Which idea best illustrates how a reader may make a
personal connection to the passage?
O The ideas expressed in Ralph Waldo Emerson's
essay "Self-Reliance"
This passage is taken from the autobiography of
Benjamin Franklin. In this section, Franklin attempts to
achieve moral perfection. These are the steps he takes
after making a list of thirteen virtues that he would like to
instill in himself
I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of
the virtues. I rul'd each page with red ink, so as to have
seven columns, one for each day of the week, marking
each column with a letter for the day. I cross'd these
columns with thirteen red lines, marking the beginning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues, on
which line, and in its proper column, I might mark, by a
little black spot, every fault I found upon examination to
have been committed respecting that virtue upon that
day.
I determined to give a week's strict attention to each of
the virtues successively. Thus, in the first week, my great
guard was to avoid every the least offence against Temperance, leaving the other virtues to their ordinary chance, only marketing every evening the faults of the day. Thus, if in the first week I could keep my first line, marked T, clear of spots, I suppos’d the habit of that virtue so much strengthen’d and it’s opposites weaken’d, that I might venture extending my attention to include the next, and for the following week keep both lines clear of spots.
O The current trend of using life coaches as a path to
improvement in America
O A list of goals that a reader wishes to achieve
O A nonfiction text on the history of self-improvement