Premise: Australian aborigines have long sought acknowledgment of the atrocities inflicted upon them.

Hypothesis: Aborigines were treated terribly.
Answer: yes

Premise: That you should be so ignorant, though you were considered brilliant is a sad commentary on your world.

Hypothesis: That is why no one ever thought of you as smart or clever/
Answer: no

Premise: If you portray everything as a scandal, no one will care when something really is scandalous.

Hypothesis: When a real scandal takes place nobody will care as much when all actions could be portrayed as scandalous.
Answer: yes

Premise: Because, in all this house of mourning, yours are the only eyes that have wept." Miss Howard blinked, and a new note crept into the gruffness of her voice.

Hypothesis: Miss Howard's gruff voices got low and intimidating as she blinked.
Answer: it is not possible to tell