Category: Literacy

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College Essay – Deconstructing Hate

The Vietnamese are obnoxious. The Vietnamese cause woe and degradation. The Vietnamese are the root of social and environmental ills: illegal logging, trawling, overfishing, pollution, poverty, and land scarcity. The Vietnamese enter Cambodia with ulterior motives: to shred our nation, to colonize us, and to weed out our Khmer culture.

This is the sentiment of my people toward the Vietnamese. This anti-Vietnam antagonism exists because of our embittered history—losing our territory. In an article entitled “Out of 20 of my friends, 17 hate the Vietnamese,” the Phnom Penh Post stated that the Vietnamese began to occupy our land in the 17th century, conquered Cambodia and seized Phnom Penh in the 19th century; they controlled our kingdom during the French Protectorate, and stole two pieces of ancestral Khmer land. What is even worse is that their involvement during the ferocious Khmer Rouge regime still haunts Cambodians, especially the older generation. Because of this savagery, there is justification for our suspicion and hostility; however, does a painful history justify the hate and prejudice of today?

In 2017, my classmates and I visited Vietnam for the very first time for Model United Nations (MUN). Along the way, I had a mixed feeling of how I should behave in a communist country and how the Vietnamese were going to perceive us. I expected Vietnam to be a sour land of mystery and depravity. Nevertheless, my expectation was proven wrong by my interaction with Vietnamese.

Sitting in a taxi, chattering mirthfully, my friends and learning facilitators and I were heading to the water park for relaxation on a sunny day. But suddenly, the rain started to pour.  As the coldness soared and the traffic swelled, the loudness of our voices died, and the lethargy soon suffused the atmosphere. I then reached for my phone to play music, and soon, everyone started to sing along. Since then, all our voices started to mute the music; but not for long because the driver saved our day. He turned his head to look and held a speaker cable to give to us. Just by this one simple act, our day was saturated with delight and our memory selectively captured this moment.

In 2018, I participated in a MUN in Vietnam again, and to say that I did not worry about my destination and their people would be a lie—residue of prejudice are still alive. But I would say that because of my last experience in Vietnam, my hesitancy had diminished.

Contentedly entering a Circle K store located in Saigon, my friends and I strolled through the door with dance moves, singing to the song of “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran. We smiled, we shouted, and we laughed. Not just us, but also the Vietnamese cashier.

He complimented, he conversed, and he loved it. At that moment, I knew that the fire of hate in me had been extinguished.

In the same year, I was accepted by the secretary team to be a Deputy Chair (student officer) of Disarmament and International Security General Assembly of the MUN again, but this time the event was held in Cambodia. Now, it was time for me to completely cease the fire.

Welcoming my Vietnamese Head Chair to Cambodia for the first time with a hug and a smile, we were ready to serve. We collaborated to lead the committee to a successful path by guiding the delegates through the process and the protocols. Even though she was my Head Chair, we divided the tasks and the power equally. Together, we managed all the struggles and concerns carefully and were able to create memorable days for the delegates and for us; she was able to remove the last lingering barriers that I had with Vietnamese. I finally learned that I as a Cambodian citizen could cooperate with and really like a Vietnamese person.

My intention of bringing up these small snapshots is to illustrate that we can learn from the past to rewrite our future. We need to cooperate to extinguish the fire of hate; hate is a blindfold that block the beauty of people. By directly working and conversing with my Vietnamese counterparts, I have found the means to socially deconstruct my own anti-Vietnamese sentiment, and I hope that I can do it for others too.

 

Photo Source: http://observe.asia/senior-military-leader-of-china-meets-with-cambodian-military-delegation/

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Which is the Real America?

The first cohort of Liger Leadership Academy is going to take SAT in the 6th of October, and since the history and literature sections of SAT are closely tied with American history, Literacy Round One has focused on the theme of America.

