Appendix C Passages for Sample Items Grades 6

Appendix C Passages for Sample Items Grades 6 – 8

Grade 6

Passage A The Ocean’s Cleaning Stations, by Sandy Fox 2-C Passage B Ella Cara Deloria: Bridge Between Cultures, by Linda Crotta Brennan 4-C Passage C The Mystery of the Town Without a Mystery, By Catherine Carmody 6-C

Grade 7

Passage D Florida’s Hummingbirds, By Joe Schaefer and Craig N. Huegel 9-C Passage E The World of N. C. Wyeth, by Diana Childress 12-C Passage F The Desperate Ride of Caesar Rodney, By Candace Fleming 14-C

Grade 8

Passage G At War with the Mosquito, by Bruce T. Paddock 17-C Passage H The Right Choice, by Kari Kobil 19-C Passage I The Makings of a Star, by L. Hall 21-C

1-C Passage A Grade 6 The Ocean’s Cleaning Stations by Sandy Fox The green moray eel slithers from its hole in the coral and swims to a certain rock. There it lies, unmoving, with its tooth-filled mouth wide open. Most fish flee from this fierce predator. But a bright-striped goby fish swims boldly into the moray’s mouth. The eel stays motionless until the fish swims back out. What happened? Why didn’t the fierce moray eat the little goby? The moray came to an underwater cleaning station. Here certain species of small fish and shrimp clean the parasites off larger host fish. All fish have parasites, tiny ani mals that feed on their blood or skin. If parasites aren’t removed, fish can sicken and die. Several times, scientists have removed all the cleaners in an area and discovered that, after a few days, the fish population diminishes. And after two weeks, most of the fish left alive are covered with sores and fungus—and in bad need of a cleaning. Cleaners and host fish have a relationship called symbiosis, where each animal both gives and receives help from the other. A host fish gets its parasites removed, while a cleaner gets its food delivered. But, normally, small fish and shrimp are food for big fish. How does the goby know when it will be eaten and when it can eat? Host fish signal their need for cleaning with a set of elaborate movements. Although each species moves differently, all fish within a species move the same way. Bonnet- mouths and parrotfish, for example, approach a cleaner and then stop swimming. They hang in the water with either their heads or their tails straight up. The mouths open and gills spread. Goatfish (they have a “beard” like a goat’s) approach a cleaner and hang motionless. Some even change color to make their parasites show up better. By hanging upside down, a fish makes itself more vulnerable to predators. Some scientists think that this signals to cleaners that they have nothing to fear. It’s like laying down your weapon. Several kinds of shrimp, small gobies, and wrasses are cleaners. Some angelfish and hogfish are cleaners in the juvenile stage of their lives. Most of these have bold stripes on their bodies. The stripes of the juvenile cleaners disappear as the fish mature and stop cleaning.

2C Passage A Grade 6

Cleaning shrimp skitter across a host fish’s body, feasting on the crustaceans cling ing to its sides. Shrimp and cleaner fish will even swim into the host’s mouth, cleaning teeth and gullet like a tidy housekeeper. Cleanings can take from several seconds to two or three minutes. During this time both cleaner and fish are in danger from other animals. If either fish fears for its life, it immediately ends the cleaning ritual. If the host fish senses danger, it gives a little shudder. Then the cleaner has a chance to escape before the host fish swims away. Wrasses and other small cleaners move away more slowly, somehow knowing that they’re under a truce until they reach shelter. Small hosts are jumpy, leaving the cleaning station at the first sign of danger. Larger morays or groupers stay longer, even allowing divers to come quite close before backing away. Many ocean animals mimic or act like other animals. Aspidontus rhinorhynchus, the false cleaner fish, looks very much like a wrasse—stripes and all. But the false cleaner doesn’t clean other fish, it eats them. It hangs around the cleaning station, acting like a cleaner, even swimming in the jerky motion of a true wrasse. The host fish arrives and takes its position. Then the false cleaner boldly swims up and bites a piece off the host’s tongue or scales. By the time the surprised host fish responds, the false cleaner has fled with its meal. The only obvious difference between real and false cleaners is that the impostors’ mouths are on the lower part of their heads. Some host fish spot this difference and swim away from the cleaning station. Wise old ones open their mouths wide—and swallow the fake. But in undersea cleaning stations, most large and small fish cooperate. They call a truce, and their symbiosis improves the health and prolongs the lives of both host fish and cleaners.

