ShmoopTube

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We speak student!

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the Civil War,

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because our weird uncle has to reenact something.

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Yeah, well.

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All right, check out the following passage. Gettysburg Address.

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[ mumbles ]

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All right, well, according to the passage, what was

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Lincoln's main point in the Gettysburg Address?

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And here are the potential answers.

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Pay attention. You'll probably get asked this question a lot in life.

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All right.

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Well, fourscore and about seven seconds ago, we were reading this passage.

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Yes, people.

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Now let's try to remember what it was about.

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Hello? Goldfish memory alert. Yeah. Uh-huh.

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All right, while the Address did take place at a cemetery,

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the passage doesn't mention what the soldiers died for.

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Maybe they went down fighting Martians.

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Well, they didn't, but the text doesn't focus on the soldiers' deaths,

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so option A is out.

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We can also get rid of B.

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Yes, the passage does talk about the Declaration of Independence,

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but the Founding Fathers' ideals weren't the reason the North

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won the war.

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Superior resources, more soldiers,

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and control of most of the country had a lot more to do with it.

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Option D can also go.

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The real reason Lincoln discussed the Declaration of Independence was

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to show how its ideals were part of an ongoing

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struggle for equality.

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Thus, it's pretty hard to argue that it was no longer relevant.

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And we don't struggle with things that lack relevancy,

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unless we're on a network TV game show.

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[ mumbles ]

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Wheel of... Nah, nevermind.

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The correct answer here is C.

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The Declaration of Independence laid groundwork

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and the Civil War marked the start of a new chapter

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in American history.

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A chapter dedicated to equal rights and a unified nation.

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Now let's go out and enjoy Civil War reenactment

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because, well, someone should be there when our weird uncle passes out

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from heat exhaustion.

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Yeah. Come on, there, Larry.

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[ explosion ]

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