III Year Lettorato Reading Questions

Article by Michele Lent Hirsch:
“You needn’t crave revenge after attacks like those in Paris. I didn’t after 9/11”

(Sub-title: “After living through a traumatic event and seeing enough death and carnage, it’s reasonable to have a pacifist response”)

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/19/paris-attacks-pacifist-response-september-11



Please write answers to the following questions. Answer the questions with complete sentences.

From paragraph 1:
1) What are “low-stakes situations”?
2) What is “the urge to get back at someone?”

From paragraph 3:
3) Define “disinterest.”
4) What is the meaning of the expression “to come at a remove”?

From paragraph 4:
5) What is the purpose or function of the 4th paragraph of the article?
6) What is PTSD?

 From paragraphs 5 & 6:
7) What is the meaning of “puzzlement”?
8) What is puzzling to the author of the article and other people she knows?

From paragraph 7:
9) What does the author mean by “the overall mangled-ness of our species”?
10) What kind of word is “mangled-ness”? Is it a standard English word?

From paragraph 8:
11) Define the expression “to strike back” and the term “cringe.”

From paragraph 9:
12) What does it mean to “take solace in” something?
13) What is the meaning of a “pointed question”? How would you characterize the use of language in that expression?

14) Write a one-sentence summary of the main idea of the article.
15) Finally, do you agree with the author’s opinion? Why or why not?