vocabulary for grade 9 set a: children and parents · 2020. 6. 24. · fill in the blanks using the...

Vocabulary for Grade 9 Set A: Children and Parents

Directions: In the first activity in this packet, you will use context clues to try and determine the meaning of each of your new vocabulary words. The example below shows you how to do this activity.

1. Begin by looking at the photo.

Ask yourself, What do I see? I see birds flying in the air. They are not being controlled or told where to go.

2. Next, look at the caption. Ask yourself, what word could I put in place of the underlined vocabulary word? Here I might substitute “all” or “complete” for absolute.

3. Then, look at the example sentence. Ask yourself, do my substitutions from the caption — “all” and “complete” — make sense in this sentence? Yes, “complete” works in the example sentence as well.

4. Finally, write or type a prediction in the last box.

Example: Absolute (ab-suh-loot)

My mother’s no was absolute. Once she said it, there was no chance of changing her mind.

Birds have absolute freedom to go wherever they like.

What’s your prediction?

My Answer: complete

Let’s begin!

1. Adversary (ad-ver-ser-ee) 2. Assert (uh-surt)

Mike was worried when he learned his adversary in the first match would be the state champ.

Mr. Jones asserted his authority over the unruly class.

The tiger swiped at his adversary.

The hotel workers asserted their right to fair pay.


My Answer:


My Answer:

Grade 9 Set A: Children and Parents 1

3. Conspire (kuhn-spahyuhr) 4. Elaborate (ih-lab-er-it)

The children conspired against their babysitter when she sent them to bed without dessert.

Rihanna’s elaborate dress was covered in jewels and feathers.

The coworkers met secretly to conspire against their new boss.

The tops of the columns were elaborately decorated.


My Answer:


My Answer:

5. Foresight (fawr-sahyt) 6. Impart (im-pahrt)

Thanks to Jin’s foresight, we had batteries for our flashlights when a storm knocked the power out.

Norah’s parents imparted their love of music by taking her to concerts from a very young age.

Damien had the foresight to bring a map in case the GPS cut out.

Mel imparted his sailing skills to his grandsons.


My Answer:


My Answer:


7. Modest (mod-ist) 8. Possessive (puh-zes-iv)

Kawhi Leonard is one of the best players in the NBA, but he’s so modest that he never gives interviews or brags

about himself.

Toddlers tend to be possessive of toys, sometimes having a tantrum when another child picks up a toy they’re not

even using.

Lily is so modest that I never knew she won any of these trophies!

My brother is so possessive of his bike that he locks it so I can’t use it!


My Answer:


My Answer:

9. Prodigy (prod-i-jee) 10. Relent (ri-lent)

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was a prodigy who learned to read as a toddler and taught herself Latin in middle school.

Anne’s mother grounded her for three months, but she relented and let Anne go to her best friend’s Sweet

Sixteen party.

Ramón is a prodigy who could play violin concertos at age 4!

At first Joe’s dad said he had to walk, but after three blocks he relented and carried Joe.


My Answer:


My Answer:


11. Retort (ri-tawrt)

When a man told author Edna Ferber, “You look almost like a man,” she retorted, “So do you.”

Lan always has a retort for whatever I say - I can never get the best of her!


My Answer:


Let’s review the definitions of the words.

1. Adversary (noun) a person or group that is an opponent or enemy; rival Related: adversarial, adverse

2. Assert (verb) to behave in a way that shows power, authority, or control Related: assertive, assertion

3. Conspire (verb) to secretly plan with a group to commit an unlawful or harmful act Related: conspiracy, conspirator, conspiratorial

4. Elaborate (adjective) complicated and detailed, especially in plan or design Related: elaboration

5. Foresight (noun) the ability to predict what will happen or be needed in the future

6. Impart (verb) to give, share, or communicate information

7. Modest (adjective) tending to be quiet about one’s own abilities and achievements; not bragging or overly proud; humble Related: modesty

8. Possessive (adjective) selfish; unwilling to let others use something you own Related: possessiveness

9. Prodigy (noun) a young person who has a great natural talent in an area; genius Related: prodigious

10. Relent (verb) to give in or stop; to soften or become kinder in attitude Related: unrelenting, relentless

11. Retort (noun) a sharp, angry, or clever reply to a comment


Activity 2: Fill-in-the-Blank Sentence

Directions: Fill in the blanks using the correct vocabulary word to complete each sentence.

Adversary Assert Conspired Elaborate Foresight Impart Modest Possessive Prodigy Relented Retort

My answer

1. Marquise’s boyfriend is so ___________________; he gets angry whenever Marquise spends time with friends instead of him.

2. I make rules to try and keep my teenage daughter safe, but she sees me as a(n) ___________________ and treats me so cruelly!

3. Carla’s brother used to always pick on her, but after she got sick, he _______________.

4. Kayla’s mom told her to be ___________________ about being invited to compete on The Voice, but she couldn’t help bragging!

5. Larry is very shy and sweet, so it was hard for him to ___________________ himself when he became manager of the store.

6. Several people ___________________ to enter fake votes so that Mark Harris could win election to the Senate.

7. My six-year-old nephew is still learning how to argue; his favorite _________________ is, “You’re a garbage head!”

8. The villains in superhero movies tend to make up ___________________ plans with many tricks and false leads.

9. Marinda showed a lack of ___________________ by not packing any warm clothes for her month-long trip.

10. Gabby Douglas is a gymnastics ___________________ who won Best All Around at the Olympics when she was only 17.

11. Traditional folk tales ___________________ wisdom about the natural world and human behavior.


Activity 3: Fill-in-the-Blank Scenario

Fill in the blanks using the correct vocabulary word to complete each scenario. Then, explain why that vocabulary word fits best based on context clues provided in the scenario. You may have to change the form of the word (ex: go, going, gone).

For Example:

Every single day, Bryan wakes up at 5 o’clock in the morning to take a 10-mile jog. Then, he goes to the gym to lift weights. Afterwards, he does 20 laps in the pool. And this is before he goes to practice with the team every afternoon! Bryan is ____________ about training because __________________________________________________________.

My Answer My Reason

relentless He is extremely dedicated and exercises all of the time. He runs 10 miles, lifts weights, swims, and attends practice every day.

Adversary Assert Conspire Elaborate Foresight Imparting Modest Possessive Prodigy Relent Retort

1. Trina and Jackie both want to be the valedictorian when their class graduates this June. They both study every weekend and

work intensely on school projects. Each girl knows that the other is her number one rival for that top spot.

Trina and Jackie are ___________________ because __________________________________________________________

My Answer My Reason

2. Loretta is an amazing knitter who makes beautiful sweaters, blankets, and scarves for her family and friends. Now she’s teaching her grandson to knit, as well. Loretta is ___________________ her knowledge because ______________________________________________________

My Answer My Reason

3. Ciara likes the sound of rap music, but she’s really turned off by rappers who brag about themselves. “I wish they’d stop talking all the time about how much money they have,” she said. “Nobody should talk themselves up that much.” Ciara thinks rappers should be more ___________________ because ____________________________________________

My Answer My Reason


4. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the most famous musicians in world history, first showed his genius as a child. Mozart

could play piano at age 4 and wrote his first original music at age 5. By the time he was 8, Mozart was writing symphonies. Mozart was a(n) ___________________ because _____________________________________________________________

My Answer My Reason

5. When Alejandro and I first became roommates, we shared food and stuff like cleaning supplies with no problems. But as time went on, he changed. Now Alejandro labels all the food in the fridge that’s “his” — he even labels “his” toilet bowl cleaner! It’s crazy, but he won’t share anything with me anymore. Alejandro is being ___________________ because __________________________________________________________

My Answer My Reason

6. My cousin Joey is the most ridiculous liar. He’ll miss a family event and then make up a long, complicated story about why he couldn’t make it. The stories always have a million details and twists to them. I think he’s trying to confuse us so we won’t realize that it’s all a lie! Joey’s lies are ___________________ because _______________________________________________________________

My Answer My Reason

7. In a mixed martial arts match, it sometimes happens that one fighter realizes he has been trapped and cannot fight his way out of his opponent’s hold. This fighter will “tap out,” which means that he taps several times on the mat or his opponent’s body, indicating that he gives up. The opponent will then release him and stop fighting. The opponent has won the match. When a fighter taps out, the opponent must ___________________ because ______________________________________

My Answer My Reason

8. The main water pipes that run under Auburn’s street have frozen and burst each of the last three winters. This year, Auburn decided to be prepared just in case, so she bought several cases of water and stored them in her basement. Auburn showed ___________________ because ____________________________________________________________

My Answer My Reason


9. Sir Winston Churchill, who was Prime Minister of Great Britain during WWII, was known for making witty comebacks. For

instance, when one lady said to him, “Sir Winston, if I were your wife, I would poison your coffee,” he replied, “Madam, if you were my wife, I would drink it.” Churchill was known for his ___________________ because ____________________________________________________

My Answer My Reason

10. In 1951, Oliver Brown filed a lawsuit against the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Brown believed his daughter, Linda, had a right to attend the local public school, but the city wouldn’t allow her to because she was African-American. At that time, African-American children in Topeka (and many other cities) were forced to attend separate schools which the city purposely underfunded. Brown’s lawsuit went all the way to the Supreme Court, where he won. Linda and all other African-American children could now attend schools with their neighbors of all races. Brown ___________________ his daughter’s right to an equal education because ___________________________________

My Answer My Reason

11. On November 5, 1606, a man named Guy Fawkes nearly killed James I, King of England. Fawkes and 12 other men had

planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament while King James would be there, but their plot was discovered and they were arrested. A national “day of thanksgiving” was declared, and English people still celebrate Guy Fawkes Day on November 5 every year. Guy Fawkes ___________________ against King James because _________________________________________________

My Answer My Reason


Activity 4: Matching

Match the following vocabulary words to their synonyms from the box. Write your answer in the column next to the word.

Synonyms: Share Complicated Declare Enemy Genius Humble Plot Preparation Response Selfish Stop

Words My Answer

1. Adversary

2. Assert

3. Conspire

4. Elaborate

5. Foresight

6. Impart

7. Modest

8. Possessive

9. Prodigy

10. Relent

11. Retort


Activity 5: Application of Vocabulary

Answer each question in 1-2 complete sentences. Make sure that you use the underlined vocabulary word in your answer.

1. Many fictional heroes have an evil adversary. Who is your favorite fictional adversary? Why?

2. What is one way you have seen a teacher assert their authority over a class? How did it make you feel?

3. Have you ever conspired against someone? What were you and your fellow conspirators trying to accomplish?

4. Do you like clothing that’s elaborately decorated? Or do you prefer simpler, cleaner looks? Give an example.

5. Do you think foresight is an important quality in a leader? Explain why or why not.

6. What information about your school would you impart to an incoming 9th grade student next year?

7. Do you think modesty is an attractive quality in a person? Why or why not?

8. Do you have any belongings of which you are possessive? Explain why.

9. What do you think it would be like to have a sibling who was a prodigy? Do you think this would be easy or difficult? Explain.

10. Have your parents or teachers ever assigned you a punishment and then relented? What made them relent?


11. The French call it l'esprit de l'escalier: someone cracks a joke and you think of the perfect retort — but not until far too late.

Has this ever happened to you? Why do you think it can be so hard to think of a funny retort in the moment?


Grade 9 Set A: Children and Parents FINAL ASSESSMENT: Cross-textual Thematic Essay

Essay Question: Why are parent-child relationships challenging?

In this packet, you will find:

● a graphic organizer to help you prepare for your essay, ● a page of helpful hints to help you organize your essay, and ● the essay prompt with space to write.

Prewriting: Graphic Organizer At the end of this distance learning text set, you will write a multi-paragraph essay answering the essential question: Why are parent-child relationships challenging? After you have completed each reading assignment, use the chart below to help you remember how that text answered the essential question.

Why are parent-child relationships challenging?

Text Title How does this text answer

the essential question? Text Evidence (include paragraph number)

“Two Kinds”

“The Possessive”

“Rules of the Game”

“From Tiger to Free-Range Parenting”

Helpful Hints for Writing your Essay

Multi-Paragraph Essays include:

● A CLAIM that answers the essay question

● REASONS that the claim is true

● EVIDENCE that supports the reasons

● EXPLANATIONS that describe how the evidence supports the reason and the claim

MULTI-PARAGRAPH ESSAY STRUCTURE

Introduction ● Claim / Thesis

Body Paragraphs

● Reason 1

○ Evidence 1

■ Explanation 1

○ Evidence 2

■ Explanation 2

● Reason 2

○ Evidence 1

■ Explanation 1

○ Evidence 2

■ Explanation 2

Conclusion

● Summary statement

TRANSITION WORDS TO START A BODY PARAGRAPH:

● First (second, etc.), ● In addition, ● Another ● Similarly,

SENTENCE PROMPTS FOR INTRODUCING EVIDENCE:

● For example, ● For instance, ● To demonstrate, ● To illustrate,

● In the text, / In the story … ● In [paragraph X,] … ● When [X happens] / When [character Y does / says] … ● The author illustrates this when …

SENTENCE PROMPTS FOR EXPLAINING EVIDENCE:

● This means … ● This illustrates … ● This reveals … ● This highlights …

Name: _________________________________ Class: ______________________ Date: ______________________

Grade 9 Set A: Children and Parents FINAL ASSESSMENT: Cross-textual Thematic Essay

Essay Prompt: You have read four texts: “Two Kinds,” “The Possessive,” “Rules of the Game,” and “From Tiger to Free-Range Parenting.” Write a multi-paragraph essay in which you answer the essential question for this set of texts: Why are parent-child relationships challenging? Be sure to include specific details from more than one text in your essay.

Directions: Answer the essay prompt in a complete, multi-paragraph essay. Use your graphic organizer to help you, and write your essay in the space below. Use complete sentences. Cite evidence when appropriate.

Name: Class:

"Untitled" by Jordan Whitfield is licensed under CC0

Two KindsBy Amy Tan

1989

Amy Tan is an American writer whose works explore mother-daughter relationships and the ChineseAmerican experience. This short story is an excerpt from her novel The Joy Luck Club. It recounts a youngwoman’s memories of her difficult relationship with her mother. Note: Although it is not mentioned in thisstory, it is clear in the novel The Joy Luck Club that the narrator’s name is June. Skill Focus: In this lesson,you’ll practice analyzing a complex character. This means paying attention to all the reasons why acharacter does or does not act. As you read, take note of June’s motivations as well as moments where Juneis conflicted or makes an important decision.

My mother believed you could be anything youwanted to be in America. You could open arestaurant. You could work for the governmentand get good retirement. You could buy a housewith almost no money down. You could becomerich. You could become instantly famous.

“Of course, you can be a prodigy, too,” mymother told me when I was nine. “You can bebest anything. What does Auntie Lindo know? Herdaughter, she is only best tricky.”

America was where all my mother's hopes lay.She had come here in 1949 after losingeverything in China: her mother and father, her family home, her first husband, and two daughters,twin baby girls. But she never looked back with regret. There were so many ways for things to getbetter.

We didn't immediately pick the right kind of prodigy. At first my mother thought I could be a ChineseShirley Temple.1 We'd watch Shirley's old movies on TV as though they were training films. My motherwould poke my arm and say, “Ni kan — You watch.” And I would see Shirley tapping her feet, or singinga sailor song, or pursing her lips into a very round O while saying “Oh, my goodness.”

“Ni kan,” said my mother as Shirley's eyes flooded with tears. “You already know how. Don't need talentfor crying!”

Soon after my mother got this idea about Shirley Temple, she took me to a beauty training school inthe Mission District2 and put me in the hands of a student who could barely hold the scissors withoutshaking. Instead of getting big fat curls, I emerged with an uneven mass of crinkly black fuzz. Mymother dragged me off to the bathroom and tried to wet down my hair.

“You look like Negro Chinese,” she lamented, as if I had done this on purpose.

[1]

[5]

1. a child star from the 1930s, famous for her singing and dancing, who began performing in movies at age 32. a neighborhood of San Francisco, California

1

https://unsplash.com/photos/BhfE1IgcsA8

The instructor of the beauty training school had to lop off these soggy clumps to make my hair evenagain. “Peter Pan3 is very popular these days” the instructor assured my mother. I now had bad hairthe length of a boy’s; with straight-across bangs that hung at a slant two inches above my eyebrows. Iliked the haircut, and it made me actually look forward to my future fame.

