Our Place

in the World
unit

7
history, culture,
and the author
• In Fiction
• In Nonfiction
• In Media
• In Poetry

741
 7
unit Share What You Know

What shapes
who we are?
If you were to write a book about your life, where would you begin?
If you’re like many authors and artists, what you say would probably
reflect the influence of your family, friends, and culture. Although you
can’t always see it, culture plays an important part in shaping your
world. The language you speak, the holidays you celebrate, the games
you play, and the music you listen to are all part of your culture.
ACTIVITY What parts of your history and culture influence you the
most? Think about the important people, places, and events in your
life. Then reflect on your family’s traditions and your own taste in
entertainment. Make a collage out of images and mementos that
symbolize what shapes you.

742
 Literature and Reading Center
l i t e r at u r e Writing Center
classzone.com Vocabulary and Spelling Center

Included in this unit: R1.1, R3.7, W1.1,

W1.2, W1.3, W1.5, W1.6, W2.4, LC1.1,
LC1.3, LC1.5, LS1.6, LS1.9

86A>;DGC>6 Preview Unit Goals

literary • Identify and analyze influence of writer’s background

analysis • Identify and analyze historical and cultural context of selections
• Identify and analyze author’s perspective

reading • Make inferences

• Analyze sensory details
• Compare and contrast

writing and • Write a cause-and-effect essay

grammar • Combine sentences to form a compound-complex sentence
• Use colons and semicolons correctly

speaking, • Identify visual aspects of illustrations

listening, • Compare different points of view in nonprint media sources
and viewing
• Deliver a multimedia presentation

vocabulary • Use context to determine the meaning of homographs

• Use similes to figure out the meanings of unfamiliar words

academic • author’s background • cultural context

vocabulary • author’s perspective • cause-and-effect
• historical context

743
 unit 7
Reader’s History, Culture, and the Author
Workshop Have you ever heard the lyrics to a song and wondered what motivated the musician
to write them? What about a work of literature—do you ever wonder what inspired
its creation? In this workshop, you’ll learn about different factors that can affect
writers. By examining the layers of a writer’s experience, you can “read into”
literature with far more insight.

Part 1: A Writer’s Background

86A>;DGC>6 You are the unique product of many factors, including your heritage, family life,
R3.7 Analyze a work of literature, national identity, and economic status. Just as all these factors shape your ideas
showing how it reflects the heritage,
traditions, attitudes, and beliefs of its and beliefs, they influence writers as well. Writers may not consciously realize
author. (Biographical approach)
it, but their heritage, traditions, attitudes, and beliefs are reflected in what they
choose to write about and also in how they express their ideas.
For instance, consider “Eating Together,” a poem that paints a touching
picture of a close-knit family. First, read the poem itself. Then go back and read
the background on Li-Young Lee to identify aspects of his heritage and customs
that are reflected in the poem. Notice how your knowledge of Lee’s personal
history deepens your understanding of the poem.

Eating Together Poem by Li-Young Lee

BACKGROUND Li-Young Lee was born to Chinese

parents in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1957. The family moved
many times during Lee’s childhood—often to avoid
anti-Chinese sentiments—before settling in the United
States. Lee’s poetry frequently focuses on his close-knit, questions to ask
traditional Chinese family, and many poems express the
poet’s grief over his father’s death. What evidence of the author’s
heritage and customs do I see?
The Asian family described in
In the steamer is the trout the poem seems close-knit
seasoned with slivers of ginger, and traditional, much like
two sprigs of green onion, and sesame oil. Lee’s own family.
We shall eat it with rice for lunch,
5 brothers, sister, my mother who will
What might have been the
taste the sweetest meat of the head,
author’s motivation for writing
holding it between her fingers this poem?
deftly, the way my father did Lee may have wanted to
weeks ago. Then he lay down express his feelings about his
10 to sleep like a snow-covered road father’s death and to reflect
winding through pines older than him, on how his father’s absence
without any travelers, and lonely for no one. has affected his family.

744 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

 86A>;DGC>6
model 1: analyzing a poem
Read this poem a first time, without knowing anything about the author
behind the words and ideas. How would you describe the speaker?

Each morning I wrote my name Close Read

on the dusty cabinet, then crossed 1. What images does
the dining table in script, scrawled Alvarez use to help you
in capitals on the backs of chairs, visualize the actions
5 practicing signatures like scales of the speaker and her
Poem by Julia Alvarez while Mother followed, squirting mother? Find three
linseed1 from a burping can examples.
into a crumpled-up flannel.

She erased my fingerprints

10 from the bookshelf and rocker,
polished mirrors on the desk
scribbled with my alphabets.
My name was swallowed in the towel
with which she jeweled the table tops. 2. Think about what the
15 The grain surfaced in the oak speaker means by
and the pine grew luminous. what she says in the
boxed lines. How is
But I refused with every mark
she different from her
to be like her, anonymous.
mother?

1. linseed: yellowish oil made from flax seeds,

often used to help preserve the shine of natural
wood furniture.

model 2: the writer’s background

Read this background information about Julia Alvarez. Then go back
and read the poem a second time.

Julia Alvarez was born in New York in 1950. Close Read

When she was three months old, her parents returned 1. In what way does the
with her to their native country, the Dominican background information
Republic. However, the family came back to the help you to better
5 United States for political reasons when Alvarez was understand the poem?
ten years old. Alvarez grew up speaking Spanish, with 2. What connection can you
English as a second language. Her mother worked draw between the last
as a housekeeper and, as a young girl, Alvarez would two lines of the poem
10 often go with her mother to work. Alvarez has said, and Alvarez’s career?
“As I followed my mother cleaning house, washing and
ironing clothes, rolling dough, I was using the material
of my housebound girl life to claim my woman’s legacy.” Alvarez later became
a writer and continues to share her childhood experiences in her works.

reader’s workshop 745

Part 2: Historical and Cultural Influences
Knowing about a writer’s personal background can help you to appreciate his or
her work more fully. Similarly, knowing the historical and cultural contexts in
which the work was written can help you interpret and analyze that work more
accurately. Historical and cultural contexts refer to the events, social problems,
traditions, and values that may have influenced the author and the writing. For
example, what events and issues of the time was the author concerned about?
How are those concerns reflected in the writing?
Take a look at this excerpt from a story by James Baldwin. Notice how reading
the background and answering some questions can give you new insights into
Baldwin’s vivid descriptions.

from
Sonny’s Blues Short story by James Baldwin

Text not available.

Please refer to the text in the textbook.

questions to ask
What aspects of Baldwin’s
background are reflected in
the writing?
Baldwin uses words and
phrases like “smothering,”
“encircled by disaster,” and
“the trap” to describe the
poverty-stricken Harlem
neighborhood of his youth.

What might have prompted

the author to write this story?
Baldwin may have wanted to
explore why former residents
of Harlem who “escaped the
trap” still feel so connected to
the neighborhood in which
they grew up.

746
 Reader’s Workshop

model 1: analyzing fiction

In this story, a British pilot wakes up in a French hospital during World War II.
Find out what he’s thinking about as a nurse tends to him. First, read this excerpt
and answer the Close Read questions. Then read the background that follows.

from
Beware of the Dog
Short story by Roald Dahl
“I believe there’s someone coming down to see you from the Air Ministry Close Read
after breakfast,” she went on. “They want a report or something. I expect you 1. What do you learn about
know all about it. How you got shot down and all that. I won’t let him stay the pilot in this passage?
long, so don’t worry.” 2. The hospital staff is
5 He did not answer. She finished washing him and gave him a toothbrush being kind to the pilot,
and some toothpowder. He brushed his teeth, rinsed his mouth, and spat the but he believes they
water out into the basin. are only trying to get
Later she brought him his breakfast on a tray, but he did not want to eat. information from him.
He was still feeling weak and sick and he wished only to lie still and think Which words and phrases
10 about what had happened. And there was a sentence running through his convey his anxiety?
head. It was a sentence which Johnny, the Intelligence Officer of his squadron,
always repeated to the pilots every day before they went out. He could see
Johnny now, leaning against the wall of the dispersal hut with his pipe in his
hand, saying, “And if they get you, don’t forget, just your name, rank, and
15 number. Nothing else. For God’s sake, say nothing else.”

model 2: historical and cultural context

The following background helps to explain why a British pilot would be
nervous about waking up in a French hospital.

