Keep the logic when the prose gets difficult: AP English Language Study Guide

CHAPTER 10 Keep the logic when the prose gets difficult

Dense prose can hide a simple claim inside a long sentence. Locate the main clause and work outward from it, checking what pronouns refer to and how clauses connect. A plain-language restatement should preserve the original claim's scope.

Find the main clause first

A long sentence usually has one main clause carrying its central claim, surrounded by subordinate clauses and modifying phrases that add detail. Before untangling every modifier, locate the subject and verb of the main clause. Everything else attaches to that spine.

“Unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government.”

Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience,” 1849

Stripped of its opening qualifier and internal negatives, the main clause is simple: “I ask for… a better government.” The surrounding material, distinguishing his position from “no-government men” and negating the more extreme reading, modifies that core claim without replacing it.

Track the referent before guessing the meaning

Pronouns and demonstratives, it, this, that, they, only make sense once you know what they refer to. In dense prose, a pronoun's referent may be several clauses back. Before interpreting a sentence containing a pronoun, confirm what noun it stands in for.

“They convert the very name of religion into an engine of tyranny, and barbarous cruelty.”

Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” 1852

“They” refers back to “its most eloquent Divines,” mentioned in the previous sentence, not to religion itself or to the audience. Misidentifying the referent here would produce a reading in which religion converts itself, rather than the intended claim that religious leaders are responsible for the conversion.

Use context to decode unfamiliar wording

An unfamiliar word or archaic phrase does not require outside knowledge to decode if the surrounding sentence supplies enough context. Look at what the word is doing grammatically and what claim the sentence is making before assuming the word is untranslatable.

“That being kept at any alms house, or other asylum, at public expense, nor being confined at any public prison, shall deprive a person of his residence, and hence his vote.”

New York State Constitution, quoted in Susan B. Anthony, “Is It a Crime for a Citizen of the United States to Vote?” 1873

“Alms house” is unfamiliar to most modern readers, but the sentence's structure supplies enough context: it is grouped with “public prison” as a place a person might be “kept” or “confined” at public expense. That grammatical parallel is enough to infer that an alms house is an institution for people who are poor or otherwise dependent on public support, without needing outside historical knowledge.

Read one sentence for its job

In dense prose, reading for the sentence's job, what claim it makes or what evidence it supplies, is more efficient than trying to parse every word before moving on. If a sentence's job is unclear after one careful read, move to the next sentence and return once more context is available.

Hold the claim while the syntax gets longer

A passage's central claim does not disappear just because a sentence grows more complicated. Holding onto that claim while working through a long, syntactically dense sentence prevents a difficult passage from feeling like it has lost all structure.

“Sleep recommendations for adolescents are developed by panels that review evidence from many types of studies. A panel may use a formal consensus process to judge whether a proposed sleep range is appropriate when the evidence does not yield one precise threshold.”

Author-created technical passage for exam practice.

The second sentence's technical vocabulary, “formal consensus process,” can obscure a fairly simple claim: a group of experts used a structured method to agree on how much sleep teenagers need. Holding onto that core claim makes the technical terminology easier to place rather than intimidating.

Preserve the claim when simplifying technical prose

Restating a technical sentence in plainer language is a useful check on understanding, but the restatement should preserve the sentence's actual claim rather than smoothing away a distinction that matters. “Experts agreed on sleep guidelines” captures the previous example's claim; “scientists say sleep is good” loses the specific claim about a formal, structured process.

Use notes according to their job

A bracketed citation number usually points to a source and is not a new claim. An explanatory footnote can be different: it may define an unfamiliar term, identify a person, translate a phrase, or supply context needed to understand the passage. Read a note when it changes meaning; do not let a citation marker interrupt the argument's flow.

Reconnect the sentence to the passage

After working through one especially difficult sentence, return to the passage's larger structure rather than assuming the difficulty has changed the passage's overall claim. One hard sentence is usually still doing the same job in the larger argument that an easier sentence would have done in its place.

EXAM DIAMOND

On a difficult sentence, recover the main clause before interpreting the details around it. Reconnect pronouns and modifiers only after the core claim is stable. A plain-language restatement should preserve the original scope.

