Read the excerpt from "Choice: A Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” by Alice Walker. If it is true that land does not belong to anyone until they have buried a body in it, then the land of my birthplace belongs to me, dozens of times over. Yet the history of my family, like that of all black Southerners, is a history of dispossession. We loved the land and worked the land, but we never owned it; and even if we bought land, as my great-grandfather did after the Civil War, it was always in danger of being taken away, as his was, during the period following Reconstruction. Which sentence explains how the use of ethos affects the meaning of the text?
Answer
A
Walker discusses the role of her great-grandfather to prove how connected her family is.
B
By discussing the work put into the land, Walker shows why other people wanted to take away the land.
C
Walker mentions the Civil War and Reconstruction to show her knowledge of history.
D
By describing her family’s connection to the land, Walker shows that they had a right to claim it as theirs.
Explanation
Ethos comes from Walker’s personal and family history, which gives her account credibility. By describing how her family loved and worked the land—and how her great-grandfather owned land that was later taken away—she emphasizes their deep connection to it and supports their right to claim it as theirs. The passage is not mainly using historical references to show Walker’s knowledge of history.
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