07.06 AP Practice Essay Ten
This is an exam and may only be entered once. This exam is designed to evaluate the
reading, writing, and thinking skills you have acquired. In order to maintain academic
integrity, outside sources or notes should NOT be consulted while completing this exam.
NOTE: Your essay will be graded using the 0-6 point scoring guide that is used for all AP
Language and Composition Exam essays. With this in mind, your essay should be fully
developed and of considerable length as it would be for the actual exam.
American author and humorist Mark Twain (1835-1910) wrote the following essay near the
end of his life, around 1900, although the passage was not published until 1923, thirteen years
after his death. Read the passage carefully. Then, in a well-organized essay, analyze the
rhetorical strategies Twain uses to establish his position on the nature of patriotism.
It is agreed, in this country, that if a man can arrange his religion so that it perfectly
satisfies his conscience, it is not incumbent upon him to care whether the arrangement is
satisfactory to any one else or not.
In Austria and some other countries this is not the case. There the State arranges a man's
religion for him, he has no voice in it himself.
Patriotism is merely a religion -- love of country, worship of country, devotion to the
country's flag and honor and welfare.
In absolute monarchies it is furnished from the Throne, cut and dried, to the subject; in
England and America it is furnished, cut and dried, to the citizen by the politician and the
newspaper.
The newspaper-and-politician-manufactured Patriot often gags in private over his dose;
but he takes it, and keeps it on his stomach the best he can. Blessed are the meek.
Sometimes, in the beginning of an insane and shabby political upheaval, he is strongly
moved to revolt, but he doesn't do it -- he knows better. He knows that his maker would
find it out -- the maker of his Patriotism, the windy and incoherent six-dollar sub-editor of
his village newspaper -- and would bray out in print and call him a Traitor. And how
dreadful that would be. It makes him tuck his tail between his legs and shiver. We all know
-- the reader knows it quite well -- that two or three years ago nine-tenths of the human
tails in England and America performed just that act. Which is to say, nine-tenths of the
This study source was downloaded by 100000857952895 from CourseHero.com on 01-26-2023 13:22:08 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/94404888/0706-AP-Practice-Essay-Tenpdf/
This is an exam and may only be entered once. This exam is designed to evaluate the
reading, writing, and thinking skills you have acquired. In order to maintain academic
integrity, outside sources or notes should NOT be consulted while completing this exam.
NOTE: Your essay will be graded using the 0-6 point scoring guide that is used for all AP
Language and Composition Exam essays. With this in mind, your essay should be fully
developed and of considerable length as it would be for the actual exam.
American author and humorist Mark Twain (1835-1910) wrote the following essay near the
end of his life, around 1900, although the passage was not published until 1923, thirteen years
after his death. Read the passage carefully. Then, in a well-organized essay, analyze the
rhetorical strategies Twain uses to establish his position on the nature of patriotism.
It is agreed, in this country, that if a man can arrange his religion so that it perfectly
satisfies his conscience, it is not incumbent upon him to care whether the arrangement is
satisfactory to any one else or not.
In Austria and some other countries this is not the case. There the State arranges a man's
religion for him, he has no voice in it himself.
Patriotism is merely a religion -- love of country, worship of country, devotion to the
country's flag and honor and welfare.
In absolute monarchies it is furnished from the Throne, cut and dried, to the subject; in
England and America it is furnished, cut and dried, to the citizen by the politician and the
newspaper.
The newspaper-and-politician-manufactured Patriot often gags in private over his dose;
but he takes it, and keeps it on his stomach the best he can. Blessed are the meek.
Sometimes, in the beginning of an insane and shabby political upheaval, he is strongly
moved to revolt, but he doesn't do it -- he knows better. He knows that his maker would
find it out -- the maker of his Patriotism, the windy and incoherent six-dollar sub-editor of
his village newspaper -- and would bray out in print and call him a Traitor. And how
dreadful that would be. It makes him tuck his tail between his legs and shiver. We all know
-- the reader knows it quite well -- that two or three years ago nine-tenths of the human
tails in England and America performed just that act. Which is to say, nine-tenths of the
This study source was downloaded by 100000857952895 from CourseHero.com on 01-26-2023 13:22:08 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/94404888/0706-AP-Practice-Essay-Tenpdf/