In fact, in the beginning I was just as excited as my mother, maybe even more so. I pictured thisprodigy part of me as many different images, trying each one on for size. I was a dainty ballerina girlstanding by the curtain, waiting to hear the music that would send me floating on my tiptoes. I was likethe Christ child lifted out of the straw manger, crying with holy indignity.4 I was Cinderella steppingfrom her pumpkin carriage with sparkly cartoon music filling the air.

In all of my imaginings I was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect: My mother andfather would adore me. I would be beyond reproach.5 I would never feel the need to sulk for anything.

But sometimes the prodigy in me became impatient. “If you don't hurry up and get me out of here, I'mdisappearing for good,” it warned. “And then you'll always be nothing.”

...

Every night after dinner my mother and I would sit at the Formica topped kitchen table. She wouldpresent new tests, taking her examples from stories of amazing children that she read in Ripley's BelieveIt or Not or Good Housekeeping, Reader's Digest, or any of a dozen other magazines she kept in a pile inour bathroom. My mother got these magazines from people whose houses she cleaned. And since shecleaned many houses each week, we had a great assortment. She would look through them all,searching for stories about remarkable children.

The first night she brought out a story about a three-year-old boy who knew the capitals of all thestates and even most of the European countries. A teacher was quoted as saying that the little boycould also pronounce the names of the foreign cities correctly.

“What's the capital of Finland?” My mother asked me, looking at the story.

All I knew was the capital of California, because Sacramento was the name of the street we lived on inChinatown. “Nairobi!”6 I guessed, saying the most foreign word I could think of. She checked to see ifthat was possibly one way to pronounce Helsinki before showing me the answer.

The tests got harder — multiplying numbers in my head, finding the queen of hearts in a deck of cards,trying to stand on my head without using my hands, predicting the daily temperatures in Los Angeles,New York, and London.

One night I had to look at a page from the Bible for three minutes and then report everything I couldremember. “Now Jehoshaphat7 had riches and honor in abundance and... that's all I remember, Ma,” Isaid.

[10]

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3. a style of short haircut4. Indignity (noun): shame, embarrassment5. Reproach (noun): an expression of disapproval or disappointment6. the capital city of Kenya, a country in Africa7. a king who appears in a story from the Bible

2

And after seeing, once again, my mother's disappointed face, something inside me began to die. Ihated the tests, the raised hopes and failed expectations. Before going to bed that night I looked in themirror above the bathroom sink, and I saw only my face staring back — and understood that it wouldalways be this ordinary face — I began to cry. Such a sad, ugly girl! I made high-pitched noises like acrazed animal, trying to scratch out the face in the mirror.

And then I saw what seemed to be the prodigy side of me — because I had never seen that facebefore. I looked at my reflection, blinking so that I could see more clearly. The girl staring back at mewas angry, powerful. This girl and I were the same. I had new thoughts, willful thoughts — or rather,thoughts filled with lots of won'ts. I won't let her change me, I promised myself. I won't be what I'm not.

So now when my mother presented her tests, I performed listlessly, my head propped on one arm. Ipretended to be bored. And I was. I got so bored that I started counting the bellows of the foghorns8

out on the bay while my mother drilled me in other areas. The sound was comforting and remindedme of the cow jumping over the moon. And the next day I played a game with myself, seeing if mymother would give up on me before eight bellows. After a while I usually counted only one, maybe twobellows at most. At last she was beginning to give up hope.

...

Two or three months went by without any mention of my being a prodigy. And then one day mymother was watching the Ed Sullivan Show9 on TV. The TV was old and the sound kept shorting out.Every time my mother got halfway up from the sofa to adjust the set, the sound would go back on andEd would be talking. As soon as she sat down, Ed would go silent again. She got up — the TV broke intoloud piano music. She sat down — silence. Up and down, back and forth, quiet and loud. It was like astiff, embraceless dance between her and the TV set. Finally, she stood by the set with her hand on thesound dial.

She seemed entranced by the music, a little frenzied piano piece with this mesmerizing10 quality, sortof quick passages and then teasing lilting ones before it returned to the quick playful parts.

“Ni kan,” my mother said, calling me over with hurried hand gestures. “Look here.”

I could see why my mother was fascinated by the music. It was being pounded out by a little Chinesegirl, about nine years old, with a Peter Pan haircut. The girl had the sauciness of Shirley Temple. Shewas proudly modest, like a proper Chinese Child. And she also did this fancy sweep of a curtsy, so thatthe fluffy skirt of her white dress cascaded slowly to the floor like the petals of a large carnation.

In spite of these warning signs, I wasn't worried. Our family had no piano and we couldn't afford to buyone, let alone reams of sheet music and piano lessons. So I could be generous in my comments whenmy mother badmouthed the little girl on TV.

“Play note right, but doesn't sound good! No singing sound,” complained my mother.

[20]

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8. a loud alarm ships make so they won’t hit each other when it’s too foggy to see9. a television variety show, popular in the 1950s and 1960s

10. Mesmerize (verb): to hold someone’s attention; to charm or captivate

3

“What are you picking on her for?” I said carelessly. “She’s pretty good. Maybe she's not the best, butshe's trying hard.” I knew almost immediately I would be sorry I said that.

“Just like you,” she said. “Not the best. Because you not trying.” She gave a little huff as she let go of thesound dial and sat down on the sofa.

The little Chinese girl sat down also, to play an encore of “Anitra's Tanz,” by Grieg. I remember thesong, because later on I had to learn how to play it.

...

Three days after watching the Ed Sullivan Show my mother told me what my schedule would be forpiano lessons and piano practice. She had talked to Mr. Chong, who lived on the first floor of ourapartment building. Mr. Chong was a retired piano teacher, and my mother had traded housecleaningservices for weekly lessons and a piano for me to practice on every day, two hours a day, from fouruntil six.

When my mother told me this, I felt as though I had been sent to hell. I whined, and then kicked myfoot a little when I couldn't stand it anymore.

“Why don't you like me the way I am? I'm not a genius! I can't play the piano. And even if I could, Iwouldn't go on TV if you paid me a million dollars!” I cried.

My mother slapped me. “Who ask you be genius?” she shouted. “Only ask you be your best. For yousake. You think I want you be genius? Hnnh! What for! Who ask you!”

“So ungrateful,” I heard her mutter in Chinese, “If she had as much talent as she has temper, she wouldbe famous now.”

Mr. Chong, whom I secretly nicknamed Old Chong, was very strange, always tapping his fingers to thesilent music of an invisible orchestra. He looked ancient in my eyes. He had lost most his hair on thetop of his head, and he wore thick glasses and had eyes that always looked tired and sleepy. But hemust have been younger than I thought, since he lived with his mother and was not yet married.

I met Old Lady Chong once, and that was enough. She had this peculiar smell, like a baby that haddone something in its pants. And her fingers felt like a dead person's, like an old peach I once found inthe back of the refrigerator; the skin just slid off the meat when I picked it up.

I soon found out why Old Chong had retired from teaching piano. He was deaf. “Like Beethoven!”11 heshouted to me: “We're both listening only in our head!” And he would start to conduct his frantic silentsonatas.

Our lessons went like this. He would open the book and point to different things, explaining, theirpurpose: “Key! Treble! Bass! No sharps or flats! So this is C major! Listen now and play after me!”

[30]

[35]

11. a famous German composer and pianist who continued to compose after he became deaf

4

And then he would play the C scale12 a few times, a simple chord,13 and then, as if inspired by an oldunreachable itch, he would gradually add more notes and running trills and a pounding bass until themusic was really something quite grand.

I would play after him, the simple scale, the simple chord, and then I just played some nonsense thatsounded like a cat running up and down on top of garbage cans. Old Chong would smile and applaudand then said, “Very good! But now you must learn to keep time!”

So that's how I discovered that Old Chong's eyes were too slow to keep up with the wrong notes I wasplaying. He went through the motions in half time. To help me keep rhythm, he stood behind mepushing down on my right shoulder for every beat. He balanced pennies on top of my wrists so I wouldkeep them still as I slowly played scales and arpeggios. He had me curve my hand around an apple tokeep that shape when playing chords. He marched stiffly to show me how to make each finger danceup and down, staccato,14 like an obedient little soldier.

He taught me all these things and that was how I also learned I could be lazy and get away withmistakes, lots of mistakes. If I hit the wrong notes because I hadn't practiced enough, I never correctedmyself. I just kept playing in rhythm. And Old Chong kept conducting his own private reverie.15

So maybe I never really gave myself a fair chance. I did pick up the basics pretty quickly, and I mighthave become a good pianist at the young age. But I was so determined not to try, not to be anybodydifferent, that I learned to play only the most ear-splitting preludes, the most discordant16 hymns.

Over the next year I practiced like this, dutifully in my own way. And then one day I heard my motherand her friend Lindo Jong both talking in a loud bragging tone of voice so others could hear. It wasafter church, and I was leaning against a brick wall wearing a dress with stiff white petticoats. AuntieLindo’s daughter, Waverly, who was about my age, was standing farther down the wall about five feetaway. We had grown up together and shared all the closeness of two sisters, squabbling over crayonsand dolls. In other words, for the most part, we hated each other. I thought she was snotty. WaverlyJong had gained a certain amount of fame as “Chinatown's Littlest Chinese Chess Champion.”

“She bring home too many trophy,” lamented Auntie Lindo that Sunday. “All day she play chess. All dayI have no time do nothing but dust off her winnings.” She threw a scolding look at Waverly, whopretended not to see her.

“You lucky you don't have this problem,” said Auntie Lindo with a sigh to my mother.

And my mother squared her shoulders and bragged: “Our problem worser than yours. If we ask Jing-mei wash dish, she hear nothing but music. It's like you can't stop this natural talent.”

And right then I was determined to put a stop to her foolish pride.

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12. a set of musical notes played in an established order13. a group of musical notes played together14. a musical style where the notes are played quickly and sharply15. Reverie (noun): daydream16. Discordant (adjective): harsh-sounding

5

A few weeks later Old Chong and my mother conspired to have me play in a talent show which wouldbe held in the church hall. By then my parents had saved up enough to buy me a secondhand piano, ablack Wurlitzer spinet with a scarred bench. It was the showpiece of our living room.

For the talent show I was to play a piece called “Pleading Child,” from Schumann's Scenes fromChildhood. It was a simple, moody piece that sounded more difficult than it was. I was supposed tomemorize the whole thing, playing the repeat parts twice to make the piece sound longer. But Idawdled over it, playing a few bars and then cheating, looking up to see what notes followed. I neverreally listened to what I was playing. I daydreamed about being somewhere else, about being someoneelse.

The part I liked to practice best was the fancy curtsy: right foot out, touch the rose on the carpet with apointed foot, sweep to the side, left leg bends, look up, and smile.

My parents invited all the couples from the Joy Luck Club17 to witness my debut. Auntie Lindo andUncle Tin were there. Waverly and her two older brothers had also come. The first two rows were filledwith children both younger and older than I was. The littlest ones got to go first. They recited simplenursery rhymes, squawked out tunes on miniature violins, twirled hula hoops in pink ballet tutus, andwhen they bowed or curtsied, the audience would sigh in unison, “Awww,” and then clapenthusiastically.

When my turn came, I was very confident. I remember my childish excitement. It was as if I knew,without a doubt, that the prodigy side of me really did exist. I had no fear whatsoever, nonervousness. I remember thinking to myself, This is it! This is it! I looked out over the audience, at mymother's blank face, my father's yawn, Auntie Lindo's stiff-lipped smile, Waverly's sulky expression. Ihad on a white dress, layered with sheets of lace, and a pink bow in my Peter Pan haircut. As I satdown, I envisioned people jumping to their feet and Ed Sullivan rushing up to introduce me toeveryone on TV.

And I started to play. Everything was so beautiful. I was so caught up in how lovely I looked that at first Ididn’t worry about how I would sound. So it was a surprise to me when I hit the first wrong note and Irealized something didn’t sound quite right. And then I hit another and another and another followedthat. A chill started at the top of my head and began to trickle down. Yet I couldn't stop playing, asthough my hands were bewitched. I kept thinking my fingers would adjust themselves back, like a trainswitching to the right track. I played this strange jumble through two repeats, the sour notes stayingwith me all the way to the end.

When I stood up, I discovered my legs were shaking. Maybe I had just been nervous, and the audience,like Old Chong, had seen me go through the right motions and had not heard anything wrong at all. Iswept my right foot out, went down on my knee, looked up and smiled. The room was quiet, except forOld Chong, who was beaming and shouting, “Bravo! Bravo! Well done!” But then I saw my mother'sface, her stricken face. The audience clapped weakly, and as I walked back to my chair, with my wholeface quivering as I tried not to cry, I heard a little boy whisper loudly to his mother, “That was awful,”and the mother whispered back, “Well, she certainly tried.”

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17. the social club June’s parents belong to

6

And now I realized how many people were in the audience — the whole world, it seemed. I was awareof eyes burning into my back. I felt the shame of my mother and father as they sat stiffly throughoutthe rest of the show.

We could have escaped during intermission. Pride and some strange sense of honor must haveanchored my parents to their chairs. And so we watched it all. The eighteen-year-old boy with a fakemoustache who did a magic show and juggled flaming hoops while riding a unicycle. The breasted girlwith white makeup who sang an aria from Madame Butterfly18 and got an honorable mention. And theeleven-year-old boy who was first prize playing a tricky violin song that sounded like a busy bee.

After the show the Hsus, the Jongs, and the St. Clairs, from the Joy Luck Club, came up to my motherand father.

“Lots of talented kids,” Auntie Lindo said vaguely, smiling broadly.

“That was somethin' else,” said my father, and I wondered if he was referring to me in a humorous way,or whether he even remembered what I had done.

Waverly looked at me and shrugged her shoulders. “You aren't a genius like me,” she said matter-of-factly. And if I hadn't felt so bad, I would have pulled her braids and punched her stomach.

But my mother's expression was what devastated me: a quiet, blank look that said she had losteverything. I felt the same way, and it seemed as if everybody were now coming up, like gawkers at thescene of an accident to see what parts were actually missing. When we got on the bus to go home, myfather was humming the busy-bee tune and my mother was silent. I kept thinking she wanted to waituntil we got home before shouting at me. But when my father unlocked the door to our apartment, mymother walked in and went up to the back, into the bedroom. No accusations, No blame. And in a way,I felt disappointed. I had been waiting for her to start shouting, so that I could shout back and cry andblame her for all my misery.

I had assumed my talent-show fiasco meant that I would never have to play the piano again. But twodays later, after school, my mother came out of the kitchen and saw me watching TV.

“Four clock,” she reminded me, as if it were any other day. I was stunned, as though she were askingme to go through the talent-show torture again. I planted myself more squarely in front of the TV.

“Turn off TV,” she called from the kitchen five minutes later.

I didn't budge. And then I decided, I didn't have to do what mother said anymore. I wasn't her slave.This wasn't China. I had listened to her before, and look what happened. She was the stupid one.

She came out of the kitchen and stood in the arched entryway of the living room. “Four clock,” she saidonce again, louder.

“I'm not going to play anymore,” I said nonchalantly. “Why should I? I'm not a genius.”

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18. a famous opera

7

She walked over and stood in front of the TV. I saw her chest was heaving up and down in an angryway.

“No!” I said, and I now felt stronger, as if my true self had finally emerged. So this was what had beeninside me all along.

“No! I won't!” I screamed.

She yanked me by the arm, pulled me off the floor, snapped off the TV. She was frighteningly strong,half pulling, half carrying me toward the piano as I kicked the throw rugs under my feet. She lifted meup and onto the hard bench. I was sobbing by now, looking at her bitterly. Her chest was heaving evenmore and her mouth was open, smiling crazily as if she were pleased I was crying.

“You want me to be someone that I'm not!” I sobbed. “I'll never be the kind of daughter you want me tobe!”

“Only two kinds of daughters,” she shouted in Chinese. “Those who are obedient and those who followtheir own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!”

“Then I wish I weren't your daughter, I wish you weren't my mother,” I shouted. As I said these things Igot scared. It felt like worms and toads and slimy things crawling out of my chest, but it also felt good,as if this awful side of me had surfaced, at last.

“Too late to change this,” my mother said shrilly.