3C Passage B Grade 6 Ella Cara Deloria Bridge Between Cultures by Linda Crotta Brennan “I actually feel that I have a mission: To make the Dakota1 people understandable, as human beings, to the . . . people who . . . deal with them,” Ella Cara Deloria wrote in a letter to a friend in 1952. She had been born sixty-three years earlier on a Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota and given the Native American name Anpetu Waste, or Beautiful Day. Her father, Black Lodge, was part French and part Sioux. He also became one of the first Dakota Episcopal priests. Her mother, Mary, was Sioux and Irish, a granddaughter of the famous painter Thomas Sully. Ella was raised in a large and loving family in the traditional Sioux manner. She spoke Sioux before she spoke English. Her parents felt it was important for her to get a good education, and so she went away to boarding school and then on to college. It was at Columbia Teachers College that Ella met the person who would give purpose to her life. Franz Boas was the leader of a group of anthropologists studying Native American cultures. When he discovered Ella could speak Sioux, Dr. Boas asked her to translate a huge collection of stories by George Bushotter, a Sioux whose unpublished works had been left to the Smithsonian Institution. Ella agreed, and Dr. Boas paid her eighteen dollars a month to translate the texts while she was at school. Ella found she loved the work. After she graduated, Dr. Boas asked Ella if she would “study . . . the habits of action and thought . . . among the Dakota children and among adults. . . . You will have to know all the details of everyday life. . . .” So Ella began her work as an ethnographer, or one who studies a people’s culture. She traveled to the Sioux reservations, collecting information on language, family and tribal structure, religious ceremonies, and the role of women. The old people were delighted when they found she could speak their native tongue, and they freely gave her their biographies, their myths, and their humorous stories. In the process, Ella assembled the largest body of information on any Plains Indian tribe. She wrote a Sioux-English dictionary, scholarly texts, collections of myths, and Speaking of Indians, a book to help people understand the Native American culture. She also lectured and performed dances for the YMCA and other organizations. Through it all, she considered “Father Franz,” as she called Boas, to be her inspiration. She wrote to him on his eighty-first birthday, saying, “I would not trade the privilege of having known you, for anything I can think of.” 1Dakota: another word for Sioux

4C Passage B Grade 6

Still, the science of ethnography that he taught her had to be objective and impersonal. Ella felt “one of the reasons for the lagging advance ment of the Dakotas has been that those who came out among them to teach and preach, went on the assumption that the Dakotas had nothing, no rules of life, no social organization, no ideals.” Ella wanted to show the larger culture that the Sioux were really feeling and caring human beings, with a deeply rooted culture of their own. The Dakotas were a people who put one another ahead of possessions. As Ella wrote, “The ultimate aim of Dakota life was quite simple: . . . One must be a good relative. . . . Every other consideration was secondary—property, personal ambition, glory, good times, life itself.” Someone who did not care for the others in the tribe would no longer be considered Sioux or even human. In 1942 Ella Cara Deloria sat down to write the novel Waterlily. Based on research, Ella created the character Waterlily and followed her life from birth, through her childhood surrounded by lov ing relatives, and into adulthood and the birth of her own child. After careful writing and rewriting, Waterlily was finally finished in 1947, but no pub lisher would take it. The editors told her not enough readers would be interested. Ella sadly put Waterlily away with her other papers. She went back to doing research, lecturing, and caring for friends and family. As a true Sioux, Aunt Ella (as she now was called) always put others first. Sometimes that meant postponing an important research project to care for her father when he was ill, or helping her sister with her children. To those who knew her, Aunt Ella was a warm and gracious human being, inspirational and kind. Ella Cara Deloria worked through her seventies and into her eighties. She died on 12 February 1971, leaving some of the fullest accounts of the Sioux language and culture. Her work has helped to keep the Dakota culture alive. In 1988, seventeen years after her death, Waterlily was published by the University of Nebraska. Ella Cara Deloria’s mission to share the full life of her people was finally fulfilled.

"Ella Cara Deloria: Bridge Between Cultures" by Linda Crotta Brennan, Cricket, March 1997, vol. 24 no. 7.

5C Passage C Grade 6 The Mystery of the Town Without a Mystery by Catherine Carmody

