Week 4 Readings
The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss
Mother to Son, a poem by Langston Hughes
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Biography: Al-Biruni
The Sneetches by Dr Seuss
Part I of The Sneetches Animated Short:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln3V0HgW4eM&feature=related
Part II of The Sneetches Animated Short:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0LgMpfLD1Y&feature=related
Mother to Son by Langston Hughes
Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor--
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So, boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps.
'Cause you finds its kinder hard.
Don't you fall now--
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
About Langston Hughes
Born in Joplin, Missouri, James Langston Hughes attended Central High School in Cleveland, Ohio, where he began writing poetry in the eighth grade. His father would discourage him from pursuing writing as a career, in favour of something 'more practical'. Langston's tuition fees to Columbia University were paid on the grounds that he study engineering.
After a while, he dropped out of the degree course, but continued to write poetry. His first published poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, was also one of his most famous, appearing in Brownie's Book. Later, his poems, short plays, essays and short stories would appear in the NAACP publication, Crisis Magazine, in Opportunity Magazine, and others.
Langston Hughes was a prolific writer. In the forty-odd years between his first book in 1926 and his death in 1967, he devoted his life to writing and lecturing. He wrote sixteen books of poems, two novels, three collections of short stories, four volumes of "editorial" and "documentary" fiction, twenty plays, children's poetry, musicals and operas, three autobiographies, a dozen radio and television scripts and dozens of magazine articles.
Langston Hughes died of cancer on May 22, 1967.
Pride and Prejudice (excerpts) by Jane Austen
Background
The Bennets are country folks who have five unmarried daughters: Jane, the eldest and most beautiful; Elizabeth (Lizzy), sensible and independent, the herione of the book; Mary, the book-lover; reckless, precocious Lydia; and the youngest, Kitty. Mrs. Bennet, a foolish and fussy woman is the sort who agrees with the novel’s opening words: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Her sole mission in life is to get all five daughters married well as soon as possible.
Our excerpt deals with a visit to the Bennet household by Mr. Collins, the nephew who will inherit Mr. Bennet’s property. Mr. Collins is a clergyman who’s letter, as Mr. Bennet puts it, contains “a mixture of servility and self-importance,” and he is similarly pompous and stupid.
Mr. Collins is in search of a wife and when Mrs. Bennet hints that Jane may soon be engaged, he fixes his attention on Elizabeth.
A few days into his visit, Mr. Collins proposes marriage to Elizabeth, assuming that she will be overjoyed. She turns him down as gently as possible, but he insists that she will change her mind shortly. Mrs. Bennet, who regards a match between her daughter and Mr. Collins as advantageous, is infuriated.
Mr. Collins’ Proposal:
The next day opened a new scene at Longbourn. Mr. Collins made his declaration in form. On finding Mrs. Bennet, Elizabeth, and one of the younger girls together, soon after breakfast, he addressed the mother in these words: "May I hope, madam, for your interest with your fair daughter Elizabeth, when I solicit for the honour of a private audience with her in the course of this morning?"
Before Elizabeth had time for anything but a blush of surprise, Mrs. Bennet instantly answered, "Oh dear! Yes -- certainly. I am sure Lizzy will be very happy -- I am sure she can have no objection. Come, Kitty, I want you up stairs." And gathering her work together, she was hastening away, when Elizabeth called out --
"Dear ma'am, do not go. I beg you will not go. Mr. Collins must excuse me. He can have nothing to say to me that anybody need not hear. I am going away myself."
"No, no, nonsense, Lizzy. I desire you will stay where you are." And upon Elizabeth's seeming really, with vexed and embarrassed looks, about to escape, she added, "Lizzy, I insist upon your staying and hearing Mr. Collins."
Elizabeth would not oppose such an injunction -- and a moment's consideration making her also sensible that it would be wisest to get it over as soon and as quietly as possible, she sat down again, and tried to conceal, by incessant employment, the feelings which were divided between distress and diversion. Mrs. Bennet and Kitty walked off, and as soon as they were gone Mr. Collins began.
