How do paragraphs 18-20 contribute to the development of the theme?

Asap plz which sentence from this excerpt of jefferson davis’s inaugural address indicates that secession was the confederacy’s way of reclaiming its legal powers? an agricultural people, whose chief interest is the export of a commodity required in every manufacturing country, our true policy is peace, and the freest trade which our necessities will permit . . there can be but little rivalry between ours and any manufacturing or navigating community, such as the northeastern states of the american union. it must follow, therefore, that a mutual interest would invite good will and kind offices. if, however, passion or the lust of dominion should cloud the judgment or inflame the ambition of those states, we must prepare to meet the emergency and to maintain, by the final arbitrament of the sword, the position which we have assumed among the nations of the earth. we have entered upon the career of independence, and it must be inflexibly pursued. through many years of controversy with our late associates, the northern states, we have vainly endeavored to secure tranquillity, and to obtain respect for the rights to which we were entitled. as a necessity, not a choice, we have resorted to the remedy of separation; and henceforth our energies must be directed to the conduct of our own affairs, and the perpetuity of the confederacy which we have formed. if a just perception of mutual interest shall permit us peaceably to pursue our separate political career, my most earnest desire will have been fulfilled. but, if this be denied to us, and the integrity of our territory and jurisdiction be assailed, it will but remain for us, with firm resolve, to appeal to arms and invoke the blessings of providence on a just cause . .

Read the excerpt from "the storyteller." the smaller girl created a diversion by beginning to recite "on the road to mandalay.” she only knew the first line, but she put her limited knowledge to the fullest possible use. she repeated the line over and over again in a dreamy but resolute and very audible voice; it seemed to the bachelor as though some one had had a bet with her that she could not repeat the line aloud two thousand times without stopping. whoever it was who had made the wager was likely to lose his bet. "come over here and listen to a story,” said the aunt, when the bachelor had looked twice at her and once at the communication cord. the children moved listlessly towards the aunt’s end of the carriage. evidently her reputation as a storyteller did not rank high in their estimation. in a low, confidential voice, interrupted at frequent intervals by loud, petulant questionings from her listeners, she began an unenterprising and deplorably uninteresting story about a little girl who was good, and made friends with every one on account of her goodness, and was finally saved from a mad bull by a number of rescuers who admired her moral character. which instances of situational irony occur in the passage? select two options. a.) “whoever it was who had made the wager was likely to lose his bet.” b.) “‘come over here and listen to a story,’ said the aunt, when the bachelor had looked twice at her and once at the communication cord.” -- c.) “the children moved listlessly towards the aunt’s end of the carriage.” d.) “evidently her reputation as a story-teller did not rank high in their estimation.” -- e.) “in a low, confidential voice, interrupted at frequent intervals by loud, petulant questionings from her listeners, she began an unenterprising and deplorably uninteresting story about a little girl who was good.”

Is booksis boots a plural or singular noun