Reading Process

Transcription

Reading Process

6th Grade Reading Ohio Achievement Test
Reading Process: Concepts of Print, Comprehension Strategies and Self-Monitoring Strategies Standard
SELECTION 1: Jump to It!
1 Americans have been frog-wild for jumping contests ever since Mark Twain’s
famous story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” was published
in the late 1800s.
2 One of the biggest contests is held in Calaveras County, California, the
setting of Twain’s original story. “We’ll jump frogs about 4,000 times, about a
thousand a day,” says Laurie Giannini, an organizer of the Calaveras County event.
3 Contestants come from all over the country to test their frogs in the home of
frog jumping, partly for the honor, but the prizes draw them, too. Beating the world
three-hop record of 21 feet, 5 3/4 inches will earn some lucky frog jockey $5,000.
Equaling the record will earn $1,000, and each year’s winner gets $750.
4 That’s big money for some people; how do you get your frog to do its best?
Frogs don’t understand about money, and they’re not very coachable. “You can’t
train a frog,” said Giannini. “A frog is going to do what it wants to.”
Jump, Frog, Jump!
5 Getting a frog airborne is a very individual thing. “Everybody has their own
method,” says Marsha Karley, with the Fair Oaks Fiesta Frog Jump in Fair Oaks,
California. “Some of them stamp behind them; some of them spray water on them
just before they jump.” In Kernville, California, where they hold a frog jump in
February as part of the Flats Days celebration, cold weather can sometimes play a
role. “The frogs, they don’t want to jump. Contestants get warm water and put it in
squirt guns and sort of encourage them,” says Ann Clements.
6 But according to Calaveras frog catcher Rod Dwelley, it’s the call of the wild
that really sets a frog to hopping. “You want to have a really good jumping frog, it
needs to come right out of the wild,” says Dwelley. “Frogs we rent to people are
getting used to people. They tend not to jump as far.”
Rental Frogs?
7 It turns out that some of the jumping frogs you see at these contests are pros,
shipped in special for the event. Ann Clements concedes that the Flats Days
Celebration looks elsewhere for their jumping stock. “Actually, we get our frogs from
Tennessee,” she says.
8 Rayne, Louisiana, billed by residents as the Frog Capital of the World, also
gets a lot of their frogs from the frog market, though they are raised locally. “We
rent frogs,” says Paul Kedinger, with the Rayne Frog Festival in Rayne, Louisiana, “but
we do have some people who go out and catch their own.”
1
SELECTION 2: Frogs Help This Family Stay Together
Sam Richards
9 Gabby is learning the finer points of coaxing the frogs to jump by pounding
the ground behind them. It takes open hands, palms to the ground, repeated as
needed to make the frog jump—straight ahead, ideally.
10 Lisa Fasano said that, even last year, baby Gabby was really getting the
hang of it in practice. But she wilted under the glare of the spotlight at last year’s
contest in Angels Camp.
11 “She was star-struck, and she just sat there looking at everyone,” said Lisa, 32.
It’s hoped a more mature Gabby will fare better this year.
12 There are hundreds of children among the 2,300-or-so contestants each year,
said Buck King, manager of the Calaveras County Fair and former longtime
manager of the Jumping Frog Jubilee.
13 In 20 years of jumping jubilees, King said he’s seen it all: giant African
bullfrogs, toads “as big as wash tubs” that couldn’t jump, a three-legged overall
champion in 1996, even a “circus side show” one year featuring frogs dressed as
circus performers.
14 “Lots of people sign their toddlers in there to make the frogs jump,” King said.
“If they win, it’s something else.”
15 A champion setting a world record wins $5,000; a non-record winner walks
away with $1,500.
16 Frogs aren’t really trainable, and the Fasanos and other competitors must
discover raw talent in ponds, canals and swamps. The Fasanos make several trips a
year to their favorite bullfrog breeding ground, canals “somewhere in the San
Joaquin Valley,” to catch their jumpers. Frank won’t name exact locations: “It’s
very competitive out there, and it’s kind of a family secret.”
17 Between now and May, Frank, Lisa and their relatives will catch at least 150
frogs for auditions.
18 They won’t get names, and almost all eventually get released near where
they’re caught.
19 What started in 1959, when Frank’s father Gene Fasano and Frank’s uncle,
Frank Borrelli, went from their native Gustine to their first Jumping Frog Jubilee has
become a true family affair since then, Frank Fasano said. Gene has missed only
one Calaveras jubilee since then, for his wedding.
20 The frog catching, usually at night with floodlights and nets, is as much
2
bonding experience as the contest itself, Frank Fasano said. And if it wasn’t frogs
that kept the Fasanos close, he said, it would probably be something else.