And I could sense her anger rising to its breaking point. I wanted to see it spill over. And that's when Iremembered the babies she had lost in China, the ones we never talked about. “Then I wish I'd neverbeen born!” I shouted. “I wish I were dead! Like them.”

It was as if I had said magic words. Alakazam! — and her face went blank, her mouth closed, her armswent slack, and she backed out of the room, stunned, as if she were blowing away like a small brownleaf, thin, brittle, lifeless.

...

It was not the only disappointment my mother felt in me. In the years that followed, I failed her somany times, each time asserting my own will, my right to fall short of expectations. I didn't get straightAs. I didn't become class president. I didn't get into Stanford. I dropped out of college.

For unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be. I could only be me.

And for all those years we never talked about the disaster at the recital or my terrible accusationsafterward at the piano bench. All that remained unchecked, like a betrayal that was now unspeakable.So I never found a way to ask her why she had hoped for something so large that failure wasinevitable.19

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19. Inevitable (adjective): certain to happen; unavoidable

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And even worse, I never asked her about what frightened me the most: Why had she given up hope?

For after our struggle at the piano, she never mentioned my playing again. The lessons stopped. The lidto the piano was closed shutting out the dust, my misery, and her dreams.

So she surprised me. A few years ago she offered me the piano, for my thirtieth birthday. I had notplayed in all those years. I saw the offer as a sign of forgiveness, a tremendous burden removed.

“Are you sure?” I asked shyly. “I mean, won't you and Dad miss it?”

“No, this your piano,” she said firmly. “Always your piano. You only one can play.”

“Well, I probably can't play anymore,” I said. “It's been years.”

“You pick up fast,” my mother said, as if she knew this was certain. “You have natural talent. You couldbeen genius if you want to.”

“No, I couldn't.”

“You just not trying,” my mother said. And she was neither angry nor sad. She said it as if announcing afact that could never be disproved. “Take it,” she said.

But I didn't at first. It was enough that she had offered it to me. And after that, every time I saw it in myparents' living room, standing in front of the bay window, it made me feel proud, as if it were a shinytrophy that I had won back.

Last week I sent a tuner20 over to my parent's apartment and had the piano reconditioned, for purelysentimental reasons. My mother had died a few months before and I had been getting things in orderfor my father a little bit at a time. I put the jewelry in special silk pouches. The sweaters she had knittedin yellow, pink, bright orange — all colors I hated — I put in moth-proof boxes. I found some oldChinese silk dresses, the kind with little slits up the sides. I rubbed the old silk against my skin, thenwrapped them in tissue and decided to take them home with me.

After I had the piano tuned, I opened the lid and touched the keys. It sounded even richer than Iremembered. Really, it was a very good piano. Inside the bench were the same exercise notes withhandwritten scales, the same secondhand music books with their covers held together with yellowtape.

I opened up the Schumann book to the dark little piece I had played at the recital. It was on the left-hand page, “Pleading Child.” It looked more difficult than I remembered. I played a few bars, surprisedat how easily the notes came back to me.

And for the first time, or so it seemed, I noticed the piece on the right-hand side. It was called “PerfectlyContented.” I tried to play this one as well. It had a lighter melody but with the same flowing rhythmand turned out to be quite easy. “Pleading Child” was shorter but slower; “Perfectly Contented” waslonger but faster. And after I had played them both a few times, I realized they were two halves of thesame song.

[85]

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20. someone who adjusts a musical instrument so it plays well

9

Copyright © 1989 by Amy Tan. First appeared in THE JOY LUCK CLUB. Reprinted by permission of the author and the Sandra Dijkstra LiteraryAgency.

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Text-Dependent QuestionsDirections: For the following questions, choose the best answer or respond in complete sentences.

1. In the story, what causes the main conflict between June and her mother?A. June’s mother wants her to impress their neighbors, but June wants to keep to

herself.B. June’s mother wants her to excel, but June wants to be accepted for who she is.C. June tries hard at everything she does, but her mother does not recognize it.D. June believes that she is a genius, but her mother does not support her.

2. Which piece of evidence best reveals June’s frustration with her mother?A. “In all of my imaginings I was filled with a sense that I would soon become

perfect: My mother and father would adore me.” (Paragraph 10)B. “And after seeing, once again, my mother’s disappointed face, something inside

me began to die.” (Paragraph 18)C. “‘Why don’t you like me the way I am? I’m not a genius!’” (Paragraph 32)D. “And after that, every time I saw it in my parents' living room, standing in front

of the bay window, it made me feel proud, as if it were a shiny trophy that I hadwon back.” (Paragraph 91)

3. How does the argument between June and her mother in paragraphs 68-78 most affectJune?

A. June loses confidence in her artistic abilities.B. June wants to understand her mother’s past.C. June decides to become an obedient daughter.D. June fears that her mother no longer believes in her.

4. Which piece of evidence best reveals June’s conflicting emotions?A. “In all of my imaginings I was filled with a sense that I would soon become

perfect: My mother and father would adore me.” (Paragraph 10)B. “I won't let her change me, I promised myself. I won't be what I'm not.”

(Paragraph 19)C. “It felt like worms and toads and slimy things crawling out of my chest, but it

also felt good, as if this awful side of me had surfaced, at last.” (Paragraph 75)D. “And after that, every time I saw it in my parents' living room, standing in front

of the bay window, it made me feel proud, as if it were a shiny trophy that I hadwon back.” (Paragraph 91)

11

5. In “Two Kinds,” how do June’s feelings about her mother change from the beginning to theend of the story? How do the interactions between June and her mother illustrate thischange? Use evidence from the text to support your response. Be sure to explain how eachpiece of evidence supports your analysis.

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Discussion QuestionsDirections: Brainstorm your answers to the following questions in the space provided. Be prepared toshare your original ideas in a class discussion.

1. In the story, June’s mother is pushing her to be a prodigy. June thinks it is because hermother does not believe she is good enough. Do you agree with June’s interpretation of hermother’s motivation? Why or why not?

2. What is a modern-day example of a child prodigy? Why do you think society is obsessedwith child prodigies? What motivates parents to want their children to be labeled as“prodigies”?

3. Is it fair or realistic to put pressure on young people to perform at a high level? How doyoung people benefit or not benefit from this type of attention and pressure? What aresome real-world examples of the fate of childhood prodigies and stars?

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Name: Class:

"Untitled" by huweijie07170 is licensed under CC0

“The Possessive” 20 lines from Satan Says, by Sharon Olds, © 1980. All rights are controlled by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh,PA 15260. Used by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.

The PossessiveBy Sharon Olds

1980

Sharon Olds is an American poet and winner of several major awards, including the Pulitzer Prize andNational Book Critics Circle Award. Her poetry is known for its honest and emotional examination ofmarriage, sexuality, and parenthood. Skill Focus: In this lesson, you’ll practice analyzing how an author’suse of imagery and choice of words affect the meaning of a poem. As you read, take notes on how theauthor uses word choice and figurative language to develop the speaker’s emotions and the meaning of thepoem.

My daughter — as if Iowned her — that girl with thehair wispy as a frayed bellpull

has been to the barber, that knife grinder,and had the edge of her hair sharpened.

Each strand now cutsboth ways. The blade of new bangshangs over her red-brown eyeslike carbon steel.

All the littlespliced ropes are sliced. The curtain ofdark paper-cuts veils the face thatstarted from next to nothing in my body —

My body. My daughter. I’ll have to findanother word. In her bright helmetshe looks at me as if across agreat distance. Distant fires can beglimpsed in the resin light of her eyes:

the watch fires of an enemy, a while beforethe war starts.

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https://pixabay.com/photos/portrait-girl-asian-chinese-787522/


1. When describing her daughter’s haircut, the speaker says, “Each strand now cuts / bothways.” What is the most likely interpretation of lines 6-7?

A. The daughter’s hair hangs unevenly in front of her face.B. The mother both likes and dislikes the daughter’s new hairstyle.C. The daughter’s growing independence can hurt both mother and daughter.D. The mother wants her daughter to be independent but is afraid for her safety.

2. What does the repetition in lines 11-15 suggest about the speaker’s feelings?A. She feels distant from her daughter.B. She feels that her daughter belongs to her.C. She feels amused by her daughter’s actions.D. She feels angry about her daughter's choices.

3. The speaker’s description of the haircut as a “bright helmet” in line 15 suggests that —A. the daughter is becoming better at expressing herself.B. the daughter is becoming guarded toward her mother.C. the mother is just as excited about the haircut as her daughter.D. the mother will continue to protect her daughter from the world.

4. Who is the speaker’s “enemy” in line 19?A. the speakerB. the daughterC. the daughter’s friendsD. someone who threatens the daughter

5. What message does this poem express about parents and children?

2


1. Do you think the experience of this mother and daughter is unusual or typical? Explain.

3

Name: Class:

"Untitled" by Charles Solorzano is licensed under CC0

Rules of the GameBy Amy Tan

1989

Amy Tan is an American writer whose works explore mother-daughter relationships and the Chinese-American experience. This vignette is an excerpt from her novel The Joy Luck Club; it recounts WaverlyJong’s thirst for learning the rules of chess. Skill Focus: In this lesson, you’ll practice analyzing a complexcharacter. This means paying attention to all of the reasons why a character does or does not act. As youread, take note of what motivates Waverly to action and key moments when Waverly makes a decision.

I was six when my mother taught me the art ofinvisible strength. It was a strategy for winningarguments, respect from others, and eventually,though neither of us knew it at the time, chessgames.

“Bite back your tongue,” scolded my motherwhen I cried loudly, yanking her hand toward thestore that sold bags of salted plums.1 At home,she said, “Wise guy, he not go against wind. InChinese we say, Come from South, blow withwind — poom! — North will follow. Strongestwind cannot be seen.”

The next week I bit back my tongue as we entered the store with the forbidden candies. When mymother finished her shopping, she quietly plucked a small bag of plums from the rack and put it on thecounter with the rest of the items.

My mother imparted her daily truths so she could help my older brothers and me rise above ourcircumstances. We lived in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Like most of the other Chinese children whoplayed in the back alleys of restaurants and curio shops, I didn’t think we were poor. My bowl wasalways full, three five-course meals every day, beginning with a soup of mysterious things I didn’t wantto know the names of.

We lived on Waverly Place, in a warm, clean, two-bedroom flat that sat above a small Chinese bakeryspecializing in steamed pastries and dim sum.2 In the early morning, when the alley was still quiet, Icould smell fragrant red beans as they were cooked down to a pasty sweetness. By daybreak, our flatwas heavy with the odor of fried sesame balls and sweet curried chicken crescents. From my bed, Iwould listen as my father got ready for work, then locked the door behind him, one-two-three clicks.

[1]

[5]

1. a common Chinese treat2. a style of Chinese food served in small portions

1

https://unsplash.com/photos/aeXK1IeVVoI

At the end of our two-block alley was a small sandlot playground with swings and slides well-shineddown the middle with use. The play area was bordered by wood-slat benches where old-countrypeople sat cracking roasted watermelon seeds with their golden teeth and scattering the husks to animpatient gathering of gurgling pigeons. The best playground, however, was the dark alley itself. It wascrammed with daily mysteries and adventures. My brothers and I would peer into the medicinal herbshop, watching old Li dole out onto a stiff sheet of white paper the right amount of insect shells,saffron-colored seeds, and pungent leaves for his ailing customers. It was said that he once cured awoman dying of an ancestral curse that had eluded3 the best of American doctors. Next to thepharmacy was a printer who specialized in gold-embossed wedding invitations and festive redbanners.

Farther down the street was Ping Yuen Fish Market. The front window displayed a tank crowded withdoomed fish and turtles struggling to gain footing on the slimy green-tiled sides. A hand-written signinformed tourists, “Within this store, is all for food, not for pet.” Inside, the butchers with theirbloodstained white smocks deftly gutted the fish while customers cried out their orders and shouted,“Give me your freshest,” to which the butchers always protested, “All are freshest.” On less crowdedmarket days, we would inspect the crates of live frogs and crabs which we were warned not to poke,boxes of dried cuttlefish, and row upon row of iced prawns, squid, and slippery fish. The sanddabs4

made me shiver each time; their eyes lay on one flattened side and reminded me of my mother’s storyof a careless girl who ran into a crowded street and was crushed by a cab. “Was smash flat,” reportedmy mother.

At the corner of the alley was Hong Sing’s, a four-table cafe with a recessed stairwell in front that led toa door marked “Tradesmen.” My brothers and I believed the bad people emerged from this door atnight. Tourists never went to Hong Sing’s, since the menu was printed only in Chinese. A Caucasian5

man with a big camera once posed me and my playmates in front of the restaurant. He had us move tothe side of the picture window so the photo would capture the roasted duck with its head danglingfrom a juice-covered rope. After he took the picture, I told him he should go into Hong Sing’s and eatdinner. When he smiled and asked me what they served, I shouted, “Guts and duck’s feet and octopusgizzards!” Then I ran off with my friends, shrieking with laughter as we scampered across the alley andhid in the entryway grotto of the China Gem Company, my heart pounding with hope that he wouldchase us.

My mother named me after the street that we lived on: Waverly Place Jong, my official name forimportant American documents. But my family called me Meimei, “Little Sister.” I was the youngest, theonly daughter. Each morning before school, my mother would twist and yank on my thick black hairuntil she had formed two tightly wound pigtails. One day, as she struggled to weave a hard-toothedcomb through my disobedient hair, I had a sly thought.

I asked her, “Ma, what is Chinese torture?” My mother shook her head. A bobby pin was wedgedbetween her lips. She wetted her palm and smoothed the hair above my ear, then pushed the pin in sothat it nicked sharply against my scalp.

“Who say this word?” she asked without a trace of knowing how wicked I was being. I shrugged myshoulders and said, "Some boy in my class said Chinese people do Chinese torture.”

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3. could not be understood by4. a small type of fish5. white

2

“Chinese people do many things,” she said simply. “Chinese people do business, do medicine, dopainting. Not lazy like American people. We do torture. Best torture.”

My older brother Vincent was the one who actually got the chess set. We had gone to the annualChristmas party held at the First Chinese Baptist Church at the end of the alley. The missionary ladieshad put together a Santa bag of gifts donated by members of another church. None of the gifts hadnames on them. There were separate sacks for boys and girls of different ages.

One of the Chinese parishioners6 had donned a Santa Claus costume and a stiff paper beard withcotton balls glued to it. I think the only children who thought he was the real thing were too young toknow that Santa Claus was not Chinese. When my turn came up, the Santa man asked me how old Iwas. I thought it was a trick question; I was seven according to the American formula and eight by theChinese calendar. I said I was born on March 17, 1951. That seemed to satisfy him. He then solemnly7

asked if I had been a very, very good girl this year and did I believe in Jesus Christ and obey my parents.I knew the only answer to that. I nodded back with equal solemnity.

Having watched the older children opening their gifts, I already knew that the big gifts were notnecessarily the nicest ones. One girl my age got a large coloring book of biblical characters, while a lessgreedy girl who selected a smaller box received a glass vial of lavender toilet water.8 The sound of thebox was also important. A ten-year-old boy had chosen a box that jangled when he shook it. It was a tinglobe of the world with a slit for inserting money. He must have thought it was full of dimes andnickels, because when he saw that it had just ten pennies, his face fell with such undisguiseddisappointment that his mother slapped the side of his head and led him out of the church hall,apologizing to the crowd for her son who had such bad manners he couldn’t appreciate such a fine gift.

As I peered into the sack, I quickly fingered the remaining presents, testing their weight, imaginingwhat they contained. I chose a heavy, compact one that was wrapped in shiny silver foil and a red satinribbon. It was a twelve-pack of Life Savers and I spent the rest of the party arranging and rearrangingthe candy tubes in the order of my favorites. My brother Winston chose wisely as well. His presentturned out to be a box of intricate plastic parts; the instructions on the box proclaimed that when theywere properly assembled he would have an authentic miniature replica of a World War II submarine.

Vincent got the chess set, which would have been a very decent present to get at a church Christmasparty, except it was obviously used and, as we discovered later, it was missing a black pawn and awhite knight. My mother graciously thanked the unknown benefactor,9 saying, “Too good. Cost toomuch.” At which point, an old lady with fine white, wispy hair nodded toward our family and said with awhistling whisper, “Merry, merry Christmas.”

When we got home, my mother told Vincent to throw the chess set away. “She not want it. We not wantit.” she said, tossing her head stiffly to the side with a tight, proud smile. My brothers had deaf ears.They were already lining up the chess pieces and reading from the dog-eared instruction book.

