since we have been studying about the shot heard around the world, we started to rephrase excerpt 2 which a third grader can understand. excerpt 2 is "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." what i wrote was "everybody knows that we are equal. god gave us certain rights. nobody can take those rights away.