21 “It’s all about the family getting together, and we’ve got an activity we can
call our own,” he said.
Question 23
Benchmark A
March 2006
3
Question 1
Benchmark A
May 2007
1
On the first day of my first term I set
out by taxi in the afternoon with my mother
to catch the paddle-streamer from Cardiff
Docks to Weston-super-Mare. Every piece
of clothing I wore was brand new and had
my name on it. I wore black shoes, grey
woolen stockings with blue turnovers, grey flannel shorts, a grey shirt, a read
tie, a grey flannel blazer with the blue school crest on the breast pocket and a
grey school cap with the same crest just above the peak. Into the taxi that
was taking us to the docks when my brand new trunk and my brand new
tuck-box, and both had R. DAHL painted on them in black.
2
A tuck-box is a small pinewood trunk which is very strongly made,
and no boy has ever gone as a boarder to an English Prep School without
one. It is his own secret storehouse, as secret as a lady’s handbag, and there
is an unwritten law that no other boy, no teacher, not even the Headmaster
himself has the right to pry into the contents of your tuck-box. The owner
has the key in his pocket and that is where it stays. At St. Peter’s, the tuckboxes were ranges shoulder to shoulder all around the four walls of the
changing-room and your own tuck-box stood directly below the peg on
which you hung your games clothes. A tuck-box, as the name implies, is a
box in which you store your tuck. At Prep School in those days, a parcel of
tuck was sent once a week by anxious mothers to their ravenous little sons,
and an average tuck-box would probably contain, at almost any time, half a
home-made currant cake, a packet of squashed-fly biscuits, a couple of
oranges, an apple, a banana, a pot of strawberry jam or Marmite, a bar of
chocolate, a bag of Liquorice Allsorts and a tine of Bassett’s lemonade
4
powder. An English school in those days was purely a money-making
business owned and operated by the Headmaster. It suited him, therefore, to
give the boys as little food as possible himself and to encourage the parents
in various cunning ways to feed their offspring by parcel-post from home.
3
“By all means, my dear Mrs. Dahl, do send your boy some little treats
now and again,” he would say. “Perhaps a few oranges and apples once a
week” – fruit was very expensive – “and a nice currant cake, a large currant
cake perhaps because small boys have large appetites do they not, ha-ha-ha .
. . Yes, yes, as often as you like. More than once a week if you wish . . . Of
course he’ll be getting plenty of good food here, the best there is, but it never
tastes quite the same as home cooking, does it? I’m sure you wouldn’t want
him to be the only one who doesn’t get a lovely parcel from home every
week.”
4
As well as tuck, a tuck-box would also contain all manner of treasures
such as a magnet, a pocket-knife, a compass, a ball of string, a clockwork
racing-car, half-a-dozen lead soldiers, a box of conjuring-tricks, some tiddlywinks, a Mexican jumping bean, a catapult, some foreign stamps, a couple
of stink-bombs, and I remember one boy called Arkle who drilled an airhole
in the lid of his tuck-box and kept a pet frog in there which he fed on slugs.
5
Question 7
Benchmark B
Spring 2010
6
7
Question 23
Benchmark B
March 2008
Bud, Not Buddy
Christopher Paul Curtis
This selection is from a novel about a boy named Bud. Miss Hill is his favorite librarian.
1 I pushed the heavy door open and walked into the library. The air in the library isn’t
like the air anywhere else, first it’s always cooler than the air outside, it feels like you’re
walking into a cellar on a hot July day, even if you have to walk up a bunch of stairs to
get into it.
2 The next thing about the air in the library is that no other place smells anything like it. If
you close your eyes and try to pick out what it is that you’re sniffing you’re only going
to get confused, because all the smells have blended together and turned themselves into a
different one.
3 As soon as I got into the library I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I got a whiff
of the leather on all the old books, a smell that got real strong if you picked one of them
up and stuck your nose real close to it when you turned the pages. Then there was the
smell of the cloth that covered the brand-new books, the books that made a splitting
sound when you opened them. Then I could sniff the paper, that soft, powdery, drowsy
smell that comes off the pages in little puffs when you’re reading something or looking at
some pictures, a kind of hypnotizing smell.
4 I think it’s that smell that makes so many folks fall asleep in the library. You’ll see
someone turn a page and you can imagine a puff of page powder coming up really slow
and easy until it starts piling on the person’s eyelashes, weighing their eyes down so
much that they stay down a little longer after each blink and finally making them so heavy
that they just don’t come back up at all. Then their mouths come open and their heads
start bouncing up and down like they’re bobbing in a big tub of water for apples and
before you know it, ... woop, zoop, sloop ... they’re out cold and their face thunks down
smack-dab on the book.
