A Story Full of the Stuff of Sorrow
by Leonard Pitts Jr.
THE MIAMI HERALD
1 I like stuff as much as the next guy.
2 My closet is stuffed with stuff, my shelves groan with stuff, boxes full of stuff jam my garage. I like stuff just fine.
3 But I would not kill for it.
4 Last week, a 34-year-old man was trampled to death by a mob rushing into a discount store to buy stuff. Jdimytai Damour was a seasonal worker manning the door of a store in Valley Stream, N.Y., as shoppers eager for so-called “Black Friday” bargains massed outside. The store was scheduled to open at 5 a.m., but that was not early enough for the 2,000 would-be shoppers. At five minutes before the hour, they were banging their fists and pressing their weight against the glass doors, which bowed and then – it exploded – in a shower of glass. The mob stormed in like a wave.
5 Four people, including a pregnant woman, were injured. And Damour was killed as people stomped over him, looking for good prices on DVDs, winter coats, and game systems. Nor was the mob sobered by his death. As authorities sought to clear the store, some defiantly kept shopping; others complained that they had been in line since the night before.
6 And here, it seems appropriate to observe the senseless irony: Black Friday is the traditional beginning of the Christmas shopping season, Christmas being the holiday when, Christians believe, hope was born into the world in the form of a baby who became a man who preached a gospel of service and compassion for our fellow human beings.
7 It is hard to see evidence of either in the mob’s treatment of Jdimytai Damour and if your inclination is to heap scorn upon them, I don’t blame you. But I would caution against regarding them as freaks or aberrations whose madness would never be seen in sane and normal people like ourselves. That would be false comfort.
8 You may think I’m talking about mob psychology and to a degree, I am. From soccer riots to the Holocaust itself, human beings have always had a tendency to lose individual identity and accountability when gathered in groups. You will do things as part of a crowd that you never would as an individual. Theoretically, anyone who lacked a strong enough moral center and sense of self could have been part of that mob in Valley Stream.
9 But it’s not just our common vulnerability to mob psychology that ties the rest of us to last week’s tragedy. It is also our common love of stuff. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a starker illustration of our true priorities. We say children are a priority, but when did people ever press against the door for Parents’ Night at school? We say education is a priority, but when did people ever bang against the windows of the library? We say faith is a priority, but when did people ever surge into a temple of worship as eagerly as they do a temple of business?
10 No, sale prices on MP3 players, that’s our true priority. Jdimytai Damour died because too many of us have bought, heart and soul, into the great lie of American consumerism: acquiring stuff will make you whole. “You, Happier,” is how a sign at my local electronics store puts it. As if owning a CD, a DVD, an HDTV, will elevate you to a level of joy otherwise impossible to attain.
11 Hey, you might be a total loser, might not have a friend, might not have an education, might not have a job, might not have a clue, but it will all be OK as soon as you get that new digital camera, especially if you get it for 50 percent off.
12 It would be nice to think—I will not hold my breath—that Damour’s death would lead at least some of us to finally see that for the obscene lie it is, to realize that seeking wholeness in consumer goods is an act of emptiness, not joy.
13 You, Happier? No.
14 Just you, with more senseless stuff.
2. retinue: assistants attending an important person.
COMPHREHENSION
Directions: Answer the following questions about the excerpt from A Story Full of the Stuff of Sorrow.
1. The central message of “A Story Full of the Stuff of Sorrow” is
a. People have too many possessions.
b. People should not buy anything but the essentials.
c. Happiness does not come from things.
d. Happiness comes from having more than others.
2. The word compassion in paragraph 6 combines the Latin prefix com-, which means
“together” or “with,” and the Latin root -pati-, meaning “to suffer.” The word compassion
means
a. to feel
b. to be unfeeling
c. to feel sympathy
d. to compare
3. Which of the following would best describe the conflict in this selection?
a. human vs. society
b. human vs. nature
c. human vs. self
c. people vs. people
4. The format of this article would best be described as
a. compare and contrast
b. argumentative
c. cause and effect
d. chronological order
5. The last line of the article, “Just you, with more senseless stuff.” contains an example of (a)
a. simile
b. metaphor
c. alliteration
d. imagery
6. The following line is an example of (a)
“The mob stormed in like a wave.”
a. simile
b. metaphor
c. alliteration
d. imagery
7. The use of dashes in the following line is most likely to communicate
“At five minutes before the hour, they were banging their fists and pressing their weight against the glass doors, which bowed and then – it exploded – in a shower of glass. The mob stormed in like a wave.”
a. a break in thought
b. a dramatic pause
c. missing words
d. none of the above
8. In which line is the author being sarcastic?
a. “As authorities sought to clear the store, some defiantly kept shopping; others complained that they had been in line since the night before.”
b. “From soccer riots to the Holocaust itself, human beings have always had a tendency to lose individual identity and accountability when gathered in groups.”
c. “Hey, you might be a total loser, might not have a friend, might not have an education, might not have a job, might not have a clue, but it will all be OK as soon as you get that new digital camera, especially if you get it for 50 percent off.”
d. “We say children are a priority, but when did people ever press against the door for Parents’ Night at school?”
9. Adding the suffix -ness to the bold word in the following sentence changes its meaning to
“Seeking wholeness in consumer goods is an act of emptiness, not joy.”
a. the opposite of
b. the result of
c. the state of
d. without
10. The word sense means “a natural understanding.” What is most likely the meaning of the suffix –less in the following sentence?
a. result of understanding
b. state of understanding
c. good at understanding
d. without understanding
COMPHREHENSION
Directions: Answer the following questions about the excerpt below.
1. What change, if any should be made to sentence 1?
a. Change stepping to having stepped
b. Change the ? to .
c. Change circles to circle’s
d. Make no change
2. Sentence 5 contains
a. a supporting detail
b. the writers thesis statement
c. a quotation
d. a counterargument
3. In sentence 6, recommend should be
a. recommend
b. had recommended
c. should recommend
d. did recommend
4. How would you correct the quotation in sentence 11?
a. The actress Shirley MacLaine once said “Fear makes strangers of people who would be friends”.
b. The actress Shirley MacLaine once said, “Fear makes strangers of people who would be friends”.
c. The actress Shirley MacLaine once said “Fear makes strangers of people who would be friends.”
d. The actress Shirley MacLaine once said, “Fear makes strangers of people who would be friends.”
5. The bold section is an example of
“Breaking out of your mold can be good for you.”
a. gerund phrase
b. present participle
c. past participle
d. infinitive phrase
6. The bold sections is an example of
“The very respected actress Shirley MacLaine once said…”
a. gerund phrase
b. present participle
c. past participle
d. infinitive phrase