In this class, we were given six American-history texts from CommonLit to read and analysis each week: Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death, Excerpts from Thomas Jefferson’s Writing on American Indians, Causes of the American Civil War, America’s Shifting Views on Immigration, Excerpt from The Jungle, and The Great Depression. To further understand these oppressive issues, we also read additional articles from Newsela and watched videos and part of a documentary series.

Within each text, we had to read, annotate, answer multiple choice and writing prompt questions, research the meaning(s) and part of speech of each vocabulary and write a sentence for each part of speech as well as discuss the text and related topics with our friends and learning facilitator. To better manage our time, we usually talked about the text and any word that we struggled to understand on Monday, discussed about multiple choice questions and writing prompt(s) on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, and worked independently on our “Vocabulary Exploration” and answered the questions on CommonLit on Thursday.

Personally, I am always eager to learn about world history because it helped me to understand the past events that affect each country today. For instance, when I read and discussed about Causes of the American Civil War, I now fully understand why racism is still a reality in America. Hundreds of years ago, black people were considered an “inferior” species until the point that they were used as “property.” Even though that we now in the 21st century, many Americans still suffer from discrimination, injustices, and exploitation.

In addition to the importance of learning history, these texts has taught me that the America that I used to think of is not always the truth. I used to believe that America is a land that fills with amazing opportunities and happiness; however, after reading these texts, that is not always the case: America has suffered and currently face with many atrocious issues. So, which one do you believe is the real America?

Causes of the American Civil War

Question: Analyze how the differing views on slavery between the North and South resulted in the Civil War.
 
As the Constitutional Convention of 1787 called both the North and the South to form “a single federal government,” there was a dispute among the two colonies: they had different perspectives on slavery. The North viewed slavery as a sin and therefore should be eradicated; whereas the South, they believed that slavery is “the basis of Southern life”‒ therefore ending it will threaten the Southern way of life ‒ and declared that it is ”ordained by God.” Because of these opposite stances, they had lead to virulence and violence. To abolish slavery, the North “volunteers patrolled streets to rescue fugitive blacks from the slave catchers.” This action has caused the southerners to respond “with an increasingly virulent hateful attacks on their critics.” This shows that the South really did detest the North’s effort to free the slaves. In addition to the adverse effect of their views, two days later after a “scathing speech” was delivered in June 1856, a Southern congressmen “severely beat the abolitionist with a gold walking cane.” This reflects the antagonism that the southerners had toward the abolitionists. These heterogeneous viewpoints on slavery demonstrate how they contributed to the cause of the Civil War.
 

America’s Shifting Views on Immigration

Excerpt from the Jungle

The Great Depression

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How can Wonder Woman’s bracelets deflect bullets?

Wonder Woman has many superpowers: reflexes, superhuman strength, superhuman speed, and durability. Reflexes refers to the ability to react quickly, superhuman strength is when you are physically stronger than the maximum strength that humans and animals can achieve, superhuman speed is about the ability to move faster that what is possible in our real world, and durability is the ability of be able to use for a long time without getting damaged. Examining the movie and the comics, the durability of Wonder Woman’s unbreakable bracelets have the ability to deflect bullets. This depends on how quickly she reacts to those bullets, and how those bracelets ensure that not a lot of momentum gets passed to Wonder Woman.

Since momentum is always conserved, the total momentum of the bullet and Wonder Woman before the collision must be equivalent to the total momentum of them after the collision. As the bullet hits her, small portion of bullet’s velocity gets transferred to her, which  cause her to move back just a little bit. Then, the bullet will bounce off of her bracelet at smaller velocity than its initial velocity because its final velocity has to combined with Wonder Woman’s velocity to be equal to their total momentum before the crash. Even though Wonder Woman receives small recoil velocity, we can not really see her bounce off like the bullet because that velocity is very tiny.

