ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos


Information and Ideas Videos 96 videos

SAT Reading: Citing Evidence to Identify a Theme in Walden
35 Views

Contemplating one's life is key to fulfilled happiness. Thoreau's theme revolves around the simple life well lived. He clearly never tried virtual...

What Does the Author Mean by "Front" in this Context?
26 Views

Thoreau uses "front" to mean "face". He wants to face The Facts of Life without shying away from our natural tendencies, roots, and the simply way...

SAT Reading: Using Context to Define a Word
12 Views

What does "frittered away" mean in this context? Wasted. Wasted by the way. Thoreau claims we fritter away our lives praying to modern complex dist...

See All

SAT Reading: Which Characteristic Does President Obama Imply All Americans Share? 3 Views


Share It!


Description:

What do we share as Americans? What traits? What is our national character? Obama defines it as a map to the trajectory laid out regarding change from our past.


Transcript

00:03

all right people were continuing with President Obama's inauguration speech of

00:07

2013 analyzing the Shmoop out of it all right here we go next question [text on screen]

00:11

President Obama suggests that all Americans share which of the following

00:14

traits all right well we don't really have to go back to the text here there's [text on screen]

00:17

no specific thing being cited so we're just kind of thinking aloud here well

00:21

what is it desire to take on tough challenges what's the most generic so

00:24

let's go with a yep that's the answer a the president spends a good deal of time

00:29

defining the national character he does this in large part by reminding [Statue of Liberty]

00:33

Americans of the challenges they have faced in the past saying that they all

00:38

have a celebration of initiative and enterprise in common he's saying that [people celebrating]

00:44

Americans prize having the desire to take on new and difficult challenges [Rocky vs. Uncle Sam]

00:49

together well Obama does seem to want to improve America's infrastructure yeah he [road work time lapse]

00:53

loves spending on buses and trains and planes and automobiles he suggests that

00:58

all Americans know the importance of railroads and highways but he never says [picture of Obama]

01:01

that a majority favor spending money on them so be is out he also gives examples [text on screen]

01:06

of American achievements like social safety nets which involved government [water dam]

01:10

intervention in personal affairs let's see yeah if you want to call that Social

01:14

Security it's not like spying on your you know secret Yahoo account and he

01:18

says the tax code must be revamped but he doesn't specifically say that while [text on screen]

01:23

the people have requested the change even though probably a hundred and [people on strike]

01:27

fourteen percent probably would want to revamp so but in this case well we can

01:31

Nix D so yeah the answer is a they have the desire to take on tough challenges

01:35

and when you get these kind of questions on tests almost always go with the most [student writing]

01:39

generic broad vanilla bland potential answer and though you probably get to

01:44

the right thing and then you could also probably run for president [students running for president]

Related Videos

SAT Reading 1.1 Long Passages
380 Views

SAT Reading: Long Passages Drill 1, Problem 1

How Does Thoreau Feel about Commerce?
41 Views

How does Thoreau feel about commerce? He writes, "We don't ride upon the railroad; it rides upon us." He wants and end to the war fighting for the...

SAT Reading: Classifying the Relationship Between Two Passages
179 Views

How was the Beanie Baby era parallel to the Tulip Bubble? Similar events, only the TulipMania almost bankrupted Holland. Bean Babies only bankrupte...

SAT Reading: Citing Evidence to Identify a Theme in Walden
35 Views

Contemplating one's life is key to fulfilled happiness. Thoreau's theme revolves around the simple life well lived. He clearly never tried virtual...

SAT Reading: Why Does Thoreau Use the Phrase "Mechanical Aids" in this Passage?
58 Views

Thoreau was all about simplicity; anything that took away from his vision was the enemy. Mechanical aids were one of them. Guess he had to train a...