5 That’s the part that gets the librarians the maddest, they get real upset if folks start
drooling in the books and, page powder or not, they don’t want to hear no excuses, you
gotta get out. Drooling in the books is even worse than laughing out loud in the library,
and even though it might seem kind of mean, you can’t really blame the librarians for
tossing drooly folks out ’cause there’s nothing worse than opening a book and having the
8
pages all stuck together from somebody’s dried-up slobber.
6 I opened my eyes to start looking for Miss Hill. She wasn’t at the lending desk so I left
my suitcase with the lady there. I knew it would be safe.
7 I walked between the stacks to see if Miss Hill was putting books up. Three doggone
times I walked through the library, upstairs and down, and couldn’t find her.
8 I went back up to the librarian at the lending desk. I waited until she looked up at me.
She smiled and said, “Yes? Would you like to retrieve your suitcase?” She reached under
the desk.
9 I said, “Not yet, ma’am, could I ask you a question?”
10 She said, “Of course, young man, how may I help you?”
11 “I’m looking for Miss Hill.”
12 The librarian looked surprised. “Miss Hill? My goodness, hadn’t you heard?”
13 I answered, “No, ma’am.”
14 The librarian said, “There’s no need for you to look so stricken. It’s not bad news,
young man.”
15 She laughed a quiet, librarian-type laugh and said, “Really, it’s not bad news. Unless
you had matrimonial plans concerning Miss Hill.”
16 I pretended I knew what she was talking about, most times if you listen to how grown
folks ask a question they let you know what it is they want to hear.
17 I said, “No, ma’am, I didn’t plan that at all.”
18 She laughed again and said, “Good, because I don’t think her new husband would
appreciate the competition. Miss Hill is currently living in Chicago, Illinois.”
19 I said, “Husband? You mean she got married, ma’am?”
20 The librarian said, “Oh, yes, and I must tell you, she was radiating happiness.”
21 I said, “And she moved all the way to Chicago?”
22 “That’s right, but Chicago isn’t that far. Here, I’ll show you.”
9
23 She reached under her desk and pulled out a thick leather book called Atlas
of the United States of America.
24 She thumbed through a couple of pages and said, “Here we are.” She turned the book
to me, it was a big map of Michigan and a couple of the states that were next to it.
10
Nathan’s Choice
Sharon Hart Addy
1 Nathan shouldered his bundle and studied the blacksmith shop across the
rutted dirt road.
2 Jeremy, the fellow he’d met at the edge of the village, stood beside him.
“Orrin Gunderson’s a hard man,” Jeremy said. “You’ll be sorry you took up with him.”
3 “He’s my uncle,” Nathan answered. “My mother’s kin. I’m here to learn
enough ironworking to make repairs. I aim to be a frontiersman.”
4 Jeremy chuckled. “A trapper and explorer like Daniel Boone? You think a lot
of yourself.”
5 “Other men make a life in the wilderness. I will, too.”
6 “So you consider yourself a man! You’re no older than me.”
7 “I’ll be a man when I finish here,” Nathan said confidently.
8 Jeremy laughed. “Gunderson will pound you to size. When you’ve had
enough, let me know. We’ll go to sea together.” Jeremy tipped his tricorn1hat and
sauntered2off. Nathan crossed the road. He paused under the maple tree beside
the shop’s open doors.
9 Inside the shop, his uncle used long-handled tongs to heft a hunk of glowing
iron from the red-hot coals of the hearth. He positioned the iron against an anvil3
11
and picked up his hammer. The air rang with his strikes. When he finished, he
grunted his satisfaction and thrust the ax head into a water trough.
10 Through the sizzling steam, Nathan saw his uncle’s brown eyes on him.
11 “You must be my sister’s boy,” the blacksmith growled. “If you are, you’re
here to work. Pump the bellows.”5
12 At noon, Nathan collapsed beneath the maple tree. He ached from
bending and stretching at the bellows and turning the grindstone as his uncle
sharpened the ax head. Uncle Orrin dropped bread and cheese into Nathan’s lap.
Nathan gulped the food and drank from the bucket of creek water.
13 All afternoon Uncle Orrin barked orders. When he tossed bread and cheese
to his nephew for supper, Nathan was too tired to lift it to his mouth.
14 “Eat!” Uncle Orrin roared. “There’s work to do.”
15 As the sun set, Uncle Orrin took off his leather apron. “Another bucket of
water, boy.”