"Believe me, my dear Miss Elizabeth, that your modesty, so far from doing you any disservice, rather adds to your other perfections. You would have been less amiable in my eyes had there not been this little unwillingness; but allow me to assure you, that I have your respected mother's permission for this address…. my attentions have been too marked to be mistaken. Almost as soon as I entered the house, I singled you out as the companion of my future life. But before I am run away with by my feelings on this subject, perhaps it will be advisable for me to state my reasons for marrying -- and, moreover, for coming into Hertfordshire with the design of selecting a wife, as I certainly did."
The idea of Mr. Collins, with all his solemn composure, being run away with by his feelings, made Elizabeth so near laughing that she could not use the short pause he allowed in any attempt to stop him farther, and he continued --
"My reasons for marrying are, first, that I think it a right thing for every clergyman in easy circumstances (like myself) to set the example of matrimony in his parish; secondly, that I am convinced it will add very greatly to my happiness; and thirdly -- which perhaps I ought to have mentioned earlier, that it is the particular advice and recommendation of the very noble lady whom I have the honour of calling patroness. Twice has she condescended to give me her opinion (unasked too!) on this subject; and it was but the very Saturday night before I left Hunsford -- between our pools at quadrille, while Mrs. Jenkinson was arranging Miss de Bourgh's footstool -- that she said, 'Mr. Collins, you must marry. A clergyman like you must marry. -- Chuse properly, chuse a gentlewoman for my sake; and for your own, let her be an active, useful sort of person, not brought up high, but able to make a small income go a good way. This is my advice. Find such a woman as soon as you can, bring her to Hunsford, and I will visit her.' Allow me, by the way, to observe, my fair cousin, that I do not reckon the notice and kindness of Lady Catherine de Bourgh as among the least of the advantages in my power to offer. You will find her manners beyond anything I can describe; and your wit and vivacity, I think, must be acceptable to her, especially when tempered with the silence and respect which her rank will inevitably excite. Thus much for my general intention in favour of matrimony; it remains to be told why my views were directed to Longbourn instead of my own neighbourhood, where, I assure you, there are many amiable young women. But the fact is, that being, as I am, to inherit this estate after the death of your honoured father (who, however, may live many years longer), I could not satisfy myself without resolving to choose a wife from among his daughters, that the loss to them might be as little as possible, when the melancholy event takes place -- which, however, as I have already said, may not be for several years. This has been my motive, my fair cousin, and I flatter myself it will not sink me in your esteem. And now nothing remains for me but to assure you in the most animated language of the violence of my affection. To fortune I am perfectly indifferent, and shall make no demand of that nature on your father, since I am well aware that it could not be complied with; and that one thousand pounds in the four per cents., which will not be yours till after your mother's decease, is all that you may ever be entitled to. On that head, therefore, I shall be uniformly silent; and you may assure yourself that no ungenerous reproach shall ever pass my lips when we are married."
It was absolutely necessary to interrupt him now.
"You are too hasty, sir," she cried. "You forget that I have made no answer. Let me do it without farther loss of time. Accept my thanks for the compliment you are paying me. I am very sensible of the honour of your proposals, but it is impossible for me to do otherwise than decline them."
"I am not now to learn," replied Mr. Collins, with a formal wave of the hand, "that it is usual with young ladies to reject the addresses of the man whom they secretly mean to accept, when he first applies for their favour; and that sometimes the refusal is repeated a second or even a third time. I am therefore by no means discouraged by what you have just said, and shall hope to lead you to the altar ere long."
"Upon my word, sir," cried Elizabeth, "your hope is rather an extraordinary one after my declaration. I do assure you that I am not one of those young ladies (if such young ladies there are) who are so daring as to risk their happiness on the chance of being asked a second time. I am perfectly serious in my refusal. You could not make me happy, and I am convinced that I am the last woman in the world who would make you so”……………….
……….. "Oh! Mr. Bennet, you are wanted immediately; we are all in an uproar. You must come and make Lizzy marry Mr. Collins, for she vows she will not have him, and if you do not make haste he will change his mind and not have her."
Mr. Bennet raised his eyes from his book as she entered, and fixed them on her face with a calm unconcern which was not in the least altered by her communication.
"I have not the pleasure of understanding you," said he, when she had finished her speech. "Of what are you talking?"
"Of Mr. Collins and Lizzy. Lizzy declares she will not have Mr. Collins, and Mr. Collins begins to say that he will not have Lizzy."
"And what am I to do on the occasion? -- It seems an hopeless business."
"Speak to Lizzy about it yourself. Tell her that you insist upon her marrying him."
