hour" speech, delivered to the United Kingdom’s House of Commons in 1940. During the first four years of the last war the Allies experienced nothing but disaster and dis-appointment. That was our constant fear: one blow after another, terrible losses, frightful dangers. Everything mis-carried. And yet at the end of those four years the morale of the Allies was higher than that of the Germans, who had moved from one aggressive triumph to another, and who stood everywhere triumphant invaders of the lands into which they had broken. The rhetorical technique used in this excerpt is:________.
a. shift.
b. understatement.
c. logos.
d. parallelism.

Answer 1

Answer:

The rhetorical technique used in this excerpt is a. shift.

Explanation:

Shift as a rhetorical technique refers to a change in the mood, style, or tone of what is being said. It is usually started with a conjunction that expresses such alteration and contrast, such as "yet", "but", "although", etc. In this particular speech, the initial mood is one of sadness and exhaustion. Churchill focuses on the disasters, the dangers, and the losses the war brought. From the moment he says "yet" on, however, the mood shifts to a positive, assertive one, in which he tells us about the high morale of the Allies. Against all odds, in contrast with everything that had been said, we are now told the Allies kept their spirits up.