16 Nathan stumbled down to the creek, then trudged up the hill, sloshing half
the water from the bucket.
17 Uncle Orrin took the half-empty bucket and pointed to a pile of straw he’d
had Nathan dump in a corner. “You sleep there.”
18 Nathan fell onto the straw, thinking of home and the cornhusk bed he
shared with his two younger brothers. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand
and concentrated on the creek’s gurgling. His dreams filled with sailing ships and
clean, clear air.
12
Question 5
Benchmark B
March 2006
13
Question 7
Benchmark B
March 2006
14
The Inca Empire of the Sun
Amy Miller
1 The Inca empire was one of the best organized in history. The system of
government was like a pyramid, with the emperor at the top. The emperor lived in
the sacred capital city of Cuzco.
2 “The riches that were gathered in the city of Cuzco alone ... were
incredible,” says one account of Inca culture written 300 years ago. In Cuzco,
each emperor built a magnificent palace filled with gold, silver, and other treasures.
3 The Inca called their empire Tahuantinsuyu, (tee-wahn-teen-SOO-yoh),
which means “Land of Four Quarters,” because it was divided into four parts. A
governor ruled each part, which was further divided into smaller regions. These
were ruled by hundreds of local officials. At the bottom of the Inca social pyramid
were millions of farmers.
The Life of the People
4 This careful organization of the empire made it possible to control the lives of
everyone. It also helped the Inca prosper. Inca rulers made sure that everyone had
enough to eat. Each farmer was given enough land to meet his family’s needs. But
farmers were allowed to keep only one third of their crops. Another third went to
the Inca priests. The final third went to the Inca emperor, to be put in storehouses to
feed the army, government officials, and any people unable to feed themselves. In
times of famine, the storehouses saved the people from starvation.
15
5 The life of the common people was hard. The steep mountains, poor soil,
and dry coastal land made growing enough food difficult. But with the help of
skilled architects, engineers, and stonemasons, the Inca found solutions to all
these problems.
6 On steep mountainsides, they carved out planting areas called terraces,
that looked like stair steps. In coastal areas, where it seldom rained, farmers built
canals to bring water down from the mountains to irrigate (water) their crops.
7 The Inca empire provided for almost every need of the people, but gave
them little freedom or privacy. Homes could not have doors so that they could be
inspected for cleanliness. Inca officials even told young people whom to marry.
Connecting the Empire
8 An efficient communications system connected and strengthened the huge
Inca empire. Although the Inca never developed the wheel, more than 18,000
miles of roads linked the emperor to the people he ruled. Every farmer paid taxes
by doing work for the government. This often included building roads and bridges.
9 Inca roads and bridges were marvels of engineering—crossing rivers and
even tunneling through mountains. Suspension bridges, made of plant fibers,
spanned deep ravines.
10 Ordinary people needed special permission to travel on the roads,
which were mainly used by armies, government officials, and a 24-hour
messenger service.
11 Messengers lived in small huts located about a mile apart on the major
highways. Trained to run at high speeds, a messenger would repeat the message at
the next hut, where another messenger would speed off to the next hut. In this way,
news could travel about 150 miles a day.
16
Question 36
Benchmark B
March 2006
17
Ella Fitzgerald
Author unknown
1 Her first dream was to be a dancer. Growing up in New York, she was inspired by
“Snake Hips” Tucker, studying his serpentine moves and practicing them
constantly with friends. Then, one fateful night at the Apollo Theater in 1934, the
headlining Edwards Sisters brought down the house with their dancing. Amateur
Hour began immediately after, and a 16-year-old Ella Fitzgerald stepped on stage, but
was too intimidated to dance. Instead, she sang “Judy,” silenced the awestruck
crowd, and won first prize. It was the beginning of one of the most celebrated careers in
music history.
2 Born in Newport News, Virginia in 1917, Ella Fitzgerald moved with her mother
to New York after the death of her father. Living in Yonkers, Fitzgerald attended
public school, where she sang in the glee club and received her musical
education. After her early success at the Apollo, and as a popular performer at a
number of other amateur venues, Fitzgerald was invited to join Chick Webb’s band.
Within a short while she was the star attraction, and had made a number of hits
including her trademark “A-tisket, A-tasket” (1938). After Webb’s death in 1939,
Fitzgerald led the band for three years.
3 During her time with Webb’s band, Fitzgerald recorded with a number of
other musicians, including Benny Goodman. By the time she began her solo career
in the mid-1940s, she was a well-respected figure throughout the music industry. Her
vibrant and energetic voice showed an exceptional range and control. Performing
with “Jazz at the Philharmonic,” her popularity grew beyond the music world.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, she continued to perform as a jazz musician, but
concentrated primarily on popular music. Rivaled only by Frank Sinatra, her
recordings of work by Cole Porter, Ira and George Gershwin, and Rogers and Hart
were incredibly successful.
