LESSON8

Captain America:

A Different kind of hero

S CRIPTURE

“And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

~ Matthew 16:18

Prayer Points

R ESPECT

“Show proper respect to

everyone: love the brotherhood

of believers, fear God, honor

the king.”

~ 1 Peter 2:17

For years, the American notion of a hero has been accosted, compromised, and generally diluted. Gone are the days when John Wayne rode into town and took care of business. We knew he was good — really good — and we were comforted by the fact that he would kill no one who did not deserve to die. “A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do,” is a quote attributed to Wayne. “Women have the right to work wherever they want, as long as they have the dinner ready when you get home.”1 Oops! I guess he said that, too, but never mind. . . .

Not so today. Heroes exude empathy not goodness. Witness Robert Downey’s flawed, self-centered Ironman. Or Hugh Jackson’s moody Wolverine. And who can forget the poor, pathetic Hulk? Everyone wants to forget the shady, morally dubious Christian Bale’s Batman! But my personal favorite for sissy of the year is Spiderman. One Freudian self-identity crisis after another. He whines all the time. Can you imagine John Wayne whining?

One sidebar — I am arguably a candidate for sissy of the year myself. Last week I had to have a tetanus booster. Don’t you hate doctor waiting rooms? And I emphasize WAITING rooms — sometimes for hours. As I waited for my tetanus shot I imagined myself waiting for the guillotine with Sydney Carton at the end of A Tale of Two Cities.

Finally my executioner appeared. “Roll up your sleeve,” the perfunctory and sturdy 8´3” Nurse Roxanne quipped.

“Hello,” I replied.

“Do you mind shots?” the Nurse Roxanne asked as she ignored my greeting.

“Yes, I do,” I quivered, almost in tears.

“Too bad,” Nurse Roxanne replied with the first hint of enthusiasm.

I muttered, “It is a far better thing I have done than I have ever done before. . . .”

Nurse Roxanne, who obviously had not read Dickens, attacked me with the needle as if she were going after a dart board.

I whimpered a little and Nurse Roxanne frowned and pointed her index finger at me, “No wimps allowed.”

No wimps allowed. Yes, fellow Americans, we have dumbed down, glamorized, and wimped down our heroes to the point where they hardly seem to be heroes at all.

But now, suddenly, on the silver screen, appears Captain America. Captain America is a different kind of hero. In 1940s America, ordinary, unspectacular, five-feet-something, Steve Rogers inadvertently receives an injection that turns him into a superhero. But not a run-of-the-mill hero, he is actually a genuine hero. As one reviewer explains, “He’s got a lot of ailments, but it hasn’t made him bitter or jaded in anything. Even after he has been given his great gift, he still continues to do the right thing.”2 No that is a novel idea — doing the right thing. Take that, Will Smith and your character Hancock!

Yes, a new hero has arrived — a hero who does the right thing without equivocation or self-interest. Captain America. Or is he that new after all?

Sounds to me like Moses who left the courts of Egypt to obey God. Or Joshua who conquered the Promised Land. Or Peter, even after much failure, found that even hell itself could not prevail against the Church he founded.

Yes, and again perhaps we meet a man who even John Wayne would like. Wayne was fond of saying, “Courage is being scared to death — but saddling up anyway.”3 Roll up your sleeves, America — Nurse Roxanne and Captain America are finally here. And there is no room for wimps.

M ATH

Algebra Word Problems

“To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries.”4

— A.C. Grayling

W RITING

In persuasive writing, an argument can be developed these three ways:

  1. Dialectic: The writer presents two positions and concludes with a compromise between both.
  2. Inductive: The writer presents all the facts and then forms a conclusion.
  3. Deductive: The writer presents his argument(s) and then applies it (them) to several situations/incidences.

Test-Taking

Insight

Choosing a Test Date

Before you choose a test date, consider the application deadlines of the colleges and scholarship agencies that are of interest to you. It will take four to seven weeks after a test date for ACT to mail your score report to you and to your college choices.

I recommend that you take the ACT during the spring of your junior year. By this time, you typically have completed most of the coursework covered by the knowledge-driven ACT.