The day Louisa Checkerslee’s family Amy left her catcher’s mitt at the base- moved to Carringford Springs, Louisa ball field. When she went back later, it reopened her detective agency in their new was gone.” garage. As she hung her business sign, “Thanks,” Louisa said and furiously a boy on a skateboard rolled to a halt in scribbled the information in her notebook. front of the house. “I’d better get started on this case.” “Hi, I’m Scott Dooley,” he said, This one should be a piece of cake, inspecting Louisa’s office. “Detective, Louisa thought as she walked home. huh? You solve many cases?” She’d solved a case just like it in Foxtail “All of them,” Louisa replied. “At Falls, except it was Chad Gundermun’s least I did in Foxtail Falls, where I used to basketball that had disappeared from live.” She leafed through her case file, a his yard. shoe box overflowing with index cards. Now Louisa hurried home, called “If I hear of anything mysterious, Amy, and introduced herself. “My detec I’ll let you know,” Scott said. “Hey, you tive service can help you get your catcher’s should check with my Grandpa Dooley. mitt back,” Louisa said. If there’s anything suspicious going on, “Thanks for offering,” Amy replied, he’d know. He knows everybody.” “but I got my mitt back this morning. “I’d like to meet him,” Louisa said Hannah Mori found it. It didn’t have excitedly. my name on it, but Hannah knew which teams had played. She called both the “I’m on my way to his house now,” team captains and got the names of their Scott said. “You want to come?” catchers. Then she called me.” “Sure,” Louisa said. “Wait a second Louisa hung up the phone. She was a while I tell my mom.” little disappointed that she wouldn’t have When they got to Grandpa Dooley’s a chance to solve the mystery. But after all, house, they found him across the street in she reminded herself, the important thing the Johnsons’ yard. He was watering the was that Amy got her mitt back. flowers while the Johnsons were on vaca Over the next few weeks, Louisa tion. Just as Scott predicted, he had a lead tracked down six promising leads. But by on a mystery. the time she contacted the potential client, “I heard something just yesterday,” the mystery had become a non-mystery. Grandpa Dooley said. “At the grocery Each time, the case had been solved with- store, Amy Herbert’s mother told me that out her help.

6C Passage C Grade 6

Finally, Louisa was forced to face the alligators to sell at street fairs. Detective’s truth: Carringford Springs was a town Conclusion: Subject attended weekend without a mystery. street fair. Follow-up: Subject returned home Sunday evening and confirmed that But Louisa couldn’t figure out why, she’d been to a street fair; stated that she and it bugged her like a cloud of starving had been busy and didn’t have time to tell mosquitoes. The one thing she couldn’t anyone that she would miss class. Status: stand was a mystery she couldn’t solve, Mystery solved, case closed.” and that’s how this one was shaping up— the mystery of the town without a mystery. Scott picked up a stack of case cards and thumbed through them. “It’s weird,” In the distance, Louisa heard the he said. “These people never tell their rumble of skateboard wheels on concrete. friends or family important things. Then When Scott rolled up the driveway, she their friends get worried because they filled him in on the only mystery in town. don’t know what’s going on.” “It’s bizarre,” Scott said. “So how are “Exactly, Scott! None of these cases you going to solve this one?” would have been mysteries if the people “The same way I’ve solved every had just talked with each other,” Louisa other case. I’m going to investigate, dig said. “It’s different around this neighbor- for clues. And I bet the clues are right in hood. Take your Grandpa Dooley as here.” Louisa tapped the bulging Foxtail Exhibit A. He talks to everyone and Falls shoe box. knows what everyone is doing.” “See,” Louisa explained, “I think I’ve Scott agreed. “But what I’d like to been looking at this from the wrong angle. know is what’s going to happen to your Maybe I shouldn’t be asking why I can’t detective agency now that you’ve solved find any mysteries in Carringford Springs. the only mystery in town.” Maybe the real question is why did I find “Good question,” Louisa said. “I’ll so many in Foxtail Falls?” let you know when I find out.” Louisa pulled a card from the Foxtail The paint was still drying on Louisa’s Falls file. “Here’s a typical case,” she said. new business sign when Scott rolled up “Subject of Investigation: Ms. Asaretta the driveway the next afternoon. Tealson. Didn’t show up for Saturday rock climbing class; classmates worried; subject “Neighborhood News Press. Louisa not at home; car missing. Investigative Checkerslee, Reporter and Editor,” Scott Action: Got description of subject’s vehi read. “You’re starting a newspaper?” cle, green minivan with pink polka dots; “Yep. Since people in Carringford checked gas stations. Attendant remem Springs like to talk with their neighbors, bers van leaving gas station Friday P.M.; I figured they’d like to read about their van filled with stuffed alligators.” neighbors, too. And since reporters have Louisa continued reading, “Additional to be good at stuff like observing, asking Info: Neighbor stated subject sews stuffed questions, listening, and writing, I fig-

7C Passage C Grade 6 ured I’d be perfect. Those are the same “Grandpa Dooley is an extremely things a detective does, right?” reliable source,” Scott hinted. “And if his own grandson doesn’t have access, then Scott picked at the decal on his skate- who does?” board. “Being editor and reporter is going to be an awful lot of work. You think you Louisa smiled and shook Scott’s might need someone to help out?” hand. “Welcome to the Neighborhood News Press, Reporter Dooley.” Louisa considered this. “I guess I could use another reporter who has access to a reliable source.”