CONSTRUCTED-RESPONSE DRILL

Drill: Find the main clause

“The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it.”

Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience,” 1849

Identify the main clause of the second sentence, setting aside the subordinate clause beginning with “which.” Then state the sentence's claim in one plain sentence of your own.

Model reasoning: The main clause is “The government itself... is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it.” The subordinate clause, “which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will,” adds a definition of government without changing the sentence's central claim. In plain terms: government can be misused before ordinary people get the chance to fix it through normal means.

CHAPTER 10 PRACTICE

This set draws on two historical and two technical passages, each denser than earlier chapters' material. Answer all twenty-four questions before checking explanations.

Passage 1

Historical

“The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for, in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure.”

Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience,” 1849

Passage 2

Historical

“Many of its most eloquent Divines... have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. They have taught that man may, properly, be a slave; that the relation of master and slave is ordained of God; that to send back an escaped bondman to his master is clearly the duty of all the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ; and this horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world for Christianity.”

Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” 1852

Passage 3

Technical

“Sleep recommendations for adolescents are developed by panels that review evidence from many types of studies. A panel may use a formal consensus process to judge whether a proposed sleep range is appropriate when the evidence does not yield one precise threshold. The resulting recommendation is a range, not a guarantee that every individual will function best at exactly the same number of hours. Regular sleep within the recommended range is associated with better attention, learning, and daytime functioning. Persistent sleep below that range is associated with more difficulty in those same areas.”

Author-created technical passage for exam practice.

Passage 4

Technical

“It says: ‘Laws may be passed excluding from the right of suffrage all persons who have been or may be convicted of bribery, larceny or any infamous crime.’ In naming the various employments that shall not affect the residence of voters, the 3d section of article 2d says ‘that being kept at any alms house, or other asylum, at public expense, nor being confined at any public prison, shall deprive a person of his residence,’ and hence his vote. Thus is the right of voting most sacredly hedged about.”

New York State Constitution, quoted in Susan B. Anthony, “Is It a Crime for a Citizen of the United States to Vote?” 1873

Question 1

What is the main clause of the passage's second sentence, setting aside the subordinate clause beginning with “which”?

A. “The government itself... is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it”
B. “which is only the mode”
C. “the people have chosen to execute their will”
D. “The standing army is only an arm”

Question 2

What does “it” refer to in the phrase “before the people can act through it”?

A. The standing army
B. The government
C. The Mexican war
D. The people's will

Question 3

What claim does the final sentence, about the Mexican war, provide evidence for?

A. That war is always avoidable
B. That the standing army acted independently of the government
C. That the people fully supported the war from its beginning
D. That government can be used as a tool by a small group before the broader populace has any chance to object

Question 4

Which phrase provides enough context to infer that “perverted” here means misused or corrupted, without needing outside historical knowledge?

A. The reference to the Mexican war specifically
B. The word “standing” used earlier in the passage
C. Its pairing with “abused,” a more familiar word with a similar negative meaning applied to the same subject
D. The phrase “execute their will”

Question 5

Which phrase most limits the warning in Thoreau's second sentence by showing when governmental misuse is most dangerous?

A. “The government itself”
B. “which is only the mode which the people have chosen”
C. “equally liable to be abused and perverted”
D. “before the people can act through it”

Question 6

Which best restates the passage's central claim in plain language without losing its specific point?

A. Government is always bad
B. Armies should never exist
C. Government, though meant to carry out the people's will, can be misused by a small group before ordinary people have any chance to stop it
D. The Mexican war was popular

Question 7

How does the phrase “the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool” help a reader understand the sentence about the Mexican War?

A. It immediately explains how Thoreau is characterizing the war before the sentence moves to the question of public consent
B. It marks the end of the sentence and separates the war from the argument about government
C. It introduces an unrelated historical fact with no role in the claim
D. It signals that Thoreau is uncertain about who was responsible for the war

Question 8

What does “they” refer to in the sentence beginning “They have taught…”?

