<!DOCTYPE html>
<!--
 | The property "text-align" dictates the alignment of the inline-level content,
 | but does not impact the spacing between that content. A value of "start"
 | indicates that the inline-level content is aligned to the start edge of the
 | line box.
 |   https://www.w3.org/TR/css3-text/#text-align
 -->
<html>
<head>
  <style>
    body {
      margin: 0px;
      font-family: Roboto;
      font-size: 20px;
    }
    .containing-block {
      background-color: #03a9f4;
      width: 200px;
      text-align: start;
    }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <div class="containing-block" dir="ltr">
    <span>abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz</span>
  </div>
  <div class="containing-block" dir="rtl">
    <span>abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz</span>
  </div>
</body>
</html>