"Let her be called down. She shall hear my opinion."
Mrs. Bennet rang the bell, and Miss Elizabeth was summoned to the library.
"Come here, child," cried her father as she appeared. "I have sent for you on an affair of importance. I understand that Mr. Collins has made you an offer of marriage. Is it true?" Elizabeth replied that it was. "Very well -- and this offer of marriage you have refused?"
"I have, sir."
"Very well. We now come to the point. Your mother insists upon your accepting it. Is not it so Mrs. Bennet?"
"Yes, or I will never see her again."
"An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do."
Elizabeth could not but smile…..
About Jane Austen
Jane Austen was born December 16, 1775, to Rev. George Austen and the former Cassandra Leigh in Steventon, Hampshire, the seventh of eight children. Like the central characters in most of her novels, the Austens were a large family of respectable lineage but no fortune; her father supplemented his "living" — his clergyman's income — by farming. This lively and cheerful family frequently passed their evenings in novel-reading, charades and amateur theatrics.
Her most Jane was a writer from her teens until her death, although hardly anyone outside her immediate family knew it, since all her novels were published anonymously. Indeed, when she was living with relatives after her father's death and writing in the family parlor, she asked that a squeaky hinge on the room's swinging door not be oiled so that she would have time to hide her manuscripts when her nephews and nieces ran into the room. Incidentally, Austen's identity finally became known in 1814, after Pride and Prejudice.
Her other famous works include Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and Mansfield Park. From 1809 on Austen lived happily with her mother and sister, her time employed in writing. Her fatal illness, then thought to be consumption, now known to be Addison's disease, first appeared in 1816. She died the following year.
Credit To: http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/austen/bio.html
Biography: Al-Biruni
(Born September 5, 973 - Died December 13, 1048)
Who was the first to make experiments related to astronomy? Most people would say Galileo, or Ptolemy. The real answer is Abu Rayhan Al-Biruni. Born about five centuries before the Renaissance, he proved to be one of the greatest scientists of all times.
He has been described as the founder of Indology (study of India), and "the first anthropologist". He was also one of the first to do experimental scientific method,and was responsible for introducing the experimental method into mechanicsand mineralogy. He developed comparative sociology and experimentation in psychology,and the first to conduct elaborate experiments related to astronomical phenomena.
At an early age his fame of scholarship went around and when Sultan Mahmood Ghaznawi conquered Ural, Al-Biruni's homeland, he took al-Biruni along with him in his journeys to India several times and so he had the chance to travel all over India for a period of 20 years. Al-Biruni learned Hindu philosophy, mathematics, geography and religion from the Pandits to whom he taught Greek and Arabic science and philosophy. He wrote about his travels through India in his well-known book Kitab-al-Hind which gives a graphic account of the sub-continent.
After he returned to Ural, al-Biruni wrote his famous book Qanun-i-Masoodi which discusses several theories of astronomy, trigonometry, solar, lunar, and planetary movements, and other related topics.
In another book, al-Athar al-Baqia, he attempted a connected account of ancient history of nations and the related geographical knowledge, discussed the rotation of the earth and had given correct values of latitudes and longitudes of various places. He has also made many contributions to several topics of physical and economic geography in this book. At that time people believed that the earth was in the center and the planets, stars, and sun revolved around it. He clearly knew, 600 years before Galileo, that the earth rotates on its axis daily and moves yearly around the sun. And for the first time in history, he made a scientific explanation of why the sun never sets in the North or South Pole.
Other scientific contributions of his include the accurate densities of 18 different rocks, the mathematical formula for finding exactly when a season starts or ends, and seven different methods to find north and south.
He made a method for the trisection of an angle and other problems that cannot be solved with a ruler and a compass only. He proved that when the speed of sound is compared to the speed of light, the speed of light is very fast. He explained the working of natural springs and artesian wells by the hydrostatic principle of communicating vessels. He observed that flowers have 3,4,5,6, or 8 petals, but never 7 or 9.
Al-Biruni wrote two hundred books and made instruments for astronomy. He died in 1048 CE at the age of 75, after having spent 40 years in gathering knowledge and making his own contributions to it. He is considered as one of the greatest scientists of Islam, and one of the greatest of all times.
Credit: www.albalagh.net/kids/history/biruni.shtml