The explanation of the law of conservation of momentum does make sense, and it is realistic. To make momentum conserved, the bullet has to bounce back with smaller velocity, and Woman Woman will get some velocity from the bullet to move back as well. However, superhuman speed, superhuman strength, reflexes, and durability are seemed as impossible to achieve in our real world. Are there any human that can move faster or physically stronger than the maximum strength and speed that any organism in our planet can do? Additionally, we have not found any material that can used to create objects that resist damage. Also, Wonder Woman’s reaction time has to be small in order to deflect a bullet. There was a scene in the movie that the shooter is 5 meter away from her and that means her reaction time is approximately .01 second, which is incredibly small for our humans to have.  In order to make “reflexes” superpower more physically realistic, the movies and the comics should let the shooter fires the gun from further distance. By doing this, it allows Wonder Woman to have greater reaction time to those bullets.

 

Works Cited

Allain, Rhett. “The Physics of Bullets Vs. Wonder Woman’s Bracelets.” Wired, Conde Nast, 8 June 2017, www.wired.com/2017/06/physics-bullets-versus-wonder-womans-bracelets/.

Gemmill, Allie. “Wonder Woman’s Got Some Serious Superpowers.” Bustle, Bustle, 20 Mar. 2018, www.bustle.com/p/what-are-wonder-womans-powers-the-superhero-has-more-than-a-golden-lasso-60024.

Nerdist. “The Secret of Wonder Woman’s Bullet Blocking! (Because Science w/ Kyle Hill).” YouTube, YouTube, 23 Nov. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiYW_EGzcuw.

 

Photo Source: http://gomerblog.com/2017/10/wonder-woman-bracelets/

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Taboos in Tattoos

Below is my article that I did for my literacy class as we started to learn about gender issues across the world and especially in Cambodia.

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Taboos in Tattoos 

“Why?” “Why?” “Why?” A question that always formulates in Cambodian minds when they see a tattooed Cambodian woman. Some people view it as art, while others strongly condemn this practice against her.

In our culture, tattooed Cambodian women are “not common as wearing jewelry.” There are so many perspectives and assumptions of her before they​ even interact with each other.

The majority of Cambodians have developed countless taboos when she embroiders her skin with permanent ink. They label her as a “bad girl,” who may be involved in the sex industry or using drugs. Additionally, this stigma revolves around the idea that she is uneducated and does not obey her parents. They refer to her as:

  • promiscuous
  • gangster
  • rude
  • over the top
  • too stylish
  • sassy
  • brainwashed

“She does not respect our Khmer culture,” said Sokha Nen, a Khmer Learning Facilitator at the Liger Leadership Academy, thinking about when he first sees any tattooed Khmer woman. He went on explaining that we have a code of conduct called “Chbab Srey,” which are the Rules for Women that encompass attitudes and behaviors that she should follow. It is expected that she should be polite and gentle. That is why most of our elders believe that it is necessary for girls to be beautiful rather than displaying her strength and aggressiveness like boys.

“Why does she do like that? It is supposed to be only for men,” described Sythong Run, a Liger Leadership Academy student, explaining the mindset of our people. This is where we urge her to embrace her beauty rather than her strength, since tattoos can be seen as a depiction of toughness.

Sokha also explained how tattoos were used in our history. During the war period, many soldiers and police got tattooed with animals and magic tattoos as protection. They believed that it has the magic to shield themselves from gun bullets and enemies. Additionally, they felt more powerful because their tattoos gave them more strength. Even now, there are still so many tattooed soldiers and boxers. “It made a huge difference. It increased the number of victories and reduced the number of defeats,” claimed Mr Eh, a Cambodian National Heavyweight Champion that got interviewed by the Independent.

The society that we live in is less likely to denigrate tattooed men because they can show off their masculinity while she has to conceal her robustness and rather present herself with tranquility and tenderness. Tattooed men are less likely to be judged than her and get less thorny stares from other people than her. Sokha mentioned that it is the man’s nature to get tattooed. The society opens more path for them and are more open-minded if they do anything wrong. Whereas she, “anything that she does is always wrong.”

