What does the following sentence start with?
weather permitting, the picnic will be held at the community park.
a. a prepositional phrase
b. an adjective
c. a past participle
d. an absolute construction

The correct answer is D. An absolute construction

Explanation:

An absolute construction is a type of grammatical construction that is not directly linked to the rest of the elements of the sentence it belongs, this implies an absolute construction is related to a sentence, but not connected grammatically to it and therefore without the absolute construction the sentence expresses a complete idea, in this way "Weather permitting" is the absolute construction as it is not grammatically connected to the sentence. Additionally, most absolute constructions are composed of a noun or substantive, which in this case is "weather" and a participle (-ing word used as adjective or noun), which in this case is "permitting".Thus, this sentence begins with an absolute construction as "weather permitting" is not grammatically linked to the rest of the sentence and it follows a substantive participle construction and both features are related to the concept and characteristics of absolute construction.

1. read the following excerpt from franklin d. roosevelt's "fireside chat 19":

on the other side of the picture, we must learn also to know that guerilla warfare against the germans in, let us say serbia or norway, us; that a successful russian offensive against the germans us; and that british successes on land or sea in any part of the world strengthen our hands.

remember always that germany and italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the united states at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with britain or russia. and germany puts all the other republics of the americas into the same category of enemies. the people of our sister republics of this hemisphere can be honored by that fact.  

the true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. when we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as against immediate evil. we americans are not destroyers — we are builders.

analyze the effectiveness of this excerpt. how does it function within the speech as a whole? how does the structure of the excerpt to convey the speech's purpose and key points? support your argument with evidence from the speech. (10 points)