50 Great Essays:

 

Identify the following passages.  What essay are they from?  Why is the passage significant? (Pick 15)

 

 

1.  ³This used to enrage my instructor. He would wander around the laboratory pleased with the progress all the students were making in drawing the involved and, so I am told, interesting structure of flower cells, until he came to me.²

 

 

 

2.  ³For it is almost an unpardonable offence to teach slaves to read in this Christian country.²

 

 

 3.  "Instead of the macho, trigger-happy man our culture has perversely wanted him to be, the cowboy is more apt to be convivial, quirky, and softhearted."

 

 

4.  "I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout."

 

 

 

5.  ³A company friend said, ³I know how much you will miss him.²  And she answered ³I already have.²

 

 

 6.  "The minute I set foot upon the island I could feel all that it stood for: insecurity,obedience, anxiety, dehumanization, the terrified and careful deference of the displaced."

 

 

  7. "If my cup wont hold but a pint and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little measure full?"

 

 

 

8. ³Everyone sees what you appear to be, few really know what you areŠ.²

 

 

9.  ³There`s such a difference between the way we really live and the way we ought to live that the man     who neglects the real to study the ideal will learn how to accomplish his ruin, not his salvation²

 

 

 10.   "It is fashionable in some quarters to describe the feminine and masculine principles as polar ends of the human continuum and to sagely profess that both polarities exist in all people. Sun and moon, ying and yang, soft and hard, active and passive, etcetera, may indeed be opposites, but a linear continuum does not illuminate the problem."

 

 

 11.    "To preen, for a woman, can never be just a pleasure. It is also a duty. It is her work.

 

 

12. "O yes, he seemed to say, death is stronger than I am.

 

 

 

13. "We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain in-alienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

 

 

 

 

  14. "Presumably on the premise that marriage, like craps, is a game to be played when the table seems hot.

 

 

 

 

15. ³Nothing is more distasteful than that entire complacency and satisfaction which beam in the countenances of a new- married couple²

 

 

 

16.  ³If we are going to avoid unnecessary violence, we all need to Œkeep our cool.¹ So let¹s try to be more considerate, OK? Otherwise I will kill you.

 

 

 

17.     "Men assemble in crowds, with eager enthusiasm to witness a tragedy: but if there were an execution going forward in the next street, as Mr. Burke observes, the theater would be left empty."

 

 

 

Support:

 

Read the following arguments.  Cite an essay that could be used to support that point and explain the link in one sentence.

 

 

 

  1. A woman could become President of the U.S.

 

 

 

 

 

  1. A black man could become president of the U.S.

 

 

 

 

  1. Negative campaigning works.

 

 

 

 

  1. Non-profits should publish and proclaim lists of their donors.

 

 

 

 

  1. People should take more sick days.

 

 

 

  1. Marry your friend, not your soulmate.

 

 

 

  1. Buy lottery tickets

 

 

 

  1. Everything we do is pointless.

 

 

 

  1. Don¹t cut down the trees in your yard.

 

 

 

  1. Go ahead, cut down the trees in your yard.