Read the following passage from "Their Finest Hour," by Winston Churchill. He delivered the speech to the House of Commons on June 18, 1940, shortly after Great
Britain suffered heavy losses at the Battle of France.
[T]he winter will impose a strain upon the Nazi regime, with
almost all Europe writhing and starving under its cruel heel,
which, for all their ruthlessness, will run them very hard. We must
not forget that from the moment when we declared war on the
3rd September it was always possible for Germany to turn all her
Air Force upon this country, together with any other devices of
invasion she might conceive, and that France could have done
little or nothing to prevent her doing so. We have, therefore, lived
under this danger, in principle and in a slightly modified form,
during all these months. In the meanwhile, however, we have
enormously improved our methods of defense, and we have
learned what we had no right to assume at the beginning, namely,
that the individual aircraft and the individual British pilot have a
sure and definite superiority. Therefore, in casting up this dread
balance sheet and contemplating our dangers with a
disillusioned eye, I see great reason for intense vigilance and
exertion, but none whatever for panic or despair.
Explain the comparison that Churchill makes in the last sentence of the passage,
How is the content of the passage similar to a bookkeeper's balance sheet which is
a summary of what a company owns and owes as well as how much people have
invested in the company? Then analyze how the comparison helps Churchill fulfill his
purpose of persuading the British people to stand firm despite recent setbacks
Support your ideas with specific details from the passage