World War II began with Germany’s 1939 invasion of Poland, which Close Read
caused Britain and France to declare war on Germany. By 1941, German 1. What exactly is the pilot
forces had occupied France and much of Western Europe, but Great Britain worried about? Explain
was still fighting back. Other countries joined the war on both sides of the how the background
5 conflict, dividing into the Axis forces and the Allies. France was not liberated helps you to understand
from German occupation until 1944. his situation.
Roald Dahl joined the British Royal Air Force in 1939. He became a 2. In your opinion, is
fighter pilot and flew missions over North Africa, Greece, and the Middle Dahl’s tone in the story
East during the war. After his plane crashed in Egypt, he spent six sympathetic to the pilot?
10 months in a hospital, recovering from a head injury. Explain.
When he was asked later to share his
experiences, Dahl’s career as a writer
began. “Beware of the Dog” was
published in 1944.

reader’s workshop 747

 Part 3: Analyze the Literature
Before reading “Origami,” read the following background information about
the author, Susan K. Ito, and the topics mentioned in her story.

background
Crafting Words and Mending Old Wounds

Seeking to Belong 40 Japanese Internment During

As a child, Susan K. World War II, nations were divided
Ito often struggled between the Axis and Allied forces.
with her sense of In 1941 Japan—a member of the
5 identity. She says, Axis powers—bombed the U.S.
“I felt like I was 45 military base at Pearl Harbor in
the only one of my Honolulu, Hawaii, prompting the
kind: mixed-race, Susan K. Ito United States to declare war on
adopted, only child.” She often found Japan. Four years later, the United
10 herself envying women who were States dropped atomic bombs on
full-blooded Japanese, since she was 50 two Japanese cities: Hiroshima and
only part Japanese. When she began Nagasaki.
taking literature and creative writing Americans were fearful of another
classes in graduate school, Ito felt like attack within their borders. As a
15 she had found where she belonged: “I precaution, Japanese immigrants and
was finally immersing myself in the 55 Americans of Japanese ancestry were
world that I’d longed to be in forever: sent to and held in facilities called
the world of words.” Life as a Japanese internment camps in order to isolate
American and the struggle for a sense them from the rest of the American
20 of belonging have been the focus of public. The largest camp was the
much of her writing. 60 Tule Lake Segregation Center in
California. At the time, limiting
Peace Cranes the rights of one ethnic group was
“Origami” is named viewed as being done in service of
after a paper-folding the greater good of the American
25 craft that has 65 public. The last internment camp
been practiced closed in 1948. However, it was not
for centuries in until 1988 that the U.S. government
Japan. Its popularity has now spread issued its first official apology for
to many other countries. One of the its treatment of Japanese Americans
30 most popular paper designs is the 75 during World War II.
crane—a type of bird. In many Asian
countries, the crane is a symbol of
peace. Many people from around the
world send paper cranes to a memorial
35 in Hiroshima, Japan, every year. It is
done in memory of those who died
there during World War II and as an
expression of the senders’ wish for Japanese internment camp in Santa
world peace. Anita, California

748 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

 Reader’s Workshop

The narrator of this short story views herself as an outsider struggling

to prove that she belongs. As you read this excerpt, consider how the
background information enhances your understanding of the story.

ORIGAMI
from

Short story by Susan K. Ito

I take my place, hesitantly, among the group of Japanese women, smile Close Read
back at the ones who look up from their task to nod at me. Their words float 1. Reread the boxed
around me like alphabet soup, familiar, comforting, but nothing that I clearly text. How does the
understand. The long cafeteria table blooms with folded paper birds of all background enhance
5 colors: royal purple, light gray, a small shimmering silver one. They’re weaving your reading of this
an origami wreath for Sunday’s memorial service, a thousand cranes for the passage?
souls of those who died at Tule Lake’s internment camp.
I spread the square of sky-blue paper flat under my hands, then fold it in 2. Why does the narrator
half. So far, this is easy. I’m going to follow all the directions. It’s going to be feel insecure in this
10 a perfect crane, tsuru, flying from my palm. Fold again, then flip that side of situation? Support your
the triangle under to make a box. Oh no. What? I didn’t get that. I’m lost. The answer.
women around me keep creasing, folding, spreading, their fingers moving with
easy grace. My thumbs are huge, thick, in the way of these paper wings that are 3. Does Ito seem to
trying to unfold but can’t. sympathize with the
15 My heart rises and flutters, beating against its cage in panic, in confusion. I narrator? Explain.
try to retrace my steps, turn the paper upside down, in reverse. It’s not working.
I want to crumple the paper into a blue ball, an origami rock. 4. Which details show you
But instead I unfold the paper with damp, shaking fingers. I persevere. that the narrator admires
Gambaro. Don’t give up. I’m going to make this crane if it kills me. I’m going people who are Japanese?
20 to prove that I can do this thing, this Japanese skill. I’m going to pull the
coordination out of my blood, make it flow into my fingers. I have to. 5. Which details in the
But what if I can’t? Then it only proves the thing that I fear the most, don’t background help you
want to believe. That I’m not really Japanese. That I’m just an imposter, a fake, understand why Ito
a watered-down, inauthentic K-mart version of the real thing. might have chosen to
write this story?

reader’s workshop 749

 Before Reading

The Snapping Turtle

Short Story by Joseph Bruchac

Where do we get our

values ?
KEY IDEA Do you remember where you learned that honesty is the
best policy? Or that hard work pays off? We get our values from
a patchwork of different sources, including important people in
86A>;DGC>6
our lives, the communities around us, and mass media. The boy
R3.7 Analyze a work of literature,
showing how it reflects the heritage, in the story you’re about to read gets many of his values from his
traditions, attitudes, and beliefs of its grandparents, but as you’ll see, these values are put to the test.
author. (Biographical approach)
Also included in this lesson: R1.1
(p. 764), LC1.3 (p. 765) LIST IT Take one minute to list some of the values 1. lo yalty
that are important to you. Circle the value that most
2.
influences how you live your life. Then, as a class,
3.
generate a list that reflects the group’s responses,
and discuss where you learned these values.

750
literary analysis: influence of author’s background 86A>;DGC>6
An author’s background, including life experiences and cultural
Writer and Storyteller
heritage, shapes his or her way of looking at the world and often Joseph Bruchac
affects what he or she writes. For example, Joseph Bruchac was was raised by his
raised by his grandparents, one of whom was Native American. grandparents in the
Many of his stories, in turn, have Native American characters foothills of New York
and reflect Native American values. State’s Adirondack
Mountains, in a
Before you read, learn more about Bruchac from the biography
house built by his
on this page. Then, as you read, notice how Bruchac’s characters grandfather. After
reflect his own cultural heritage, beliefs and values, and life story. leaving home to
study literature,
reading skill: compare and contrast Bruchac returned to Joseph Bruchac
his hometown. He born 1942
When you compare two or more things, you identify ways in and his wife now live
which they are alike. When you contrast them, you find ways in in the house where he grew up. Bruchac
which they are different. Thinking about characters’ similarities has published many books of stories and
and differences can help you recognize their qualities and values. poetry, and he founded his own publishing
company, the Greenfield Review Press.
In “The Snapping Turtle,” you will compare and contrast
In addition to being an author, Bruchac
• the narrator and other boys is a well-known professional storyteller,
performing the traditional stories of the
• the narrator’s grandmother and grandfather
Native Americans of the Northeast.
As you read, use Venn diagrams to compare and contrast
Hidden Heritage Bruchac’s grandfather was
these characters’ attitudes, backgrounds, and values. part Native American. He was descended
Narrator Other Boys from the Abenaki (äQbE-näPkC), a group
that originally lived in New England
loves nature and southern Canada. Bruchac did not
discover this heritage until he was a
teenager, because his grandfather feared
that he would be discriminated against
if he revealed his Native American roots.
vocabulary in context Although Bruchac did not know it at the
The boldfaced words help Bruchac tell about a boy’s relationship time, his grandfather raised him with
with nature. Try restating each sentence, using a different word traditional Abenaki values. The Abenaki
or phrase for the boldfaced word. believe in honoring their elders, treating
the earth with respect by not wasting its
1. My philosophy is “Leave nothing but footprints.” resources, and sharing food
2. The memorial garden seemed to give the hero immortality. and possessions with others.

3. Amy and I like to traipse around the meadow. more about the author
For more on Joseph Bruchac, visit the
4. I have no inclination to go indoors when it’s nice outside.
Literature Center at ClassZone.com.
5. It takes craftiness to successfully trick a raccoon.
6. I cache my camping gear behind a tree while I hike.
7. Following their migration route, the geese flew north.
8. The thick undergrowth made the forest impregnable.
9. The basking sunbather enjoyed the afternoon breeze.
10. Undaunted, the bird flew on in search of food.

the snapping turtle 751

 the
sna pping
turtle Joseph Bruchac

M y grandmother was working in the flower garden near the road that
morning when I came out with my fishing pole. She was separating
out the roots of iris. As far as flowers go, she and I were agreed that iris
ANALYZE VISUALS
What effect does the
artist’s use of color have
on what you notice in this
had the sweetest scent. Iris would grow about anywhere, shooting up green painting?
sword-shaped leaves like the mythical soldiers that sprang from the planted
teeth of a dragon. But iris needed some amount of care. Their roots would
multiply so thick and fast that they could crowd themselves right up out of
the soil. Spring separating and replanting were, as my grandmother put it,
just the ticket.1
10 Later that day, I knew, she would climb into our blue 1951 Plymouth to
drive around the back roads of Greenfield, a box of iris in the back seat. She
would stop at farms where she had noticed a certain color of iris that she didn’t
have yet. Up to the door she would go to ask for a root so that she could add
another splash of color to our garden. And, in exchange, she would give that philosophy (fG-lJsPE-fC)
person, most often a flowered-aproned and somewhat elderly woman like n. a system of values or
herself, some of her own iris. beliefs
It wasn’t just that she wanted more flowers herself. She had a philosophy.
immortality
If only one person keeps a plant, something might happen to it. Early frost, (GmQôr-tBlPG-tC) n. the
insects, animals, Lord knows what. But if many have that kind of plant, then it condition of having an
20 may survive. Sharing meant a kind of immortality. I didn’t quite understand endless life
it then, but I enjoyed taking those rides with her, carrying boxes and cans and
flowerpots with new kinds of iris back to the car. a a AUTHOR’S
“Going fishing, Sonny?” she said now. BACKGROUND
What is one attitude or
Of course, she knew where I was going. Not only the evidence of the pole in
belief expressed in lines
my hand, but also the simple facts that it was a Saturday morning in late May 10–22?
and I was a boy of ten, would have led her to that natural conclusion. But she
had to ask. It was part of our routine.

