Prompt 1: We often hear that we can learn much about someone or something just by casual observation. We are not                             required to look beneath the surface or to question how something seems. In fact, we are urged to trust our                             impressions, often our first impressions, of how a person or a situation seems to be. Yet appearances can be                              misleading. What “seems” isn’t always what is.

　　           Assignment: Is the way something seems to be not always the same as it actually is?

Prompt 2: For a variety of reasons, people often make choices that have negative results. Later, they regret these choices,                      finding out too late that bad choices can be costly. On the other hand, decisions that seem completely reasonable                  when they are made may also be the cause of later disappointment and suffering. What looks like a wonderful                        idea at one time can later seem like the worst decision that could have been made. Good choices, too, can be                          costly.

　　         Assignment: Are bad choices and good choices equally likely to have negative consequences?

Prompt 3: The people we call heroes do not usually start out as unusual. Often they are ordinary people subject to ordinary                    human weaknesses — fear, doubt, and self-interest. In fact, they live ordinary lives until they distinguish                                  themselves by having to deal with an injustice or a difficult situation. Only then, when they must respond in                            thought and in action to an extraordinary challenge, do people begin to know their strengths and weaknesses.

　　         Assignment: Do people learn who they are only when they are forced into action?

Prompt 4: Many persons believe that to move up the ladder of success and achievement, they must forget the past, repress                     it, and relinquish it. But others have just the opposite view. They see old memories as a chance to reckon with                         the past and integrate past and present.

　　         Assignment: Do memories hinder or help people in their effort to learn from the past and succeed in the present?

　　         Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with                                  reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.