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The Boys' Ambition

Storytelling as Persuasion

The Boys' Ambition

When I was a boy, there was but one permanent ambition among my comrades in our village on the west bank of the Mississippi River. That was, to be a steamboatman. We had transient ambitions of other sorts, but they were only transient. When a circus ...

— Mark Twain

Words to notice in this passage

Find these phrases in the supplied text. What changes if you remove or replace them?

  • but one permanent ambition
  • the dead town is alive and moving

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