1. just the ticket: the perfect solution.

Child Fishing (1989), Lincoln
Seligman. Private collection.
752 unit 7: history, culture, and the author © Bridgeman Art Library.
 “Un-hun,” I answered, as I always did. “Unless you and Grampa need some
help.” Then I held my breath, for though my offer of aid had been sincere
30 enough, I really wanted to go fishing.
Grama thrust her foot down on the spading2 fork, carefully levering out a
heavy clump of iris marked last fall with a purple ribbon to indicate the color.
She did such things with half my effort and twice the skill, despite the fact I
was growing, as she put it, like a weed. “No, you go on along. This afternoon
Grampa and I could use some help, though.”
“I’ll be back by then,” I said, but I didn’t turn and walk away. I waited for
the next thing I knew she would say.
“You stay off of the state road, now.”
In my grandmother’s mind, Route 9N, which came down the hill past my
40 grandparents’ little gas station and general store on the corner, was nothing less
than a Road of Death. If I ever set foot on it, I would surely be as doomed as
our four cats and two dogs that met their fates there.
“Runned over and kilt,” as Grampa Jesse put it.
Grampa Jesse, who had been the hired man for my grandmother’s parents
before he and Grama eloped, was not a person with book learning like my
college-educated grandmother. His family was Abenaki Indian, poor but honest
hill people who could read the signs in the forest, but who had never traipsed traipse (trAps) v. to walk
far along the trails of schoolhouse ways. Between Grama’s books and Grampa’s or tramp around
practical knowledge, some of which I was about to apply to bring home a
50 mess of 3 trout, I figured I was getting about the best education a ten-year-old
boy could have. I was lucky that my grandparents were raising me. b b COMPARE AND
“I’ll stay off the state road,” I promised. “I’ll just follow Bell Brook.” CONTRAST
Reread lines 44–51.
Truth be told, the state road made me a little nervous, too. It was all too
What differences does
easy to imagine myself in the place of one of my defunct pets, stunned by the the narrator point out
elephant bellow of a tractor-trailer’s horn, looking wild-eyed up to the shiny between Grama and
metal grill; the thud, the lightning-bolt flash of light, and then the eternal Grampa?
dark. I imagined my grandfather shoveling the dirt over me in a backyard
grave next to that of Lady, the collie, and Kitty-kitty, the gray cat, while my
grandmother dried her eyes with her apron and said, “I told him to stay off
60 that road!”
I was big on knowledge but very short on courage in those years. I mostly
played by myself because the other kids my age from the houses and farms
scattered around our rural township regarded me as a Grama’s boy who would
tell if they were to tie me up and threaten to burn my toes with matches, a
ritual required to join the local society of pre-teenage boys. A squealer. And
they were right.
I didn’t much miss the company of other kids. I had discovered that most
of them had little interest in the living things around them. They were noisier
than Grampa and I were, scaring away the rabbits that we could creep right

2. spading: digging.
3. a mess of: an amount of (food).

754 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

 70 up on. Instead of watching the frogs catching flies with their long, gummy
tongues, those boys wanted to shoot them with their BB guns. I couldn’t
imagine any of them having the patience or inclination to hold out a hand inclination
filled with sunflower seeds, as Grampa had showed me I could, long enough (Gn-klE-nAPshEn) n. a
tendency to prefer one
for a chickadee to come and light on an index finger.
thing over another
Even fishing was done differently when I did it Grampa’s way. I knew for
a fact that most of those boys would go out and come home with an empty
creel. They hadn’t been watching for fish from the banks as I had in the weeks VISUAL VOCABULARY
before the trout season began, so they didn’t know where the fish lived. They
didn’t know how to keep low, float your line in, wait for that first tap, and
80 then, after the strike that bent your pole, set the hook. And they never said
thank-you to every fish they caught, the way I remembered to do. c
Walking the creek edge, I set off downstream. By mid-morning, my bait
can of moss and red earthworms that Grampa and I had dug from the edge of
our manure pile was near empty. I’d gone half a mile and had already caught
seven trout. All of them were squaretails, native brook trout whose sides were
creel: a basket used to
patterned with a speckled rainbow of bright circles—red, green, gold. I’d only carry caught fish
kept the ones more than seven inches long, and I’d remembered to wet my
hand before taking the little ones off the hook. Grasping a trout with a dry c AUTHOR’S
hand would abrade the slick coat of natural oil from the skin and leave it open BACKGROUND
90 for infection and disease. Reread lines 67–81. What
Abenaki customs and
As always, I’d had to keep the eyes in the back of my head open just as attitudes are reflected in
Grampa had told me to do whenever I was in the woods. this passage?
“Things is always hunting one another,” he’d said.
And he was right. Twice, at places where Bell Brook swung near Mill Road
I’d had to leave the stream banks to take shelter when I heard the ominous
crunch of bicycle tires on the gravel. Back then, when I was ten, I was smaller
than the other boys my age. I made up for it by being harder to catch. Equal
parts of craftiness and plain old panic at being collared by bullies I viewed as craftiness (krBfPtC-nDs) n.
close kin to Attila the Hun4 kept me slipperier than an eel. deviousness or deception
100 From grapevine tangles up the bank, I’d watched as Pauly Roffmeier,
Ricky Holstead, and Will Backus rolled up to the creek, making more noise
than a herd of hippos, to plunk their own lines in. Both times, they caught
nothing. It wasn’t surprising, since they were talking like jaybirds, scaring
away whatever fish might have been within half a mile. And Will kept lighting
matches and throwing them down to watch them hiss out when they struck
the water. Not to mention the fact that I had pulled a ten-inch brook trout
out of the first hole and an eleven incher out of the second before they even
reached the stream. d d COMPARE AND
I looked up at the sky. I didn’t wear a watch then. No watch made by man CONTRAST
Reread lines 100–108.
110 seemed able to work more than a few days when strapped to my wrist. It was
How is the boys’ approach
a common thing on my Grampa’s side of the family. “We jest got too much to fishing different from
’lectricity in us,” he explained. that of the narrator?

4. Attila the Hun: a barbarian leader who successfully invaded the Roman Empire in the A.D. 400s .

the snapping turtle 755

 Without a watch, I could measure time by the sun. I could see it was
about ten. I had reached the place where Bell Brook crossed under the
state road. Usually I went no further than this. It had been my boundary
for years. But somewhere along the way I had decided that today would be
different. I think perhaps a part of me was ashamed of hiding from the other
boys, ashamed of always being afraid. I wanted to do something that I’d
always been afraid to do. I wanted to be brave.
120 I had no need to fish further. I had plenty of trout for our supper. I’d cleaned
them all out with my Swiss Army knife, leaving the entrails5 where the crows
and jays could get them. If you did that, the crows and jays would know you
for a friend and not sound the alarm when they saw you walking in the woods.
I sank the creel under water, wedged it beneath a stone. The water of the brook
was deep and cold and I knew it would keep the flesh of the trout fresh and
firm. Then I cached my pole and bait can under the spice bushes. As I looked cache (kBsh) v. to store
up at the highway, Grama’s words came back to me: in a hiding place
“Stay off the state road, Sonny.”
“Under,” I said aloud, “is not on.”
130 Then, taking a deep breath, bent over at the waist, I waded into the culvert6
that dove under the Road of Death. I had gone no more than half a dozen
steps before I walked into a spider web so strong that it actually bounced me
back. I splashed a little water from the creek up onto it and watched the beads
shape a pattern of concentric circles. The orb-weaver sat unmoving in a corner,
one leg resting on a strand of the web. She’d been waiting for the vibration
of some flying creature caught in the sticky strands of her net. Clearly, I was
much more than she had hoped for. She sat there without moving. Her wide
back was patterned with a shape like that of a red and gold hourglass. Her
compound eyes, jet black on her head, took in my giant shape. Spiders gave
140 some people the willies.7 I knew their bite would hurt like blue blazes, but I
still thought them graced with great beauty.
“Excuse me,” I said. “Didn’t mean to bother you.”
The spider raised one front leg. A nervous reaction, most likely, but I raised
one hand back. Then I ducked carefully beneath the web, entering an area
where the light was different. It was like passing from one world into another.
I sloshed through the dark culvert, my fingertips brushing the rushing surface
of the stream, the current pushing at my calves. My sneakered feet barely held
their purchase8 on the ridged metal, slick with moss. e e AUTHOR’S
When I came out the other side, the sunlight was blinding. Just ahead of BACKGROUND
How are the author’s
150 me the creek was overarched with willows. They were so thick and low that beliefs reflected in the
there was no way I could pass without either going underwater or breaking a narrator’s reaction to the
way through the brush. I wasn’t ready to do either. So I made my way up the spider? Explain.