"The Mystery of the Town Without a Mystery," by Catherine Carmody. From Children's Digest, copyright © 1995 by Children's Better Health Institute, Benjamin Franklin Literary & Medical Society, Inc. Indianapolis, Indiana. Used by permission.

8C Passage D Grade 7 Florida’s Hummingbirds by Joe Schaefer and Craig N. Huegel

Hummingbirds live only in the Americas. Of the 338 species known, 16 are found in the United States and 3 occur in Florida. Black-chinned and rufous hummingbirds occasionally can be seen in Florida during the winter, but the ruby-throated hummingbird is by far the most common hummer in the state. This feathered jewel is about 3 inches (7.5 centimeters) long and weighs as little as a penny (1/4 ounce). Its name describes the most brilliant part of the mature male’s plumage. The throat feathers con tain air bubbles that give off an iridescent red tone in full light. Both sexes, young and mature birds, have metallic green backs and white-tipped tail feathers. The ruby-throat’s breeding range extends from central Kansas to the east coast and from Saskatchewan to central Florida. Although some birds may stay in south Florida year-round, most spend the win ter in Mexico and South America, where the weather is warmer. These tiny hummingbirds, whose wingspan is only 4 inches, fly to and from Florida over the Gulf of Mexico. This represents a trip of 500 to 600 miles that must be made without stopping. To prepare for migration, the birds store up reserves of body fat in order to have sufficient energy. Males arrive back in Florida in March, and females follow them about a week later. Nesting Nesting in Florida begins in April. The nest is a walnut-size structure of plant down,1 adorned with lichens and moss and bound with spider webs or fine plant fibers. The nests frequently are built over water. The female lays two eggs less than a 1/2 inch (1.2 centimeters) long. After 20 days of incubation and 4 weeks of growing, young hummingbirds leave the nest. Hummingbirds breed from March to July, and a female may have two or three broods during that time. Breeding ends in July so that the birds have time to put on weight for migration. The young hummingbirds return to Florida as adults and are ready to breed the next spring. Flying Feats Migrating annually from South America to Florida and back is only one of the amazing flying feats of the ruby-throated hummingbird. One of the most fascinating things about hummingbirds is their helicopter-like flying stunts. Not only can hummers suspend their bodies in midair, they also can fly backward, upward, and even upside down. These maneuvers are possible because of a unique design that allows the wing to move very freely and in almost any direction at the shoulder. Since hummers are

1 down: soft fibers from seeds, stems, or hairy leaves

9C Passage D Grade 7 built more like helicopters than gliders, soaring is the only maneuver that they cannot perform. Contrary to popular belief, hummingbirds do not hum. The sound is made by their rapid wing movements (50 to 200 beats per second). Feeding To acquire enough strength to support all of this high-speed activity, hummingbirds need to consume large amounts of high-energy food. Adult hummingbirds feed primarily on nectar. Young are fed insects by their parents, but they have switched to a mostly nectar diet by the time they leave the nest. Nectar is an energy-rich food that hummingbirds use rapidly. One hummingbird may need nectar from hundreds of blossoms every day to maintain its body weight. Hummingbirds are well adapted to a liquid diet. Long, needlelike bills and specially adapted tongues allow them to reach nectar in deep tubular flowers. The last half-inch of the long tongue is divided into equal halves, each grooved on the outside edge to form two tube-like structures. Nectar is drawn into the tongue much the same way liquid travels up a straw. Hummingbirds can lick at a rate of 13 times per second, and their stomach is capable of holding about 0.18 ounces (5 grams) of nectar at one time. They also feed to a lesser extent on insects. For their size, hummingbirds have among the largest appetites in the bird world. They feed every 10 or 15 minutes from dawn until dusk. During this period, they consume more than half their weight in food and 8 times their weight in water. Hummingbirds have developed two adaptations to help them survive the hours of darkness when they cannot feed. First, they eat as much as they can just before dark. During the night, their heart rate and body temperature drop to conserve energy, and they perch lifelessly on a branch. If they did not go into this sort of daily hibernation stage, they would be likely to starve. Gardening for Hummingbirds To be successful in keeping hummingbirds around your house, you must garden for them. The ideal flower color is red, orange, or pink. Hummingbirds are not born with an attraction to certain colors, but they learn by trial and error which flowers give the best results. Because most nectar-bearing flowers within the range of the ruby-throat are red and orange, they quickly come to favor those colors. Hummingbirds also have been known to show an interest in red-colored lipstick, fingernails, and clothing. Tubular flowers that are either large and solitary or in loose drooping clusters are best. Generally, tubular flowers hold large amounts of nectar at their base. Blooming season is another important gardening consideration. Nesting hummingbirds will need nectar from March to September. Therefore, your garden should have numerous nectar plants available throughout this time. It is best to plant a variety of species and to arrange these flowers in several groupings. Nesting hummingbirds are very aggressive and territorial around their food source. Having more than one flower garden will allow several hummers to feed at the same time without conflict.