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6. people who attend a particular church7. very seriously8. perfume9. a person who gives money or help to a person or cause

3

I watched Vincent and Winston play during Christmas week. The chessboard seemed to holdelaborate secrets waiting to be untangled. The chessmen were more powerful than old Li’s magicherbs that cured ancestral curses. And my brothers wore such serious faces that I was sure somethingwas at stake that was greater than avoiding the tradesmen’s door to Hong Sing’s.

“Let me! Let me!” I begged between games when one brother or the other would sit back with a deepsigh of relief and victory, the other annoyed, unable to let go of the outcome. Vincent at first refused tolet me play, but when I offered my Life Savers as replacements for the buttons that filled in for themissing pieces, he relented. He chose the flavors: wild cherry for the black pawn and peppermint forthe white knight. Winner could eat both.

As our mother sprinkled flour and rolled out small doughy circles for the steamed dumplings thatwould be our dinner that night, Vincent explained the rules, pointing to each piece. “You have sixteenpieces and so do I. One king and queen, two bishops, two knights, two castles, and eight pawns. Thepawns can only move forward one step, except on the first move. Then they can move two. But theycan only take men by moving crossways like this, except in the beginning, when you can move aheadand take another pawn.”

“Why?” I asked as I moved my pawn. “Why can’t they move more steps?”

“Because they’re pawns,” he said.

“But why do they go crossways to take other men? Why aren’t there any women and children?"

“Why is the sky blue? Why must you always ask stupid questions?” asked Vincent. “This is a game.These are the rules. I didn’t make them up. See. Here in the book.” He jabbed a page with a pawn in hishand. “Pawn. P-A-W-N. Pawn. Read it yourself.”

My mother patted the flour off her hands. “Let me see book,” she said quietly. She scanned the pagesquickly, not reading the foreign English symbols, seeming to search deliberately for nothing inparticular.

“This American rules,” she concluded at last. “Every time people come out from foreign country, mustknow rules. You not know, judge say, Too bad, go back. They not telling you why so you can use theirway go forward. They say, Don’t know why, you find out yourself. But they knowing all the time. Betteryou take it, find out why yourself.” She tossed her head back with a satisfied smile.

I found out about all the whys later. I read the rules and looked up all the big words in a dictionary. Iborrowed books from the Chinatown library. I studied each chess piece, trying to absorb the powereach contained.

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4

I learned about opening moves and why it’s important to control the center early on; the shortestdistance between two points is straight down the middle. I learned about the middle game and whytactics10 between two adversaries are like clashing ideas; the one who plays better has the clearestplans for both attacking and getting out of traps. I learned why it is essential in the endgame to haveforesight, a mathematical understanding of all possible moves, and patience; all weaknesses andadvantages become evident to a strong adversary and are obscured to a tiring opponent. I discoveredthat for the whole game one must gather invisible strengths and see the endgame before the gamebegins. I also found out why I should never reveal “why” to others. A little knowledge withheld11 is agreat advantage one should store for future use. That is the power of chess. It is a game of secrets inwhich one must show and never tell.

I loved the secrets I found within the sixty-four black and white squares. I carefully drew a handmadechessboard and pinned it to the wall next to my bed, where I would stare for hours at imaginarybattles. Soon I no longer lost any games or Life Savers, but I lost my adversaries. Winston and Vincentdecided they were more interested in roaming the streets after school in their Hopalong Cassidycowboy hats.

* * *

On a cold spring afternoon, while walking home from school, I detoured through the playground at theend of our alley. I saw a group of old men, two seated across a folding table playing a game of chess,others smoking pipes, eating peanuts, and watching. I ran home and grabbed Vincent’s chess set,which was bound in a cardboard box with rubber bands. I also carefully selected two prized rolls of LifeSavers. I came back to the park and approached a man who was observing the game.

“Want to play?” I asked him. His face widened with surprise and he grinned as he looked at the boxunder my arm.

“Little sister, been a long time since I play with dolls,” he said, smiling benevolently.12 I quickly put thebox down next to him on the bench and displayed my retort.

Lau Po, as he allowed me to call him, turned out to be a much better player than my brothers. I lostmany games and many Life Savers. But over the weeks, with each diminishing roll of candies, I addednew secrets. Lau Po gave me the names. The Double Attack from the East and West Shores. ThrowingStones on the Drowning Man. The Sudden Meeting of the Clan. The Surprise from the Sleeping Guard.The Humble Servant Who Kills the King. Sand in the Eyes of Advancing Forces. A Double Killing WithoutBlood.

There were also the fine points of chess etiquette. Keep captured men in neat rows, as well-tendedprisoners. Never announce “Check” with vanity,13 lest someone with an unseen sword slit your throat.Never hurl pieces into the sandbox after you have lost a game, because then you must find themagain, by yourself, after apologizing to all around you. By the end of the summer, Lau Po had taughtme all he knew, and I had become a better chess player.

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10. carefully planned actions or strategies11. Withhold (verb): to hold back12. kindly13. great pride or ego

5

A small weekend crowd of Chinese people and tourists would gather as I played and defeated myopponents one by one. My mother would join the crowds during these outdoor exhibition games. Shesat proudly on the bench, telling my admirers with proper Chinese humility, “Is luck.”

A man who watched me play in the park suggested that my mother allow me to play in local chesstournaments. My mother smiled graciously, an answer that meant nothing. I desperately wanted to go,but I bit back my tongue. I knew she would not let me play among strangers. So as we walked home Isaid in a small voice that I didn’t want to play in the local tournament. They would have American rules.If I lost, I would bring shame on my family.

“Is shame you fall down nobody push you,” said my mother.

During my first tournament, my mother sat with me in the front row as I waited for my turn. Ifrequently bounced my legs to unstick them from the cold metal seat of the folding chair. When myname was called, I leapt up. My mother unwrapped something in her lap. It was her chang, a smalltablet of red jade which held the sun’s fire. “Is luck,” she whispered, and tucked it into my dress pocket.I turned to my opponent, a fifteen-year-old boy from Oakland. He looked at me, wrinkling his nose.

As I began to play, the boy disappeared, the color ran out of the room, and I saw only my white piecesand his black ones waiting on the other side. A light wind began blowing past my ears. It whisperedsecrets only I could hear.

“Blow from the South,” it murmured. “The wind leaves no trail.” I saw a clear path, the traps to avoid.The crowd rustled. “Shhh! Shhh!” said the corners of the room. The wind blew stronger. “Throw sandfrom the East to distract him.” The knight came forward ready for the sacrifice. The wind hissed, louderand louder. “Blow, blow, blow. He cannot see. He is blind now. Make him lean away from the wind sohe is easier to knock down.”

“Check,” I said, as the wind roared with laughter. The wind died down to little puffs, my own breath.

My mother placed my first trophy next to a new plastic chess set that the neighborhood Tao societyhad given to me. As she wiped each piece with a soft cloth, she said, “Next time win more, lose less.”

“Ma, it’s not how many pieces you lose,” I said. “Sometimes you need to lose pieces to get ahead.”

“Better to lose less, see if you really need.”

At the next tournament, I won again, but it was my mother who wore the triumphant grin.

"Lost eight piece this time. Last time was eleven. What I tell you? Better off lose less!” I was annoyed,but I couldn’t say anything.

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[45]

6

I attended more tournaments, each one farther away from home. I won all games, in all divisions. TheChinese bakery downstairs from our flat displayed my growing collection of trophies in its window,amidst the dust covered cakes that were never picked up. The day after I won an important regionaltournament, the window encased a fresh sheet cake with whipped-cream frosting and red script saying“Congratulations, Waverly Jong, Chinatown Chess Champion.” Soon after that, a flower shop,headstone engraver, and funeral parlor offered to sponsor me in national tournaments. That’s whenmy mother decided I no longer had to do the dishes. Winston and Vincent had to do my chores.

“Why does she get to play and we do all the work,” complained Vincent.

“Is new American rules,” said my mother. “Meimei play, squeeze all her brains out for win chess. Youplay, worth squeeze towel.”

By my ninth birthday, I was a national chess champion. I was still some 429 points away from grand-master status, but I was touted as the Great American Hope, a child prodigy and a girl to boot. Theyran a photo of me in Life magazine next to a quote in which Bobby Fischer said, “There will never be awoman grand master.” “Your move, Bobby,” said the caption.

The day they took the magazine picture I wore neatly plaited braids clipped with plastic barrettestrimmed with rhinestones. I was playing in a large high school auditorium that echoed with phlegmycoughs and the squeaky rubber knobs of chair legs sliding across freshly waxed wooden floors. Seatedacross from me was an American man, about the same age as Lau Po, maybe fifty. I remember that hissweaty brow seemed to weep at my every move. He wore a dark, malodorous suit. One of his pocketswas stuffed with a great white kerchief on which he wiped his palm before sweeping his hand over thechosen chess piece with great flourish.

In my crisp pink-and-white dress with scratchy lace at the neck, one of two my mother had sewn forthese special occasions, I would clasp my hands under my chin, the delicate points of my elbowspoised lightly on the table in the manner my mother had shown me for posing for the press. I wouldswing my patent leather shoes back and forth like an impatient child riding on a school bus. Then Iwould pause, suck in my lips, twirl my chosen piece in midair as if undecided, and then firmly plant it inits new threatening place, with a triumphant smile thrown back at my opponent for good measure.

I no longer played in the alley of Waverly Place. I never visited the playground where the pigeons andold men gathered. I went to school, then directly home to learn new chess secrets, cleverly concealedadvantages, more escape routes.

But I found it difficult to concentrate at home. My mother had a habit of standing over me while Iplotted out my games. I think she thought of herself as my protective ally. Her lips would be sealedtight, and after each move I made, a soft “Hmmmmph” would escape from her nose.

“Ma, I can’t practice when you stand there like that,” I said one day. She retreated to the kitchen andmade loud noises with the pots and pans. When the crashing stopped, I could see out of the corner ofmy eye that she was standing in the doorway. “Hmmmmph!” Only this one came out of her tightthroat.

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7

My parents made many concessions14 to allow me to practice. One time I complained that thebedroom I shared was so noisy that I couldn’t think. Thereafter, my brothers slept in a bed in the livingroom facing the street. I said I couldn’t finish my rice; my head didn’t work right when my stomach wastoo full. I left the table with half finished bowls and nobody complained. But there was one duty Icouldn’t avoid. I had to accompany my mother on Saturday market days when I had no tournament toplay. My mother would proudly walk with me, visiting many shops, buying very little. “This my daughterWave-ly Jong,” she said to whoever looked her way.

One day after we left a shop I said under my breath, “I wish you wouldn’t do that, telling everybody I’myour daughter.” My mother stopped walking. Crowds of people with heavy bags pushed past us on thesidewalk, bumping into first one shoulder, than another.

“Aii-ya. So shame be with mother?” She grasped my hand even tighter as she glared at me.

I looked down. “It’s not that, it’s just so obvious. It’s just so embarrassing.”

“Embarrass you be my daughter?” Her voice was cracking with anger.

“That’s not what I meant. That’s not what I said.”

“What you say?”

I knew it was a mistake to say anything more, but I heard my voice speaking, “Why do you have to useme to show off? If you want to show off, then why don’t you learn to play chess?”

My mother’s eyes turned into dangerous black slits. She had no words for me, just sharp silence.

I felt the wind rushing around my hot ears. I jerked my hand out of my mother’s tight grasp and spunaround, knocking into an old woman. Her bag of groceries spilled to the ground.

“Aii-ya! Stupid girl!” my mother and the woman cried. Oranges and tin cans careened down thesidewalk. As my mother stooped to help the old woman pick up the escaping food, I took off.

I raced down the street, dashing between people, not looking back as my mother screamed shrilly,“Meimei! Meimei!” I fled down an alley, past dark, curtained shops and merchants washing the grimeoff their windows. I sped into the sunlight, into a large street crowded with tourists examining trinketsand souvenirs. I ducked into another dark alley, down another street, up another alley. I ran until ithurt and I realized I had nowhere to go, that I was not running from anything. The alleys contained noescape routes.

My breath came out like angry smoke. It was cold. I sat down on an upturned plastic pail next to a stackof empty boxes, cupping my chin with my hands, thinking hard. I imagined my mother, first walkingbriskly down one street or another looking for me, then giving up and returning home to await myarrival. After two hours, I stood up on creaking legs and slowly walked home.

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14. When someone makes concessions, they agree to let someone else do or have something.

8

Copyright © 1989 by Amy Tan. First appeared in THE JOY LUCK CLUB. Reprinted by permission of the author and the Sandra Dijkstra LiteraryAgency.

The alley was quiet and I could see the yellow lights shining from our flat like two tiger’s eyes in thenight. I climbed the sixteen steps to the door, advancing quietly up each so as not to make any warningsounds. I turned the knob; the door was locked. I heard a chair moving, quick steps, the locks turning-click! click! click!-and then the door opened.

“About time you got home,” said Vincent. “Boy, are you in trouble.”

He slid back to the dinner table. On a platter were the remains of a large fish, its fleshy head stillconnected to bones swimming upstream in vain escape. Standing there waiting for my punishment, Iheard my mother speak in a dry voice.

“We not concerning this girl. This girl not have concerning for us.”

Nobody looked at me. Bone chopsticks clinked against the inside of bowls being emptied into hungrymouths.

I walked into my room, closed the door, and lay down on my bed. The room was dark, the ceiling filledwith shadows from the dinnertime lights of neighboring flats.

In my head, I saw a chessboard with sixty-four black and white squares. Opposite me was myopponent, two angry black slits. She wore a triumphant smile. “Strongest wind cannot be seen,” shesaid.

Her black men advanced across the plane, slowly marching to each successive level as a single unit. Mywhite pieces screamed as they scurried and fell off the board one by one. As her men drew closer tomy edge, I felt myself growing light. I rose up into the air and flew out the window. Higher and higher,above the alley, over the tops of tiled roofs, where I was gathered up by the wind and pushed uptoward the night sky until everything below me disappeared and I was alone.

I closed my eyes and pondered my next move.

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9


1. Why do Winston and Vincent most likely stop playing chess with Waverly? (Paragraph 30)A. Winston and Vincent think chess is a game for girls.B. Winston and Vincent are bored by how easy the game is.C. Winston and Vincent have to do Waverly’s chores instead.D. Winston and Vincent are tired of always losing to Waverly.

2. How does Waverly’s mother give her daughter support?A. She takes Waverly to tournaments and gives her advice.B. She hires an old man to teach Waverly and pays for lessons.C. She lets Waverly eat cake from the bakery that sponsors her.D. She makes Waverly’s brothers teach her how to play chess every day.

3. Waverly recalls, “I said in a small voice that I didn’t want to play in the local tournament.They would have American rules. If I lost, I would bring shame on my family” (Paragraph 37).How does this message convince her mother to agree to the tournament?

A. Waverly challenges her mother’s knowledge about the local culture.B. Waverly tricks her mother into feeling ashamed of her family.C. Waverly questions her mother’s dedication to the family.D. Waverly brings out her mother’s pride in her heritage.

4. How is Waverly affected by the conflict with her mother in paragraphs 71-78?A. She is unaffected and begins practicing for her next chess tournament.B. She begins to think of her mother as her enemy rather than her teammate.C. She reflects on her irritation towards her mother and realizes it is unhealthy.D. She allows her anger towards her mother to build until she cannot contain it.

5. How has Waverly’s relationship with her mother changed from the beginning to the end ofthe story? Use evidence from the text to support your response. Be sure to explain howeach piece of evidence supports your analysis.

10


1. Does Waverly’s mother deserve credit for Waverly’s success? Why or why not?

2. Think about a time when you wanted to learn something. What did you do to learn the newskill? How long did it take? What did you learn about yourself in the process?

11

Name: Class:

"Untitled" by Hisu Lee is licensed under CC0

From tiger to free-range parents — whatresearch says about pros and cons of popular

parenting stylesBy Rebecca English

2016

There are many different ways to raise a child. In this text, Rebecca English discusses three parenting styles.Skills Focus: In this lesson, you’ll practice identifying an author’s central idea and how they support it. Thismeans paying attention to the evidence and reasons they give for their idea. As you read, make note of thedetails on the three parenting styles and what is the author’s central idea.

