1. Read the following excerpt from Winston Churchill's "Their Finest Hour" speech:
Here is where we come to the Navy
and after all, we have a Navy. Some
people seem to forget that we have a Navy. We must remind them. For the last
thirty years I have been concerned in discussions about the possibilities of
oversea invasion, and I took the responsibility on behalf of the Admiralty, at the
beginning of the last war,
of allowing all regular troops to be sent out of the
country. That was a very serious step to take, because our Territorials had only
just been called up and were quite untrained. Therefore, this Island was for
several months particularly denuded of fighting troops. The Admiralty had
confidence at that time in their ability to prevent a mass invasion even though
at that time the Germans had
a magnificent battle fleet in the proportion of 10
to 16, even though they were capable of fighting a general engagement every
day and any day, whereas now they have only a couple of heavy ships worth
speaking of - the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau. We are also told that the
Italian Navy is to come out and gain sea superiority in these waters. If they
seriously intend it, I shall only say that we shall be delighted to offer Signor
a Mussolini a free and safeguarded passage through the Strait of Gibraltar in
order that he may play the part to which he aspires. There is a general curiosity
in the British Fleet to find out whether the Italians are up to the level they were
at in the last war or whether they have fallen off at all.
Analyze the effectiveness of this excerpt. How does it function within the speech as a whole? How
does the structure of the excerpt help to convey the speech's purpose and arguments? Support your
argument with evidence from the speech. (10 points)