10C Passage D Grade 7

Figures 1 and 2 show some of the plants that are among the favorites used by hum mingbirds in north and central Florida. While red flowers dominate the list, others have been added to allow for a varied planting. Plants native to Florida are preferable when given the proper growing conditions for the species.

Figure 1. Hummingbird Plants: Perennials Common Name Adaptability to Region Blooming Season Butterfly Milkweed Native Species Spring – Fall

Red Basil Native Species Spring

Shrimp Plant Used as an annual in Spring – Summer North Florida Cardinal Flower Native Species Summer – Fall

Obedient Plant Native Species Summer – Fall

Figure 2. Hummingbird Plants: Annuals Common Name Adaptability to Region Blooming Season Scarlet Morning Native Species Summer – Fall Glory Cypress Vine Native Species Summer – Fall

Standing Cypress Native Species Summer

Four O’Clock Not recommended Fall for South Florida

Copyrighted by the University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS).

11C Passage E Grade 7 The World of N. C. Wyeth by Diana Childress

Newell Convers Wyeth wanted more than anything else to create art that would express his great love for nature. The deepest happiness a person could experience, he believed, came from living simply and treasuring the beauty and the bounty of land and sea.

As a boy growing up in Needham, Massachusetts, in the late 1800s, Wyeth loved to draw. He delighted his family with his sketches, and earned pocket money drawing horses and selling the portraits.

Wyeth’s mother encouraged his efforts and persuaded his father to let him attend art school. His teachers there urged him to study illustration. Most publications of the time used drawings, not photographs, and good illustrators were well paid.

Wyeth developed a talent for composing dramatic scenes. His vivid pictures for western stories in popular magazines attracted attention. Publishers asked him to illustrate books, including such classics as Treasure Island, Robin Hood, and Robinson Crusoe. Architects wanted him to decorate the walls of their buildings with paintings of historical events and famous Americans. And businesses asked him to design their advertisements.

He spent hours in libraries researching his many assignments. And whenever possi ble, he gained firsthand knowledge of his subjects—working on a ranch in Colorado, vis iting a Navajo reservation in Arizona and New Mexico, and touring Civil War battle sites in Virginia. He enjoyed experiencing different lives as he captured the drama and emo tions of the stories he painted.

Many of Wyeth’s paintings were based on his own experiences and feelings. His fondest memories were of his parents’ farm, spending time outdoors with his three broth ers, doing chores, taking care of animals, and swimming in the Charles River.

He had gone to Wilmington, Delaware, as a young man to study with the famous illustrator Howard Pyle. He soon fell in love with the surrounding countryside and even-

12C Passage E Grade 7 tually settled in nearby Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. “I feel so moved sometimes toward nature,” he wrote to his mother in 1907, “that I could almost throw myself face down into a ploughed furrow. . . .” It wasn’t wilderness that moved him most, but farmland—land where people and nature coexisted. In a letter to a friend, Wyeth expressed his love for “hay stacks in the burning sun, the smell of cows and the calls of the barnyard.”

To teach himself how to paint these scenes, Wyeth took his sketchbooks outdoors. He believed that a close knowledge of nature was essential to his work. “I have spent consid erable time on the study of an apple-tree trunk,” he once wrote. For more than thirty years, as he supported himself, his wife, and their five children by doing countless illustrations, he also painted landscapes and quiet scenes of rural life: men building fences, a boy fishing, a newborn calf, girls playing in a meadow. In the 1930s, Wyeth spent summers on the coast of Maine, painting seascapes and fishermen. An opportunity to combine his torical illustration and landscape painting came in 1940 when a large life insurance company asked Wyeth to create a series of murals for its New York City headquarters. Wyeth’s idea was to represent life among the Pilgrim settlers in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The theme allowed him to unite carefully researched history with views of the natural world he cherished most: the farms and coastline of New England.

The details of Pilgrim life in the fourteen canvases he completed before his death in 1945 are as accurate as he could make them. But more important than the details are the emotions he shows, especially the calm, confident faith of these people.