What’s the best way to raise your child? It’s aquestion that has provoked the publication ofnumerous books, and seen authors race to cointhe next quirky name for a new style ofparenting.

And it turns out there are many styles. To date,some of the best known include:

• Tiger parents, who are seen as pushingtheir children to succeed according totheir parents’ terms.

• Helicopter parents, who take over everyaspect of the child’s life.

• Free-range parents, who allow children a great deal of freedom.

So what does research say about the pros and cons of each of these parenting styles?

Tiger parents

Type of parent: You expect first-time obedience, excellence in every endeavour and a child who nevertalks back.

Who coined it? Amy Chua popularized this name in her 2011 book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.Chua describes tiger parents, often seen in Chinese families, as superior to Western1 parents. Chineseparents assume strength and don’t shy away from calling their children names. Chua, for example,called her daughters “garbage” and “a disgrace” when she thought they might fail. Tiger parentsassume their children owe them and expect their children to repay them by being obedient andmaking them proud.

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1. “Western” countries include the United States, Canada, Australia and nations in western Europe.

1

https://unsplash.com/photos/in9QlspOG6w

Why parents choose this style: Tiger mothers are, as Chua attests,2 socialized to be this way by theircultural background. Thus, when they successfully demand an hour of piano practice it’s part of theircultural background that the child complies. Western parents will have a hard time emulating3 theyears of acculturation4 that leads to that moment.

Parents who follow Chua may do so because they want their child to be successful. It may be theseparents hold deep insecurities about the future. These parents are most likely authoritarian.Authoritarian parents are the authority in their child’s life. They set the rules and say “jump” and theirchild responds “how high?”.

Pros: Raising a child in this way can lead to them being more productive, motivated and responsible.

Cons: Children can struggle to function in daily life or in new settings, which may lead to depression,anxiety and poor social skills.

Helicopter parents

Type of parent: You step in to prevent your toddler’s every struggle; you are over-involved in yourchild’s education and frequently call their teacher; you can’t stop watching over your teenager.

Who coined it? Psychologist Foster Cline and education consultant Jim Fay coined the phrase in 1990in their book: Parenting with Love and Logic. They described helicopter parents as being confused aboutthe difference between love and saving children from themselves. Another name for helicopterparenting is “overparenting”.

Why parents choose this style: These parents are likely to be scared for their child’s future, perhapslike tiger parents. They may not trust their child’s ability to navigate the world. By hovering around theymay think children will be inoculated5 against failing.

Pros: Parents can be overprotective, which may save their child or adolescent from problems theywould not foresee.

Cons: Children can lack emotional resilience6 and independence, which can affect them intoadulthood. Being a child of a helicopter parent may lead to an inability to control behavior.

There’s even an “AskReddit” devoted to the worst aspects of growing up with helicopter parents.Stories include a contributor, 21 at the time, whose father followed them to jury duty, because hedidn’t trust they could do it properly. It’s claimed dad had a tantrum when he was kicked out by thesecurity guard.

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2. Attest (verb): to declare that something is the case3. Emulate (verb): to match or surpass4. Acculturation is the process of adopting the cultural traits or social patterns of a group.5. protected6. Resilience (noun): the ability to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness

2

“From tiger to free-range parents — what research says about pros and cons of popular parenting styles” by Rebecca English, Michigan StateUniversity, May 25, 2016. Copyright © The Conversation 2016, CC-BY-ND.

Free-range parents

Type of parent: You believe your role is to trust your child. You equip them with the skills to stay safe,and then back off.

Who coined it? The term was made famous by a case of “neglect” against Lenore Skenazy, a formercolumnist who wrote about letting her nine-year-old son ride the New York subway alone. Theexperience led to her being labelled “America’s worst mother” and prompted her to write a book. Thebook was about fighting the perception7 that the world was getting more dangerous.

This parenting approach is about giving children the freedom their parents experienced when theywere kids in the 1970s and 1980s.

Why parents choose this style: Psychologists and experts suggest this style is a backlash againstanxiety-driven, risk-averse child rearing. It may be that Skenazy is right, we are worrying too muchabout everything from germs to other people.

Pros: Children learn to use their freedom, be autonomous8 and manage themselves. They may also bebetter able to handle mistakes, be more resilient and take responsibility for their actions. It’s also saidto lead to happier adults.

Cons: Problems with this style center on the legal aspects of the approach. In 2015, a mother andfather from Silver Spring, Maryland, were charged with neglect because they allowed their twochildren, ages 6 and 10, to walk home from a park by themselves.

[20]

7. Perception (noun): a way of understanding or interpreting something8. free from control or help

3

https://theconversation.com/from-tiger-to-free-range-parents-what-research-says-about-pros-and-cons-of-popular-parenting-styles-57986


1. What is a central idea of the article?A. There are many styles of parenting and each offers both benefits and

disadvantages.B. There are many styles of parenting and being a tiger mom is better than being a

free-range mom.C. There are many styles of parenting and being a free-range mom is better than

being a helicopter parent.D. There are many styles of parenting and each offers children the opportunity to

develop into healthy adults.

2. Which detail best supports the reason why a parent becomes a helicopter parent?A. “Children can struggle to function in daily life or in new settings, which may lead

to depression, anxiety and poor social skills.” (Paragraph 9)B. “They may not trust their child’s ability to navigate the world..they may think

children will be inoculated against failing.” (Paragraph 12)C. “Children can lack emotional resilience and independence” (Paragraph 14)D. “There’s even an ‘AskReddit’ devoted to the worst aspects of growing up.”

(Paragraph 15)

3. What is one effect of having a tiger parent?A. Children lack the ability to stick with things when it gets hard.B. Children struggle to know appropriate boundaries and limits.C. Children lack the ability to know how to control their behavior.D. Children struggle to function in everyday life and do things on their own.

4. What is one benefit of free-range parenting?A. Children learn to seek adults’ opinions first.B. Children have a great imagination and creativity.C. Children learn to be independent and resourceful.D. Children have little time to get in trouble or mischief.

4

5. Write a summary of the article.

5


1. Do you think children in past generations, like from the 1970s, had more freedom andindependence than children today? Why do you think so?

2. If you wanted more freedom and independence from your parents, what argument wouldyou make based on the text? What points from the text would you share with your parents?

3. Thinking about the various levels of independence that each parenting style offers, discusstwo ways your parents or guardians allow you to be independent in your day.

6

Vocabulary for Grade 9 Set B: People and Nature

Directions: In the first activity in this packet, you will use context clues to try and determine the meaning of each of your new vocabulary words. The example below shows you how to do this activity.

1. Begin by looking at the photo.

Ask yourself, What do I see? I see birds flying in the air. They are not being controlled or told where to go.

2. Next, look at the caption. Ask yourself, what word could I put in place of the underlined vocabulary word? Here I might substitute “all” or “complete” for absolute.

3. Then, look at the example sentence. Ask yourself, do my substitutions from the caption — “all” and “complete” — make sense in this sentence? Yes, “complete” works in the example sentence as well.

4. Finally, write or type a prediction in the last box.

Example: Absolute (ab-suh-loot)

My mother’s no was absolute. Once she said it, there was no chance of changing her mind.

Birds have absolute freedom to go wherever they like.


My Answer: complete

Let’s begin!

1. Accumulate (uh-kyoo-myuh-leyt) 2. Contaminate (kuhn-tam-uh-neyt)

I started with one pair of sneakers, but over the years, I’ve accumulated more than 40 pairs!

When the sewer leaked, it contaminated our tap water.

Six inches of snow accumulated overnight.

The smoke from the factory contaminated the air.


My Answer:


My Answer:

Grade 9 Set B: People and Nature 1

3. Displace (dis-pleys) 4. Dispose (dih-spohz)

When sugary foods displaced healthy food in American diets, there was a huge increase in diabetes.

Please dispose of your dirty tissues in the trash can.

My foot displaced the water in the puddle.

I had to dispose of the vegetables that had gone bad.


My Answer:


My Answer:

5. Dubious (doo-bee-uhs) 6. Emissions (ih-mish-uh ns)

The politician tried to explain his dubious finances by releasing his financial information.

The emissions from the factory make it hard to breathe.

Janice’s boss warned all employees to not open dubious-looking emails.

Firefighters’ masks protect them from dangerous emissions.


My Answer:


My Answer:


7. Lethal (lee-thuh l) 8. Plausible (plaw-zuh-buhl)

Use child-safe locks to keep children away from lethal chemicals.

I need to think of a plausible excuse for missing class to avoid trouble with my professor.

A rattlesnake’s bite can be lethal if not treated quickly.

The scientist’s explanation for why we are experiencing more violent

thunderstorms seems plausible.


My Answer:


My Answer:

9. Severe (suh-veer) 10. Toxic (tok-sik)

The little boy’s fever was so severe that his parents took him to the hospital.

The doctors had to pump the toddler’s stomach after he swallowed a toxic household cleaning product.

Last year’s severe flooding caused millions of dollars in property damage.

Dr. Garcia wears protective gear when working with toxic substances.


My Answer:


My Answer:


Let’s review the definitions of the words.

1. Accumulate (verb) to slowly gather or build up Related: cumulative

2. Contaminate (verb) to make (something) unclean by adding a poisonous or polluting substance to it

3. Displace (verb) to push (something) out of a space; to take the place (something) usually occupies Related: displacement, replace

4. Dispose (verb) to get rid of by throwing away or giving or selling to someone else. Always followed by “of” (dispose of used napkins) Related: disposal

5. Dubious (adjective) not to be relied upon; suspect

6. Emissions (noun) something released into the world, especially a gas Related: emit

7. Lethal (adjective) deadly

8. Plausible (adjective) seeming reasonable or likely to be believed

9. Severe (adj) very intense, with a negative connotation Related: severity

10. Toxic (adjective) poisonous; very bad, unpleasant, or harmful Related: toxin, antitoxin


Activity 2: Fill-in-the-Blank Sentences

Directions: Fill in the blanks using the correct vocabulary word to complete each sentence. You may have to change the form of the word (ex: go, going, gone).

Accumulate Contaminate Displace Dispose Dubious Emissions Lethal Plausible Severe Toxic

My answer

1. I don’t care if you sell those things or throw them away, but you need to ___________________ of them somehow.

2. We were shocked to learn that the leak from the factory was ___________________ our drinking water.

3. The local authorities built a fence along the cliff after several tourists suffered ___________________ falls.

4. Please don’t let the trash ___________________ all week — it makes the kitchen smell terrible!

5. The factory claims its ___________________ are safe, but community groups say those gases are dangerous.

6. Never eat a bright red mushroom; that color means that they’re _________________!

7. As I arrived at the party, I thought hard about a ___________________ reason for being late that the others would believe.

8. The wind storm was so ___________________ that the mayor asked people to stay inside and board up their windows!

9. Ian’s mom was unconvinced by his ___________________ story about why he was late returning home on a Friday night.

10. Archimedes, an ancient Greek scientist, famously yelled, “Eureka!” when he climbed into his evening bath and realized that the water ___________________ by his body was equal to the weight of his body.


Activity 3: Fill-in-the-Blank Scenarios

Fill in the blanks using the correct vocabulary word to complete each scenario. Then, explain why that vocabulary word fits best based on context clues provided in the scenario. You may have to change the form of the word (ex: go, going, gone).

For Example:

Every single day, Bryan wakes up at 5 o’clock in the morning to take a 10-mile jog. Then, he goes to the gym to lift weights. Afterwards, he does 20 laps in the pool. And this is before he goes to practice with the team every afternoon! Bryan is ____________ about training because __________________________________________________________.

My Answer My Reason

relentless He is extremely dedicated and exercises all of the time. He runs 10 miles, lifts weights, swims, and attends practice every day.

Accumulate Contaminate Displace Dispose Dubious Emissions Lethal Plausible Severe Toxic

1. Her first year of teaching, Ms. Lee got one thank you card from a student. She got a few more every year and now, after a

40-year career, she has hundreds of them! Ms. Lee has ___________________ thank you cards because ___________________________________________________

My Answer My Reason

2. For the past century, global sea levels have been rising. The warming of the ocean and the melting of land-based ice are the most cited reasons for rising sea levels. Although some skeptics dispute these ideas, scientists have provided data from multiple experiments to prove that the ocean is warming and glaciers are melting.

The warming of the ocean is a ________________ cause of rising sea levels because_________________________________

My Answer My Reason

3. At the debate, each candidate did everything they could to make their position look the best. They made many promises,

some of which seemed too good to be true. After the debate, experts fact-checked the claims and found that most of them

were either untrue or unlikely to happen.

The candidates made ____________________ claims because __________________________________________________

My Answer My Reason


4. Jamie loved her community. It represented people of all different races and income levels. Then, a developer bought one of

the apartment buildings and upgraded it. Most people couldn’t afford the new rent and left. Then, one by one, all of the houses that people rented were sold and bought for more money by many affluent families. Jamie often wonders where all her former neighbors went to live.

Jamie’s neighbors were _________________ from the neighborhood because _____________________________________

My Answer My Reason

5. When LaShay was packing her groceries, she put a bottle of bleach in the same bag as a container of strawberries. She didn’t realize that the bleach was leaking. When she got home, LaShay noticed that her strawberries smelled like bleach! The bleach has ___________________ the strawberries because ________________________________________________

My Answer My Reason

6. It is incredibly important to wear a seat belt every time you ride in a car. Passengers not wearing a seatbelt are twice as likely to die in a car accident as their buckled-up peers. Not wearing a seatbelt can be ___________________ because __________________________________________________

My Answer My Reason

7. Dr. Abboud and Dr. Green were testing household cleaning products in their lab. The first product checked out as completely safe for home use — even the fumes it produced were safe to breathe. However, they smelled so awful that the two scientists doubted many people would be willing to buy the product! The cleaning product has unpleasant ___________________ because ____________________________________________

My Answer My Reason

8. After the party was over, Diego went through the house gathering up trash. He threw away two bags full of food scraps, plastic cups and plates, and paper napkins. Diego ___________________ of the trash because ____________________________________________________________

My Answer My Reason


9. If you look at a bottle of bathroom cleaner with bleach in it, you will see that the label says, “DO NOT use with products containing ammonia.” Although bleach and ammonia are both safe to breathe in small doses, the combination of their fumes is poisonous and can cause a person to pass out or even die. Never use bleach and ammonia together! Combining bleach and ammonia is ___________________ because ______________________________________________

My Answer My Reason

10. Tionna has a very serious peanut allergy. If she eats even one tiny piece of a peanut, her airway closes and she can’t breathe.

Tionna’s allergy is ___________________ because ___________________________________________________________

My Answer My Reason


Activity 4: Matching

Match the following vocabulary words to their synonyms from the box. Write your answer in the column next to the word.

Synonyms: Dump Doubtful Collect Extreme Poisonous Infect Deadly Leak Push out Believable

Words My Answer

1. Accumulate

2. Contaminate

3. Displace

4. Dispose

5. Dubious

6. Emissions

7. Lethal

8. Plausible

9. Severe

10. Toxic


Activity 5: Application of Vocabulary

Answer each question in 1-2 complete sentences. Make sure that you use the underlined vocabulary word in your answer.

1. Some people accumulate objects with emotional meaning to them, while other people throw away things quickly. Which type of person are you? Why?

2. What do you think should be the punishment for a company that contaminates the air or water? Why?

3. When people transition from middle school to high school, new friends can sometimes displace their old ones. Have you

seen this happen? Do you think this is a positive change in someone’s life?

4. What should companies think about when deciding how to dispose of dangerous chemicals?

5. What is a dubious story your parents told you to get you to do something as a child? Why do you doubt the story now?

6. We have the technology to reduce car emissions, but using it would make cars more expensive to build and sell. Do you

think car companies should be forced to use this emissions-lowering technology? Why or why not?

7. What kind of requirements do you think our country should have for people who want to buy lethal weapons? Why?

8. If you wanted to start a business, what would be a plausible first step? Explain why it is important to take that step.

9. Many schools have rules stating that a student caught cheating on an assignment will receive a zero and not be able to make

up the work. Do you think that punishment for cheating is too severe? Why or why not?

10. Although the smoke from cigarettes and vaporizers (or “vape pens”) is toxic, they are still legal. Do you think they should be?

Why or why not?


Grade 9 Set B: People and Nature FINAL ASSESSMENT: Cross-textual Thematic Essay

Essay Question: What is the relationship between people and the environment?