4 One of the early “scat” performers,1Fitzgerald found a place among the
growing jazz innovators, making recordings with such greats as Billie Holiday, Duke
Ellington, and Louis Armstrong.
1
“scat” performers: singers using syllables and nonsense words to sound like musical
instruments
18
Question 1
Benchmark C
Spring 2010
19
20
Question 6
Benchmark C
Spring 2010
21
22
23
Question 11
Benchmark C
Spring 2010
24
25
26
Question 39
Benchmark C
Spring 2010
27
28
Question 5
Benchmark C
Spring 2009
29
30
Question 10
Benchmark C
Spring 2009
31
32
Question 41
Benchmark C
Spring 2009
33
34
Question 10
Benchmark C
March 2008
Food for Thought
Elizabeth Winchester
1 School gardens, a growing trend, teach kids to take better care of themselves and the
planet.
2 It’s science class for some eighth graders at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in
Berkeley, California. But the students aren’t sitting at their desks. Instead, they are
harvesting fava beans and planting corn in their school’s one-acre garden. Everything in
the garden—from broccoli and carrots to strawberries and oranges—is grown organically,
without the use of harmful chemicals.
3 King students have been digging into learning this way since 1997. That’s when Alice
Waters, a famous chef, started a program called the Edible Schoolyard at their school.
Teachers and kids incorporate the organic garden into many lessons. In math class, they
measure vegetable beds; in art, they draw the wonders of nature, and garden ingredients
create cultural feasts for social studies lessons. While they learn, the kids develop a taste
for healthful eating. The Seeds of Learning
4 North Country School in Lake Placid, New York, is another school with deep roots in
garden-based learning. For almost 75 years, lessons at the boarding school have been
connected to raising livestock and tending gardens. Kids participate in “complete cycles
of food production, from planting and harvesting to preparing and eating,” says John
Culpepper, the school’s farm manager. Much of the food served at North Country is
homegrown, even the maple syrup. “Knowing you helped produce it makes it [taste] so
much better,” says Anthony Edwards, 12.
5 According to the National Gardening Association, about 25,000 schools in the United
States involve students in gardening, and the numbers are growing like weeds! “School
gardens are useful tools in improving children’s nutrition and environmental awareness
and [providing] a sense of peace in our fast-paced world,” says Eve Pranis, the
association’s director of educational media.
6 Waters hopes that more schools will follow the example set by King Middle School.
She wants all 17 schools in its district to have similar garden programs. Waters’s goal is to
turn lunch into an academic subject.
35
36
Question 15
Benchmark C
March 2006
Ella Fitzgerald
Author unknown
1 Her first dream was to be a dancer. Growing up in New York, she was inspired by
“Snake Hips” Tucker, studying his serpentine moves and practicing them
constantly with friends. Then, one fateful night at the Apollo Theater in 1934, the
headlining Edwards Sisters brought down the house with their dancing. Amateur
Hour began immediately after, and a 16-year-old Ella Fitzgerald stepped on stage, but
was too intimidated to dance. Instead, she sang “Judy,” silenced the awestruck
crowd, and won first prize. It was the beginning of one of the most celebrated careers in
music history.
2 Born in Newport News, Virginia in 1917, Ella Fitzgerald moved with her mother
to New York after the death of her father. Living in Yonkers, Fitzgerald attended
public school, where she sang in the glee club and received her musical
education. After her early success at the Apollo, and as a popular performer at a
number of other amateur venues, Fitzgerald was invited to join Chick Webb’s band.
Within a short while she was the star attraction, and had made a number of hits
including her trademark “A-tisket, A-tasket” (1938). After Webb’s death in 1939,
Fitzgerald led the band for three years.
3 During her time with Webb’s band, Fitzgerald recorded with a number of
other musicians, including Benny Goodman. By the time she began her solo career
in the mid-1940s, she was a well-respected figure throughout the music industry. Her
vibrant and energetic voice showed an exceptional range and control. Performing
with “Jazz at the Philharmonic,” her popularity grew beyond the music world.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, she continued to perform as a jazz musician, but
concentrated primarily on popular music. Rivaled only by Frank Sinatra, her
recordings of work by Cole Porter, Ira and George Gershwin, and Rogers and Hart
were incredibly successful.
4 One of the early “scat” performers,1Fitzgerald found a place among the
growing jazz innovators, making recordings with such greats as Billie Holiday, Duke
37
Ellington, and Louis Armstrong.
