THE Atlantic
What Died With Neil Armstrong
With Armstrong goes a long-standing brand of heroism.
Apollo XI Astronauts Neil Armstrong (L), Michael Collins (C), and Buzz Aldrin (R) laugh with President Nixon aboard the USS Hornet, July 24, 1969. (Reuters)
American mythology loves nothing more than the reluctant hero: the man -- it is usually a man -- whose natural talents have destined him for more than obliging obscurity. George Washington, we are told, was a leader who would have preferred to have been a farmer. Thomas Jefferson, a writer. Martin Luther King, Jr., a preacher. These men were roused from lives of perfunctory achievement, our legends have it, not because they chose their own exceptionalism, but because we, the people, chose it for them. We -- seeing greatness in them that they were too humble to observe themselves -- conferred on them uncommon paths. Historical circumstance became its own call of duty, and the logic of democracy proved itself through the answer.
Neil Armstrong was a hero of this stripe: constitutionally humble, circumstantially noble. Nearly every obituary written for him this weekend has made a point of emphasizing his sense of privacy, his sense of humility, his sense of the ironic ordinary. Armstrong’s famous line, maybe or maybe not so humanly flubbed, neatly captures the narrative: One small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind. And yet every aspect of Armstrong’s life -- a life remembered for one act of bravery but distinguished ultimately by the bravery of banality -- made clear: On that day in 1969, he acted on our behalf, out of a sense of mission that was communal rather than personal. The reluctant hero is also the self-sacrificing hero. The reluctant hero is the charitable hero.
Sentence
1. In high school, a good student is supposed to get a perfect score; in college, the teacher wants to challenge even the best students. Therefore, almost nobody answers every question correctly.
2. In fact, if you got to the Continent, to France or Germany, you’ll find that the city centers have been turned into pedestrian precincts, and the cars been almost banned.
3. People living in a town would never dream of walking. There are just too many barriers, pedestrian underpasses, broken pavements and traffic lights where you have to run like a rabbit to get across in time.
4. Statistics show that lawyers are the most depressed of all professionals. Lawyers are always acting on behalf of someone else. Suicide is among the leading causes of premature death among lawyers
5. I’m afraid we can’t reduce the price of this brand of shirt. You know $20.50 is our rock bottom price. If you purchase more than 10,000 units, we can reduce it to $19.
Passage
1. In the early 1990s, some influential people said that being in single sex classes could raise a girl’s self-esteem. Schools across the country began creating single sex classrooms and schools. But many critics claim that all female schools may actually be detrimental to a girl’s education, because they reinforce the regressive notion of sex differences. The renewed interest in single sex schooling has fostered controversy among Americans. Those who give it full endorsement believe girls need an all female environment to take risks and find their own voices. Those who question the validity of single sex schooling believe that there’s no such thing, a separate but equal.
2. Now I’d like to identify some key changes in our cities. First of all, they are getting bigger and bigger. For the first time in history, there will soon be more people living in urban areas than in rural environments. In 1950, New York City was the only city with a population of 10 million. Now in 2010, worldwide we have 38 cities with populations of over 10 million people, what we call megacities. Cities are also getting taller because land is getting more and more expensive. We can have a tall apartment building that 1000 people can live in. Skyscrapers have become a symbol of modern cities.