“She looks terrible and she only wants to show off her beauty and sexiness,” said a 43-year-old Tet Channary when she first sees her.

“What the heck? Why does she get tattooed, when the society hates her?” said a 14-year-old Samnang Nuon when he first sees her.

“[She is] aggressive, weird, and not cute” this is how a 15-year-old girl, Phosreyneang Loeurng that has never seen a tattooed Cambodian woman describe her.

“Girls who go out at night,” said Sokha when he first sees her.

“They are slut [that will cheat on their husband and then leave him],” this is how Rathana Oek’s, 23 years old, mom and relatives describe her.

“[She is] brave,” said Sythong Run when she first sees her.

“[She is] cool,” stated Venghour Than, 14 years old, when he first sees her.

Tattoos don’t mean she wants to be sexy.

Tattoos don’t mean she wants to mimic a man.

Tattoos don’t mean she wants to show off.

Tattoos don’t mean she wants to be a slut.

Unfortunately, she lives in a society that constrains her from making her own decision. Rathana Oek explained that her tattooed niece needs to “put her hair down to hide her tattoos on the neck when she goes home.” She also mentioned that a tattooed woman can feel ashamed when she walks in front of the elders because she knows she has upsets them. Besides, in our culture, the groom’s parents are required to ask the hand of the bride from her parents. However, the groom parents will forbid their son from marrying her and vow to not even talk to her parents because all she has done, is getting tattooed.

She gets tattooed because of her love for art. She gets tattooed because she wants to release her anger. She gets tattooed because to remember the best and worst memories. She gets tattooed because she is not a robot that follows all the detailed code. She gets tattooed so that she can express her individuality. Most importantly, she gets tattooed because she does not need to try to fit in the society, and instead she lets the society fits her.

Photo Source:  http://www.phnompenhpost.com/lift/catherine-harry-tattoo-reflects-her-attitude

 

 

 

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My Body Fills with Guts

Happy Halloween! So, as a part of our literacy class, we decided to write a creepy, Halloween story with less than one hour. But, there were some guidelines to how we created our story.  In my table, there were seven students, so I started off my story and then after a few minutes, we rotated our paper to the next person on our right side for them to continue our scary story. At last, I got to conclude my own story.

Please enjoy listening to my story below, which is about a journey of a pumpkin.

The Halloween pumpkin turns into a repulsive monster with dancing flames in its eyes, and pumpkin guts flowing out from its mouth. Suddenly, [……..]
 
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The Broken Bond

Adult. The word “adult” is normally associated with coming of age. Many people define “coming of age” as the occasion for someone when they become an adult. For instance, I researched about a coming of age tradition in Japan, which is called “ Seijin-no-Hi.” The event is very important for Japanese, who just turn 20 years old. However, I describe “coming of age” as a time when you just realize something or stepping out of your comfort zone not necessary refers to becoming an adult.

 

LGBTQ+, regretful situation, and advice to enjoy your life. These are examples of my coming of age that I want to share with the rest of the world. But, I chose one to depict my coming of age, which is about something that I really regret. The essay below is about how I let go the bond between my father and me without putting efforts to maintain it. Nevertheless, before I get to this stage, I have to go through a very critical process, which is the writing process. After I brainstormed ideas, I began to write my draft. Then, I edited with my friends and then with my learning facilitators. Along the way, I also conferenced with my English literacy learning facilitator about my idea. Additionally, I learned a lot of mini lessons to help me to write a better essay such as: semicolon, comma usage, conjunction, subordinate, concision in writing, sentence structure, and sensory information.   

The Broken Bond

A sudden feeling hit me like a boulder falling from a mountain, causing my mind to go blurry. I realized the bond is gone. The bond between a father and a daughter. The bond that I did not care to loose. The bond that I threw in a deep, black hole without helping it to climb out. The bond that I have forsaken for so many years. It is my fault that this bond is broken and I must get my toolbox to fix this pain, dismay, and regret in order to re-establish this bond. But first, I must remember our most enjoyable moments that initially formed this bond, which was fishing together.