Instead of focusing on the hardships the Pilgrims suffered, Wyeth opens our eyes to their happiness. He lets us feel their gratitude for a life free from persecution, for their friendship with Squanto and other Native Americans, for the rich harvest and abundant wildlife, and for the beauty of their new homeland.

Wyeth’s Pilgrims wear colorful clothing and they smile. They farm, hunt, fall in love and marry, and joyfully share their harvest feast with the neighbors who taught them to plant maize. The fourteen tranquil scenes with their bright colors are a testament to Wyeth’s deep faith in our world, and his personal thanks for the rich blessings of life.

Childress, Diana. “N.C. Wyeth’s Thanksgiving” from Highlights for Children, Nov. 1997, Vol. 52, No. 11, Issue 553. Photographs courtesy of the MetLife Archives.

13C Passage F Grade 7

saddled and mounted a horse. They galloped into the inky darkness toward Philadelphia, eighty miles away. Since May of 1775, delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia had been debating whether to break away from England. Rodney, one of the three delegates from Delaware, had been in his seat on June 7, 1776, when Henry Lee of Virginia boldly suggested total independence. Rodney quickly backed him. Several delegates did not agree with Lee, and they angrily flung their arguments at those who pressed for independence. How could the young colonies survive without England’s protection? Wouldn’t England’s army crush the colonies’ untrained militia? Without England to maintain law and order, they insisted, mobs would run wild in the streets. The discussions raged for weeks. In the heat of the debate, Rodney received The Desperate Ride of an alarming report that a thousand English supporters were rioting near Dover, his Caesar Rodney hometown. Local authorities begged Rodney On July 2, 1776, a resolution for to return immediately. independence was a single vote away Rodney didn’t want to leave before the from failure. Could one delegate reach Congress voted on independence, but other Philadelphia in time to cast his vote for delegates assured him that the debate would freedom? drag on for days. Satisfied, Rodney traveled home only to find that the rioting had ended. By Candace Fleming Exhausted, he decided to rest overnight before On a July night in 1776, a dust-covered returning to Philadelphia. Rodney had been messenger yanked his horse to a stop in front asleep only a few hours when his much- of a Delaware farmhouse. The messenger needed rest was disturbed by the messenger. leaped from his mount, sprinted to the house, As his horse sped across the sleeping and pounded on the door. He had urgent news Delaware countryside Rodney thought about for the man inside. the situation he was in. He knew it was vital Caesar Rodney opened the door. “They are that every colony vote yes when the roll was voting on independence tomorrow, sir,” the called for independence. messenger breathlessly reported. There was But the Delaware delegation was split and no time to lose. Rodney dressed quickly, then dangerously close to voting no. One delegate

14C Passage F Grade 7

they returned, and John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, banged his gavel to quiet the delegates. Just then, hooves clattered over the cobblestones in front of the statehouse. All eyes turned toward the door. In burst Rodney— dripping wet, spattered with mud, and still This is Caesar Rodney’s signature on wearing his riding boots and spurs. ✩ the Declaration of Independence. “He was the oddest looking man in the world—tall, thin, and slender as a reed, with was not yet ready to break ties with England, a pale face no bigger than a large apple,” and the second wanted independence. John Adams wrote of Rodney’s dramatic Rodney’s vote would decide whether appearance. “Yet there is sense and fire, spirit, Delaware voted yes or no. If even one colony wit, and humor in his countenance.” Ignoring voted no, the resolution would fail. Fearing the stares, Rodney strode up the aisle and the worst, Rodney spurred his horse on. proudly took his seat. Hancock cleared his A fierce thunderstorm broke with the dawn. throat and began to call the vote. Lightning flashed and rain poured down, turning the road into a sea of mud. Rodney refused to slow his pace, and by 11 a.m. he was only fifteen miles away. But his horse was exhausted, and Rodney was forced to stop for a fresh mount at a roadside inn. He paced anxiously for thirty excrutiating minutes while a horse was saddled. At last Rodney pounded once more toward Philadelphia. As Rodney rode toward the city, rain slashed at the windowpanes of the Philadelphia statehouse. Inside the assembly room, the air crackled with tension as the delegates listened to arguments for and against independence. Among them, Thomas Jefferson fidgeted nervously. If Lee’s resolution didn’t pass, Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence would be forgotten. John Adams, who was a strong supporter of independence, sat tight-lipped and silent. Only seventy-year-old Benjamin Franklin looked confident. He felt sure that a vote for independence would come sometime that day. Finally the debate ended, and the delegates decided to vote after lunch. That afternoon

15C Passage F Grade 7

“New Hampshire.” “Aye.” “Massachusetts.” “Aye.” “Rhode Island.” “Aye.” “Pennsylvania.” “Aye.” “Delaware.” Caesar Rodney rose to speak. “As I believe the voice of my constituents and all sensible men are in favor of independence,” he said, “I vote for independence.” Rodney’s vote broke Delaware’s deadlock. The resolution for independence had passed.

