Compare Two Texts With Different Genres 8th Grade IXL

From the second half of the 19th century, Christian missionaries featured prominently in the series of events that led to the development of the Nigerian nation and were able to bring about certain political, economic, and technological changes in the region. Their activities helped to break down ethnic prejudices and to bring their converts in loyalty transcending ethnic ties. Patriotic Nigerians came to believe that by practicing Christianity they were paving the way for the creation of the Nigerian nation. The Nigerian state of their dream was one in which Christianity would flourish, inter-tribal wars would cease, and the industrial, technological, and intellectual revolutions which had occurred in Europe would repeat themselves in Nigeria.

Christian missionaries brought Nigerian ethnic groups together.

Indeed, Curtis replied, he had thought about doing something grand and consequential. "The idea dawned on him that here was a wide field as yet unworked," Grinnell wrote. "Here was a great country in which still lived hundreds of tribes. . . . Would it not be a worthy work, from the points of view of art and science and history, to represent them all by photography?" . . . As for the late-afternoon thunderheads, twirls of dust devils and biting flies drawn to horse flesh and the softer human kind—who could complain? Push on, Curtis urged, push on. He'd been promised much more than a peek: a chance to witness the Sun Dance, the oldest and most important religious ceremony to the Piegan, Bloods and related tribes. . . . Any inconvenience was a trifle compared to what lay ahead.

Curtis thought it was important to photograph the Sun Dance.

We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the honeysuckle with which it was covered. Some one was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten—a thrill of returning thought, and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that "w-a-t-e-r" meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free!

For Helen, learning the word "water" felt like triggering a memory.

TITUBA: I don't compact with no Devil! PARRIS: You will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to your death, Tituba! PUTNAM: This woman must be hanged! She must be taken and hanged! TITUBA, terrified, falls to her knees: No, no, don't hang Tituba! I tell him I don't desire to work for him, sir. PARRIS: The Devil? HALE: Then you saw him! Tituba weeps. Now Tituba, I know that when we bind ourselves to Hell it is very hard to break with it. We are going to help you tear yourself free— TITUBA, frightened by the coming process: Mister Reverend, I do believe somebody else be witchin' these children. HALE: Who? TITUBA: I don't know, sir, but the Devil got him numerous witches.

It demonstrates that Tituba was frightened into telling her story.

This small piece of metal holds a story that I was not allowed to speak for many winters. It is the true story of how Navajo Marines helped America win a great war. There is much that I must remember to speak for this medal, to tell its story as it should be told. I must remember not only the great secret with which I was trusted, but also all that happened to me and those like me. That is a lot. But I think that I can do it well enough. After all, I was expected to remember, as were the other men trained with me. The lives of many men depended entirely on our memories.

It emphasizes the imprtance of memory for the Navajo Code Talkers.

It was Sunday, August 13, 1961, a day I would remember for the rest of my life. When a prison had been built around us as we slept. Lines of Grenzers—our nickname for the border police, the Grenztruppen—stood guard along a fence of thorny wire, in some places higher than their heads, and for as far as my eyes could see. They stood like iron statues with stern expressions and long rifles in their hands. It was obvious that anyone who tried to cross would get far worse than a rip in their clothes. Because Grenzers didn't face the westerners on the other side of the fence. They watched us.

It illustrates how Eastern German CitizensFelt trapped by the wall.

We marched on, found that it was a black flag tied to a sledge bearer; near by the remaining camp; sledge tracks and ski tracks going and coming and the clear trace of dogs' paws—many dogs. This told us the whole story. The Norwegians have forestalled us and are first at the Pole. It is a terrible disappointment, and I am very sorry for my loyal companions. Many thoughts come and much discussion have we had. To-morrow we must march on to the Pole and then hasten home with all the speed we can compass. All the day dreams must go: it will be a wearisome return.

It shows how each of them reacted differently.

"Does the white man understand our custom about land?" "How can he when he does not even speak our tongue? But he says that our customs are bad, and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad. How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart."

It suggests that Christianity divided thepeople of Nigeria.

He worried, in light of the Harriman expedition debt, that his photographs weren't interesting. He worried that his focus, that the subjects that he chose, were falling short of capturing the public's interest. So he was wary when Bird Grinnell wrote to ask if Edward would accompany him on a journey to Montana that next summer to be among the few white men invited to attend the Plains Indian Sun Dance. "I am loath to bring my camera," Edward wrote back, in acceptance. "But you must," Grinnell responded. In purely economic terms Clara could not see how the business could sustain another out-of-pocket cost. Their bread-and-butter, Edward's society portraits of debutantes and heirs, was already showing symptoms of decline owing to his absences.

It suggests that Curtis was reluctant to photograph the Sun Dance.

[ANNIE . . .spells into HELEN's free palm:] Water. W, a, t, e, r. Water. It has a—name— And now the miracle happens. HELEN drops the pitcher on the slab under the spout, it shatters. She stands transfixed. ANNIE freezes on the pump handle: there is a change in the sundown light, and with it a change in HELEN's face, some light coming into it we have never seen there, some struggle in the depths behind it; and her lips tremble, trying to remember something the muscles around them once knew, till at last it finds its way out, painfully, a baby sound buried under the debris.. . . HELEN: Wah. Wah.