5. entrails (DnPtrAlzQ): the internal organs.

6. culvert (kOlPvErt): a drain that passes under a road.
7. the willies: a feeling of fear and/or disgust.
8. held their purchase: gripped; refrained from slipping.

756 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

 Bridge Over Weekeepeemee (1974), Mark Potter. Oil on canvas. Private collection. © Bridgeman Art Library.

bank, thinking to circle back and pick up the creek farther down. For what ANALYZE VISUALS
purpose, I wasn’t sure, aside from just wanting to do it. I was nervous as a hen Compare the scene in
this painting with the
yard when a chicken hawk is circling overhead. But I was excited, too. This
way you picture the
was new ground to me, almost a mile from home. I’d gone farther from home culvert in the story.
in the familiar directions of north and west, into the safety of the woods, but What are the similarities
this was different: Across the state road, in the direction of town; someone and differences?
else’s hunting territory. I stayed low to the ground and hugged the edges of the
160 brush as I moved. Then I saw something that drew me away from the creek:
The glint of a wider expanse of water. The Rez, the old Greenfield Reservoir.
I’d never been to the Rez, though I knew the other boys went there. As I’d
sat alone on the bus, my bookbag clasped tightly to my chest, I’d heard them
talk about swimming there, fishing for bass, spearing bullfrogs five times as
big as the little frogs in Bell Brook.
I knew I shouldn’t be there, yet I was. Slowly I moved to the side of the wide
trail that led to the edge of the deep water, and it was just as well that I did:
Their bikes had been stashed in the brush down the other side of the path.
They’d been more quiet than usual. I might have walked up on them if I
170 hadn’t heard a voice. . . .

the snapping turtle 757

 I picked up some of the dark mud with my fingertips and drew lines
across my cheeks. Grampa had explained it would make me harder to see.
Then I slid to a place where an old tree leaned over the bank, cloaked by the
cattails that grew from the edge of the Rez. I made my way out on the trunk
and looked. . . .
“It’s not gonna come up,” Ricky said. He picked up something that looked
like a makeshift spear. “You lied.”
“I did not. It was over there. The biggest snapper I ever saw.” Will shaded
his eyes with one hand and looked right in my direction without seeing me.
180 “If we catch it, we could sell it for ten dollars to that man on Congress Street.
They say snapping turtles have seven different kinds of meat in them.”
“Hmph,” Pauly said, throwing his own spear aside. “Let’s go find something
else to do.”
One by one, they picked up their fishing poles and went back down the
path. I waited without moving, hearing their heavy feet on the trail and then
the rattle of their bike chains. . . . All I could think of was that snapping turtle.
I knew a lot about turtles. There were mud turtles and map turtles. There
migration (mF-grAPshEn)
was the smart orange-legged wood turtle and the red-eared slider with its n. the act of changing
cheeks painted crimson as if it was going to war. Every spring Grama and location seasonally (used
190 Grampa and I would drive around, picking up those whose old migration here as an adjective)
routes had been cut by the recent and lethal ribbons of road. Spooked by a car,
a turtle falls into that old defense of pulling head and legs and tail into its once
impregnable fortress. But a shell does little good against the wheels of a Nash impregnable
or a DeSoto.9 (Gm-prDgPnE-bEl) adj.
impossible to enter
Some days we’d rescue as many as a dozen turtles, taking them home for a
by force
few days before releasing them back into the wild. Painted turtles, several as
big as two hands held together, might nip at you some, but they weren’t really
dangerous. And the wood turtles would learn in a day or so to reach out for
a strawberry or a piece of juicy tomato and then leave their heads out for a
200 scratch while you stroked them with a finger.
Snappers though, they were different. Long-tailed, heavy-bodied and
short-tempered, their jaws would gape wide and they’d hiss when you came up
on them ashore. Their heads and legs were too big to pull into their shells and
they would heave up on their legs and lunge forward as they snapped at you.
They might weigh as much as fifty pounds, and it was said they could take off
a handful of fingers in one bite. There wasn’t much to recommend a snapping
turtle as a friend. f f AUTHOR’S
Most people seemed to hate snappers. Snappers ate the fish and the ducks; BACKGROUND
they scared swimmers away. Or I should say that people hated them alive. Do you think Bruchac has
had experiences similar
210 Dead, they were supposed to be the best-eating turtle of all. Ten dollars, I to those the narrator
thought. Enough for me to send away to the mail-order pet place and get a pair describes here? Explain
of real flying squirrels. I’d kept that clipping from Field and Stream magazine your answer.

9. Nash . . . DeSoto: car brands that were popular during the 1950s.

758 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

 thumbtacked over my bed for four months now. A sort of plan was coming
into my mind. g g COMPARE AND
People were afraid of getting bit by snappers when they were swimming. CONTRAST
What does the narrator
But from what I’d read, and from what Grampa told me, they really didn’t
have in common with
have much to worry about. Will, one of the other
“Snapper won’t bother you none in the water,” Grampa said. If you were boys?
even to step on a snapping turtle resting on the bottom of a pond, all it would
220 do would be to move away. On land, all the danger from a snapper was to the
front or the side. From behind, a snapper couldn’t get you. Get it by the tail,
you were safe. That was the way.
And as I thought, I kept watch. And as I kept watch, I kept up a silent chant
inside my mind.
Come here, I’m waiting for you.
Come here, I’m waiting for you.

B efore long, a smallish log that had been sticking up farther out in the pond
began to drift my way. It was, as I had expected, no log at all. It was a
turtle’s head. I stayed still. The sun’s heat beat on my back, but I lay there like
230 a basking lizard. Closer and closer the turtle came, heading right into water basking (bBskPGng)
less than waist deep. It was going right for shore, for the sandy bank bathed adj. warming oneself
pleasantly, as in sunlight
in sun. I didn’t think about why then, just wondered at the way my wanting
seemed to have called it to me.
When it was almost to shore, I slid into the water on the other side of the
log I’d been waiting on. The turtle surely sensed me, for it started to swing
around as I moved slowly toward it, swimming as much as walking. But I
lunged and grabbed it by the tail. Its tail was rough and ridged, as easy to hold
as if coated with sandpaper. I pulled hard and the turtle came toward me. I
stepped back, trying not to fall and pull it on top of me. My feet found the
240 bank, and I leaned hard to drag the turtle out, its clawed feet digging into the
dirt as it tried to get away. A roaring hiss like the rush of air from a punctured
tire came out of its mouth, and I stumbled, almost losing my grasp. Then I
took another step, heaved again, and it was mine.
Or at least it was until I let go. I knew I could not let go. I looked around,
holding its tail, moving my feet to keep it from walking its front legs around to
where it would snap at me. It felt as if it weighed a thousand pounds. I could
only lift up the back half of its body. I started dragging it toward the creek,
fifty yards away. It seemed to take hours, a kind of dance between me and the
great turtle, but I did it. I pulled it back through the roaring culvert, water
250 gushing over its shell, under the spider web, and past my hidden pole and creel.
I could come back later for the fish. Now there was only room in the world for
Bell Brook, the turtle, and me.
The long passage upstream is a blur in my memory. I thought of salmon
leaping over falls and learned a little that day how hard such a journey must be.

the snapping turtle 759

 When I rounded the last bend and reached the place where the brook edged our
property, I breathed a great sigh. But I could not rest. There was still a field and
the back yard to cross.
My grandparents saw me coming. From the height of the sun it was now
mid-afternoon, and I knew I was dreadful late.
260 “Sonny, where have you . . . ?” began Grama.
Then she saw the turtle.
“I’m sorry. It took so long because of . . .” I didn’t finish the sentence
because the snapping turtle, undaunted by his backward passage, took that undaunted (On-dônPtGd)
opportunity to try once more to swing around and get me. I had to make three adj. not discouraged;
courageous
quick steps in a circle, heaving at its tail as I did so.

ANALYZE VISUALS
What details on the
snapping turtle do you
notice most? What
details are difficult
to see?