16C Passage G Grade 8

The mosquito as he might be if domesticated1 and developed

by Bruce T. Paddock

he battle has been going on for thousands of years. One fighter is five to six feet tall and weighs a hundred or maybe two hundred pounds. The other fighter is an inch long at best and weighs less than an ounce. Who do you think is winning? TThe little guy. People have been trying to get rid of mosquitoes for as long as there have been people and mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are a nuisance. They bite, and the bites itch. And there’s more to it than that. As far back as 500 B.C., a priest in India, named Susr’ uta, said that mosquitoes spread malaria, but he was ignored. So were the two or three other people who had the same idea through the years. We now know that mosquitoes spread more than a hundred different diseases, including malaria, yellow fever, dengue, elephantiasis, and several kinds of encephalitis. Most diseases spread by mosquitoes are not common in North America, but they are very common in other parts of the world. Millions of people get malaria every year. At least two million of them die from it. Quinine, extracted from a tree native to the Andes Mountains of South America, has been used for centuries as a malaria medicine. More recently, other drugs have been developed to prevent the malaria infection from taking hold, but the problem remains to be solved. How can we stop these mosquito-borne diseases? One way would be to get rid of the mosquitoes that spread them. But, scientists know that if we eliminate one kind of animal, we may change the life conditions for other kinds of animals and plants. However, anything that a mosquito might eat is also eaten by other insects. Animals that eat mosquitoes also eat other insects. In areas where mosquitoes have been eliminated, other animals or plants have not been affected. So, if we wanted to, we could eliminate mosquitoes completely without upsetting the balance of nature in places where they flourish. One way to get rid of mosquitoes involves water removal. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in still water. If we get rid of the water, they can’t lay eggs. This approach to mosquito control was first used 2,500 years ago. Malaria was ripping through the city of Selinus in Sicily. The Greek philosopher Empedocles suggested draining the swamps outside the city. Once the swamps were drained, the mosquitoes disappeared, and so did the malaria. Unfortunately, no one understood the connection. People thought that malaria was caused by breathing swamp gases. (The word malaria is Italian for “bad air.”) And the fact 1 domesticated: tamed

17C Passage G Grade 8 that the disease disappeared when the swamps were drained seemed to prove it. People continued to be annoyed by mosquitoes, of course, and tried to find ways to keep them away. Italians used to rub garlic and onion on their skin. In the southeastern United States, people used to smear themselves with pork fat. The Mohawk Indians of New York State still take the white powder from the bark of birch trees and rub it on their skin. But keeping mosquitoes away isn’t the same as wiping them out. A researcher studies the mosquito under the microscope as part of the One of the first modern attempts United States Department of Agriculture’s research on insects. Two at mosquito control took place in mosquitoes seem to be very interested in the results! Panama in the early 1900s, when the United States was trying to cut a canal through the country. France had tried to build a canal there 15 years earlier but had given up because so many engineers and workers had died of malaria or yellow fever. In the 1880s, no one knew that mosquitoes carried disease. By 1900, though, the secret was out, thanks partly to Walter Reed, an army doctor who proved that mosquitoes are the carrier of yellow fever. The U.S. team burned off the plants in nearby swamps. Workers filled in thousands of holes that had been dug by crabs—holes that held water. They removed or destroyed any object that might collect rainwater. Deaths from yellow fever dropped more than 70 percent, malaria all but disappeared, and the canal got built. Later in the 20th century, new insecticides were invented. From 1954 to 1969, the World Health Organization (WHO, part of the United Nations) tried to use these insecticides to eliminate malaria from the world completely. But no matter what poison was used, the mosquitoes eventually would become immune to it. And the more poison used, the faster they became immune. Furthermore, some of these poisons had far-reaching effects on other animals. Today, WHO has given up trying to wipe out mosquitoes. It tries to control them instead. For example, in the western Pacific it provides local peoples with bed nets that have been soaked in insecticide. The aim is not to kill mosquitoes, but to keep them away from sleeping people. It looks as if humans will never be able to eliminate mosquitoes completely. Two new methods of mosquito control attack the mosquito larvae, the worms that grow into mosquitoes. Mosquito larvae float just under the surface of the water. In central Africa, people spread oil or gasoline on the water. That causes the larvae to sink and drown. This method works well for getting rid of mosquitoes, but it leaves a polluting film of oil or gasoline on the pond. In North America, some local governments are experimenting with bacteria to control mosquitoes. One kind, called Bti (Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis), is added to water where mosquitoes breed. The mosquito larvae eat the Bti and die. So far, this method is very good at controlling mosquitoes, and it doesn’t appear to affect the animals that eat the Bti infected larvae. But it may not be long before mosquitoes develop a resistance to Bti, too. They have a long history as survivors. Bruce T. Paddock has written books and textbooks, as well as articles and columns in magazines and on on-line networks. “At War With the Mosquito” by Bruce T. Paddock, from Faces’ October 1996 issue, text copyright � 1996 by Cobblestone Publishing, Inc. 18C Passage H Grade 8 The Right Choice by Kari Kobil

