When I first started at Hidaya I hated wearing the hijab. I found it itchy and I absolutely despised wearing it during gym class
. I also thought it looked awful on me and in the first two weeks I was always styling my bangs and letting them out at the front so that everybody knew I had nice hair. Talk about being insecure. But then I got to know the other kids and it no longer felt awkward. I got used to it and I met girls who were wearing it full-time outside of school, like, voluntarily, and I started to really respect their courage. I was even a bit jealous because there I would be, ripping it off as soon as I was off school property, and there they would be, calmly and proudly stepping onto a train filled with students from schools all over without so much as a hint of fear or doubt. They looked so at peace with their identity and everybody got to know and respect them on their own terms. –Does My Head Look Big in This?,
Randa Abdel-Fattah
What is the central idea of the passage?
a.The narrator is unwilling to admit that she no longer identifies with her religion.
b.The narrator finds the hijab to be uncomfortable and embarrassing.
c.The narrator resents the other students in school for pressuring her to wear a hijab.
d.The narrator wants to be as comfortable with her identity as the other girls are with theirs.
I would say the answer is D. This is because of the way she talks about how she is uncomfortable with the hijab in the begging but releases that idea. Instead she goes into a more “I want to be as comfortable as those girls” idea and the story/excerpt tends to follow that idea until the end of it. Also the central ideas seem to be revealed at ends of stories for example she even states, “I was even a bit jealous” and “They looked so at peace with their identity and everybody got to know and respect them of their own terms.” Which implies she wants to have that sense of comfort in herself that she doesn’t have unlike the other girls. Hope this helped!! :)
The poet aim was to inform poetry-lovers the pleasure of reading that can carry the reader to distant places imaged by the persona. The poem is a celebration of the power of reading. The first line, “There is no Frigate like a Book” suggest how amazing reading is and how a person can escape from reality for another form of relief away from hectic life. The human body is compared to the ‘chariot’ that bears the human soul which enables a person to enjoy the inexpensive joy of reading which enlightens and liberates the human mind.