A. The enslaved people discussed throughout the speech
B. The audience listening to the speech
C. “Its most eloquent Divines,” introduced in the previous sentence
D. The entire nation of the United States

Question 9

What is the main clause structure of the long second sentence, which lists three things “they have taught” before its final independent clause?

A. The entire sentence is a single independent clause with no internal structure
B. Each of the three “that” clauses is fully independent of the others
C. The sentence contains no subordinate clauses at all
D. “They have taught that...” introduces three parallel subordinate clauses, followed by the independent clause “this horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world for Christianity”

Question 10

What is the effect of moving from three parallel “that” clauses into the final independent clause, “this horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world for Christianity”?

A. It repeats the same content as the three “that” clauses without adding anything
B. It shifts from reporting what the Divines taught to Douglass's own direct judgment on that teaching
C. It introduces a compliment toward the religious leaders described
D. It shifts the passage to an entirely unrelated topic

Question 11

Which context clue helps a reader infer that “bondman” refers to an enslaved person, without needing outside historical knowledge?

A. The word's similarity to “bond,” a financial term
B. Its position at the end of the sentence
C. Its pairing with “escaped” and “master,” words that together establish a relationship of captivity and ownership
D. The reference to “the Lord Jesus Christ” later in the sentence

Question 12

Which paraphrase best preserves the force of Douglass's phrase “this horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world for Christianity”?

A. Religious leaders openly admit that their teaching has nothing to do with Christianity
B. Douglass argues that religious leaders present a corrupted defense of slavery as if it were genuine Christianity
C. Douglass concludes that every Christian teaching is a defense of slavery
D. Douglass shifts from slavery to a separate argument about religious doctrine

Question 13

Which best restates this passage's central claim in plain language without losing its specific point?

A. Religion is bad
B. Religious leaders defended slavery using the Bible, and Douglass considers that defense a corruption of genuine Christianity
C. The Bible says nothing about slavery
D. Douglass agrees with the religious leaders' teaching

Question 14

What is the main claim of the second sentence, once the phrase “formal consensus process” is treated as a detail about method?

A. One study can determine an exact sleep threshold for every adolescent
B. A panel can use a structured agreement process when the evidence does not produce one precise threshold
C. Sleep recommendations are based only on individual preference
D. Adolescents all function best at the same number of hours

Question 15

Without looking up “consensus,” what does the sentence suggest the word means?

A. A measurement device
B. A disagreement that cannot be resolved
C. Agreement reached by a group using a defined process
D. A laboratory test performed on one person

Question 16

How do the final two sentences relate to each other?

A. They repeat the same claim
B. They form a parallel contrast between outcomes associated with sleeping within the recommended range and outcomes associated with falling below it
C. The second cancels the first
D. They address unrelated populations

Question 17

Which phrase can a reader temporarily bracket while first recovering the second sentence's main claim?

A. “A panel may use”
B. “a formal consensus process”
C. “to judge whether a proposed sleep range is appropriate”
D. “when the evidence does not yield one precise threshold”

Question 18

Which best restates the passage's central claim without losing its limits?

A. More sleep is always better
B. Every adolescent needs exactly the same amount of sleep
C. Expert panels use evidence and structured judgment to recommend a sleep range, and sleep within or below that range is associated with different daytime outcomes
D. Consensus is the only valid way to study sleep

Question 19

What is the main claim of the quoted constitutional passage, once its technical legal phrasing is set aside?

A. Voting rights can be revoked for certain crimes, but temporary residence at a poorhouse or prison does not itself take away a person's right to vote
B. Everyone automatically has the right to vote with no exceptions
C. Only wealthy citizens may vote
D. Voting rights are determined solely by a person's employment

Question 20

What does “his” refer to in the phrase “shall deprive a person of his residence, and hence his vote”?

A. The reader of the constitution
B. The person mentioned earlier in the same clause, whose residence status is being discussed
C. Susan B. Anthony
D. The state of New York

Question 21

Which context clue helps a reader infer that “suffrage” refers to the right to vote, without needing outside knowledge?

A. Its similarity to the word “suffer”
B. Its position at the start of the passage
C. Its use in a clause about who may be “excluded” for crimes, followed later in the passage by explicit discussion of “vote” and “voting”
D. The mention of “bribery” specifically

Question 22

A reader, confused by the phrase “the 3d section of article 2d,” treats it as an essential argument rather than a citation. What is the clearest problem with this response?