In this packet, you will find:

● a graphic organizer to help you prepare for your essay, ● a page of helpful hints to help you organize your essay, and ● the essay prompt with space to write.

Prewriting: Graphic Organizer At the end of this distance learning text set, you will write a multi-paragraph essay answering the essential question: What does it mean to truly grow up? After you have completed each reading assignment, use the chart below to help you remember how that text answered the essential question.

What is the relationship between people and the environment?

Text Title How does this text answer

the essential question? Text Evidence (include paragraph number)

“Lee Sherman and the Toxic

Louisiana Bayou”

“He-y, Come on Ou-t!”

“Quiet Town”

“Song for Turtles in the

Gulf”

Helpful Hints for Writing your Essay

Multi-Paragraph Essays include:

● A CLAIM that answers the essay question

● REASONS that the claim is true

● EVIDENCE that supports the reasons

● EXPLANATIONS that describe how the evidence supports the reason and the claim

MULTI-PARAGRAPH ESSAY STRUCTURE

Introduction ● Claim / Thesis

Body Paragraphs

● Reason 1

○ Evidence 1

■ Explanation 1

○ Evidence 2

■ Explanation 2

● Reason 2

○ Evidence 1

■ Explanation 1

○ Evidence 2

■ Explanation 2

Conclusion

● Summary statement

TRANSITION WORDS TO START A BODY PARAGRAPH:

● First (second, etc.), ● In addition, ● Another ● Similarly,

SENTENCE PROMPTS FOR INTRODUCING EVIDENCE:

● For example, ● For instance, ● To demonstrate, ● To illustrate,

● In the text, / In the story … ● In [paragraph X,] … ● When [X happens] / When [character Y does / says] … ● The author illustrates this when …

SENTENCE PROMPTS FOR EXPLAINING EVIDENCE:

● This means … ● This illustrates … ● This reveals … ● This highlights …

Name: _________________________________ Class: ______________________ Date: ______________________

Grade 9 Set B: People and Nature FINAL ASSESSMENT: Cross-textual Thematic Essay

Essay Prompt: You have read four texts: “Lee Sherman and the Toxic Louisiana Bayou,” “He-y, Come on Ou-t!” “Quiet Town,” and “Song for Turtles in the Gulf.” Write a multi-paragraph essay in which you answer the essential question for this text set: What is the relationship between people and the environment? Be sure to include specific details from more than one text in your essay.

Directions: Answer the essay prompt in a complete, multi-paragraph essay. Use your graphic organizer to help you, and write your essay in the space below. Use complete sentences. Cite evidence when appropriate.

Name: Class:

"Untitled" by NeuPaddy is licensed under CC0

Lee Sherman and the Toxic Louisiana BayouBy Arlie Hochschild

2016

Arlie Hochschild is a widely respected sociologist, someone who studies how our society is structured andhow it works. In this article, Dr. Hochschild presents the story of Lee Sherman, a Louisiana man affected bypollution. Skill Focus: In this lesson, you’ll practice identifying an author’s central idea and how theysupport it. This means paying attention to the evidence the author includes, as well as the details theyprovide to clarify the central idea. As you read, take note of the details that convey the author’s big ideaabout the effects of pollution on Lee Sherman and his community.

There he is, seated on his wooden front porchoverlooking a trim yard in suburban DeRidder,Louisiana, watching for my car. He rises from hischair, waving with one arm and steadying himselfon his walker with the other. A large-chested, 6ft3in man with a grey crewcut and blue eyes, LeeSherman, age 82, gives me a welcoming smile. Aplayer for the Dallas Texans football team (laterrenamed the Kansas City Chiefs) for two years, anhonoree in Who’s Who of American Motorsports,a Nascar racer who drove at 200 miles an hour ina neck brace and fire suit, and the proudpurchaser of a waterski boat once owned by TV’sWonder Woman, he shakes my hand, apologising,“I’m sorry to be on this thing,” he points to his walker, “and not take you through the house properly.”He doesn’t feel like his old self, he says, but accepts his feeble legs good-naturedly. Given hisdangerous work at the petrochemical1 company, Pittsburgh Plate Glass (PPG), he is happy to be alive.“All my co-workers from back then are dead; most died young,” he tells me.

As a young man, Sherman trained as a coppersmith in the US naval shipyards outside Seattle, wherehis dad worked as an electrician. When travelling south for work in 1965, he was hired by PPG as amaintenance pipefitter2 and soon earned a reputation as a mechanical genius.

He was fearless and careful, a good fit for his hazardous job fitting and repairing pipes carrying lethalchemicals such as ethylene dichloride, mercury, lead, chromium, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons,and dioxins.

[1]

1. chemicals obtained from petroleum and natural gas and used for many household products such as glass, plastics,and detergents

2. A pipefitter installs, maintains, and repairs piping systems.

1

https://pixabay.com/illustrations/toxic-waste-barrel-broken-empty-2089779/

At one point, Sherman narrowly escaped death, he tells me, taking a careful, long sip of coffee. Oneday while he was working, cold chlorine3 was accidentally exposed to extreme heat, which instantlytransformed the liquid to gas. Sixteen workers were in the plant at the time. Noting that the companywas short of protective gear, Sherman’s boss instructed him to leave. “Thirty minutes after I left,” hesays, “the plant blew up. Five of the 15 men I left behind were killed.” The next afternoon, Sherman’sboss asked him to help search for the bodies of the dead workers. Two were found, three were not.Acid had so decomposed4 the body of one of the three victims that his remains came out in pieces inthe sewer that drained into a nearby bayou.5 “If someone hadn’t found him,” Sherman says, turning hishead to look out of his dining room window, “that body would have ended up floating into Bayoud’Inde.”

In the 1960s, safety was at a minimum at PPG. “During safety meetings,” Sherman tells me, “thesupervisor just gave us paperwork to fill out. Working with the chemicals, we wore no protective facialmasks. You learned how to hold your nose and breathe through your mouth.

“The company didn’t much warn us about dangers,” he says, adding in a softer voice, “My co-workersdid. They’d say, ‘You can’t stand in that stuff. Get out of it.’ I wouldn’t be alive today, if it weren’t for myco-workers.”

The pipes Sherman worked on carried oxygen, hydrogen, and chlorine, and when a pipe sprung a leak,he explains, “I was the guy to fix it.”

“Did you use your bare hands?” I ask.

“Oh, yeah, yeah.”

Eventually the general foreman6 issued badges to the workers to record any overexposure7 todangerous chemicals, Sherman says, “but the foreman made fun of them. It’s supposed to take two orthree months before the gauge registers you’ve reached the limit. My badge did in three days. Theforeman thought I’d stuck it inside a pipe!”

Accidents happened. One day, Sherman was standing in a room, leaning over a large pipe to check afilter, when an operator in a distant control room mistakenly turned a knob, sending hot, almond-smelling, liquid chlorinated hydrocarbons8 coursing through the pipe, drenching him. “It was hot and Igot completely soaked,” Sherman tells me. “I jumped into the safety shower and had the respirator9 inmy mouth, so I wasn’t overcome. But the chemical was burning pretty bad. It really gets you worstunderneath your arms, in between your legs, up your bottom.” Despite the shower, he said, “Thechemical ate off my shoes. It ate off my pants. It ate my shirt. My undershorts were gone. Only someelastic from my socks and my undershorts remained. It burned my clothes clean off me.”

[5]

[10]

3. a greenish-yellow toxic chemical4. Decompose (verb): to break down into small parts5. Bayou (noun): a marshy and slow-moving body of water6. Foreman (noun): a person in charge of a department7. too much contact with something8. toxic chemicals9. a mask that prevents a person from inhaling toxic substances

2

As a result of the things he suffered, saw, and was ordered to do as a pipefitter in the petrochemicalplant, Sherman became an ardent environmentalist. Calcasieu Parish, in which he worked for 15 yearsat PPG, is among the 2% of American counties with the highest toxic emissions per capita. Accordingto the American Cancer Society, Louisiana has the second-highest incidence of cancer for men and thefifth-highest male death rate from cancer in the nation.

Lee Sherman’s work at PPG was a source of personal pride, but he clearly did not feel particularly loyalto the company. Still, he did as he was told. And one day in the late 1960s, after his acid bath, he wastold to take on another ominous job. It was to be done twice a day, usually after dusk, and always insecret. In order to do this job, Sherman had to wield an 8ft-long “tar buggy”,10 propelled forwards onfour wheels. Loaded on this buggy was an enormous steel tank that held “heavy bottoms” — the highlyviscous tar residue of chlorinated hydrocarbon that had sunk to the bottom of kitchen-sized steelvessels. A layer of asbestos11 surrounded the tank, to retain heat generated by a heater beneath thebuggy. Copper coils were wound around its base. The hotter the tar, the less likely it was to solidify12

before it was dumped.

Working overtime in the evenings, under cover of dark, his respirator on, Sherman would tow the tarbuggy down a path that led towards the Calcasieu Ship Channel in one direction and towards Bayoud’Inde in another.

Sherman would look around “to make sure no one saw me” and check if the wind was blowing awayfrom him, so as to avoid fumes blowing into his face. He backed the tar buggy up to the marsh. Then,he said, “I’d bend down and open the faucet.” Under the pressure of compressed air, the toxins wouldspurt out “20 or 30 feet” into the marsh. Sherman waited until the buggy was drained of the illegaltoxic waste.

“No one ever saw me,” he says.

Sherman lingers over an event that occurred one day while he was alone on the bank with his secret.“While I was dumping the heavy bottoms in the canal, I saw a bird fly into the fumes and fall instantlyinto the water. It was like he’d been shot. I put two shovels out into the mud, so I could walk on theminto the marsh without sinking too far down. I walked out and picked up the bird. Its wings and bodydidn’t move. It looked dead, but its heart was still beating. I grew up on a farm, and I know about birds.I walked back on the shovels to the bank with the bird. I held its head in my right hand and its wingsand body in my left hand.

“I blew into its beak and worked it up and down. Then it started breathing again. Its eyes opened. Butthe rest of its body still didn’t move. I put it on the hood of my truck, which was warm. Then I left thebird to go check my tar buggy. But when I got back, the bird was gone. It had flown away. So that wasone thing good.”

During the afternoon, Sherman circles back to the story of the bird, alternating between it and thestory of the tar buggy. “I knew what I did was wrong,” he repeats. “Toxins are a killer. And I’m very sorryI did it. My mama would not have wanted me to do it. I never told anybody this before, but I knew hownot to get caught.” It was as if Sherman had performed the company’s crime and assumed13 thecompany’s guilt as his own.

[15]

10. a small wagon11. Asbestos is a mineral known to cause cancer with too much exposure.12. to turn into a solid from a liquid or gas

3

But, like the bird, Sherman himself became a victim. He grew ill from his exposure to the chemicals.After his hydrocarbon burn, “My feet felt like clubs, and I couldn’t bend my legs and rise up, so thecompany doctor ordered me put on medical leave. I kept visiting the company doctor to see if I wasready to come back, but he kept saying I shouldn’t come back until I could do a deep knee bend.”Sherman took a medical leave of eight months and then returned to work. But not for long.

In 1980, after 15 years of working at PPG, Sherman was summoned and found himself facing a seven-member termination committee.14 “They didn’t want to pay my medical disability,” he explains. “So theyfired me for absenteeism. They said I hadn’t worked enough hours! They didn’t count my overtime.They didn’t discount time I took off for my Army Reserve duty. So that’s what I got fired for —absenteeism. They handed me my pink slip. Two security guards escorted me to the parking lot.”Sherman slaps the table as if, decades later, he has just got fired again.

Seven years later, Sherman would meet a member of that termination committee once again. Therehad been an enormous fish kill in Bayou d’Inde, downstream from the spot where Sherman haddumped the toxic waste and rescued the overcome bird. A Calcasieu Advisory Task Force met todiscuss the surrounding waterways, to describe them as “impaired”,15 and to consider issuing aseafood advisory,16 warning people to limit their consumption of local fish.

Local waterways had long been contaminated from many sources. But in 1987, the state finally issueda seafood advisory for Bayou d’Inde, the Calcasieu Ship Channel, and the estuary to the Gulf ofMexico.17 The warning was shocking, the first in memory, and it called for limits “due to low levels ofchemical contamination”. No more than two meals with locally caught fish a month, it said. Noswimming, water sports, or contact with bottom sediments. It was a very belated attempt by the stateof Louisiana to warn the public of toxins in its waters.

Instantly fishermen became alarmed. Would they be able to sell their fish? Would residents limit whatthey ate? Were people now being asked to look at fish, not with relish for a scrumptious gumbo,jambalaya,18 or all-you-can-eat fish fry, but as dubious carriers of toxic chemicals? The carefullycultivated notion of harmony between oil and fishing — all this was thrown into question, and not justin Louisiana. One-third of all seafood consumed across the US came from the Gulf of Mexico, and two-thirds of that from Louisiana itself.

Many livelihoods19 were at stake

By 1987, several things had transpired that would affect the fishermen’s response to the edict. For onething, PPG was not alone. Other industries had been polluting so much that Louisiana had become theworst hazardous waste producer in the nation. For another thing, the US Congress had established theEnvironmental Protection Agency (1970), the Clean Air Act (1970), and the Clean Water Act (1972). Inaddition, many small grassroots environmental groups had sprung up throughout the state, led byhomemakers, teachers, farmers, and others who were appalled20 to discover toxic waste beingdumped in their backyard, illness, and disease.

[20]

[25]

13. Assume (verb): to accept14. a group of people in charge of firing employees15. Impaired (adjective): damaged16. an announcement warning the public of something hazardous17. bodies of water near PPG’s factory in Louisiana18. Gumbo and jambalaya are popular seafood dishes in Louisiana culture.19. Livelihood (noun): the way in which one earns money to sustain life20. Appalled (adjective): horrified

4

Excerpt from Strangers in their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right. Copyright © 2016 by Arlie Russell Hochschild.Reprinted by permission of The New Press. www.thenewpress.com. The text has been modified with permission.

In the meantime, the Louisiana Department of Health and Human Services posted warning signs aboutfishing and swimming, which were promptly riddled with bullets or stolen. Burton Coliseum, the largestpublic meeting place in Lake Charles at the time, was filled “with about a thousand angry fishermenand others in the fish industry.” Sherman continues, “When the meeting was called to order, it wasstanding room only. I could hear murmuring in the crowd. Oh, they were ready to kill the government.”

A row of company officials, including two from PPG, company lawyers, and state officials, all sat behinda table on a stage in front of the crowd. A state official stood to explain the reason for the seafoodadvisory: the fish had been contaminated. Citizens had to be informed. What had caused it? Theofficials from PPG seated on the stage feigned21 ignorance.

The meeting went on for 20 or 30 minutes, with catcalls to the government officials rising from thecrowd.

Then, to everyone’s astonishment, uninvited, Lee Sherman — long since fired by PPG — climbed onstage. With his back to the officials, he faced the angry fishermen, lifted a large cardboard sign, andslowly walked from one side of the stage to the other, so all could read it: “I’M THE ONE WHO DUMPEDIT IN THE BAYOU.”

The entire coliseum went silent.

Officials tried to get Sherman to leave the stage. But a fisherman called out, “We want to hear him.”

“I talked for 36 minutes,” Sherman recalls. “I told them I had followed my boss’s orders. I told them thechemicals had made me sick. I told them I’d been fired for absenteeism.

“The only thing I didn’t tell them was that sitting behind the front table on stage was a member of thePPG termination committee that had fired me. That was the best part — the PPG guys had both handsover the backs of their heads.”

Now the fishermen knew the fish were truly contaminated. Soon after the meeting, they filed a civillawsuit against PPG and won an out-of-court settlement22 that gave a mere $12,000 to each fisherman.

Sherman had worked hard, unpleasant, dangerous jobs. He had loyally followed company orders tocontaminate an estuary.23 He had done his company’s moral dirty work, taken its guilt as his own, andthen been betrayed and discarded, like a form of waste. The most heroic act of Lee Sherman’s life hadbeen to reveal to the world a company’s dirty secret, and to tell a thousand fishermen furious at thegovernment that companies like PPG were to blame.

[30]

[35]

21. Feign (verb): to pretend, to fake22. an agreement that ends a lawsuit, usually involving one party giving something to the other or agreeing to stop

acting in a certain way23. the part of a river where it joins the sea

5


1. Which detail best supports the idea that PPG knew their chemical dumping could havenegative effects on the environment?