760 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

 “Nice size turtle,” Grampa Jesse said.
My grandmother looked at me. I realized then I must have been a sight.
Wet, muddy, face and hands scratched from the brush that overhung the creek.
“I caught it at the reservoir,” I said. I didn’t think to lie to them about where
270 I’d been. I waited for my grandmother to scold me. But she didn’t.
“Jesse,” she said, “Get the big washtub.”
My grandfather did as she said. He brought it back and then stepped next
to me.
“Leave go,” he said.
My hands had a life of their own, grimly determined never to let loose of
that all-too-familiar tail, but I forced them to open. The turtle flopped down
Before it could move, my grandfather dropped the big washtub over it. All was
silent for a minute as I stood there, my arms aching as they hung by my side.
Then the washtub began to move. My grandmother sat down on it and it
280 stopped.
She looked at me. So did Grampa. It was wonderful how they could focus
their attention on me in a way that made me feel they were ready to do
whatever they could to help. h h COMPARE AND
“What now?” Grama said. CONTRAST
Reread lines 266–283.
“I heard that somebody down on Congress Street would pay ten dollars for a
What similar qualities
snapping turtle.” do Grama and Grampa
“Jack’s,” Grampa said. display?
My grandmother nodded. “Well,” she said, “if you go now you can be
back in time for supper. I thought we were having trout.” She raised an
290 eyebrow at me.
“I left them this side of the culvert by 9N,” I said. “Along with my pole.”
“You clean up and put on dry clothes. Your grandfather will get the fish.”
“But I hid them.”
My grandmother smiled. “Your grandfather will find them.” And he did.
An hour later, we were on the way to Congress Street. . . . In the 1950s,
Congress Street was like a piece of Harlem10 dropped into an upstate town.
We pulled up in front of Jack’s, and a man who looked to be my grandfather’s
age got up and walked over to us. His skin was only a little darker than my
grandfather’s, and the two nodded to each other.
300 My grandfather put his hand on the trunk of the Plymouth.
“What you got there?” Jack said.
“Show him, Sonny.”
I opened the trunk. My snapping turtle lifted up its head as I did so.
“I heard you might want to buy a turtle like this for ten dollars,” I said.
Jack shook his head. “Ten dollars for a little one like that? I’d give you
two dollars.”
I looked at my turtle. Had it shrunk since Grampa wrestled it into the trunk?

10. Harlem: a New York City neighborhood that was and is largely African American.

the snapping turtle 761

 “That’s not enough,” I said.
“Three dollars. My last offer.”
310 I looked at Grampa. He shrugged his shoulders.
“I guess I don’t want to sell it,” I said.
“All right,” Jack said. “You change your mind, come on back.” He touched
his hat with two fingers and walked back over to his chair in the sun.
As we drove back toward home, neither of us said anything for a while.
Then my grandfather spoke.
“Would five dollars’ve been enough?”
“No,” I said.
“How about ten?”
I thought about that. “I guess not.”
320 “Why you suppose that turtle was heading for that sandbank?” Grampa said.
I thought about that, too. Then I realized the truth of it.
“It was coming out to lay its eggs.”
“Might be.”
I thought hard then. I’d learned it was never right for a hunter to shoot a
mother animal, because it hurt the next generation to come. Was a turtle any
different? i i AUTHOR’S
“Can we take her back?” I asked. BACKGROUND
What lesson does the
“Up to you, Sonny.”
narrator learn? Tell
And so we did. Gramp drove the Plymouth right up the trail to the edge of how this lesson reflects
330 the Rez. He held a stick so the turtle would grab onto it as I hauled her out of Bruchac’s values.
the trunk. I put her down and she just stayed there, her nose a foot from the
water but not moving.
“We’ll leave her,” Grampa said. We turned to get into the car. When I
looked back over my shoulder, she was gone. Only ripples on the water,
widening circles rolling on toward other shores like generations following
each other, like my grandmother’s flowers still growing in a hundred gardens
in Greenfield, like the turtles still seeking out that sandbank, like this story
that is no longer just my own but belongs now to your memory, too. 

762 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

After Reading

Comprehension 86A>;DGC>6
1. Recall What actions does the narrator take to make sure he fishes responsibly? R3.7 Analyze a work of literature,
showing how it reflects the heritage,
2. Recall Why does the narrator decide to cross under the state road? traditions, attitudes, and beliefs of its
author. (Biographical approach)
3. Represent How does the narrator get the snapping turtle out of the water?
Reread lines 234–243, and sketch the scene.

Literary Analysis
4. Visualize How well does Joseph Bruchac help you visualize the characters,
events, and settings in the story? Choose a passage that you find visually
descriptive and explain what words and phrases help you picture the scene.
5. Make Inferences About Relationships Describe the narrator’s relationship
with his grandparents. Do you think the other boys in the story would have
similar relationships with the adults in their lives? Explain your answer.
6. Compare and Contrast Characters What are the similarities and differences
between Grama and Grampa? Consider their backgrounds, values, and traits.
Use the notes from one of your Venn diagrams to help you answer the question,
and cite evidence from the story.
7. Analyze Influence of Author’s Background Reread Bruchac’s biography
on page 751 to remind you of his Abenaki beliefs. In what ways does
“The Snapping Turtle” reflect these values? In a graphic like the one shown,
give examples from the story.

Abenaki Values

Honor Elders Respect the Earth Share with Others

8. Evaluate the Ending Reread the last paragraph of the story. How well do
you think it wraps up the plot and summarizes the theme? Refer to specific
phrases in the paragraph as you explain your answer.

Extension and Challenge

9. Inquiry and Research In Native American cultures, stories are often used
to teach children. Find a retelling of a Native American story, perhaps from
one of Joseph Bruchac’s collections, and present it to the class. Explain what
lesson it is meant to teach.

research links
For more on Abenaki stories, visit the Research Center at ClassZone.com.

the snapping turtle 763

Vocabulary in Context
vocabulary practice
Choose the word in each group that is closest in meaning basking inclination
to the boldfaced word.
cache migration
1. craftiness: (a) intelligence, (b) slyness, (c) dishonesty
2. traipse: (a) stroll, (b) slither, (c) bounce craftiness philosophy
3. cache: (a) spend, (b) waste, (c) conceal immortality traipse
4. migration: (a) relocation, (b) nesting, (c) settlement
5. impregnable: (a) frightening, (b) unguarded, (c) impenetrable impregnable undaunted
6. inclination: (a) wisdom, (b) desire, (c) strength
7. basking: (a) sunbathing, (b) swimming, (c) cooking
8. undaunted: (a) unhurt, (b) unafraid, (c) uncaring
9. immortality: (a) birth, (b) death, (c) permanence
10. philosophy: (a) belief, (b) style, (c) story

vocabulary in writing
Using at least two vocabulary words, write a paragraph telling about your own
views on nature. You may want to compare yourself with the boys in the story.
You could start this way.

example sentence

Unlike the narrator, I don’t have an inclination toward fishing.

vocabulary strategy: analogies

An analogy compares similar aspects of two or more different things. Analyzing
an analogy is one way of figuring out the meanings of unfamiliar words in 86A>;DGC>6

context. For example, you can determine the meaning of the word generations R1.1 Analyze idioms, analogies,
metaphors, and similes to infer the
from the thing it is compared to in this passage: literal and figurative meanings of
phrases.
Only ripples on the water, widening circles rolling on toward other shores
like generations following each other . . . . (lines 334–336)

PRACTICE Determine the literal meaning of each analogy, then the figurative.
Use that information to help you understand the boldfaced word.
1. Defunct Web sites are like ghost towns that once bustled with life.
2. Like a makeshift shelter, a flimsy excuse soon falls apart.
3. Carmina tended to the mold she was growing for the science fair the way vocabulary
practice
a mother bird looks after her nest. For more practice, go
4. Like a baseball player stealing second base, Tomás sprinted down the hall to the Vocabulary Center
at ClassZone.com.
and slid into his seat just as the bell finished ringing.

764 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

 86A>;DGC>6
Reading-Writing Connection LC1.3 Use subordination,
coordination, apposition, and other
Demonstrate your understanding of “The Snapping Turtle” by responding devices to indicate clearly the
relationship between ideas.
to these prompts. Then complete the Grammar and Writing exercise.

writing prompts self-check

A. Short Response: Write a Letter A well-written letter will . . .

Think about the narrator’s relationship with his • sound like it’s written by
grandparents. Then imagine the narrator as an an adult
adult. Write a one-paragraph letter in which the
• use details to show why the
grown-up narrator expresses his appreciation to his
narrator is appreciative
grandparents for raising him.

B. Extended Response: Examine Values An insightful response will . . .

Do you think that modern American society respects • include a clear position
the Native American values described in Joseph statement
Bruchac’s story? Explain why or why not in a two- or
• demonstrate an understanding
three-paragraph response.
of Abenaki values

grammar and writing

FORM COMPOUND-COMPLEX SENTENCES A compound-complex sentence
contains two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses.
(Recall that a dependent clause cannot stand alone as a sentence and is introduced
by words such as after, because, if, and though.) Compound-complex sentences can
help add variety to writing by allowing short, related sentences to be combined.
Original: I did something wrong. You were ready to help. You made
me feel safe.
Revised: Though I did something wrong, you were ready to help,
and you made me feel safe.

