Unit 6: Selection Vocabulary 3

Of course, it goes without saying that Collegiate Assessors who acquire the title with the help of academic diplomas cannot be compared with Collegiate Assessors who become Collegiate Assessors through service in the Caucasus, for the two species are wholly distinct...

That very moment had it driven away to, presumably, pay another visit.

...a country house with every amenity, stabling for two horses, and sufficient space for the laying out of a fine birch or spruce plantation...

Yes, the truth must be that out of revenge the Staff-Officer's wife had resolved to ruin him, and hired a band of witches for the purpose, seeing that the nose could not conceivably have been cut off...

Next, he sought the chancery of the department where he was agitating to obtain a Vice-Governorship (or, failing that, an Administratorship), and, whilst passing through the reception vestibule, again surveyed himself in a mirror.

America is an improbable idea. A mongrel nation built of ever-changing disparate parts, it is held together by a notion, the notion that all men are created equal, though everyone knows that most men consider themselves better than someone.

Many of the oft-told stories of the most pluralistic nation on earth are stories not of tolerance, but of bigotry.

Faced with this diversity there is little point in trying to isolate anything remotely resembling a national character, but there are two strains of behavior that, however tenuously, abet the concept of unity.

There is that Calvinist undercurrent in the American psyche that loves the difficult, the demanding, that sees mastering the impossible, whether it be prairie or subway, as a test of character, and so glories in the struggle of this fractured coalescing.

Where did we come from and how did we get here? The answer to life’s most fundamental question may remain unknown, but that doesn’t stop narratives from telling of the world’s beginning and how man came to be.

Even stories from the same cultural origins have different versions and interpretations.

Another adaptation goes on to speak of God creating Adam, the first man, out of the earth’s dust.

The gods sacrificed Purusha and his body turned to butter, transforming into animals, elements, the three gods Agni, Vayu, and Indra, and even the four castes of Hindu society.

All around the world, creation myths help us make sense of man’s origin. While many variations exist, these stories have built the foundation of the world’s largest religions and cultures.

For me, though, growing up the daughter of a Lebanese mother and a prominent Palestinian thinker in New York City in the 1980s and '90s was confusing and unsettling.

After years of trying desperately to convince people that they didn't really understand me or the place my family came from, I stopped trying, especially since there was never anyone around to make me feel less alone in my assertions.

"The basic concept, is that...historically, through literature and art, the 'East,' as seen through a Western lens, becomes distorted and degraded so that anything 'other' than what we Westerners recognize as familiar is not just exotic, mysterious, and sensual but also inherently inferior."

To me, he was my daddy, a dapper man in three-piece suits tailor-made in London.

In the United States, for many teenagers obtaining a driver’s license or a part-time job is a quintessential rite of passage.

Celebrated when girls are fifteen, quinceañeras are lavish soirees in which the honoree dons an extravagant ball gown.

Recovery time for tchoodi can last up to three weeks, when young girls subsist on liquids ingested through a straw.

In the Amazon, young Sateré-Mawé boys prove their readiness to become warriors by enduring an agonizing initiation known as dança da tucandeira, involving many tucandeiras or poisonous bullet ants.

Given the importance of respect, the honoree bows and kneels throughout the ceremony to his teacher and parents, and listens as they offer advice and usher him into the next stage of his development.