Excerpts from Four Commencement Speeches

Unit 12 in Book 6 "Have a Good Four Years" is an adaptation from Derek C. Bok's speech to Harvard freshmen in 1971. To introduce to students more good speeches to either high school students or undergraduates, I put excerpts from four commencement speeches in the Reading Comprehension on this semester's final. Students had to answer five questions based on all the four. With the source put in the parentheses following each speech, my intention was to invite students to get online and search for any of the speeches and read the complete one.


VI. Reading Comprehension


The following are excerpts from four commencement speeches. Read them and answer the questions.

A.

“…nobody’s journey is seamless or smooth. We all stumble. We all have setbacks. If things go wrong, you hit a dead end—as you will—it’s just life’s way of saying time to change course. So, ask every failure—this is what I do with every failure, every crisis, every difficult time—I say, what is this here to teach me? And as soon as you get the lesson, you get to move on. If you really get the lesson, you pass and you don’t have to repeat the class. If you don’t get the lesson, it shows up wearing another pair of pants—or skirts—to give you some remedial work….” (Oprah Winfrey at Stanford University, June15, 2008)

B.

“The truth is, no matter how hard you work, you won’t necessarily ace every class or succeed in every job. There will be times when you screw up, when you hurt the people you love, when you stray from your most deeply held values. And when that happens, it’s the easiest thing in the world to start looking around for someone to blame. Your professor was too hard; your boss was a jerk; the coach was playing favorites; your friend just didn’t understand….This community could have easily gone down that road.…But instead, you came together. You were honest with yourselves about where you were falling short. And you resolved to do better….” (Barack Obama at Kalamazoo Central High School, June 07, 2010)

C.

“To those of you who are college bound in the fall, I just hope that you make the most of that experience. Take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. Make new friends; get to know your classmates. Take classes that’ll challenge the way you think about the world. Build relationships with professors that inspire you. Don’t sit in your room, get involved in activities that spark your passions and service organizations that touch your hearts. And the thing that I’ve been telling graduates all over this country is study abroad if you can. Find a way to travel the world….” (Michelle Obama at Anacostia Senior High School, June 11, 2011)

D.

“If we can find approaches that meet the needs of the poor in ways that generate profits for business and votes for politicians, we will have found a sustainable way to reduce inequity in the world. This task is open-ended. It can never be finished. But a conscious effort to answer this challenge will change the world. I am optimistic that we can do this, but I talk to skeptics who claim there is no hope. They say: ‘Inequity has been with us since the beginning, and will be with us till the end—because people just…don’t…care.’ I completely disagree….” (Bill Gates at Harvard University, June 08, 2007)

86. How many among the four addresses mentioned the right attitude toward failure?

(A) One. (B) Two. (C) Three. (D) All.

87. Which is most likely to follow the sentence “…don’t make excuses. Take responsibility not just for your successes, but for your failures as well”?

(A) A. (B) B. (C) C. (D) D.

88. Which addressed the issue of helping others?

(A) A and B. (B) B and C. (C) C and D. (D) B and D.

89. Who listed what students could do in college?
(A) Oprah Winfrey. (B) Barack Obama. (C) Michelle Obama. (D) Bill Gates.

90. Based on the four excerpts, which statement is FALSE?
(A) Oprah Winfrey wished the graduates a smooth life.
(B) Barack Obama paid compliments to the attendees of the ceremony.
(C) Michelle Obama encouraged students to go abroad.
(D) Bill Gates believed there were ways to reduce the problem he mentioned.