PRACTICE In each item, combine the sentences to form one compound-complex

sentence. Use the first word in parentheses to join two independent clauses.
Use the second word to change one sentence to a dependent clause.
1. You wanted to add a new color to both your garden and hers. You’d ask the
woman for her iris roots. You’d give her some of your own. (and, if )
2. I was going to sell the turtle. I didn’t. I remembered your lessons. (but, after)
3. We’d catch turtles. Then we’d release them. You didn’t want them to die.
(and, because)
4. The other boys couldn’t catch fish. We could. We were quiet. (but, because)

For more help with compound-complex sentences, see page R64 in the
Grammar Handbook.

the snapping turtle 765

 Before Reading

Out of Bounds
Short Story by Beverley Naidoo

How do you know what’s

right ?
KEY IDEA Can you think of a situation when you weren’t sure what
to do? If so, you know that it’s not always easy to tell right from
wrong. Sometimes you must rely on your internal compass to guide
86A>;DGC>6
your behavior. In this story, a boy decides to disobey a rule in order
R3.7 Analyze a work of literature,
showing how it reflects the to help someone in need.
heritage, traditions, attitudes, and
beliefs of its author. (Biographical
approach) DISCUSS What purpose do rules serve in families and society?
Also included in this lesson: When might rules have to be changed? Discuss these questions
LC1.5 (p. 783)
with a small group.

766
literary analysis: cultural conflict 86A>;DGC>6
When you read a story set in another country, knowing about
Writing for Justice
the area’s history and culture can be important background. Beverley Naidoo grew
It can help you to understand the characters’ behavior and up in Johannesburg,
the cultural conflicts that unfold. A cultural conflict is a South Africa, when
struggle that arises because of the differing values, customs, the country was
or circumstances between groups of people. For example, if racially segregated.
It wasn’t until she
a story is set in a place where one religious group has been
went to college that
fighting against another, parents might be angry if their child she recognized the
becomes friends with someone from outside their group. injustice of the laws.
“Out of Bounds” takes place in South Africa. As you read After she moved to
the selection, notice how the conflicts reflect the history and England, she decided Beverley Naidoo
culture of South Africa. The background on this page will to write children’s born 1943
books that speak
provide you with some of the information you need.
honestly about South African society. She
published her first book, Journey to Jo’burg,
reading skill: make inferences in 1984. It was banned in her home country
until 1991.
Fiction writers do not always make direct statements about
characters or the cultures in which they live. Instead, writers
provide certain details and expect readers to combine these Background
Apartheid South Africa is the southernmost
details with their own knowledge to “read between the lines”
country on the African continent. The nation
of a story. This process of forming logical guesses is called is ethnically diverse, with whites forming
making inferences. As you read, use a chart like the one shown the smallest group. However, up until 1994,
to record your inferences about the characters and their culture. whites ruled the country under a system
called apartheid (apartness). Apartheid was
Evidence from Story My Knowledge Inference based on segregation between the races.
The white government classified non-whites
Father tops wall with wire.
into three groups. Africans made up the
largest group but had the fewest rights.
“Coloureds” (people of mixed race) and those
vocabulary in context of Indian descent were granted limited rights
in 1984. The government decided where
The boldfaced words help Beverley Naidoo describe a society each group could live, conduct business, or
influenced by its history of racial injustice. Using context clues, own land. The effects of apartheid continue
try to write a definition for each word. to influence South African society today.
Africans, on average, remain poorer and have
1. Afraid to go to a school where they would be teased, the less access to education than other groups.
boys straggle behind their older brother.
Storms and Floods “Out of Bounds” is set in
2. The flood could maroon many people on rooftops.
2000. That year, severe storms devastated
3. Members of the newer sect didn’t agree with people from southern Africa. Floods swept away schools,
the orthodox church. roads, crops, and livestock. About 540,000
4. The Africans fought vigorously for equality. people were left homeless.

5. The peace talks gave people a glimmer of hope. more about the author
6. The evening news was interesting enough to engross him. and background
To learn more about Beverley Naidoo
7. We watched the energized boy bound up the hill. and South Africa, visit the Literature
Center at ClassZone.com.
8. Poor communication will hamper efforts to get along.

out of bounds 767

 Beverley Naidoo

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768 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

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771
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out of bounds 773

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out of bounds 775

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776 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

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ANALYZE VISUALS
What do you think life
is like in the setting
pictured?

777
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778 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

 ANALYZE VISUALS
Note the boy’s expression
and body language. What
can you infer about his
Text not available. mood?
Please refer to the text in the textbook.

out of bounds 779

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780 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

After Reading

Comprehension 86A>;DGC>6
1. Recall Why doesn’t Rohan go to his hideout anymore? R3.7 Analyze a work of literature,
showing how it reflects the heritage,
2. Recall Where has Rohan seen Solani before Solani comes to his house? traditions, attitudes, and beliefs of its
author. (Biographical approach)
3. Represent Make a sketch showing Rohan’s house and the squatters’ camp.
Think about what these places look like and where they are in relation to
one another. Use descriptions in the story to guide you.

Literary Analysis
4. Make Inferences About Characters Review your chart of inferences about
the characters and their culture. Why does Rohan think it’s the right decision
to help Solani? Name three reasons why these two boys might be drawn
together.
Cause
5. Analyze Cultural Conflict What causes the
residents of Mount View to discriminate against Effect
Cause
the squatters? Consider what you know about discrimination
the history and culture of South Africa as well as against squatters
Cause
events in the story’s plot. Record your response
in a diagram like the one shown.
6. Evaluate Attitudes Describe the attitudes of Rohan’s mother and father
toward the squatters. Do you think they are prejudiced against Africans?
Then consider Rohan’s experience in the squatters’ camp. Do you think the
Africans are prejudiced against him? Explain your responses, citing evidence
from the story.
7. Make Judgments Who do you think took the greater risk by going out
of bounds—Rohan or Solani? Explain your answer.
8. Predict Do you think that Rohan and Solani will be able to maintain their
friendship? Why or why not?

Extension and Challenge

9. Literary Criticism As a child, Beverley Naidoo didn’t notice that she lived
in an unfair society. “It was like being brought up to be a horse with blinkers,”
she has said. “Luckily when I left school, I met people who challenged me . . .
and I was able to take off the blinkers.” How do Rohan’s experiences in
“Out of Bounds” reflect the author’s background?
10. SOCIAL STUDIES CONNECTION Research Nelson Mandela’s role in
ending the system of apartheid in South Africa. Why is he considered
an inspirational leader?

research links
For more on Nelson Mandela, visit the Research Center at ClassZone.com.
Nelson Mandela

out of bounds 781

Vocabulary in Context
vocabulary practice
For each item, choose the word that differs most in meaning from the bound
other words. Refer to a dictionary if you need help.
engross
1. (a) bound, (b) leap, (c) spring, (d) stroll
glimmer
2. (a) engross, (b) distract, (c) involve, (d) interest
3. (a) glimmer, (b) trace, (c) fraction, (d) excess hamper
4. (a) hamper, (b) free, (c) prevent, (d) hinder
maroon
5. (a) maroon, (b) rescue, (c) save, (d) retrieve
6. (a) sect, (b) denomination, (c) group, (d) everyone sect
7. (a) straggle, (b) lead, (c) scatter, (d) dawdle straggle
8. (a) vigorously, (b) energetically, (c) enthusiastically, (d) weakly
vigorously
vocabulary in writing
Using at least two vocabulary words, write a paragraph from Solani’s point
of view telling how he felt as he approached Rohan’s house to ask for water.

example sentence

I was afraid, but I couldn’t let that hamper me because my mother needed water.

vocabulary strategy: homographs

Homographs are words that look the same but have different meanings, origins,
and sometimes pronunciations. For example, in the phrase “out of bounds,”
bounds means “boundaries.” However, in the sentence “Solani bounds up the
hill,” bounds means “springs forward.”
If a familiar-looking word does not make sense to you, look at the words
around it for context clues to other possible meanings. For further help, check
a dictionary.

PRACTICE Use context clues to define the boldfaced words. Then check your
definitions in a dictionary and note the word’s origin.
1. She said goodbye to him in front of a bank of elevators.
2. The goatherd drove his flock up the hill. vocabulary
practice
3. Great-Grandma’s lined face shows her age.
For more practice, go
4. Your pupils grow tiny when you step into bright sunlight. to the Vocabulary Center
at ClassZone.com.
5. Cowhands herded longhorn steers into a corral.