There are a number of advantages in taking the ACT during your junior year:

• You will receive test scores and other information that will help you plan your senior year in high school.

• Many colleges begin contacting prospective students during the summer before the senior year.

• If you do not score as well as you believe you can, there will be opportunities to retake the ACT in the fall of your senior year and still have the new information available in time to meet admission and scholarship deadlines (deadlines usually are close to January 1).

R EADING

Reading for Detail

The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting. As the landscape changed from brown to green, the army awakened, and began to tremble with eagerness at the noise of rumors. It cast its eyes upon the roads, which were growing from long troughs of liquid mud to proper thoroughfares. A river, amber-tinted in the shadow of its banks, purled at the army’s feet; and at night, when the stream had become of a sorrowful blackness, one could see across it the red, eyelike gleam of hostile camp-fires set in the low brows of distant hills.

Once a certain tall soldier developed virtues and went resolutely to wash a shirt. He came flying back from a brook waving his garment bannerlike. He was swelled with a tale he had heard from a reliable friend, who had heard it from a truthful cavalryman, who had heard it from his trustworthy brother, one of the orderlies at division headquarters. He adopted the important air of a herald in red and gold.

“We’re goin’ t’ move t’morrah — sure,” he said pompously to a group in the company street. “We’re goin’ ‘way up the river, cut across, an’ come around in behint ‘em.”

To his attentive audience he drew a loud and elaborate plan of a very brilliant campaign. When he had finished, the blue-clothed men scattered into small arguing groups between the rows of squat brown huts. A negro teamster who had been dancing upon a cracker box with the hilarious encouragement of twoscore soldiers was deserted. He sat mournfully down. Smoke drifted lazily from a multitude of quaint chimneys.

“It’s a lie! that’s all it is — a thunderin’ lie!” said another private loudly. His smooth face was flushed, and his hands were thrust sulkily into his trouser’s pockets. He took the matter as an affront to him. “I don’t believe the derned old army’s ever going to move. We’re set. I’ve got ready to move eight times in the last two weeks, and we ain’t moved yet.”

The tall soldier felt called upon to defend the truth of a rumor he himself had introduced. He and the loud one came near to fighting over it.

A corporal began to swear before the assemblage. He had just put a costly board floor in his house, he said. During the early spring he had refrained from adding extensively to the comfort of his environment because he had felt that the army might start on the march at any moment. Of late, however, he had been impressed that they were in a sort of eternal camp.

Many of the men engaged in a spirited debate. One outlined in a peculiarly lucid manner all the plans of the commanding general. He was opposed by men who advocated that there were other plans of campaign. They clamored at each other, numbers making futile bids for the popular attention. Meanwhile, the soldier who had fetched the rumor bustled about with much importance. He was continually assailed by questions.5 (Stephen Crane, Red Badge of Courage)

Why does the author begin this passage with a picture of the setting?

  1. No particular reason
  2. The author wishes to establish that God is absent.
  3. The setting foreshadows ominous events.
  4. The comparison of the camp to a snake implies a naturalist theme.

What metaphor is used in the first paragraph?

  1. A sleeping snake
  2. A winding road
  3. A tight rope
  4. None of the above

Why do the characters have no names?

  1. No particular reason
  2. The characters are unimportant.
  3. The characters represent a type-character.
  4. Their names will appear as needed.

Why does the author use colloquial language?

  1. Colloquial language is humorous
  2. Colloquial language draws the reader to the protagonist
  3. Colloquial language creates needed realism
  4. Colloquial language reinforces character fears of the unknown

What is the tone of this piece?

  1. Serious
  2. Humorous
  3. Cynical
  4. Sarcastic
S CIENCE

A mushroom consists of a stem and a cap, or pileus. The cap is the most conspicuous part. The color varies from white and the lightest hues of brown up to the brightest yellow and scarlet. Its size is from an eighth of an inch to sixteen inches and more in diameter. The surface is smooth or covered with little grains (granular) or with minute scales (squamulose) shining like satin, or kid-like in its texture. It may be rounded and depressed (concave), elevated (convex), level (plane), or with a little mound in the centre (umbonate). It may be covered with warts, marked with lines (striate), or zoned with circles. The margin may be acute or obtuse, rolled backward or upward (revolute), or rolled inward (involute); it may be thick or thin.

