Inaugural Address

by Nelson Mandela (excerpt)

To my compatriots, I have no hesitation in saying that each one of us is as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful country as are the famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria and the mimosa trees of the bushveld.

Each time one of us touches the soil of this land, we feel a sense of personal renewal. The national mood changes as the seasons change.

We are moved by a sense of joy and exhilaration when the grass turns green and the flowers bloom.

That spiritual and physical oneness we all share with this common homeland explains that the depth of the pain we all carried in our hearts as we saw our country tear itself apart in a terrible conflict, and as we saw it spurned, outlawed and isolated by the peoples of the world, precisely because it has become the universal base of the pernicious ideology and practice of racism and racial oppression.

We, the people of South Africa, feel fulfilled that humanity has taken us back into its bosom, that we, who were outlaws not so long ago, have today been given the rare privilege to be host to the nations of the world on our own soil.

4
Select the correct answer.
Read these sentences from the passage.

“Each time one of us touches the soil of this land, we feel a sense of personal renewal. The national mood changes as the seasons change.”

What is the central idea expressed in these sentences?

A.
All South Africans share a connection to a beautiful land and have the opportunity for new beginnings.
B.
South Africans are hopeful and ready to be a source of light for the world.
C.
All South Africans wish to focus on their nation’s positive qualities rather than the negative ones.
D.
South Africans have avoided their painful history for far too long and need to begin a new.