Fish is the main source of protein for my family because it is very accessible. It was on a weekend long ago, when my dad was off work from being a policeman and decided to go fishing.  He asked, “Do you want to come with me?” I was a kid that felt very passionate about playing in the water. So, I responded instantaneously, “Sure, I want to go!” I changed quickly into my old peach faded pants and a long sleeve shirt and headed to the direction of my dad. Then, I hopped on the back of his bike with excitement and immediately held on tight. At that moment, I was as close to my dad as I have ever been.

After a blissful ride, we finally came to a stop in a spectacular location. The green rice farms that went on into an endless horizon. Since that was during fishing season, there were a lot of other energetic fishermen too. There was gushing water running through cracked soil in order to escape to the other bank. I sensed a feeling of anxiety rushing through my veins like magma oozing from the top of volcano because I did not know how to swim. However, I had my courageous hero by my side, so he piggybacked me across that deep dancing creek. When we reached the other side, he quickly took out his handmade net and threw swiftly at the water just to see if there were any fish. Well, the truth was that he did not catch any fish except tiny rocks. So, we continued forward with our journey. As I walked along, I was talking about so many things with my father like my school, my siblings, my friends, and we never really ran out of topics. Later on, my father tried again, but it did no good and I could see misgivings in his eyes because my mom expected us to return with fish for our lunch. I turned around, so that my back was facing him and began to  pray and beg for the fish to show up in the net. Suddenly, my father exclaimed, “Makara, come here, we finally caught a fish!” I dashed through the burning air with a smile to pick up the flopping fish that was attempting to flee from the net and put it in our bag. After I finished, I was squealing and running around causing the bag of fish in my hand to dance along in every direction. Suddenly, he was chuckling and at that moment I felt like we were the only creatures in the entire universe. This was how our bond intertwined and it felt like nothing could ever destroy it.

I wish that feeling could have remained forever because an unexpected change emerged.  The change that I never dreamed that it could possibly happen. The change that had found its way to separate our bond. It occurred during my summer break when I went to fishing with him again. However, this time was extremely different because everything was turned upside down. The ponds were too far from our home so we decided to ride a moto. As soon as the engine started, I did not talk with my father. I did not hold on tight to him anymore. After a few minutes of driving that seemed like a decade to me, we arrived at our destination. We placed our moto on the road and began the uncomfortable hike. It was not the road that caused my discomfort, it was the silence.

The silence that kept growing louder and louder.

The silence that I could no longer bear.

Images, laughs, and smiles during my childhood of fishing with my father flashed through my memory. This caused an ugly lump in my throat that started growing larger and larger, then tears emerged in my eyes. I did not even know why they were running down my face like thick lava. Unexpectedly, I recognised that the relationship between me and my father was no longer existed.  I had let my five years living and learning at Liger separated him from me. I never took the opportunity to speak to him, whether it was by phone or when I went home. I never reminded myself that I still had a father. I never noticed that our connection kept disconnecting, until that moment. It was me. It was me.

I am so regretful that I just let this bond fall apart. At that time, I did not use my strengths to maintain our connection. Now, as I understand my mistake, I would like to glue all of the damaged parts back together. Time is the medicine that will allow me to strengthen our bond. Time will let me show my father how I love him, how I miss him, and how I want to be close with him again. I would like to douse him with my love and care.  I will start by attempting to talk to him more, whenever it is possible. I will call him more often, even though it will be awkward at first. I will share with him my hopes and dreams, my struggles, and my feelings.  I may not be able to recreate the same bond we had, but I can make a new one and who knows, it may even be stronger!

 

 

 

 

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The Danger of Toy Marketing Strategy on Children’ Perspectives

          Toys play an important role in children’s life from having fun to being creative. However, toys have a very strong impact on them, especially when the toy makers promote their products by using gender stereotypes.