782 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

Reading-Writing Connection
Demonstrate your understanding of “Out of Bounds” by responding to these
prompts. Then complete the Grammar and Writing exercise.

writing prompts self-check

A. Short Response: Write a Journal Entry A well-written entry will . . .

How has reading this story affected your beliefs • state your original ideas about
about whether it’s right to go “out of bounds” whether it’s ever good to go
to help another person? Write a one-paragraph out of bounds
journal entry explaining how the story changed your
• use examples from the story
thinking or confirmed your beliefs.
to explain why your thinking
changed or stayed the same

B. Extended Response: Create a Community Plan A strong plan will . . .

How could the residents of Mount View improve • reflect an understanding of
their relationship with the squatters? Write a the relationship between the
two- or three-paragraph plan to help the two communities in the story
communities better understand one another.
• present several ideas to bring
the two communities together

grammar and writing

USE COLONS CORRECTLY A colon should be placed after a formal greeting in a
business letter (To Whom It May Concern:) and before a list of items (I had the
following foods for breakfast: eggs, toast, and cereal). When using a colon to LC1.5 Use correct punctuation and
capitalization.
introduce a list, avoid placing it directly after a verb or a preposition. Instead,
insert the colon after a noun or after the words the following.
Original: The squatters suffer from: poverty, homelessness, and a lack
of water.
Revised: The squatters suffer from the following: poverty, homelessness,
and a lack of water. (Inserting the following after the preposition
from makes use of the colon correct.)

PRACTICE Rewrite the following letter, correcting the colon errors.

Dear Mount View residents
To improve our relationship with the squatters, we are recommending that
residents provide squatters with: food, water, and blankets. Also, we request
that these professionals offer aid to the squatters, doctors, nurses, and
teachers. From the walls, please remove: wire, spikes, and broken glass.

For more help with using colons correctly, see page R50 in the Grammar
Handbook.

out of bounds 783

 Before Reading

Pecos Bill
Tall Tale Retold by Mary Pope Osborne

What is a
folk hero ?
KEY IDEA A steel-driving man who defeats a machine through
hard work and perseverance. An outlaw who steals from the rich
to give to the poor. A cowgirl who can circle the moon. Every
culture has its folk heroes, characters whose courage, generosity, or
accomplishments inspire ordinary people. Some folk heroes are real
people or are based on the lives of real people; others are invented
to symbolize the values of a particular culture. In the tall tale you are
about to read, you will meet a fictional American folk hero known
for his strength and bravery.

DISCUSS Imagine you were on a committee to select a folk hero

to speak at your school. In small groups, choose a real person or
a character you’ve read about who would inspire you and your
classmates. What qualities does this person possess that make
him or her a folk hero? What topics would you like to see this
person address at your school?

784
literary analysis: tall tale 86A>;DGC>6
Folk heroes often appear in tall tales, which are humorous
Finding Her Way
stories about impossible events. Many of these stories were After graduating from
originally passed down from generation to generation by being college, Mary Pope
told out loud. Some of them even started off with a kernel of Osborne decided to
truth, but as you’ll see, they aren’t exactly realistic. Tall tales explore the world.
have these characteristics: She traveled around
Europe, the Middle
• The hero or heroine is often larger than life, which means he East, and southern
or she is bigger, louder, stronger, or stranger than any real Asia. She slept
person could be. outdoors and bathed
in rivers in Iraq,
• Problems are solved in humorous ways. Afghanistan, and Mary Pope Osborne
• Hyperbole, or exaggeration, is used to emphasize the main India. And, she says, born 1949
character’s qualities and create humor. she was “terrified”
almost the whole time. She survived an
As you read, note how these characteristics apply to “Pecos Bill.” earthquake and a riot, only to end up sick
in a hospital, all alone and far from home.
While she rested, she read J. R. R. Tolkien’s
reading strategy: visualize The Lord of the Rings series. She identified
Tall tales are funny and action-packed. To enjoy them fully, with Tolkien’s hero, Frodo, whose dangerous
it helps to visualize, or picture in your mind, the incredible journey seemed to resemble her own.
events in the story as you read about them. To visualize, focus Says Osborne, “Ultimately Frodo’s courage
and powers of endurance became mine,”
on descriptions that appeal to your senses, especially those of
which helped her recover from her illness
sight, sound, and touch. Use these sensory details to form a and make her way home. Eventually, she
mental picture of the characters and action. As you read, use a began writing children’s stories for fun and
chart like the one shown to note descriptive words and phrases discovered her new career.
that help you visualize the tall tale.
more about the author
For more on Mary Pope Osborne, visit
Character or Event Descriptive Words or Phrases the Literature Center at ClassZone.com.
Little Bill falls out of “sat there in the dirt”
the wagon. “rattle off in a cloud of dust” Background
Tall Tales and the American Frontier
Tall tales are often set on the American
frontier—large parts of the West and
Southwest that had small populations
in the 19th century. Life on the frontier
was often adventurous and free-spirited,
and sharing stories became an important
social activity. Tall tales may have started
as bragging contests held by ranch hands
on the frontier. As they tried to outdo
each other, they exaggerated stories
about their abilities more and more. The
achievements described in tall tales often
center around the characteristics of courage,
determination, and cleverness, all of which
were needed to survive on the frontier.

pecos bill 785

 retold by mary pope osborne

sk any coyote near the Pecos River in western Texas who was the best ANALYZE VISUALS
cowboy who ever lived, and he’ll throw back his head and howl, What details make this
illustration humorous?
“Ah-hooo!” If you didn’t know already, that’s coyote language for Pecos Bill.
When Pecos Bill was a little baby, he was as tough as a pine knot. He
teethed on horseshoes instead of teething rings and played with grizzly bears
instead of teddy bears. He could have grown up just fine in the untamed land
of eastern Texas. But one day his pappy ran in from the fields, hollering, “Pack
up, Ma! Neighbors movin’ in fifty miles away! It’s gettin’ too crowded!”
Before sundown Bill’s folks loaded their fifteen kids and all their belongings
10 into their covered wagon and started west. a a TALL TALE
As they clattered across the desolate land of western Texas, the crushing heat Which of young Bill’s and
his father’s qualities are
nearly drove them all crazy. Baby Bill got so hot and cross that he began to
exaggerated?
wallop1 his big brothers. Pretty soon all fifteen kids were going at one another
tooth and nail.2 Before they turned each other into catfish bait, Bill fell out of
the wagon and landed kerplop on the sun-scorched desert. b b VISUALIZE
The others were so busy fighting that they didn’t even notice the baby was Reread lines 11–15.
What words and phrases
missing until it was too late to do anything about it.
help you picture the
Well, tough little Bill just sat there in the dirt, watching his family rattle off scene?
in a cloud of dust, until an old coyote walked over and sniffed him.
20 “Goo-goo!” Bill said.
Now it’s an amazing coincidence, but “Goo-goo” happens to mean
something similar to “Glad to meet you” in coyote language. Naturally the old
coyote figured he’d come across one of his own kind. He gave Bill a big lick
and picked him up by the scruff of the neck and carried him home to his den.

1. wallop (wJlQEp): to beat up.

2. tooth and nail: very fiercely.

786 unit 7: history, culture, and the author Illustrations by Michael McCurdy.
 Bill soon discovered the coyote’s kinfolk were about the wildest, roughest
bunch you could imagine. Before he knew it, he was roaming the prairies
with the pack. He howled at the moon, sniffed the brush, and chased lizards
across the sand. He was having such a good time, scuttling about naked
and dirty on all fours, that he completely forgot what it was like to be a
30 human. c c TALL TALE
Pecos Bill’s coyote days came to an end about seventeen years later. One Baby Bill gets separated
from his family. What’s
evening as he was sniffing the sagebrush, a cowpoke3 came loping by on a big
humorous about the way
horse. “Hey, you!” he shouted. “What in the world are you?” this problem gets solved?
Bill sat on his haunches and stared at the feller.
“What are you?” asked the cowpoke again.
“Varmint,”4 said Bill hoarsely, for he hadn’t used his human voice in
seventeen years.
“No, you ain’t!”
“Yeah, I am. I got fleas, don’t I?”
40 “Well, that don’t mean nothing. A lot of Texans got fleas. The thing
varmints got that you ain’t got is a tail.”
“Oh, yes, I do have a tail,” said Pecos Bill.
“Lemme see it then,” said the cowpoke.
Bill turned around to look at his rear end, and for the first time in his life he
realized he didn’t have a tail.
“Dang,” he said. “But if I’m not a varmint, what am I?”
“You’re a cowboy! So start acting like one!”
Bill just growled at the feller like any coyote worth his salt5 would. But
deep down in his heart of hearts he knew the cowpoke was right. For the last
50 seventeen years he’d had a sneaking suspicion that he was different from that
pack of coyotes. For one thing, none of them seemed to smell quite as bad as
he did. d d TALL TALE
So with a heavy heart he said good-bye to his four-legged friends and took Reread lines 39–52.
off with the cowpoke for the nearest ranch. Which lines, if any,
are funny to you?
Explain why.
cting like a human wasn’t all that easy for Pecos Bill. Even though he
soon started dressing right, he never bothered to shave or comb his hair.
He’d just throw some water on his face in the morning and go around the rest
of the day looking like a wet dog. Ignorant cowpokes claimed Bill wasn’t too
smart. Some of the meaner ones liked to joke that he wore a ten-dollar hat on a
60 five-cent head.
The truth was Pecos Bill would soon prove to be one of the greatest cowboys
who ever lived. He just needed to find the kind of folks who’d appreciate him.
One night when he was licking his dinner plate, his ears perked up. A couple
of ranch hands were going on about a gang of wild cowboys.

