More than just citizenship
Whether
you're born with citizenship or earn it after immigration, there's more
to being a Good Citizen than just having that legal piece of paper. It's about
how you conduct yourself as a person, how you interact with your community and
society, and how you pass what you know and learn on to others.
Social and Community Responsibility
A Good
Citizen has to think about the nation as a whole as well as their local
community and their own families. Americans tend to be sort of self-centered and short-term thinkers! But if more people
thought about how their actions and their decisions affected the rest of the
nation, we'd have better planning and more reasonable long-term goals.
Aside from
being informed and educated, and helping your kids to be the same, here are a
few ideas for societal thinking:
- Cleaning
up local parks and wild places, and learning to not litter as well as buying
less of the things that have all the packaging that gets littered, preserves
the integrity of the local ecosystem, keeping air and water safer, protecting
your kids and your friends and family, and making the area nicer to live in,
which raises property value and gets the government and investors to see that
your area is worth investing in.
- Being
friendly and knowing your neighbors personally builds
social support systems, increases neighborhood and
therefore city safety, protects the children and other helpless factors, and
enriches lives, which leads to healthier and longer life spans and lowers
dependence on hospitals, medication, and public works.
- Raising
your kids to be bright, polite, responsible and reasonable leads to kids who can
take care of themselves when they're old enough to be out alone, who are less
likely to be either kidnapped or coerced into crime, will work harder and take
more pride in their first jobs, and will lead to social stability and
enrichment-- rather than instability and violence.
- Getting
involved in movements to make the lives of your fellow city dwellers better
such as community gardens, clean-ups, local fairs, protests and marches,
celebrations, homeless-shelters, volunteer groups, clubs, social gatherings,
all these sorts of things-- will improve the overall lives of the whole city,
and will stand as an example to other cities of how it can be, which will in
turn lead to people all over the country having a better life.
- Stay as
healthy as you can: healthy people work harder and better, learn better, behave
better, and rely less on the public for food and income.
The key
ideas are to think about how your own life in the city can affect the rest of
the city and the country, to make yourself and your life an example of how it
should be, and to raise your kids to carry on the trend. Think about ensuring
the future.
Adapted
from: http://samanthaholloway.hubpages.com/
COMPREHENSION
1. Decide if these statements are true or false; then, justify your
answer.
a. A Good Citizen is not expected to
think about the nation as a whole as well as their local community and their
own families.
Truer Falser
………………………………………………………………………………...……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...
b. According to the writer, Americans
are only
interested in themselves and their own activities.
Truer Falser
…………………………………………………………………………………………...…………………………………………………………………………………………………………...
c. Being friendly and knowing your neighbors does
not help building strong social relationships.
Truer Falser
……………………………………………………………………………...………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...
2. Answer the following questions briefly, in your own words as far as
possible.
a. What should parents do to their kids?
………………………………………...……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...
b. Why should people keep healthy?
…………………………………………………………………………………………...…………………………………………………………………………………………………………...
3. Put a tick (R) on the good practices and put a cross (T) on the bad ones.
q Eliminating discrimination
and injustice.
q Cleaning up local parks and wild places.
q Respecting the rights and
freedoms of others.
q Obeying the laws.
q Being loyal to
your country.
q Being honest.
q
Willing to
work, make things better, volunteer, etc...
q Being dishonest.
q Respecting
national symbols.
q Respecting the
flag.
q Killing people.
q Stealing money.
q Selling drugs.
q Saving water.
q Destroying public places.
q Helping the poor.
q Raising your kids
to be bright, polite, responsible and reasonable.
q knowing
your neighbors.
q Treating
others with respect.
q Recognizing
the purpose of rules.
q Practicing
self-control.
q Working hard
in school.
q Taking
responsibility for one’s own actions.
q Valuing honesty
and truthfulness in oneself and others.
q Getting involved
in movements.
q Being friendly.
q working
towards improving his/ her community.
q Loving your
country.
q Being responsible.
q Showing respect
to old people.
q Paying taxes.
q Standing up for the
rights of others.
q Defending the
unity of your country.
q Serving the others before oneself.
qRespecting and protecting the rights
and property of
Others.
q Describing
actions that can improve the school and community.
q Demonstrating
self-discipline and self-reliance.
q Practicing
honesty and trustworthiness.
4. Match the following words with their definitions
Word |
|
Definition |
1) Self-centered |
a)
To improve the quality of something; to make
something or someone richer. |
|
2) Reasonable |
b)
The quality of being honest and having strong
moral principles that you refuse to change. |
|
3) Integrity |
c)
Based on or using good judgment and therefore
fair and practical. |
|
4)
Enrich |
d)
The period of time that sometimes exists or
happens. |
|
5)
Span |
e)
Only interested in yourself and your own
activities. |
|
6)
Coerce |
f)
Money that is earned from doing work or
received from investments. |
|
7) Income |
g)
To persuade someone forcefully to do
something which they are unwilling to do. |
5. What does the underlined word in the text refer to?
a. It (paragraph 1) :…………………….……………