A. The phrase is the passage's most important claim
B. The passage cannot be understood without researching this specific article and section
C. This phrase contradicts the passage's main point
D. This phrase functions as a citation locating the quoted material within the constitution, not as a claim requiring separate analysis

Question 23

Which best restates this passage's central claim in plain language without losing its specific legal point?

A. The law disqualifies voters convicted of certain crimes but protects the voting rights of people whose residence is only at a poorhouse or prison due to public support or confinement
B. The law is complicated and hard to understand
C. Poor people cannot vote under this law
D. Only criminals are affected by this section of the constitution

Question 24

How does the final sentence, “Thus is the right of voting most sacredly hedged about,” function in relation to the two quoted legal provisions before it?

A. It summarizes and interprets the two provisions together, characterizing their combined effect as strong legal protection for the right to vote
B. It introduces a third, previously unmentioned legal provision
C. It contradicts the two provisions quoted earlier
D. It shifts the passage's focus away from voting entirely

ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS

Show the answers and explanations

1. Correct answer: A

A (correct): This is the sentence's core claim; the subordinate clause defining government as “the mode which the people have chosen” modifies this claim without replacing it.

B: This is the subordinate clause itself, which defines government but does not carry the sentence's main claim.

C: This phrase is part of the subordinate clause's internal structure, not the sentence's independent main clause.

D: This is the first sentence of the passage, not the main clause of the second sentence the question asks about.

2. Correct answer: B

A: The standing army was mentioned in the previous sentence but is not the referent of “it” in this clause, which follows immediately after “the government.”

B (correct): “It” refers back to “the government itself,” the subject of the main clause, meaning the people can eventually correct abuse through the same governmental mode.

C: The Mexican war is introduced in the sentence that follows and is not yet the referent for this earlier pronoun.

D: While “will” appears nearby, the pronoun “it” most directly refers to “the government itself,” the subject being described as liable to abuse.

3. Correct answer: D

A: The passage does not make a general claim about the avoidability of war; it uses this specific war as an example of a different point about government's susceptibility to misuse.

B: The passage's opening sentence explicitly connects the army to the government as its “arm,” not as an independent actor.

C: The passage explicitly states the opposite: that the people “would not have consented to this measure” at the outset.

D (correct): The Mexican war example specifically illustrates the previous sentence's abstract claim about government being “abused and perverted” by showing a concrete case of a few individuals acting before the people's consent was possible.

4. Correct answer: C

A: The war reference comes in the following sentence and functions as an example, not as context that defines the word “perverted” itself.

B: “Standing,” describing the army and government as permanent institutions, does not supply context for the meaning of “perverted.”

C (correct): “Abused and perverted” pairs an unfamiliar-feeling word with a more familiar synonym describing the same negative treatment of government, letting context supply the meaning.

D: This phrase describes government's intended function, not context that clarifies the meaning of “perverted.”

5. Correct answer: D

A: This phrase names the subject of the sentence but does not itself limit the warning by specifying timing.

B: This subordinate clause defines government but does not identify when misuse becomes most dangerous.

C: This phrase states the general claim of susceptibility to misuse but does not itself add the timing limitation.

D (correct): The phrase limits the claim by identifying the timing problem: misuse can occur before ordinary people can respond through the system.

6. Correct answer: C

A: This restatement loses the passage's specific claim about timing and misuse, flattening it into an unsupported absolute judgment the passage does not make.

B: This restatement addresses only the army mentioned in the opening sentence and misses the passage's actual claim about government being misused.

C (correct): This restatement preserves the passage's specific claim about the timing problem, misuse occurring before the people can act, rather than flattening it into a vaguer statement.

D: This restatement directly contradicts the passage, which states the people would not have consented to the war at the outset.

7. Correct answer: A

A (correct): This phrase clarifies what kind of event the war was, a small group's use of government machinery, right after it is introduced, before the sentence adds its further claim about the people's lack of consent.

