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Quiz about Great Political Speeches JFK
Quiz about Great Political Speeches JFK

Great Political Speeches: JFK Trivia Quiz


September 12, 1962: John F. Kennedy addresses a crowd at Rice University, Texas to outline an extremely ambitious project that was sadly not to be completed within his lifetime.

by Snowman. Estimated time: 4 mins.
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Author
Snowman
Time
4 mins
Type
Quiz #
415,426
Updated
Feb 09 24
# Qns
20
Difficulty
Easy
Avg Score
17 / 20
Plays
152
Awards
Top 10% Quiz
Last 3 plays: daveguth (20/20), Yowser (17/20), Guest 71 (1/20).
No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come, but condense, if you will, the 50,000 years of man's recorded history in a time span of but a half-century... Only five years ago man learned to and use a cart with wheels. began less than two years ago. The came this 'year', and then less than two months ago, during this whole 50-year span of human history, the provided a new source of power.

Newton explored the meaning of gravity. Last month and telephones and automobiles and airplanes became available. Only last week did we develop penicillin and television and , and now if America's new spacecraft succeeds in reaching , we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight.

If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and , is determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not.

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are , but because they are , because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and , because that is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

Within these last 19 months at least 45 satellites have circled the earth. Some 40 of them were 'made in the ,' and they were far more sophisticated and supplied far more knowledge to the people of the world than those of the .

We have had our failures, but so have others, even if they do not admit them. And they may be less public. But... we must be .

Many years ago, the great explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it? He said, "Because it is ."

Well, is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest on which man has ever embarked.
Your Options
[Christianity] [bold] [Venus] [printing press] [hard] [write] [steam engine] [adventure] [challenge] [easy] [nuclear power] [electric lights] [there] [progress] [space] [Soviet Union] [peace] [British] [skills] [United States of America]

Click or drag the options above to the spaces in the text.



Most Recent Scores
Oct 30 2024 : daveguth: 20/20
Oct 23 2024 : Yowser: 17/20
Oct 15 2024 : Guest 71: 1/20
Sep 20 2024 : albettjr: 9/20
Sep 15 2024 : Guest 24: 4/20
Sep 09 2024 : Guest 173: 14/20

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
Answer:

The United States achieved Kennedy's objective when Neil Armstrong first stepped on to the moon's surface in 1969. Sadly Kennedy's assassination six years previously denied him the chance to see his great dream fulfilled.

The speech was delivered at Rice University in Houston, Texas, the city that was the site of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center. With the mixed reception given to Kennedy's announcement of the ambition to send humankind to the moon the previous year, his speech needed to be persuasive. The US public needed convincing that the enormous cost of sending humans to the moon was worthwhile.

The speech used classic persuasive techniques; ethos (establishing credibility); pathos (appealing to emotion); and logos (appealing to logic).

The references to the history of science established Kennedy's credibility by showing understanding of the subject.

The best remembered section from the speech "we choose to do this, not because it is easy but because it is hard", is a classic example of pathos. It shows leadership but also plays on the fears of the audience by implying that if the USA doesn't do it, the great enemy, the Soviet Union will. The frequent mentions of peace further allude to this; by embarking on this journey, the USA will take charge of bringing peace to a volatile world.

The appeal to logic came in the form of being up front about the staggering cost of the project but, in a section that is not included in the passages shown in this quiz, Kennedy compared the cost favourably to the amount that Americans spent on cigarettes and cigars each year, putting the cost into perspective and making it seem a logical thing to prioritise given the context.

The speech was a great success. The clever writing combined with Kennedy's masterful delivery helped to energise the US public, bringing them hope and pride about the ambition of the US government and aligning them firmly behind NASA and the grand project.
Source: Author Snowman

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