It suggests that Helen knew the word "water" before she lost her hearing.

The Tepanecs had ruled the land for twenty upon twenty of summers, for more than a few generations, powerful, successful in their wars and campaigns, proud, yet humble, offering the gods what the mighty deities demanded. They ruled the Great Lakes' Valley wisely, by conquest and by cunning. No nation could stand up to the might of Azcapotzalco, although there were always those who tried. And paid for their foolishness. Like the silly Acolhua from the other side of the Great Lake, with their foolish Emperor thinking he could oppose the mighty Tepanecs ten summers ago. Well, the stupid man had paid for his mistake, with his lands and his life.

It suggests that the Tepanecs seemed powerful and unbeatable.

They did whatever had to be done about the farm and went back to the house feeling irritable with the discomfort and fearful for the wheat. Milt said nothing, but his silence was as ominous as that of the storm, broken only by the small pecking sound of the dust against the house. He was nervous, worried, but not yet quite hopeless. Julia tried to iron the clothes, but the dust, sifting in from places that had kept out even the wind, gave them a dirty grayness. She put the clothes away quietly, trying to make as little fuss as possible, knowing they were all on edge. She felt the dust in her clothes and on her skin, in her mouth and nose, on everything she touched.

It suggests that the effects of the Dust Bowl felt inescapable.

The Round Table talk was mostly long-winded speeches—narrative accounts of various adventures. These were not missions to avenge injuries or to settle old disputes. They were simply duels between people who had never even met each other before. I had always imagined that was the sort of thing that children do. But here were these big oafs sticking to it and taking pride in it, clear into adulthood. Yet there was something very lovable about these great simple-hearted creatures. They possessed little in the way of brains. But you didn't mind it after a while, because you soon saw that brains were not needed in a society like that.

It suggests that the order's members were humorous and foolish, not noble.

This was a fantastic requirement that was demanded of the Navajo boys: to memorize so much in the urgent timetable of only a few weeks, the hundreds of words and phrases, most of them foreign to their own basic culture. But it was a feat Carl Gorman knew would not be insurmountable. He tried to explain why to the communication officer, who was amazed at the speed with which the Navajo boys were drilling. "You have to understand," Carl Gorman said, "that for us, everything is memory. You see, Lieutenant, it's part of our heritage. We have no written language. Our songs, our prayers, our stories, they're all handed down from grandfather to father to children—and we listen, we hear, we learn to remember everything. It's part of our training."

Memory was vital to Navajo culture.

Itzcoatl's greatest military feat came early in his reign: the toppling of the powerful Tepanec empire centered at Azcapotzalco. The Tepanecs were already in a state of turmoil toward the end of Chimalpopoca's rule, with the death of Tezozomoc and the ensuing battle of succession by his sons. Itzcoatl aggressively allied himself with the struggling ruler-in-exile of the Acolhua, Nezahualcoyotl, and together they vanquished the Tepanec forces. But becoming the new lords of the valley was a feat yet to be established, and Itzcoatl spent the remainder of his days (until his death in 1440) conquering dissident towns and consolidating Mexica power in and around the Valley of Mexico.

The Tepanec empire was falling apart.

Dry land farming on the Great Plains led to the systematic destruction of the prairie grasses. In the ranching regions, overgrazing also destroyed large areas of grassland. Gradually, the land was laid bare, and significant environmental damage began to occur. Among the natural elements, the strong winds of the region were particularly devastating. With the onset of drought in 1930, the overfarmed and overgrazed land began to blow away. Winds whipped across the plains, raising billowing clouds of dust. The sky could darken for days, and even well-sealed homes could have a thick layer of dust on the furniture. In some places, the dust drifted like snow, covering farm buildings and houses. Nineteen states in the heartland of the United States became a vast dust bowl.

The dust bowl resulted from damage to the great plains landscape

The king rose and spoke to all the Table Round. He charged them to be always true and noble knights, to do neither outrage nor murder, nor any unjust violence, and lastly, never to take part in any wrongful quarrel, for reward or payment. And to all this he swore them, knight by knight. Then he declared that, every year, they should all come before him, wherever he might choose, and give an account of all their doings and adventures of the past twelve months. And so, with high words of cheer, he instituted the most noble order of the Round Table, to which the best and bravest knights in all the world sought admission.

The order symbolized honor and high moral standards

Who was it, demanded Hathorne, who tortured the poor girls? "The devil, for all I know," Tituba rejoined before she began describing him, to a hushed room. She introduced a full, malevolent cast, their animal accomplices and various superpowers. A sort of satanic Scheherazade, she was masterful and gloriously persuasive. Only the day before, a tall, white-haired man in a dark serge coat had appeared. . . . Had the man appeared to her in any other guise? asked Hathorne. Here Tituba made clear that she must have been the life of the corn-pounding, pea-shelling Parris kitchen. She submitted a vivid, lurid and harebrained report. More than anyone else, she propelled America's infamous witch hunt forward, supplying its imagery and determining its shape.

Tituba told her story with enthusiasm.