Read the excerpt from "A Quilt of a Country."What is the point of this splintered whole? What is the point of a nation in which Arab cabbies chauffeur Jewish passengers through the streets of New York—and in which Jewish cabbies chauffeur Arab passengers, too, and yet speak in theory of hatred, one for the other? What is the point of a nation in which one part seems to be always on the verge of fisticuffs with another, blacks and whites, gays and straights, left and right, Pole and Chinese and Puerto Rican and Slovenian? Other countries with such divisions have in fact divided into new nations with new names, but not this one, impossibly interwoven even in its hostilities.
President Reagan’s speech was mainly written to
[BLANK]
Who tells the story and how it is told are known as
Read the excerpt from Outcasts United.Somehow, Luma would have to find a way to get all these kids to play as a unit. "It was about trying to figure out what they have in common," she said.While Luma was trying to find a way to get the kids to play together, she was also getting to know their parents, most of whom were single mothers. She quickly discovered that these women needed help—mostly in understanding paperwork. With her Arabic and French, Luma was able to translate documents and answer some of their questions. She made appointments with doctors and social workers. Luma gave her cell phone number to her players and their families, and soon they were calling with requests for help. Teachers learned to call Luma when her players' parents couldn't be found or were at work. The families showed their gratitude by offering Luma tea and inviting her to dinner. Luma felt needed, and couldn't help but notice how much better this kind of work felt than running Ashton's.
Read the excerpt from President Ronald Reagan’s Address at Moscow State University.But I hope you know I go on about these things not simply to extol the virtues of my own country but to speak to the true greatness of the heart and soul of your land. Who, after all, needs to tell the land of Dostoyevsky about the quest for truth, the home of Kandinsky and Scriabin about imagination, the rich and noble culture of the Uzbek man of letters Alisher Navoi about beauty and heart? The great culture of your diverse land speaks with a glowing passion to all humanity.
Read the excerpt from President Reagan’s Address at Moscow State University.Even as we explore the most advanced reaches of science, we're returning to the age-old wisdom of our culture, a wisdom contained in the book of Genesis in the Bible . . .
Which statements about Outcasts United express theme? Check all that apply.
Read the excerpt from "A Quilt of a Country."America is an improbable idea. A mongrel nation built of ever-changing disparate parts, it is held together by a notion, the notion that all men are created equal, though everyone knows that most men consider themselves better than someone. "Of all the nations in the world, the United States was built in nobody's image," the historian Daniel Boorstin wrote. That's because it was built of bits and pieces that seem discordant, like the crazy quilts that have been one of its great folk-art forms, velvet and calico and checks and brocades. Out of many, one. That is the ideal.The reality is often quite different, a great national striving consisting frequently of failure. Many of the oft-told stories of the most pluralistic nation on earth are stories not of tolerance, but of bigotry. Slavery and sweatshops, the burning of crosses and the ostracism of the other. Children learn in social-studies class and in the news of the lynching of blacks, the denial of rights to women, the murders of gay men. It is difficult to know how to convince them that this amounts to "crown thy good with brotherhood," that amid all the failures is something spectacularly successful. Perhaps they understand it at this moment [in the aftermath of 9/11], when enormous tragedy, as it so often does, demands a time of reflection on enormous blessings.
Read the excerpt from "A Quilt of a Country."Today the citizens of the United States have come together once more because of armed conflict and enemy attack. Terrorism has led to devastation—and unity.
Read the excerpt from Outcasts United.Luma pulled her Volkswagen Beetle into the center's parking lot on a sunny June afternoon in 2004, before her team's first tryouts. She wasn't sure what kind of response her flyers had generated among the boys in the complexes around Clarkston. They were naturally wary.But on the other side of town, Jeremiah Ziaty had no doubt about his enthusiasm for the new team. His mother was still at work when he set out from the family's apartment, a small backpack on his shoulder, ready to play.When Jeremiah arrived at the center, he joined twenty-two other boys on the small field behind the building.
A word’s denotation is
Did you find these answers helpful?