1
“scat” performers: singers using syllables and nonsense words to sound like musical
instruments
38
SELECTION 1: Jump to It!
1 Americans have been frog-wild for jumping contests ever since Mark Twain’s
famous story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” was published
in the late 1800s.
2 One of the biggest contests is held in Calaveras County, California, the
setting of Twain’s original story. “We’ll jump frogs about 4,000 times, about a
thousand a day,” says Laurie Giannini, an organizer of the Calaveras County event.
3 Contestants come from all over the country to test their frogs in the home of
frog jumping, partly for the honor, but the prizes draw them, too. Beating the world
three-hop record of 21 feet, 5 3/4 inches will earn some lucky frog jockey $5,000.
Equaling the record will earn $1,000, and each year’s winner gets $750.
4 That’s big money for some people; how do you get your frog to do its best?
Frogs don’t understand about money, and they’re not very coachable. “You can’t
train a frog,” said Giannini. “A frog is going to do what it wants to.”
Jump, Frog, Jump!
5 Getting a frog airborne is a very individual thing. “Everybody has their own
method,” says Marsha Karley, with the Fair Oaks Fiesta Frog Jump in Fair Oaks,
California. “Some of them stamp behind them; some of them spray water on them
just before they jump.” In Kernville, California, where they hold a frog jump in
February as part of the Flats Days celebration, cold weather can sometimes play a
role. “The frogs, they don’t want to jump. Contestants get warm water and put it in
squirt guns and sort of encourage them,” says Ann Clements.
6 But according to Calaveras frog catcher Rod Dwelley, it’s the call of the wild
that really sets a frog to hopping. “You want to have a really good jumping frog, it
needs to come right out of the wild,” says Dwelley. “Frogs we rent to people are
getting used to people. They tend not to jump as far.”
Rental Frogs?
7 It turns out that some of the jumping frogs you see at these contests are pros,
shipped in special for the event. Ann Clements concedes that the Flats Days
Celebration looks elsewhere for their jumping stock. “Actually, we get our frogs from
Tennessee,” she says.
8 Rayne, Louisiana, billed by residents as the Frog Capital of the World, also
gets a lot of their frogs from the frog market, though they are raised locally. “We
rent frogs,” says Paul Kedinger, with the Rayne Frog Festival in Rayne, Louisiana, “but
we do have some people who go out and catch their own.”
39
SELECTION 2: Frogs Help This Family Stay Together
Sam Richards
9 Gabby is learning the finer points of coaxing the frogs to jump by pounding
the ground behind them. It takes open hands, palms to the ground, repeated as
needed to make the frog jump—straight ahead, ideally.
10 Lisa Fasano said that, even last year, baby Gabby was really getting the
hang of it in practice. But she wilted under the glare of the spotlight at last year’s
contest in Angels Camp.
11 “She was star-struck, and she just sat there looking at everyone,” said Lisa, 32.
It’s hoped a more mature Gabby will fare better this year.
12 There are hundreds of children among the 2,300-or-so contestants each year,
said Buck King, manager of the Calaveras County Fair and former longtime
manager of the Jumping Frog Jubilee.
13 In 20 years of jumping jubilees, King said he’s seen it all: giant African
bullfrogs, toads “as big as wash tubs” that couldn’t jump, a three-legged overall
champion in 1996, even a “circus side show” one year featuring frogs dressed as
circus performers.
14 “Lots of people sign their toddlers in there to make the frogs jump,” King said.
“If they win, it’s something else.”
15 A champion setting a world record wins $5,000; a non-record winner walks
away with $1,500.
16 Frogs aren’t really trainable, and the Fasanos and other competitors must
discover raw talent in ponds, canals and swamps. The Fasanos make several trips a
year to their favorite bullfrog breeding ground, canals “somewhere in the San
Joaquin Valley,” to catch their jumpers. Frank won’t name exact locations: “It’s
very competitive out there, and it’s kind of a family secret.”
17 Between now and May, Frank, Lisa and their relatives will catch at least 150
frogs for auditions.
18 They won’t get names, and almost all eventually get released near where
they’re caught.
19 What started in 1959, when Frank’s father Gene Fasano and Frank’s uncle,
Frank Borrelli, went from their native Gustine to their first Jumping Frog Jubilee has
become a true family affair since then, Frank Fasano said. Gene has missed only
one Calaveras jubilee since then, for his wedding.
40
20 The frog catching, usually at night with floodlights and nets, is as much
bonding experience as the contest itself, Frank Fasano said. And if it wasn’t frogs
that kept the Fasanos close, he said, it would probably be something else.