A. “The next afternoon, Sherman’s boss asked him to help search for the bodies ofthe dead workers.” (Paragraph 4)

B. “Eventually the general foreman issued badges to the workers to record anyoverexposure to dangerous chemicals, Sherman says, ‘but the foreman madefun of them.’” (Paragraph 10)

C. “he was told to take on another ominous job. It was to be done twice a day,usually after dusk, and always in secret.” (Paragraph 13)

D. “In 1980, after 15 years of working at PPG, Sherman was summoned and foundhimself facing a seven-member termination committee.” (Paragraph 21)

2. Which detail best supports the idea that environmental damage can affect an entirecommunity?

A. “‘While I was dumping the heavy bottoms in the canal, I saw a bird fly into thefumes and fall instantly into the water. It was like he’d been shot.’” (Paragraph17)

B. “A Calcasieu Advisory Task Force met to discuss the surrounding waterways, todescribe them as ‘impaired’, and to consider issuing a seafood advisory, warningpeople to limit their consumption of local fish.” (Paragraph 22)

C. “PPG was not alone. Other industries had been polluting so much that Louisianahad become the worst hazardous waste producer in the nation.” (Paragraph 26)

D. “He had loyally followed company orders to contaminate an estuary. He haddone his company’s moral dirty work, taken its guilt as his own, and then beenbetrayed and discarded, like a form of waste.” (Paragraph 36)

3. What was one effect of Lee Sherman admitting he had dumped the chemicals?A. He was ignored and booed off the stage.B. He was put out of the meeting and arrested.C. The PPG executives sued him for slander and he lost his job.D. The fishermen knew the fish was contaminated and won a lawsuit.

4. What is a central idea of the article?A. As an employee, Lee Sherman suffered many injuries. Now, as an activist, he is

promoting workplace safety and precautions.B. As an employee, Lee Sherman helped pollute the environment. Now, as an

activist, he is spreading the truth of what happened.C. As an employee, Lee Sherman had no idea he was polluting the environment.

Now, as an activist, he is telling his story to explain why he is not guilty.D. As an employee, Lee Sherman decided on his own to dump the chemicals. Now,

as an activist, he is pretending he did not know the chemicals were dangerous.

6

5. What is the theme or big idea about how PPG affected the lives of Lee Sherman and hisLouisiana community?

7


1. Do you think Lee Sherman is “heroic”? Why or why not?

2. If PPG knew that asking Lee Sherman to dump toxic chemicals was going to harm theenvironment and put people in danger, why do you think PPG asked him to do it anyway?

8

Name: Class:

"Untitled" by Skitterphoto is licensed under CC0

He-y, Come on Ou-t!By Shinichi Hoshi (translated by Stanleigh Jones)

1978

Shinichi Hoshi, one of the pioneers of Japanese science fiction, is best known for writing more than 1000“short-short” stories like this one. In “He-y, Come on Ou-t!”, the residents of a village discover a mysterioushole. Skill Focus: In this lesson, you’ll practice analyzing theme. This means paying attention to topics or bigideas that come up in a text and the commentary the story makes on those big ideas. As you read, take noteof how the characters view and use the mysterious hole and what this reveals about the relationshipbetween people and nature.

The typhoon1 had passed and the sky was agorgeous blue. Even a certain village not far fromthe city had suffered damage. A little distancefrom the village and near the mountains, a smallshrine2 had been swept away by a landslide.

“I wonder how long that shrine’s been here.”

“Well, in any case, it must have been here sincean awfully long time ago.”

“We’ve got to rebuild it right away.”

While the villagers exchanged views, several more of their number came over.

“It sure was wrecked.”

“I think it used to be right here.”

“No, looks like it was a little more over there.”

Just then one of them raised his voice. “Hey what in the world is this hole?” Where they had allgathered there was a hole about a meter in diameter. They peered in, but it was so dark nothing couldbe seen. However, it gave one the feeling that it was so deep it went clear through to the center of theearth.

There was even one person who said, “I wonder if it’s a fox’s hole.”

“He—y, come on ou—t!” shouted a young man into the hole. There was no echo from the bottom. Nexthe picked up a pebble and was about to throw it in.

[1]

[5]

[10]

1. a tropical cyclone; another name for hurricane that occurs in the Indian or western Pacific Oceans2. Shrine (noun): a place or building that is considered holy; a church or chapel

1

https://pixabay.com/photos/cave-hole-landscape-blue-sky-sunny-555727/

“You might bring down a curse on us. Lay off,” warned an old man, but the younger one energeticallythrew the pebble in. As before, however, there was no answering response from the bottom. Thevillagers cut down some trees, tied them with rope and made a fence which they put around the hole.Then they repaired to the village.

“What do you suppose we ought to do?”

“Shouldn’t we build the shrine up just as it was over the hole?”

A day passed with no agreement. The news traveled fast, and a car from the newspaper companyrushed over. In no time a scientist came out, and with an all-knowing expression on his face he wentover to the hole. Next, a bunch of gawking curiosity seekers showed up; one could also pick out hereand there men of shifty glances who appeared to be concessionaires.3 Concerned that someone mightfall into the hole, a policeman from the local substation kept a careful watch.

One newspaper reporter tied a weight to the end of a long cord and lowered it into the hole. A longway down it went. The cord ran out, however, and he tried to pull it out, but it would not come back up.Two or three people helped out, but when they all pulled too hard, the cord parted at the edge of thehole.

Another reporter, a camera in hand, who had been watching all of this, quietly untied a stout rope thathad been wound around his waist.

The scientist contacted people at his laboratory and had them bring out a high-powered bull horn, withwhich he was going to check out the echo from the hole’s bottom. He tried switching through varioussounds, but there was no echo. The scientist was puzzled, but he could not very well give up witheveryone watching him so intently. He put the bull horn right up to the hole, turned it to its highestvolume, and let it sound continuously for a long time. It was a noise that would have carried severaldozen kilometers above ground. But the hole just calmly swallowed up the sound.

In his own mind the scientist was at a loss, but with a look of apparent composure he cut off the soundand, in a manner suggesting that the whole thing had a perfectly plausible explanation, said simply,“Fill it in.”

Safer to get rid of something one didn’t understand.

The onlookers, disappointed that this was all that was going to happen, prepared to disperse.4 Justthen one of the concessionaires, having broken through the throng and come forward, made aproposal.

“Let me have that hole. I’ll fill it in for you.”

“We’d be grateful to you for filling it in,” replied the mayor of the village, “but we can’t very well give youthe hole. We have to build a shrine there.”

“If it’s a shrine you want, I’ll build you a fine one later. Shall I make it with an attached meeting hall?”

[15]

[20]

3. a business person; a person who manages an area of land and the businesses that operate there4. Disperse (verb): to leave; to go in different directions

2

Before the mayor could answer, the people of the village all shouted out.

“Really? Well, in that case, we ought to have it closer to the village.”

“It’s just an old hole. We’ll give it to you!”

So it was settled. And the mayor, of course, had no objection.

The concessionaire was true to his promise. It was small, but closer to the village he did build for thema shrine with an attached meeting hall.

About the time the autumn festival was held at the new shrine, the hole-filling company established bythe concessionaire hung out its small shingle5 at a shack near the hole.

The concessionaire had his cohorts mount a loud campaign in the city. “We’ve got a fabulously deephole!

“Scientists say it’s at least five thousand meters deep! Perfect for the disposal of such things as wastefrom nuclear reactors.”

Government authorities granted permission. Nuclear power plants fought for contracts. The people ofthe village were a bit worried about this, but they consented6 when it was explained that there wouldbe absolutely no above-ground contamination for several thousand years and that they would sharein the profits. Into the bargain, very shortly a magnificent road was built from the city to the village.

Trucks rolled in over the road, transporting lead boxes. Above the hole the lids were opened, and thewastes from nuclear reactors tumbled away into the hole.

From the Foreign Ministry and the Defense Agency boxes of unnecessary classified documents werebrought for disposal. Officials who came to supervise the disposal held discussions on golf. The lesserfunctionaries,7 as they threw in the papers, chatted about pinball.

The hole showed no signs of filling up. It was awfully deep, thought some; or else it might be veryspacious at the bottom. Little by little the hole-filling company expanded its business.

Bodies of animals used in contagious disease experiments at the universities were brought out, and tothese were added the unclaimed corpses of vagrants.8 Better than dumping all of its garbage in theocean, went the thinking in the city, and plans were made for a long pipe to carry it to the hole.

The hole gave peace of mind to the dwellers of the city. They concentrated solely on producing onething after another. Everyone disliked thinking about the eventual consequences. People wanted onlyto work for production companies and sales corporations; they had no interest in becoming junkdealers. But, it was thought, these problems too would gradually be resolved by the hole.

[25]

[30]

[35]

5. to “hang out one’s shingle” means to open a small independent business6. Consent (verb): to agree to something7. a public official8. Vagrant (noun): a person who is homeless or who wanders from place to place

3

“He-y, Come on Ou-t!” by Shinichi Hoshi, translated by Stanleigh Jones. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

Young girls whose betrothals9 had been arranged discarded old diaries in the hole. There were alsothose who were inaugurating new love affairs and threw into the hole old photographs of themselvestaken with former sweethearts. The police felt comforted as they used the hole to get rid ofaccumulations of expertly done counterfeit10 bills. Criminals breathed easier after throwing materialevidence into the hole.

Whatever one wished to discard, the hole accepted it all. The hole cleansed the city of its filth; the seaand sky seemed to have become a bit clearer than before.

Aiming at the heavens, new buildings went on being constructed one after the other.

One day, atop the high steel frame of a new building under construction, a workman was taking abreak. Above his head he heard a voice shout:

“He-y, come on ou-t!”

But, in the sky to which he lifted his gaze there was nothing at all. A clear blue sky merely spread overall. He thought it must be his imagination. Then, as he resumed his former position, from the directionwhere the voice had come, a small pebble skimmed by him and fell on past.

The man, however, was gazing in idle reverie11 at the city’s skyline growing ever more beautiful, and hefailed to notice.

[40]

[45]

9. Betrothal (noun): engagement to be married10. Counterfeit (adjective): fake or imitation11. a saying that means to look lazily at something without thinking deeply

4


1. Which of the following best conveys a theme of the short story?A. When people focus too much on the natural environment, their personal

relationships suffer.B. When people spend time reflecting on their past mistakes, they cannot create a

better future.C. When people mistreat the environment for selfish gain, they suffer negative

consequences.D. When people become consumed by curiosity, they are unable to see the

damage they do to others.

2. How do the events in paragraphs 16-17 contribute to the development of the theme?A. They imply that there is the likelihood for more success if people work together

to solve a problem.B. They imply that there is potential for dangerous consequences if people are

reckless with nature.C. They imply that people are uninterested in learning about mysteries in the

world.D. They imply that people are wise and cautious when exploring the unknown.

3. How do paragraphs 18-20 contribute to the development of the theme?A. They illustrate that the people do not know what will result from their actions.B. They demonstrate how dangerous the hole is to human life and why it must be

filled.C. They give an example of how changes in the environment can positively affect

human beings.D. They show how people that live in close contact with nature are better able to

understand natural changes.

4. What does paragraph 38 suggest about the city dwellers’ motivations for using the hole?A. They like that the hole lets them keep a tally of all their purchases.B. They like that the hole provides them the opportunity to get rid of harmful

distractions.C. They like that the hole allows them to ignore their constant and wasteful

consumer habits.D. They like that the hole helps them contribute to making their world cleaner and

safer for future generations.

5

5. Which piece of evidence best illustrates the impact of the villagers’ actions?A. “‘You might bring down a curse on us. Lay off,’ warned an old man, but the

younger one energetically threw the pebble in.” (Paragraph 12)B. “Better than dumping all of its garbage in the ocean, went the thinking in the

city, and plans were made for a long pipe to carry it to the hole.” (Paragraph 37)C. “The police felt comforted as they used the hole to get rid of accumulations of

expertly done counterfeit bills.” (Paragraph 39)D. “He thought it must be his imagination. Then, as he resumed his former

position, from the direction where the voice had come, a small pebble skimmedby him and fell on past.” (Paragraph 44)

6. What do paragraphs 41-45 suggest about the villagers’ future?A. They suggest that the villagers are now able to see the beauty of the nature that

surrounds them.B. They suggest that the villagers will begin to face the consequences of their

actions.C. They suggest that the villagers will begin to make changes to help the

environment.D. They suggest that the villagers are aware of the damage caused by their actions.

7. Identify the theme of “H-ey, Come on O-ut!” and explain how it develops over the course ofthe story. Use at least three pieces of evidence from the text to support your response.

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1. In paragraphs 18-20, the scientist is afraid to admit that he does not understand themysterious hole. The narrator observes that it is “safer to get rid of something one didn’tunderstand.” What comment could this section be making about today’s society? Do youagree that we should get rid of what we do not understand? What do you think are theconsequences of this choice?

2. What do the people seem most concerned about in paragraphs 37-40? How do you see thisreflected in our society today?

3. “He-y, Come on Ou-t!” is an allegory, which means the events that take place are symbolic.Why do you think the author chose to write the story as an allegory? How does this choiceimpact the way readers interact with a story and its message?

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Name: Class:

"Untitled" by Luke Moss is licensed under CC0

Quiet TownBy Jason Gurley

2015

Fantasy and science fiction writer Jason Gurley is known for his novels set in the Silo universe, as well as thefantasy novel Eleanor. In this story, Gurley imagines life in an American coastal town in the very nearfuture. Skill Focus: In this lesson, you’ll practice analyzing the theme. This means paying attention to topicsor big ideas that come up in a text and the commentary the story makes on those big ideas. As you read,take note of how the characters react to nature and what this reveals about the relationship betweenpeople and nature.

She was in the laundry room, bent over a basketof Benjamin’s muddy trousers and grass-stainedT-shirts and particularly odorous socks, when arap sounded on the screen door. She didn’t hearat first; she’d noticed, bent over there, a cluster ofwebbed, purplish veins just below her thigh,beside her knee. She didn’t like seeing themthere. They were like a slow-moving car wreck,those veins, a little darker, a little more severeeach time she looked. They bothered her.

The front porch creaked, and the screen doorrattled on its hinges as the knock came again.

Bev eased up to standing, still clutching a mound of laundry against her middle. She pinned the clotheswith one hand, and with the other, looped the hair out of her eyes.

“Yeah?” she called over her shoulder.

“Me,” the answer came.

Bev took in a long breath, let it fill up her lungs and raise her voice to a tone one might reasonablymistake for pleasant.

“Come on in, Ezze,” she hollered. “Coffee cake on the table, you want some.”

The screen door complained a bit, and not for the first time Bev made a mental note to oil the d***thing. But she knew she’d forget between now and the next time Ezze hobbled over. The door bangedshut, followed by the scuff of the dining chair being pulled out, the expulsion of breath as Ezzedropped, too heavily, onto it. The chair wouldn’t take such abuse forever. Bev sometimes wished itwould give out, and then felt guilty for thinking such things. Beneath her gravel and bluster, Ezze wasjust lonely.

[1]

[5]

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https://unsplash.com/photos/MwyGoZ7Wg0I

Bev stuffed the clothes into the wash and spun the old machine up. It rocked agreeably, knocking witha small clatter into the dryer beside it. Bev leaned against the wall, just for a second, just to take a fewbreaths before going in to the kitchen. The back door was open, its own screen door shut. Gray lightspilled through the window, leaked through the uneven gaps in the doorjamb. She could see the pale,lumbering clouds that scraped the tops of the houses around hers. Most of those houses were emptynow.

Just me and Benji, Bev thought.

From the kitchen, a smacking sound, the clink of a serving knife against the platter.

Just me and Benji and Ezze, Bev corrected.

She didn’t like the wind out there today. The Aparicios had left laundry on the line when they movedout — in a hurry, like everybody these past few weeks — and almost all of it was scattered around theneighborhood now, T-shirts and pantyhose and thermal underwear caught up in bare tree branches,soaked and plastered in gutters. Almost all of it, except for the heavy quilt, heavier now from all therain, that dragged the laundry line low. The wind caught even that, lifted it nearly horizontal, a cheerful,soggy flag.

“A bit dry, dear,” came Ezze’s voice.

Bev turned away from the screen door. Cold air breathed around it, pushing through the gaps, and Bevshivered. But she left the inner door open for Benjamin, and went into the kitchen.

