Question

Colin bit his lip for about the hundredth time and shuffled along the museum hallway with the group of students. "One more crack about the redcoats, and I will scream," he said to himself.

He had only been in the States for a few months, but to his everlasting despair, his family had arrived just in time for his mom to sign him up for this school trip to Washington, D.C.

"It will be fun," she had said. "And you will meet new friends."

So here he was, hearing about the Americans who fought against the "evil" British. And so far, no friends, though he had noticed a group of girls pointi

Answer 1

him and giggling earlier.

Colin was determined that his adjustment to life in America would not include a dislike for his own country. Sure, America used to be a colony of Great Britain, but it was not like British citizens today still felt the pain of the rebellion—certainly not to the extent the guide of this tour led one to believe.

"It was the most remarkable thing," the guide was saying. Colin only half-listened, focusing instead on the flag-covered tie the guide was wearing. "Imagine travelling halfway around the world to find that you really weren't who you thought you were. Instead of a citizen of Britain, you became something else: a citizen of America, someone who wanted a say in how your government worked."

Colin didn't have a hard time imagining much of that. He had travelled half-way around the world. He had been wondering who he might become as a result of those travels. But so far, he still really longed for his home—his real home—in England. He missed his friends. He missed the sights, smells, and sounds of his neighborhood. When his mother said the word home now, he knew she meant their new house in the U.S. But he always thought wistfully of their London apartment.

"Imagine a system that offered protection to the common person," the guide continued. "Imagine the opportunity to create a system of government that would protect everyone. What would you start with? How would you imagine this system to work?"

Colin felt a quiet fall over the group. The guide clearly wanted an answer to his question. The students looked at their shoes. He had learned at least one thing about his American peers: they were never in a hurry to volunteer answers. They kept looking down at their shoes, like lemmings, and Colin noticed it was getting quite warm. Even the teachers and chaperones started to shift nervously.

Then one of the girls who had pointed at him raised her hand.

"Didn't the writers of the Constitution look at the Magna Carta?" she asked quietly, almost in a whisper.

What? Colin knew about the Magna Carta: It was one of the most important documents in British history. How did she know that? Colin stared at her.

"That is correct, young lady," the tour guide said. "That document was one the Founding Fathers looked to when our Constitution was being drafted. Who knows what the Magna Carta was?”

Colin knew. He had always made high marks in history. He loved learning about the crazy kings and their often dumb choices. The Magna Carta was designed to stop King John, who in the few years of his rule managed to lose most of the empire to France, taxing his subjects to the point of rebellion to get it back.

"Didn't the lords of England or something make the king sign it, and swear that he would behave or something?" the girl was saying.

"Yes, but why?" asked the guide.

The girl shrugged. The guide waited, looked patiently at her, then scanned the crowd for other volunteers and waited some more. They all waited. Colin wondered how many groups the poor man had to lead every day.

Before he quite realized what he was doing—either out of pity for the guide or simply a need to start moving again—Colin blurted out: "It was designed to limit the king’s power."

He forced himself to ignore the faces turning in his direction, the whisperings about his accent.

"Exactly," said the guide, obviously relieved. "But what else?"

Colin would never really understand what happened next, how he found the words to speak out in front of everyone. The topic itself might not have mattered much to him before, but it suddenly seemed extremely important to understand where he’d come from.

"Well, first of all," Colin started, "It wasn't lords, it was barons who forced the king to sign," he said, smiling in the direction of the girl who had spoken before. "The barons held land given to them by the king, in payment for an oath of loyalty and a duty to provide soldiers for the king's army. Most of the time that worked fine, but King John was a jerk, in a long line of jerks, who took things too far. And the barons needed a way to control the kings."

Answer 2

Almost as an afterthought, Colin added, "especially those who went bonkers. There were a lot of those."

Colin felt his face flush red when the group burst out laughing. He quickly realized they weren't laughing at him, but at the last thing he’d said. Apparently the word "bonkers" wasn't commonly used in American slang.

"Well done, young man!" the guide said. "And so you see, students, our relationship with Britain wasn't a complete loss. Not only do we get brilliant history scholars from Britain," he said, winking at Colin, "we gained a lot from the British people who had fought for freedoms before us. Does anyone know what key ideas of the Magna Carta are found in our Constitution?"

"The Rule of Law," the girl said, looking back at Colin, this time with a smile that seemed like a challenge.

"Meaning what, specifically?" asked the guide.

"The king, or the leaders of a country, were not above the law," finished Colin, smiling back at the girl with a challenge of his own. No way was anyone going to outdo him on British history.

"And we see that idea borne out in how the Founding Fathers created a balance of power between the executive, judicial, and legislative branches," the guide said. "Now, students, let's move into the next room, where we can look at the Bill of Rights."

The crowd shuffled, turning toward the door behind them. Colin found himself bumped along behind the group of girls. The girl who'd spoken up fell in next to him, introducing herself as Sarah.

"You're from England, right?" she said. "Is that why you know about the Magna Carta? Did you study it a lot there?"

Colin shrugged and nodded. He didn't trust himself to actually speak. Sarah gestured toward the group of girls, the ones who'd pointed him out earlier.

"We were saying we thought you'd know this material really well," Sarah said, and her friends smiled and nodded at him. "Probably even better than somebody who was raised here. We were right."

Colin just nodded again, but started to smile. Maybe this America thing was going to work out better than he'd thought.

Answer 3

can someone help understand hwat is going on in this story?

Answer 4

Please? @ganeshie8

Answer 5

Help me understand what this story is about?

Answer 6

@mikkel900

Answer 7

@ganeshie8 Please

Answer 8

@ganeshie8

Answer 9

@ganeshie8

Answer 10

@highschoolmom2010 @CausticSyndicalist @ganeshie8

Answer 11

help me understand

Answer 12

Honestly - did you even TRY reading through it? :P