1. Ebonics is an African American dialect that some educators wanted to make
a legitimate second language in California schools. One critic of the proposal wrote
the following: “In plain talk, ‘Ebonics’ is no more than African American gutter
slang. . . . If Ebonics has any credibility at all, it is as the dialect of the street—the
dialect of the pimp, the idiom of the gang-banger and the street thug, the jargon of
the school dropout, a form of pidgin English that reeks of African American failure.”9 Does anything you read in this chapter apply to this quotation? Explain.
2. An author argued that the real meaning of Christmas, the birth of Christ,
has been “buried under an avalanche of toys, tinsel, artificial trees, and fruit
cakes”and that we ought to rediscover that lost meaning and message. One of
his points was this: “The more Christian, in the true sense of the word, America
becomes, the more morally sensitive it will be and the better for all of us—
Christians and non-Christians, atheists and agnostics alike.” Does anything you
read in this chapter apply to this quotation? Explain.
Ebonics作为一种非裔美国人所讲的方言，一些学者希望它能成为加州学校教学的合法的第二语言。
其中的一个评论如下：显然的，“Ebonics”仅仅是美国贫民窟的俚语……Ebonics仅有的一点的可靠性，就是作为街头的方言--拉皮条、帮派、恶棍的俚语，辍学生的黑话，是一种混杂着非裔美国人失败的不地道的语言。
你在本章中读到的内容有可以适用于上述引文的吗？请解释。
作者认为，耶稣的诞生日，圣诞节的真正意义，被大量的玩具、华丽的人造的诞树还有水果蛋糕所掩盖，因此我们应该去重新发掘那些丢失的意义与节日应传达的信息。
他的一个观点是：“越来越多的基督徒，使得美国在道德上变得更加敏感，也使得包括基督徒、非基督徒、无神论、不可知论的我们变得更好”
你在本章中读到的内容有可以适用于上述引文的吗？请解释。
（谢谢软软。）
