First Level: Paraphrasing a Text, Civil Disobedience (Second Excerpt)
In this set of activities you will be both paraphrasing and explicating
the thesis of several classic texts. You will paraphrase each excerpt
section by section, followed by explicating the texts by stating your
understanding of each one in your own words, then elaborating,
exemplifying and illustrating them. In other words, for each of the
texts in this section, you will begin by articulating them in your own
words, sentence by sentence, or in parts, as we have presented
them. Then you will explicate each one at level two.
After writing out your paraphrases in your own words, and explicating them, click on the thinker icon to see our specimen answers. You will first read the text as a whole at the beginning of each section, along with its background information, and then you will find the same text divided into parts for your practice.
After writing out your paraphrases in your own words, and explicating them, click on the thinker icon to see our specimen answers. You will first read the text as a whole at the beginning of each section, along with its background information, and then you will find the same text divided into parts for your practice.
Civil Disobedience (Second Excerpt)
Background Information:
Here is another paragraph from “Civil Disobedience,” written in 1849 by Henry David Thoreau.
Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide what is right and wrong, but conscience?... Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience, to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right... If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go... If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you can consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil: but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.
Background Information:
Here is another paragraph from “Civil Disobedience,” written in 1849 by Henry David Thoreau.
Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide what is right and wrong, but conscience?... Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience, to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right... If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go... If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you can consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil: but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.
Now that you have read the full text above, you will find the same
text in sections below. Write out your paraphrase of each section in
the box provided. Then see our specimen answers by clicking on the thinker icon.
Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide what is right and wrong, but conscience?...

Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward.

It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right...

If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go... If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you can consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil...

...but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.