21 “It’s all about the family getting together, and we’ve got an activity we can
call our own,” he said.
Question 26
Benchmark C
March 2006
41
Question 27
Benchmark C
March 2006
42
Dreams
Langston Hughes
1 Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
2 Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
Question 31
Benchmark C
March 2006
43
The Inca Empire of the Sun
Amy Miller
1 The Inca empire was one of the best organized in history. The system of
government was like a pyramid, with the emperor at the top. The emperor lived in
the sacred capital city of Cuzco.
2 “The riches that were gathered in the city of Cuzco alone ... were
incredible,” says one account of Inca culture written 300 years ago. In Cuzco,
each emperor built a magnificent palace filled with gold, silver, and other treasures.
3 The Inca called their empire Tahuantinsuyu, (tee-wahn-teen-SOO-yoh),
which means “Land of Four Quarters,” because it was divided into four parts. A
governor ruled each part, which was further divided into smaller regions. These
were ruled by hundreds of local officials. At the bottom of the Inca social pyramid
were millions of farmers.
The Life of the People
4 This careful organization of the empire made it possible to control the lives of
everyone. It also helped the Inca prosper. Inca rulers made sure that everyone had
enough to eat. Each farmer was given enough land to meet his family’s needs. But
farmers were allowed to keep only one third of their crops. Another third went to
the Inca priests. The final third went to the Inca emperor, to be put in storehouses to
feed the army, government officials, and any people unable to feed themselves. In
times of famine, the storehouses saved the people from starvation.
44
5 The life of the common people was hard. The steep mountains, poor soil,
and dry coastal land made growing enough food difficult. But with the help of
skilled architects, engineers, and stonemasons, the Inca found solutions to all
these problems.
6 On steep mountainsides, they carved out planting areas called terraces,
that looked like stair steps. In coastal areas, where it seldom rained, farmers built
canals to bring water down from the mountains to irrigate (water) their crops.
7 The Inca empire provided for almost every need of the people, but gave
them little freedom or privacy. Homes could not have doors so that they could be
inspected for cleanliness. Inca officials even told young people whom to marry.
Connecting the Empire
8 An efficient communications system connected and strengthened the huge
Inca empire. Although the Inca never developed the wheel, more than 18,000
miles of roads linked the emperor to the people he ruled. Every farmer paid taxes
by doing work for the government. This often included building roads and bridges.
9 Inca roads and bridges were marvels of engineering—crossing rivers and
even tunneling through mountains. Suspension bridges, made of plant fibers,
spanned deep ravines.
10 Ordinary people needed special permission to travel on the roads,
which were mainly used by armies, government officials, and a 24-hour
messenger service.
11 Messengers lived in small huts located about a mile apart on the major
highways. Trained to run at high speeds, a messenger would repeat the message at
the next hut, where another messenger would speed off to the next hut. In this way,
news could travel about 150 miles a day.
45
Question 43
Benchmark C
March 2006
46
Question 7
Benchmark C
May 2007
1
On the first day of my first term I set
out by taxi in the afternoon with my mother
to catch the paddle-streamer from Cardiff
Docks to Weston-super-Mare. Every piece
of clothing I wore was brand new and had
my name on it. I wore black shoes, grey
woolen stockings with blue turnovers, grey flannel shorts, a grey shirt, a read
tie, a grey flannel blazer with the blue school crest on the breast pocket and a
grey school cap with the same crest just above the peak. Into the taxi that
was taking us to the docks when my brand new trunk and my brand new
tuck-box, and both had R. DAHL painted on them in black.
2
A tuck-box is a small pinewood trunk which is very strongly made,
and no boy has ever gone as a boarder to an English Prep School without
one. It is his own secret storehouse, as secret as a lady’s handbag, and there
is an unwritten law that no other boy, no teacher, not even the Headmaster
himself has the right to pry into the contents of your tuck-box. The owner
has the key in his pocket and that is where it stays. At St. Peter’s, the tuckboxes were ranges shoulder to shoulder all around the four walls of the
changing-room and your own tuck-box stood directly below the peg on
which you hung your games clothes. A tuck-box, as the name implies, is a
box in which you store your tuck. At Prep School in those days, a parcel of
tuck was sent once a week by anxious mothers to their ravenous little sons,
and an average tuck-box would probably contain, at almost any time, half a
home-made currant cake, a packet of squashed-fly biscuits, a couple of
oranges, an apple, a banana, a pot of strawberry jam or Marmite, a bar of
chocolate, a bag of Liquorice Allsorts and a tine of Bassett’s lemonade
powder. An English school in those days was purely a money-making
47
business owned and operated by the Headmaster. It suited him, therefore, to
give the boys as little food as possible himself and to encourage the parents
in various cunning ways to feed their offspring by parcel-post from home.