          According to The New York Times, toys are being marketed based on gender between “boys” and “girls.” Walking into toy stores, there are rows of pink toys that relate to beauty and domesticity on one side for girls, whereas on the other side which is full of blue and black toys associated with building and violent stuff for boys. The New York Times reports that parents are buying gender-typed toys not because of their preference, but because their children had requested to. This indicates that kids are learning and adapting to how society designs. They have a mindset that certain colors represent one specific gender. Therefore, they believe that they should play with the colored toys that are right for their gender. Moreover, if this keeps happening, the future will be full of gender stereotypes, where girls and boys are totally separated from each other.

          The research in Teaching Kids News shows that “playing with building toys, blocks and puzzles helps children develop “spatial” skills.” That is why many parents buy the construction sets for their children, especially for their daughters since they have less experience with it. The number of construction sets that are now bought for girls is only 20 percent compared to the boys. An article in Teaching Kids News says that parents do not only buy construction sets for their daughters but also toy weapons. There is a study that showed that games that the kids play that relate to weapons, in fact can help them. It encourages them to be more powerful and less anxious when they are faced with problems. For this reason, it is important that toy makers are not using gender stereotypes, so that both genders can access to these toys.

          As it mentions above, this may seem a positive thing from having more girls interested in building to playing with toy weapons to be more confident when there are threats. However, Teaching Kids News affirms that all of those things are still come in with pink and purple color. Many people are complaining that the companies are still using gender stereotypes. Despite this criticism, the toy makers resist and state, “if the building sets are “girly,” girls are more likely to play with them.” In addition, the design is based on the response that they got after asking the girls on what they want. This demonstrates that toy makers’ marketing strategy is affecting their identity. They now know what color of toys that they should play with.

          When toy makers market their products on specific gender, it is very harmful to the children’s perspective. Therefore, people should take the action now to stop this from happening, all help from toy makers, parents, and the children.

Works Cited

“Different Toys For Girls And Boys?” Teaching Kids News. Web. 13 Dec. 2016.
Sweet, Elizabeth. “Guys and Dolls No More?” The New York Times. The New York Times, 22 Dec. 2012. Web. 13 Dec. 2016.
“Toy Weapons For Girls: Too Violent, Or Too Pretty?” Teaching Kids News. Web. 13 Dec. 2016.

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Famish Polar Bears

As the Arctic is warming faster and faster, it is also impacting the living organisms in that area, specifically polar bears. The author states, “Sea ice retreats in the Beaufort Sea off north Alaska into waters that can be too deep for foraging.” According to this quote, because of climate change, the ice is melting into the sea that makes it difficult for polar bears to find food. The only way for them to find food is on land rather than in water. The text states, “The natives have relied on these for more than 100 years to store whale meat, called muktuk. Now the freezers are open to hungry bear raids.” As you can see that they come up on land to villager’s houses to take food from them. However, this can be dangerous and people that live in that Arctic village are worried about the bear and their own safety. The author states, “But these meetings could grow more dangerous. The animals could stay longer and get hungrier.” This demonstrates that because of climate change, the polar bears are getting hungrier due the melting of sea ice.
 

Click here to see the original text: https://newsela.com/articles/polar-bears-alaskan-natives/id/23208/

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Short Response Paragraph – Before Chicago

Currently, Native Americans have jobs to do to earn money to support their livelihoods. Even though that is the case, long ago they were struggled with the weather, getting food, and keeping warm. The author states, “Then in winter, they would leave the village and build homes in the woods. Each family would build its own home, and would take animal skins with them to help construct their homes.” According to this quote, because of the weather, they had to relocate their homes to other places. At there, they rebuild their homes by using branches to make tents and covered the walls with animal skins to keep them warm. One important reason why they had to leave their homes was because at there, they could find food easily. The author mentions, “They would be able to track rabbits in the winter, and there would also be deer.” As you can see that they could hunt animals easily at there. However, they would not have as much food to eat as in summer because there would be no plants growing in winter, except wild onions. But, even they needed a lot of food for their families to eat to have the energy to work, to find more food. This clearly shows that Native Americans faced a lot of challenges in that time.

