1answer.
Ask question
Login Signup
Ask question
All categories
  • English
  • Mathematics
  • Social Studies
  • Business
  • History
  • Health
  • Geography
  • Biology
  • Physics
  • Chemistry
  • Computers and Technology
  • Arts
  • World Languages
  • Spanish
  • French
  • German
  • Advanced Placement (AP)
  • SAT
  • Medicine
  • Law
  • Engineering
podryga [215]
2 years ago
7

An Excerpt from “Optimism”

English
1 answer:
OLga [1]2 years ago
8 0

Answer:

An Excerpt from “Optimism”

by Helen Keller

1 Could we choose our environment, and were desire in human undertakings synonymous with

endowment, all men would, I suppose, be optimists. Certainly most of us regard happiness as

the proper end of all earthly enterprise. The will to be happy animates alike the philosopher, the

prince and the chimney-sweep. No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels

that happiness is his indisputable right.

2 It is curious to observe what different ideals of happiness people cherish, and in what singular

places they look for this well-spring of their life. Many look for it in the hoarding of riches, some

in the pride of power, and others in the achievements of art and literature; a few seek it in the

exploration of their own minds, or in the search for knowledge.

3 Most people measure their happiness in terms of physical pleasure and material possession.

Could they win some visible goal which they have set on the horizon, how happy they would be!

Lacking this gift or that circumstance, they would be miserable. If happiness is to be so

measured, I who cannot hear or see have every reason to sit in a corner with folded hands and

weep. If I am happy in spite of my deprivations, if my happiness is so deep that it is a faith, so

thoughtful that it becomes a philosophy of life,—if, in short, I am an optimist, my testimony to

the creed of optimism is worth hearing....

4 Once I knew the depth where no hope was, and darkness lay on the face of all things. Then

love came and set my soul free. Once I knew only darkness and stillness. Now I know hope and

joy. Once I fretted and beat myself against the wall that shut me in. Now I rejoice in the

consciousness that I can think, act and attain heaven. My life was without past or future; death,

the pessimist would say, “a consummation devoutly to be wished.” But a little word from the

fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness, and my heart leaped to the

rapture of living. Night fled before the day of thought, and love and joy and hope came up in a

passion of obedience to knowledge. Can anyone who has escaped such captivity, who has felt

the thrill and glory of freedom, be a pessimist?

5 My early experience was thus a leap from bad to good. If I tried, I could not check the

momentum of my first leap out of the dark; to move breast forward is a habit learned suddenly

at that first moment of release and rush into the light. With the first word I used intelligently, I

learned to live, to think, to hope. Darkness cannot shut me in again. I have had a glimpse of the

shore, and can now live by the hope of reaching it.

6 So my optimism is no mild and unreasoning satisfaction. A poet once said I must be happy

because I did not see the bare, cold present, but lived in a beautiful dream. I do live in a

beautiful dream; but that dream is the actual, the present,—not cold, but warm; not bare, but

furnished with a thousand blessings. The very evil which the poet supposed would be a cruel

6) Read the last sentence from the text.

Only by contact with evil could I have learned to feel by contrast the beauty of truth and love and goodness.

Explain how Helen Keller develops this idea in the text. Use specific details to

support your answer.

You might be interested in
Mireille is filming some scenes from her favorite book. She is reviewing her work, and she is unhappy with one scene. In the sce
bija089 [108]

Answer:

dont exactly know if im on point i just took the test and did d to see if i got it right im so sorry if im incorrect please forgive me.

Explanation:

4 0
2 years ago
Read 2 more answers
Which propaganda technique is being used in the following statement? “My opponent is much younger than me I, and has not learned
likoan [24]

The propaganda technique is being used in the following statement is option A: Stereotype.

<h3>What does stereotype means?</h3>

To stereotype is to unfairly assume that all individuals or objects who share a certain trait are the same. It's unfair to generalize about an entire group of individuals based on your dislike of one individual.

Note that based on the passage, Stereotype is used because the person is using age as the basis for making his point and so therefore, option A: Stereotype is correct.

Learn more about propaganda technique  from

brainly.com/question/24939953
#SPJ1

7 0
1 year ago
Word within a word list 14 ideas answers
spayn [35]

Answer:

1. Semicircle

2. Synergy

3. Undoing

4. Bellicose

4. Incision

5. Pendulous

6. Hydrophobia

7. Pentagram

8. Omnipotent

9. Pseudo

10. Hematoma

11. Mononuclear

12. Vivacious

13. Ponderous

14. Dormitory

4 0
2 years ago
What major point was Thomas Paine trying to make using the evidence in this passage
Ad libitum [116K]
To answer the question above the major point of Thomas Paine is to encourage and inspire the army and more people to join the cause and the fight. Paine uses emotional ideologies and phrases for the colonist to have reasons why they deserve to be freed from the tyranny. 
6 0
3 years ago
Read 2 more answers
What is cultural appropriation
Vitek1552 [10]
D. This is an actual real problem going on in this world today
8 0
2 years ago
Read 2 more answers
Other questions:
  • "European leaders concluded that the Muslims’ power fed upon the wealth generated by their control of the most lucrative trade r
    12·1 answer
  • The miscreants of “The Pardoner's Tale" could also be described as
    8·2 answers
  • (Its/It's) hot outside today.
    7·1 answer
  • Part A
    6·1 answer
  • Complete the chart below by conducting an internet search to locate advertisements
    13·1 answer
  • Which excerpt from "How I Learned English” helps the reader imagine the sound of the scene in the poem? It was in an empty lot R
    8·2 answers
  • Blister'd be thy tongue For such a wish! What type of conflict does this show?
    9·2 answers
  • Is this sentence correct?::‘He is the better of two boys.’
    8·1 answer
  • I need help about human trafficking essay
    6·1 answer
  • Read this passage. Then answer the question.
    8·2 answers
Add answer
Login
Not registered? Fast signup
Signup
Login Signup
Ask question!