3
“By all means, my dear Mrs. Dahl, do send your boy some little treats
now and again,” he would say. “Perhaps a few oranges and apples once a
week” – fruit was very expensive – “and a nice currant cake, a large currant
cake perhaps because small boys have large appetites do they not, ha-ha-ha .
. . Yes, yes, as often as you like. More than once a week if you wish . . . Of
course he’ll be getting plenty of good food here, the best there is, but it never
tastes quite the same as home cooking, does it? I’m sure you wouldn’t want
him to be the only one who doesn’t get a lovely parcel from home every
week.”
4
As well as tuck, a tuck-box would also contain all manner of treasures
such as a magnet, a pocket-knife, a compass, a ball of string, a clockwork
racing-car, half-a-dozen lead soldiers, a box of conjuring-tricks, some tiddlywinks, a Mexican jumping bean, a catapult, some foreign stamps, a couple
of stink-bombs, and I remember one boy called Arkle who drilled an airhole
in the lid of his tuck-box and kept a pet frog in there which he fed on slugs.
48
Question 35
Benchmark C
May 2007
The “French 500”
Brenda Brammer
1
They departed France in February 1790, laden with their elegant
clothing, china, books, and musical instruments. Although they left behind
family and friends, they were eager to begin a new life in their adopted
homeland.
2
Their gaiety was short-lived. Once of their five ships was lost during
the journey. Accommodations on the ships were cramped and dirty, and the
food was inferior. Rough seas tossed the small vessels, testing the courage
of the passengers. What a happy day it was when the weary travelers
docked in Virginia.
3
But once again their joy was short-lived. In Virginia, they learned the
truth about the Scioto Company. It had never owned the land on the Ohio
River. They had been cheated. Their deeds1 were worthless, and they were
homeless.
4
As stranger, they did not know where to turn. They enlisted the
support of President Washington. He gave his written assurance of
assistance, but a deed to the land could not be transferred. The land
belonged to The Ohio Company.
5
The Ohio Company wanted settlers in its territory and said it would
allow the emigrants to settle along the Ohio River anyway. But many of the
disillusioned French decided to stay in Virginia. Only five hundred
determined pioneers ventured forth on the last leg of their exhausting
journey.
6
They traveled over the mountains to the small frontier town of
Pittsburgh. There they loaded their possessions and supplies onto flatboards
and floated down the Ohio.
7
On October 17, 1790, the “French 500” landed at Gallipolis (City of
the Gauls).2 In reality, the “city” was a rectangular clearing in the forest
49
with eighty tiny cabins and a small stockade.3 This sight might have
disheartened weaker individuals, but these emigrants, from the lavish homes
and elite society of Paris, viewed the sparse, rugged accommodations with
determination and resolve.
8
They were home at last and prepared to celebrate. They unpacked
musical instruments, rouge,4 curling irons, and satin slippers. That night,
they held the first French ball in the Northwest Territory. Their love for
music and socializing would help to see them through the rough days ahead.
9
Their first winter was long and cold, but spring finally arrived. To
survive in this foreign land, they had to learn to provide for their needs.
They needed more than flower and herb gardens; they had to plant crops.
Some frontier families found humor in the French efforts to plant peeled
potatoes and to use cooked peas for seed. But with the help of others, they
reaped their first meager harvest.
10
It was also during that first spring that, to their delight, they
discovered a nearby pond. It was filled with frogs. In short order, fried frog
legs became a delicacy. An abundance of snails was used to flavor soups
and stews.
11
The “French 500” learned to cultivate crops, feel trees, and hunt for
food. They discovered that their artisan and professional skills were unique
in the developing territory. They shipped woodwork, silverware,
thermometers, and confections downriver to New Orleans.
12
Still, their homes did not belong to them. The Ohio company refused
to give the settlers the town. They would have to buy their home sites a
second time. Thos who did not want to repurchase their homes in Gallipolis
received land in northeastern Scioto County through the French Grant
passed by Congress in 1795. Most of the residents of Gallipolis, preferring
not to move again, pooled their money and bought the town on December 9,
1795. Gallipolis, the third oldest permanent settlement in Ohio, was now
truly the “City of Gauls.”
____________________________________________
1
deeds: legal documents of ownership
2
Gauls: French
3
stockade: a fence or enclosure used for protection
4
rouge: face makeup
50
Question 36
Benchmark C
May 2007
51

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