It is interesting to observe where different mushrooms love to dwell. Some are always found on roadsides, as if seeking the notice of passers-by. These are the Clitocybes and Stropharia, and many of the cup-fungi, while the Boleti take shelter in clay banks and hide in every cranny and nook that they can find. Russulas are seen in open woods, rising out of the earth, also the Lactarius, which seems to like the shade of trees. The Cortinarius also prefers their shelter. The Coprinus loves the pastures and fields, near houses and barns, and dwells in groups upon the lawns. The Hypholoma grows in clusters on the stumps of trees. Marasmius is found among dead twigs and leaves. The white Amanitas flourish in woods and open ground. There are some, like Pleurotus, that grow in trunks of trees, and make their way through openings in the bark. Every dead tree or branch in the forest is crowded with all species of Polyporus, while carpets, damp cellars, plaster walls and sawdust are favorite abodes of many fungi.6 (Ellen Dallas and Caroline Burgin, Among the Mushrooms)

Based on this passage what statements are true:

  1. Mushrooms generally thrive in cool, moist areas.
  2. Marasmius mostly grows among dead twigs and leaves.
  3. Mushrooms would be found in the same genus as Abies concolor, white fir trees
    1. I
    2. II
    3. I, II, III
    4. I and III
    5. I and II
    6. All
E NGLISH

Punctuation

Rewrite the following material. All punctuation has been removed.

indian history begins 4,000 years ago india is a success story india’s population recently exceeded 1 billion people yet a noted indian historian said that “ although it is difficult to accept, the indians totally lacked the historical sense” the ancient indians made great inroads into astronomy, physics, mathematics, all kinds of literature and arts but never seriously took to documenting their history and their indifference has cost their posterity very dearly civilization, when an agricultural economy gave rise to extensive urbanization and trade the second stage occurred around 1000 bc, when the ganga-yamuna river basin and several southern river deltas experienced extensive agricultural expansion and population growth

When you write, choose words that are appropriate to the setting and audience. In this case, the ACT, write in the most precise, informed style that you have. Do not “hang out” on the ACT! Write with as much energy and talent as you have. At the same time, don’t use pretentious, fancy words if a simpler, more precise word will do.

V OCABULARY

The Chosen7

Chaim Potok

The Chosen is basically the story of two cultures colliding. On one level it is the story of Orthodox Judaism versus Hasidic Judaism. On the other hand, it embraces life at many different levels. In fact, it also celebrates human virtues like respect and loyalty.

Suggested Vocabulary Words

  1. I had spent five days in a hospital and the world around seemed sharpened now and pulsing with life. (chapter 5)
  2. A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something. (chapter 13)
  3. It makes us aware of how frail and tiny we are and of how much we must depend upon the Master of the Universe. (chapter 18)
  4. We shook hands and I watched him walk quickly away, tall, lean, bent forward with eagerness and hungry for the future, his metal capped shoes tapping against the sidewalk. (last chapter)

“Shall I refuse my dinner because I do not fully understand the process of digestion?”8

~ Oliver Heaviside

W RITING

Supporting Details

As we saw in the previous exercise, writers often place the topic sentence in the beginning of the paragraph. Then they provide supporting details. Analyze the following paragraph by completing the chart below.

Paragraph

When we think about the remarkably early age at which the young men went up to university in, let us say, Tudor times, and thereafter were held fit to assume responsibility for the conduct of their own affairs, are we altogether comfortable about that artificial prolongation of intellectual childhood and adolescence into the years of physical maturity which is so marked in our own day? To postpone the acceptance of responsibility to a late date brings with it a number of psychological complications which, while they may interest the psychiatrist, are scarcely beneficial either to the individual or to society. The stock argument in favor of postponing the school-leaving age and prolonging the period of education generally is there is now so much more to learn than there was in the Middle Ages. This is partly true, but not wholly. The modern boy and girl are certainly taught more subjects — but does that always mean that they actually know more?9

Main Idea

Detail

Detail

Detail

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