B: This phrase does not end the sentence; the sentence continues afterward, and the phrase connects rather than separates the war from the argument about government.

C: This phrase is directly connected to the sentence's claim about the war, not an unrelated fact.

D: The confident, specific phrasing indicates certainty about who was responsible, not uncertainty.

8. Correct answer: C

A: The enslaved people are not the subject performing the teaching described here; the Divines are.

B: The audience is not the antecedent of “they” in this sentence, which refers back to the religious leaders just mentioned.

C (correct): The pronoun refers back to the religious leaders named in the preceding sentence, not to religion or the enslaved people discussed elsewhere in the speech.

D: The nation as a whole is not the specific antecedent here; the sentence's subject is the religious leaders introduced in the prior sentence.

9. Correct answer: D

A: The sentence contains multiple parallel subordinate clauses introduced by “that,” followed by a distinct final independent clause, not a single undifferentiated structure.

B: The three “that” clauses are grammatically parallel and dependent on “they have taught,” not independent of one another or of that introductory phrase.

C: The sentence contains three subordinate clauses, each introduced by “that,” embedded within the larger sentence.

D (correct): The sentence's structure uses “they have taught that” to introduce three parallel content clauses before shifting to a final independent clause that delivers Douglass's own judgment on what has just been described.

10. Correct answer: B

A: The final clause adds Douglass's own evaluative judgment, which the preceding reporting clauses did not include.

B (correct): The three “that” clauses report content; the final independent clause delivers Douglass's own evaluative judgment, “horrible blasphemy,” marking a shift from report to condemnation.

C: “Horrible blasphemy” is a strongly negative judgment, not a compliment.

D: The final clause remains directly connected to the same subject, the religious leaders' teachings, rather than shifting to something unrelated.

11. Correct answer: C

A: While the words share a root, the financial association would mislead rather than clarify meaning here; the surrounding relational context, not the word's resemblance to a financial term, supplies the correct sense.

B: Sentence position alone does not supply the contextual information needed to infer meaning; the surrounding relational words do.

C (correct): The surrounding words, an “escaped” person being returned to a “master,” supply enough relational context to infer that “bondman” names someone held in servitude.

D: This later religious reference does not supply context for the specific relationship of captivity that “bondman” describes.

12. Correct answer: B

A: The passage does not describe the leaders as admitting this; Douglass, not the leaders, identifies the teaching as a corruption passed off as genuine faith.

B (correct): The phrase condemns the presentation of a corrupted teaching as authentic religion; it does not condemn every Christian teaching or change subjects.

C: Douglass condemns this specific corrupted teaching, not Christianity as a whole; this option overstates the claim into a universal condemnation.

D: The sentence remains focused on the specific corruption used to defend slavery; it does not shift to an unrelated doctrinal argument.

13. Correct answer: B

A: This restatement loses the passage's specific claim about particular religious leaders defending slavery, flattening it into an unsupported general statement about religion as a whole.

B (correct): This restatement preserves the passage's specific claims: who did the defending, what they claimed, and Douglass's specific judgment on that defense.

C: This restatement misrepresents the passage, which describes religious leaders' claims about the Bible rather than making a direct claim about the Bible's actual content.

D: This restatement directly contradicts the passage, which explicitly condemns the teaching as “horrible blasphemy.”

14. Correct answer: B

A: The passage describes a range produced through structured judgment, not a single study establishing one exact threshold.

B (correct): The sentence's main claim is that a panel can use a structured agreement process when the evidence does not yield one precise threshold. The method is important, but it supports the claim instead of replacing it.

C: The passage describes a structured, evidence-reviewing panel process, not a recommendation based on individual preference.

D: The passage explicitly describes a range, not a single identical number that applies to every adolescent.

15. Correct answer: C

A: Nothing in the sentence's context suggests a physical device; the word describes a process of group judgment.

B: This is the opposite of what the sentence's context suggests; a panel reaching a judgment together implies agreement, not unresolved disagreement.

C (correct): The sentence describes a panel using a shared process to make a judgment. That context supports “agreement reached by a group.”

D: The sentence describes a panel's judgment process, not a laboratory test on an individual.