he sun was beginning to take the happened, and she wasn’t sure how best sharp chill out of the early morning to handle it. The door to the room in air when I arrived at the popular question was wide open, and there, TLake Tahoe resort where I had worked as sitting regally in the doorway, was a assistant manager for the last gorgeous, albeit under-nourished, ebony two years—a position that cat. Apparently, our guests had checked required 9- to 11-hour work out and left the sad, lonely little cat days for six (and sometimes behind like yesterday’s seven) days a week. Of newspaper. At least I course, such a hectic thought he looked sad schedule included being on and lonely (which call when I wasn’t physically should have given me on the property. My mind, a clue about the body and soul were so changes ahead for attuned to my job that the me); to my mind, he thought of having any type should have felt that of responsibility outside of way after being work was not an option I abandoned. Yet, he even entertained. seemed perfectly content I quickly fell into my as he wound his body around daily routine. I checked in my ankles, purring loudly with the night auditor to enough for all to hear. He actually find out about the previous seemed happy to see me (which night’s events, completed my morning should have been my second clue). property check and entered full swing into Quickly sizing up the situation, the the busy workday. Naturally, I did not housekeeper, the maid who had found expect what was about to happen, but isn’t him, and a desk clerk who had joined the that usually the way it is with life’s small group in the hallway, unanimously surprises? When one least expects it, the decided that the feline had chosen me to unexpected arrives—in my case, an be its new owner. I thought they were abandoned cat that was determined to nuts and wasted no time in telling them become my buddy. so. I didn’t have time for a cat, I told Around 9 o’clock, the housekeeper them. My landlord didn’t allow pets, I spotted me in the lobby and asked me to protested. Ignoring my excuses, they accompany her to one of the recently smiled and handed him over to me. I vacated rooms. Something unusual had handed him back with a firm “No!”

19C Passage H Grade 8

Thinking the matter was settled, I Ultimately, an incident occurred that walked back to my office, unaware of the made me decide to keep him (as if I ever persistent feline trotting along behind me. really had a choice in the matter). As I When I reached the lobby, I turned around walked across the parking lot one and was startled to see him trailing me. morning, I noticed the night auditor “No!” I told him emphatically, then firmly getting into his car with an obviously closed my office door in his purring face. upset cat. I could hear the yowls and hisses The cat, however, turned out to be the across the lot. Assuming the auditor was personification of persistence. Throughout going to take the cat home, I walked over that day, every time I looked behind me, to bid my feline friend farewell. Imagine there he was, like some sort of permanent my horror when I learned that the cat was shadow. This went on for about a week, being taken to the pound! Without a during which I tried to persuade everyone moment’s hesitation, I snatched him away I could think of to take him home—and off from the auditor. With a calmer cat in my heels. Finally, the housekeeper agreed hand, I walked back to my office. I had just to adopt him. She left work one afternoon sat down and was reaching for some with him under her arm. paperwork when the cat jumped onto the To my amazement, I found him sitting desk and gently placed his head on my by the lobby door the next morning. He hand before curling up next to the phone. had actually walked the 3 miles back to the Needless to say, he went home that inn. From the way he sprang to life when night—to the home of his choice. It had he saw me, it was obvious he had been taken him quite a while, but my persistent waiting for me. little buddy had finally convinced me that I wondered why he persisted in it was the right choice for both of us. following me, and why he had come back to the inn when he had a perfectly good home with the housekeeper. He must have sensed I was weakening, because he became even bolder. He followed me everywhere, and everywhere we went guests “oohed” and “aahed” over him. I began to feed him. After all, I reasoned, I couldn’t let an inn guest starve, could I? He spent his days snoozing by my office door. If I picked him up and placed him outside on the inn’s grounds, he somehow magically reappeared by my door a few minutes later. It was becoming glaringly apparent that this kitty had singled me out for companionship and wasn’t going anywhere unless I went, too.

20C Passage I Grade 8

21C Passage I Grade 8

22C Passage I Grade 8

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