Click here to see the original text: Before Chicago

 

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Mid-Unit Assessment-Pygmalion

Mid-Unit Assessment: Using Evidence, Theme, and Inference to Analyze an Unseen Passage in Pygmalion

Long-Term Learning Targets Assessed

I can cite several pieces of text-based evidence to support an analysis of literary text.
I can analyze the interaction of literary elements of a story or drama.
I can use a variety of strategies to determine the meaning of unknown words or phrases.

Directions: Read the following scene from Act 3 of Pygmalion. Use the text to answer the questions below.

MRS. HIGGINS [quieting Henry with a touch] Colonel Pickering: will you tell me what is the exact state of things in Wimpole Street?

PICKERING [cheerfully: as if this completely changed the subject] Well, I have come to live there with Henry. We work together at my Indian Dialects; and we think it more convenient—

MRS. HIGGINS. Quite so. I know all about that: it’s an excellent arrangement. But where does this girl live?

HIGGINS. With us, of course. Where would she live?

MRS. HIGGINS. But on what terms? Is she a servant? If not, what is she?

PICKERING [slowly] I think I know what you mean, Mrs. Higgins.

HIGGINS. Well, dash me if I do! I’ve had to work at the girl every day for months to get her to her present pitch. Besides, she’s useful. She knows where my things are, and remembers my appointments and so forth.

MRS. HIGGINS. How does your housekeeper get on with her?

HIGGINS. Mrs. Pearce? Oh, she’s jolly glad to get so much taken off her hands; for before Eliza came, she had to have to find things and remind me of my appointments. But she’s got some silly bee in her bonnet about Eliza. She keeps saying “You don’t think, sir”: doesn’t she, Pick?

PICKERING. Yes: that’s the formula. “You don’t think, sir.” That’s the end of every conversation about Eliza.

HIGGINS. As if I ever stop thinking about the girl and her confounded vowels and consonants. I’m worn out, thinking about her, and watching her lips and her teeth and her tongue, not to mention her soul, which is the quaintest of the lot.

MRS. HIGGINS. You certainly are a pretty pair of babies, playing with your live doll.

HIGGINS. Playing! The hardest job I ever tackled: make no mistake about that, mother. But you have no idea how frightfully interesting it is to take a human being and change her into a quite different human being by creating a new speech for her. It’s filling up the deepest gulf that separates class from class and soul from soul.

PICKERING [drawing his chair closer to Mrs. Higgins and bending over to her eagerly] Yes: it’s enormously interesting. I assure you, Mrs. Higgins, we take Eliza very seriously. Every week—every day almost—there is some new change. [Closer again] We keep records of every stage—dozens of gramophone disks and photographs—

HIGGINS [assailing her at the other ear] Yes, by George: it’s the most absorbing experiment I ever tackled. She regularly fills our lives up; doesn’t she, Pick?

PICKERING. We’re always talking Eliza.

HIGGINS. Teaching Eliza.

PICKERING. Dressing Eliza.

MRS. HIGGINS. What!

HIGGINS. Inventing new Eliza.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1a. What does the word assailing mean in these lines from the text Pygmalion?
“HIGGINS [assailing her at the other ear] Yes, by George: it’s the most absorbing experiment I ever tackled. She regularly fills our lives up; doesn’t she, Pick?” (L.7.4)

a. approaching
b. attacking
c. tricking
d. convincing    X 

1b. Which set of the following stage directions and pieces of dialogue helps you see that Higgins and Pickering are assailing Mrs. Higgins?

a. PICKERING [slowly] I think I know what you mean, Mrs. Higgins.

b. PICKERING [cheerfully: as if this completely changed the subject] Well, I have come to live there with Henry. We work together at my Indian Dialects; and we think it more convenient—

c. PICKERING [drawing his chair closer to Mrs. Higgins and bending over to her eagerly] Yes: it’s enormously interesting. I assure you, Mrs. Higgins, we take Eliza very seriously. Every week—every day almost—there is some new change. [Closer again]

d. PICKERING. Yes: that’s the formula. “You don’t think, sir.” That’s the end of every conversation about Eliza.

