Time to Look and Listen

Organization and Ideas

1. At first, she uses an authentic event, the TWA plane was diverted to Beirut and the U.S. Marine barracks was bombed by Arabs, as the prologue to mention why she is discriminated. Then, she recreats her experience as a seventh-grader well by depicting the conflicts in her mind. For example, she tried to forget the Arabics she knew, thinking the food she ate was "weird", being embarrassed about the accent, and so on.

2. I think education is the most important. Because in the last paragraph, the author wrote "Education is the key to understanding." In addition, in order to let the children know more about the Arabic culture, the author's mother even went to the school to educate them. After that, those children seemed to accept the culture of Arab.

3. Her statement about that subject is "Education is the key to understanding." She said that as Americans, we need to take a little time to look and listen carefully to what around us instead of judging it without knowing everything. She also mentioned "It is collective differences that unite and make us unique as a nation."

4. Actually, the writer tries to persuade the reader should not discriminate the religion and the race that are exclusive from the majority. Besides, she also mentioned she is an immigrant who came from the Middle East.I think there are some combinations between them. Because she is an immigrant, she confront many discriminations. However, she still can't forget her origine and should be proud of it. Because all of these aims are important, no one can dominate another.

5. Because this essay was dated nearly Thanksgiving, the holiday that is full of love and the feeling of grateful, I think maybe she wanted to published the essay to thank her mother country--Arab.