“How’s the hip?” Bev asked, ignoring Ezze’s comment.

Ezze groaned theatrically. “I’d give anything for a new one,” she said. “But who’s got money for that?”

Her gray cane rested against the table beside her, tipped up on two of its four stubby feet. The rubbernubs on the end of each were damp and clumped with gray earth and grit. Bev sighed and picked upthe cane and carried it onto the porch. Ezze didn’t say anything. Bev cranked the spigot1 attached tothe house. It choked and sputtered, coughing up a weak stream. Bev rinsed the cane, then propped itagainst the house, and went back inside.

Ezze regarded her irritably as Bev spritzed a paper towel with Windex, then wiped up the mud the canehad left behind.

“That’s for windows, dear,” Ezze said, watching Bev from beneath her glasses.

Bev didn’t say anything, just balled up the towel and dropped it into the wastebasket. The plastic lidswung twice, stopped.

“That’s why it’s called Windex,” Ezze went on. “Windows. Windex.” She wrinkled her slug of a nose andsquinted up at the ceiling thoughtfully. “Don’t know where the ex part came from, though.”

[10]

[15]

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1. Spigot (noun): a faucet

2

Bev went into the kitchen, her hands searching for tasks. Perhaps if she appeared to be busy, Ezzewould leave. But the countertops were tidy, the sink free of dishes.

“Your linoleum’s2 soft,” Ezze said. Bev looked up to see the woman bouncing lightly in the chair. Belowher, the linoleum bowed. “It’s cheap stuff. I’ve got the same in my place.”

“Well, stop making it worse,” Bev said.

Ezze laughed as if this was funny. “You should see mine,” she said. “Sagging all over the place.”

I wonder why, Bev thought but did not say.

Ezze took another bite of coffee cake, then made a show of gagging on crumbs. “Water,” she croaked,putting one damp hand to the loose skin around her throat. “Water.”

Bev filled a glass from the tap, then put it down in front of Ezze, who stared at it in horror, her stage actforgotten.

“Dear,” Ezze said. “You’re not drinking it, are you? There’s a warning. It’s all over the TV.”

“We don’t have a TV,” Bev said flatly. “What warning?”

“Contaminated supply or something. I don’t know.” Ezze waved her hand about. “Real problem is whatI came over to tell you about, though. You’re not going to believe it.”

Bev took the glass of water away from Ezze, crossed back into the kitchen and dumped it aggressivelyinto the sink. Then the fight faded from her, just as quickly as it seemed to have risen up. Ezze didn’tmean any harm, she reminded herself again. She was old; she was alone. It wasn’t her fault, none of it.Can’t fight age. Can’t make people stay.

“What’s that?” Bev asked, brushing her hair back again. “Believe what?”

The back screen door banged open then, and Benji clattered into the kitchen like a runaway shoppingcart. He was out of breath, his pants rolled up to his knees. He held his tennis shoes in one hand, butwhatever he’d gotten into, he’d taken them off too late. They were caked with gray mud, and his legswere splashed with it.

Ezze looked at Benji, who gasped like a fish, trying to get some words out.

“He knows,” Ezze said. “Don’t you, boy.”

Bev looked wide-eyed at Ezze, then back at Benjamin. “Knows what? Benjamin, you’re filth —”

Benjamin shook his head and held up a hand, working on just breathing.

“Oh, fine,” Ezze said. “I’ll tell her.”

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2. Linoleum (noun): a type of floor covering

3

“Tell me what?” Bev asked. “What the h*** is going on?”

Benjamin, cheeks strawberry-colored against his pale skin, said, “Water — water —”

Bev turned to fill her glass again, but Benji lurched forward and grabbed her hand.

“No,” he said, chest heaving. “Water’s — the water —”

“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” Ezze said. “The water’s here, Bev.”

• • • •

What was it Gordy had said?

“When ice melts, the glass don’t spill over.”

Bev had leaned against him in the porch swing, comforted by his disbelief, while he told her about acolumn he read when they were in college, by that brainy woman who answered people’s letters.Someone wrote in and asked the woman if you were to fill a glass with ice cubes, then run tap waterright up to the rim of the glass, what would happen when the ice melted? And the brainy woman saidsomething about melting ice cubes displacing the same amount of water as the frozen ice.

It’s not my fault, Bev thought now. It’s his fault, not mine. His. She wasn’t the fool. It was him. He was.

But that wasn’t fair. Gordy hadn’t taken the news seriously, but at the time, nobody had. They’d beenon the porch, listening to the radio while the neighborhood noisily settled in for the night. Benjaminhad been scrambling around in the front yard, kicking dried-out pinecones around like footballs.

“You remember the oddest things,” Bev had said, and Gordy had laughed. There had been plenty oflaughter in those days. Those days, that’s how Bev thought of them. As in: those days when life wasgood. Those days when there were still people around. When the sun blazed and they called it a nicesummer day, not an ice-melter like everyone did now. Those days. When Gordy was still around.

But Gordy had been wrong. The brainy woman had been wrong. The radio warning all those years ago,when Benji was small, had been wrong. Fifty years, they’d said. In fifty years, the coastlines will bedifferent. Your homes will be underwater. Fifty years.

They’d listened to the talk shows afterward, the pundits arguing that nobody knew what the next tenyears would look like, much less the next fifty. It’s all a farce,3 they argued. It’s a campaign strategy. Aploy.4 Fifty years — ha!

It had happened in five.

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3. Farce (noun): a ridiculous event4. Ploy (noun): a tricky plan

4

Gordy went and died before it got serious, and on summer evenings, when the skies went purple andorange, Bev and Benjamin and sometimes Ezze, even, would wander down to the sea wall5 with therest of the town, and they’d all stand on the wall and look down at the water level. When they couldn’tsee the high-water mark, somebody would motor out in a rubber boat and spray a new line of paint onthe wall.

Soon enough, someone could just lean over the rail and spray that new line. The water kept rising.When it was a few inches from the top of the wall, people started leaving town. In a month’s time, thevillage had emptied.

• • • •

Ezze scooped up her cane and went heavily down the porch steps. Benji tugged on Bev’s hand. He heldit tightly as they walked, following the older woman as she puffed along. Bev barely registered his gripuntil it was too tight, and she yelped.

“Sorry, Mama,” he said.

She saw Gordy in Benji’s eyes. They weren’t a child’s eyes anymore. Benji was nearly thirteen, andalready his eyes were narrow slots. He and Gordy both had a Clint Eastwood squint, and she could seethe boy’s jawline, his cheekbones, sharpening. His hair was already drawing back on his head, though.She didn’t dare break his heart by telling him now, but he’d lose most of it by twenty, probably, just likehis father.

The thought that he might not see twenty was a block of ice in her gut.

“I knowed about it when Pippa came home with a crabshell in her mouth,” Ezze said, huffing as shewaddled ahead. “Came right on home with it. No place else she could’ve gotten it. Had to have washedup over the wall. Fresh, too. She’d pulled half the meat out, but I swear the thing was still twitching.”

The street was gritty under their feet. Bev padded along in her flip-flops, and as Ezze fell silent, Bev’sshoes pock-pocked like tennis balls. There was a sound she hadn’t heard in a long time.

Used to be a court down by the high school, and on quiet days, you could hear the distant sound ofrackets pocking the balls, back and forth, back and forth. The sharp shriek of tennis shoes on the clay,too. People grunting and shouting excitedly.

Quiet town.

“I saw your Rascal,” Benji said. “I tried to fix it, but...”

He trailed off.

“Your Rascal?” Bev asked.

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5. a thick wall that blocks the ocean from coming onto land

5

“Quiet Town” by Jason Gurley. Jason Gurley is the author of Eleanor and Awake in the World. “Quiet Town” first appeared in LightspeedMagazine, and in the anthology Loosed Upon the World. Used with permission, all rights reserved.

Ezze stopped for a moment, breathing heavily. “Yeah,” she admitted, bending over a bit, leaning on thecane. “I rode down there on it with Pippa to see for myself. Battery died right up at the wall. There weresome boys putting down sandbags, and they tried to help me with it, but it’s just dead. One of themwalked me back home. Nice kid. I don’t know whose kid. Not many left, you know.”

Benji said, “It’s still where you left it. There’s some seagull s*** on it, but —”

“Benjamin Howard Marsh,” Bev said sharply.

Benji sighed and muttered, “Yeah, okay. Sorry.”

“Never mind that,” Ezze said loudly. She pounded the rubber feet of her cane on the concrete. “Look.”

They all looked down to see a thin ribbon of water. It cascaded between their feet, and they all watchedin a hush as it passed them by, gathering up bits of leaves and fine gravel. The water kept going,making its way down the street until they couldn’t quite make out its leading edge. It was here now,Bev thought.

“Oh, Jesus,” Ezze cried. She high-stepped around her cane as another rivulet ran through the yellowedgrass on the shoulder of the road. And in the quiet then they could hear it: the water, its thousandnarrow fingers, creeping through the dead lawns and over the bleached asphalt. They could see it,stream after stream of it moving across empty driveways, splitting around the stop sign post, and thenthe thousand fingers of it bled together until the water was a blue-gray sheet, rippling along beneaththe darkening sky, claiming the land for its own.

“Mama,” Benji said.

The water spilled around their feet, thin but here.

“Mama,” he said again, tugging Bev’s hand. She looked up at him, then at Ezze, whose stern featureshad folded into a new shape, a softer, more honest mask, a fearful one.

“Mama, we gotta go,” Benjamin said.

Such a fool, Bev thought to herself again. What would Gordy have done? But it didn’t matter what hewould do now. It mattered what he had done then, and what he had done then was laugh, then die.

We should’ve had a TV, she thought absurdly.

She looked at Ezze. The fading sun caught the faint whiskers on Ezze’s cheeks, turning them into tinyglowing filaments. Benji stared at her, his narrow eyes still fierce with hope and promise, his skin rosywhere it faced the sunset, and dusky purple on the opposite side, in shadow, as if he was already dead,and there was no way around it.

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1. When Bev offers Ezze a glass of tap water, how does this contribute to the theme?(Paragraphs 28-33)

A. It shows that what is happening in the outside world has little effect on people.B. It demonstrates how ignoring changes in the environment could hurt one’s

health.C. It illustrates the strong relationships that develop between neighbors in difficult

times.D. It introduces the way in which the government has failed to keep the

townspeople safe.

2. Which detail best supports the idea that Bev had time to take action to save herself andBenji?

A. “Most of those houses were empty now. Just me and Benji, Bev thought.”(Paragraphs 9-10)

B. “He held his tennis shoes in one hand, but whatever he’d gotten into, he’d takenthem off too late. They were caked with gray mud” (Paragraph 35)

C. “The radio warning all those years ago, when Benji was small, had been wrong.Fifty years, they’d said.” (Paragraph 52)

D. “And in the quiet then they could hear it: the water, its thousand narrow fingers,creeping through the dead lawns and over the bleached asphalt.” (Paragraph 74)

3. How does Bev’s conversation with Gordy contribute to the understanding of the theme?(Paragraphs 46-51)

A. It explains how they had ignored and laughed at the warnings.B. It explains how the school became flooded causing the students to leave.C. It explains how cooler temperatures caused the sea level to drop and freeze.D. It explains how there were no options left and the warnings don’t matter.

4. Initially, what was people’s attitude toward the warning about the sea levels rising?A. Most of the people immediately packed and left the town.B. Most of the people ignored the warning and never left the town.C. Most of the people laughed and joked instead of taking the warning seriously.D. Most of the people took the message seriously and invited scientists to come

and speak.

5. How has Bev’s attitude toward the rising sea levels changed?A. She now realizes it was a mistake to ignore the warnings and stay behind.B. She now realizes that she really misses Gordy and wishes he hadn’t moved

away.C. She now realizes that Ezze is not a good friend and she needs to find new

friends.D. She now realizes that there is nothing she could have done to keep her and

Benji safe.

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6. Identify a theme of “Quiet Town” and explain how it develops over the course of the story.Use at least three pieces of evidence from the text to support your response.

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1. Why do you think the author called this text “Quiet Town”? Knowing what you know now, doyou think you would have left when given the warning or do you think you would havestayed behind? What do you think contributed to Bev, Ezze, and Benji staying behind?

2. Do you think Bev would have taken the warnings seriously if Gordy had? Would she haveleft if Gordy had? Cite details from the text to support your answer of why she would haveor would not have left.

3. Based on the interaction between Bev and Ezze, do you think they are friends out ofcommon interests or friends of necessity? What details from the text support your answerthat they are friends of common interests or friends of necessity?

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Name: Class:

"Untitled" by Free-Photos is licensed under CC0

Song for the Turtles in the GulfBy Linda Hogan

2014

Linda Hogan is a world-renowned poet and finalist for the International Impact Award. Her writing is bestknown for its focus on environmental and indigenous people’s activism. Skill Focus: In this lesson, you’llpractice analyzing how an author’s word choice affects the meaning of a poem. This means paying attentionto descriptive words and phrases. As you read, take note of how the speaker describes the turtle and themessage it reveals.

We had been together so very long,you willing to swim with mejust last month, myself merely smallin the ocean of splendor1 and light,the reflections and distortions of us,and now when I see the man from British

Petroleum2

lift you up dead from the plasticbin of death,he with a smile, you burnedand covered with red-black oil, torchedand pained, all I can think is that I loved your life,the very air you exhaled when you rose,old great mother, the beautiful swimmer,the mosaic3 growth of shellso detailed, no part of yousimple, meaningless,or able to be createdby any human,only destroyed.How can they learnthe secret importanceof your beaten heart,the eyes of another intelligencethan ours, maybe greater,with claws, flippers, plastron.4

Forgive us for being thrown off true,for our trespasses,5

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1. Splendor (noun): grand or beautiful appearance2. BP (formerly British Petroleum) is the oil company that was responsible for the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico,

resulting in months of cleanup and loss of marine life. It is the largest known oil spill in U.S. waters caused by oceandrilling.

3. Mosaic (noun): a pattern or design made up of many smaller pieces4. the hard, protective shell that covers a turtle’s chest and stomach5. “Forgive us our trespasses” is a reference to the Christian prayer called the “Our Father,” which asks God for the

forgiveness of sins.

1

https://pixabay.com/photos/turtle-tortoise-swim-sea-turtle-863336/

Copyright © 2014 by Linda Hogan. From Dark. Sweet.: New and Selected Poems (Coffee House Press, 2014). Reprinted from Split This Rock’sThe Quarry: A Social Justice Poetry Database.

in the eddies6 of the waterwhere we first walked.

6. circular movements of water that cause small whirlpools

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1. Which statement best summarizes this poem?A. The speaker describes how humans have killed a beautiful turtle.B. The speaker describes the cause of the 2010 British Petroleum oil spill.C. The speaker describes their first experience with a sea turtle in the wild.D. The speaker describes how turtles are persevering despite human destruction.

2. In line 9, what does the speaker’s use of “smile” suggest about humans?A. Humans can see the beauty of nature even when it’s damaged.B. Humans are indifferent to the destruction they cause.C. Humans are proud of their contribution to nature.D. Humans believe nature can overcome its troubles.

3. In line 13, what impact does the phrase “old great mother” have on the poem’s meaning?A. It emphasizes the fact that nature will soon die out.B. It emphasizes the respect humans should have for nature.C. It emphasizes the reason why humans choose to disrespect nature.D. It emphasizes the fact that nature is creating a problem for humans.

4. What do lines 26-29 reveal about humans?A. They have forgotten how to show they feel guilty for their actions.B. They have forgotten their connection to and responsibility for nature.C. They have forgotten how their actions have harmed turtles and other wildlife.D. They have forgotten that they are in control of making decisions about nature.

5. What theme does this poem express about humans and nature?

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1. Where is your favorite place to experience nature? Why? What can you do to help protectwhat you love in the natural world?

2. How did swimming and interacting with the sea turtles shape the speaker’s perspective?Based on this, what is a possible solution to the ocean pollution problem? Do you think thatsolution is reasonable? Why?

3. When the speaker says that sea turtles are not “simple, meaningless, / or able to be created/ by any human, / only destroyed” in lines 16-19, what are they saying about humanity?What does this suggest about what people value? Do you agree? Why?

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vocabulary for grade 9 set a: children and parents · 2020. 6. 24. · fill in the blanks using the...

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