16. Correct answer: B

A: The two sentences describe different, contrasting outcomes rather than repeating one claim.

B (correct): The final two sentences mirror each other. One describes outcomes associated with sleeping within the range; the other describes difficulties associated with falling below it.

C: The second sentence does not cancel the first; both stand as complementary halves of a parallel contrast.

D: Both sentences address the same population and the same recommended sleep range, not unrelated groups.

17. Correct answer: B

A: This phrase names the sentence's subject and action and is needed to recover its basic claim, not a phrase that can be set aside.

B (correct): “Formal consensus process” names the method. A reader can set the method label aside on the first pass and still recover the sentence's main claim.

C: This phrase states the purpose of the panel's judgment and is needed to understand the sentence's basic claim.

D: This phrase states the specific condition under which the process applies and is needed to understand the sentence's basic claim.

18. Correct answer: C

A: This restatement introduces an absolute claim the passage does not make; the passage describes a range and associated outcomes, not a claim that more is always better.

B: This contradicts the passage's description of a range rather than one identical number for every individual.

C (correct): This choice preserves the passage's limits: a recommended range, a structured expert process, and associations with daytime outcomes. It does not turn those associations into guarantees.

D: The passage does not claim this process is the only valid way to study sleep; it describes the specific method used for this particular recommendation.

19. Correct answer: A

A (correct): This restates the passage's two specific legal points: crime can disqualify a voter, but institutional residence due to poverty or imprisonment does not, by itself, disqualify one.

B: The passage explicitly names an exception, exclusion for bribery, larceny, or other infamous crimes, so this restatement is inaccurate.

C: The passage does not restrict voting to wealthy citizens; it specifically addresses that residence in an alms house does not remove voting rights.

D: The passage discusses residence and criminal conviction as relevant factors, not employment as the determining factor for voting rights.

20. Correct answer: B

A: The pronoun does not refer to the reader; it refers to “a person” named within the quoted legal text itself.

B (correct): “His” refers back to “a person,” the subject of the clause, connecting residence status directly to that same individual's voting eligibility.

C: Anthony is quoting this constitutional language rather than being its subject; “his” refers to the generic “person” described in the law.

D: The state is not a person and is not the antecedent of this pronoun, which refers to an individual voter.

21. Correct answer: C

A: This surface resemblance would mislead rather than clarify meaning; the passage's later explicit references to voting are what actually supply the correct context.

B: Sentence position alone does not supply the contextual information needed to infer meaning; the later explicit references to voting do.

C (correct): The passage's later explicit use of “vote” and “voting” in connection with the same subject, exclusion and residence, supplies enough context to confirm that “suffrage” concerns the same right.

D: While bribery is one disqualifying crime named, it alone does not establish that “suffrage” specifically means the right to vote; the later voting references do that work.

22. Correct answer: D

A: This phrase is a locational citation, not the passage's central claim, which concerns voting eligibility and residence.

B: The passage's core claims about crime, residence, and voting rights are understandable without researching the specific article and section number, which functions only as a citation.

C: This phrase does not contradict anything; it simply locates the quoted material within the constitutional text.

D (correct): This is the chapter's lesson about footnote-like references: a citation supplies a source, and treating it as an argument in its own right distracts from the passage's actual claims.

23. Correct answer: A

A (correct): This restatement preserves both specific legal points: criminal disqualification and the protection of voting rights despite institutional residence, rather than flattening them into a vague generality.

B: This restatement fails to state any of the passage's actual legal content, offering only a vague comment about difficulty.

C: This restatement directly contradicts the passage, which specifically protects the voting rights of people residing in an alms house due to poverty.

D: This restatement misses the passage's second point about residence in an alms house or asylum, which does not involve criminal conviction.

24. Correct answer: A

A (correct): After quoting two separate technical provisions, this sentence steps back to state what their combined effect means, functioning as an interpretive summary rather than introducing new legal content.

B: This sentence does not introduce new legal content; it interprets and summarizes the two provisions already quoted.

C: This sentence affirms and characterizes the two provisions rather than contradicting them.

D: This sentence remains focused on voting rights, explicitly naming “the right of voting” as its subject.