Read the excerpt from president ronald reagan’s speech on the night before the 1980 presidential election. i know that tonight the fate of america’s 52 hostages is very much on the minds of all of us. like you, there is nothing i want more than their safe return—that they be reunited with their families after this long year of imprisonment. when they have returned, all of us will be turning to the concerns that will determine the course of america in the next four years. a child born this year will begin his or her adult life in what will be the 21st century. what kind of country, what kind of legacy will we leave to these young men and women who will live out america’s third century as a nation? which techniques does president reagan use in this excerpt? select three options. pathos ethos shift understatement overstatement

Reagan's effectiveness as a public speaker earned him the tittle "Great Communicator." His oratorical style appealed to use illustrations and word pictures to make his ideas more vivid to the audience.

In the excerpt, one can identify the combined use of the following techniques:

Pathos, one of Aristotle "mode of persuasion"  by turning an emotionally difficult situation, into a hopeful on, especially for the families of the 52 hostages. This can be noted in the following fragment: Like you, there is nothing I want more than their safe return—that they be reunited with their families after this long year of imprisonment. Shift, in the following paragraph, one can identify the need to re-focus the speech to his aspirations as presidential candidate, by turning his audience attention on what he was planning to do as President: "...all of us will be turning to the concerns that will determine the course of America in the next four years. A child born this year will begin his or her adult life in what will be the 21st century."Overstatement, probably more difficult to identify but it cab be noted in the pair of questions at the end of the excert, where he brings attention to the type of Nation Americans should hel build.