Question 7 and 8 is based on the following excerpt.

“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great Britain, is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the States.”

_____ The Declaration of Independence, 1776

(7) In context, what is the best substitute for the word “Prudence”?

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7 points
A. good judgment
B. divine knowledge
C. rash thinking
D. caution
(8) According to the passage, for what reason do the colonists claim independence from Great Britain?

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7 points
A. a desire to maintain their own religious traditions
B. an opportunity to ally themselves with other nations
C. a natural right to break free of oppressive rulers
D. an attempt to establish their own currency