Part A Which claim does President Obama make in excerpt from "President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address"?

The country has the highest unemployment rate in five years.

The United States needs to better prepare for the twenty-first century.

Average wages have gone up in recent years and lessened inequality.

US citizens play a critical role in strengthening the state of the union.
Question 2
Part B

Which evidence is most relevant to supporting the answer to Part A?

"The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by—let alone to get ahead. And too many still aren't working at all."

"And for the first time in over a decade, business leaders around the world have declared that China is no longer the world's number one place to invest; America is."

"As president, I'm committed to making Washington work better, and rebuilding the trust of the people who sent us here. And I believe most of you are, too."

"Today in America, a teacher spent extra time with a student who needed it and did her part to lift America's graduation rate to its highest levels in more than three decades."

today we'd use social media to quickly spread a controversial idea, but in the eighteenth century, the printed pamphlet was highly effective. and thomas paine took full advantage of it. on january 9, 1776, when paine published his pamphlet, "common sense," he wanted to push the american people toward independence from britain. it ultimately ignite the american revolution. thomas paine argued that the monarchy was evil and should be rejected as a form of government. to underscore his point, he cited the bible to argue his case -- in judges 8: 22-23: "the israelites said to gideon, 'rule over us, you and your son and your ' gideon told them, 'i will not rule over you. the lord will rule over you'" (nrsv).

absolutism the political belief that one ruler should hold all of the power within the boundaries of a country.

as we know, the english language is spoken all over the world by native and non-native speakers and has become the most certain tool when it comes to communicating. businesses, schools, even romantic relationships depend on it to keep thriving. in addition, it is the language of the internet not only because most of the content available is in english, but also because people prefer to use it when talking to others, since it's the language everyone supposedly learns.

yet, there have been some current claims that chinese will soon take over as the most important language in the world. china's magnitude has never been more evident and doing business with the chinese is a gold mine for any country. we now see language schools offering chinese courses as commonly as english.

however - even though we cannot deny china's importance and the advantage it is when someone takes the time to learn the language their business contact speaks-, people in general seem to be ignoring the aspects that seem to keep english as the chosen one of languages. one of them has been mentioned above: it is the language of the internet. also, chinese people are still learning english, since it opens doors in communicating with practically everyone else, from every single country.

note: if this is not the sort of transition you need, let me know. : d