2a. Based on the passage from Pygmalion, what is Mrs. Higgins’s opinion about the experiment her son and Colonel Pickering are conducting on Eliza? (RL.7.1)

a. Mrs. Higgins believes they are foolish and have not considered how the experiment will affect Eliza in the future.

b. Mrs. Higgins is proud of her son and Colonel Pickering, which is why she agreed to host Eliza at her home.

c. Mrs. Higgins thinks that Eliza will have a better future because of the improvements her son and Colonel Pickering have given her.

d. Mrs. Higgins is deeply concerned about what Mrs. Pearce, the housekeeper, thinks of Eliza living in her son’s house.

2b. Which sentence from the passage best supports your understanding of Mrs. Higgins’s opinion about the experiment with Eliza?

a. “I know all about that: it’s an excellent arrangement.”

b. “Colonel Pickering: will you tell me what is the exact state of things in Wimpole Street?”

c. “But on what terms? Is she a servant? If not, what is she?”

d. “How does your housekeeper get on with her?”

3a. Which of the following sentences makes the best statement about identity as described in this scene of Shaw’s Pygmalion? (RL.7.1)

a. Controlling another person’s identity is to disregard that person’s independence.          

b. Changing a person’s identity for the better helps this person succeed in life.

c. Creating a new identity takes a lot of hard work.           X

d. Identity changes affect all the people in a person’s social circle.

3b. Select the piece of evidence from the text that best supports the theme (central idea) of the excerpt.

a. HIGGINS. Besides, she’s useful. She knows where my things are, and remembers my appointments and so forth.

b. HIGGINS. As if I ever stop thinking about the girl and her confounded vowels and consonants. I’m worn out, thinking about her.

c. PICKERING. Yes: that’s the formula. “You don’t think, sir.” That’s the end of every conversation about Eliza.      

d. MRS. HIGGINS. You certainly are a pretty pair of babies, playing with your live doll.

4. Mrs. Higgins makes a comment that Higgins and Pickering are like children playing with a doll. How do Pickering and Higgins react to her statement? (RL.7.3)

a. They assure her that they in fact treat Eliza very thoughtfully.

b. They agree with her assessment.

c. They are angered by the comparison to children.

d. They dismiss her statement as silly.

5. In this scene, it is clear that Mrs. Higgins sees this experiment with Eliza quite differently than do Higgins and Colonel Pickering. Identify a line from the text that demonstrates this idea. (RL.7.1)

According to the text, “You certainly are a pretty pair of babies, playing with your life doll.” This demonstrates that Mrs. Higgins sess this experiment with Eliza quite differently than do Higgins and Colonel Pickering do because she thinks that they are not talking this seriously.

6. Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering cannot see Eliza beyond what she represents as an experiment. Explain this idea and provide two pieces of textual evidence in your brief response. (RL.7.1)

Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering cannot see Eliza beyond what she represents as an experiment because they always just go through the motion of teaching her English every time and tell others about that story. However, they never view her as a helper (assistant) or a lady in higher class than before. One example is, “As if I never stop thinking about the girl and her confounded vowels and consonants.” This shows that he always think about the English that the girl speaks but never more than that. Another example is, “We take her very seriously. We keeps records of every stage.” This clearly shows that every time they always think of her pronunciation and English but never more than that.

8/10= 80% Very thoughtful short responses which reflect your deeper understanding of the excerpt and play. Nice work.