3. cowpoke: cowhand; cattle herder.

4. varmint: wild and/or vicious animal.
5. worth his salt: worthy of respect.

788 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

 “Yep. Those fellas are more animal than human,” one ranch hand was saying.
“Yep. Them’s the toughest bunch I ever come across. Heck, they’re so tough,
they can kick fire out of flint rock6 with their bare toes!”
“Yep. ’N’ they like to bite nails in half for fun!”
“Who are these fellers?” asked Bill.
70 “The Hell’s Gate Gang,” said the ranch hand. “The mangiest, meanest,
most low-down bunch of low-life varmints that ever grew hair.”
“Sounds like my kind of folks,” said Bill, and before anyone could holler
whoa, he jumped on his horse and took off for Hell’s Gate Canyon.
Bill hadn’t gone far when disaster struck. His horse stepped in a hole and
broke its ankle.
“Dang!” said Bill as he stumbled up from the spill. He draped the lame
critter around his neck and hurried on.
After he’d walked about a hundred more miles, Bill heard some mean
rattling. Then a fifty-foot rattlesnake reared up its ugly head and stuck out its
80 long, forked tongue, ready to fight.
“Knock it off, you scaly-hided fool. I’m in a hurry,” Bill said.
The snake didn’t give a spit for Bill’s plans. He just rattled on.
Before the cussed varmint could strike, Bill had no choice but to knock
him cross-eyed. “Hey, feller,” he said, holding up the dazed snake. “I like your
spunk. Come go with us.” Then he wrapped the rattler around his arm and
continued on his way.
After Bill had hiked another hundred miles with his horse around his neck
and his snake around his arm, he heard a terrible growl. A huge mountain lion
was crouching on a cliff, getting ready to leap on top of him.
90 “Don’t jump, you mangy bobtailed7 fleabag!” Bill said.
Well, call any mountain lion a mangy bobtailed fleabag, and he’ll jump on
your back for sure. After this one leaped onto Bill, so much fur began to fly
that it darkened the sky. Bill wrestled that mountain lion into a headlock, then
squeezed him so tight that the big cat had to cry uncle.8 e e TALL TALE
When the embarrassed old critter started to slink off, Bill felt sorry for him. What can you infer about
Bill’s abilities from the
“Aw, c’mon, you big silly,” he said. “You’re more like me than most humans
feats he performs in
I meet.” lines 76–94?
He saddled up the cat, jumped on his back, and the four of them headed for
the canyon, with the mountain lion screeching, the horse neighing, the rattler
100 rattling, and Pecos Bill hollering a wild war whoop. f f VISUALIZE
When the Hell’s Gate Gang heard those noises coming from the prairie, Reread lines 98–100.
they nearly fainted. They dropped their dinner plates, and their faces turned as What words help you see
and hear the action?
white as bleached desert bones. Their knees knocked and their six-guns shook.
“Hey, there!” Bill said as he sidled up to their campfire, grinning. “Who’s
the boss around here?”

6. flint rock: a very hard, fine-grained quartz that sparks when struck with steel.
7. bobtailed: having a very short tail or one that has been bobbed (cut short).
8. cry uncle: give up fighting; admit that one has been beaten.

pecos bill 789

 A nine-foot feller with ten pistols at his sides stepped forward and in a
shaky voice said, “Stranger, I was. But from now on, it’ll be you.”
“Well, thanky, pardner,” said Bill. “Get on with your dinner, boys. Don’t
let me interrupt.”
110 Once Bill settled down with the Hell’s Gate Gang, his true genius
revealed itself. With his gang’s help, he put together the biggest ranch in
the southwest. He used New Mexico as a corral and Arizona as a pasture.
He invented tarantulas and scorpions as practical jokes. He also invented
roping. Some say his rope was exactly as long as the equator; others argue
it was two feet shorter. g g TALL TALE
Things were going fine for Bill until Texas began to suffer the worst Which of Bill’s
characteristics and
drought in its history. It was so dry that all the rivers turned as powdery as
achievements are
biscuit flour. The parched grass was catching fire everywhere. For a while Bill exaggerated in
and his gang managed to lasso water from the Rio Grande.9 When that river lines 110–115?
120 dried up, they lassoed water from the Gulf of Mexico.
No matter what he did, though, Bill couldn’t get enough water to stay
ahead of the drought. All his horses and cows were starting to dry up and
blow away like balls of tumbleweed. It was horrible.
Just when the end seemed near, the sky turned a deep shade of purple.
From the distant mountains came a terrible roar. The cattle began to
stampede, and a huge black funnel of a cyclone appeared, heading straight
for Bill’s ranch.
The rest of the Hell’s Gate Gang shouted, “Help!” and ran.
But Pecos Bill wasn’t scared in the least. “Yahoo!” he hollered, and he
130 swung his lariat and lassoed that cyclone around its neck.
Bill held on tight as he got sucked up into the middle of the swirling
cloud. He grabbed the cyclone by the ears and pulled himself onto her
back. Then he let out a whoop and headed that twister across Texas.
The mighty cyclone bucked, arched, and screamed like a wild bronco. But
Pecos Bill just held on with his legs and used his strong hands to wring the
rain out of her wind. He wrung out rain that flooded Texas, New Mexico,
and Arizona, until finally he slid off the shriveled-up funnel and fell into
California. The earth sank about two hundred feet below sea level in the
spot where Bill landed, creating the area known today as Death Valley. h h TALL TALE
140 “There. That little waterin’ should hold things for a while,” he said, Tall tales sometimes
explain how natural
brushing himself off.
phenomena came to be.
After his cyclone ride, no horse was too wild for Pecos Bill. He soon What do lines 134–139
found a young colt that was as tough as a tiger and as crazy as a streak of explain?
lightning. He named the colt Widow Maker and raised him on barbed
wire and dynamite. Whenever the two rode together, they back-flipped
and somersaulted all over Texas, loving every minute of it.

9. Rio Grande (rCPI grBndP): a river that forms part of the U.S.-Mexican border.

790 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

 One day when Bill and Widow Maker were bouncing around the Pecos
River, they came across an awesome sight: a wild-looking, red-haired woman
riding on the back of the biggest catfish Bill had ever seen. The woman looked
150 like she was having a ball, screeching, “Ride ’em, cowgirl!” as the catfish
whipped her around in the air. i i TALL TALE
“What’s your name?” Bill shouted. What traits do Bill
and the woman have
“Slue-foot10 Sue! What’s it to you?” she said. Then she war-whooped away in common?
over the windy water.
Thereafter all Pecos Bill could think of was Slue-foot Sue. He spent more
and more time away from the Hell’s Gate Gang as he wandered the barren
cattle-lands, looking for her. When he finally found her lonely little cabin, he
was so love-struck he reverted to some of his old coyote ways. He sat on his
haunches in the moonlight and began a-howling and ah-hooing.

10. slue (slL): to rotate, turn sharply, or pivot.

pecos bill 791

160 Well, the good news was that Sue had a bit of coyote in her too, so she
completely understood Bill’s language. She stuck her head out her window
and ah-hooed back to him that she loved him, too. Consequently Bill and Sue
decided to get married.
On the day of the wedding Sue wore a beautiful white dress with a steel-
spring bustle,11 and Bill appeared in an elegant buckskin suit.
But after a lovely ceremony, a terrible catastrophe occurred. Slue-foot Sue
got it into her head that she just had to have a ride on Bill’s wild bronco,
Widow Maker.
“You can’t do that, honey,” Bill said. “He won’t let any human toss a leg
170 over him but me.”
“Don’t worry,” said Sue. “You know I can ride anything on four legs, not
to mention what flies or swims.” j j TALL TALE
Bill tried his best to talk Sue out of it, but she wouldn’t listen. She was Do you think Sue will
succeed in riding Widow
dying to buck on the back of that bronco. Wearing her white wedding dress
Maker? Why or why not?
with the bustle, she jumped on Widow Maker and kicked him with her
spurs.
Well, that bronco didn’t need any thorns in his side to start bucking to beat
the band. He bounded up in the air with such amazing force that suddenly
Sue was flying high into the Texas sky. She flew over plains and mesas,12 over
180 canyons, deserts, and prairies. She flew so high that she looped over the new
moon and fell back to earth.
But when Sue landed on her steel-spring bustle, she rebounded right
back into the heavens! As she bounced back and forth between heaven and
earth, Bill whirled his lariat13 above his head, then lassoed her. But instead
of bringing Sue back down to earth, he got yanked into the night sky
alongside her!
Together Pecos Bill and Slue-foot Sue bounced off the earth and went
flying to the moon. And at that point Bill must have gotten some sort of
foothold in a moon crater—because neither he nor Sue returned to earth.
190 Not ever.
Folks figure those two must have dug their boot heels into some moon
cheese and raised a pack of wild coyotes just like themselves. Texans’ll tell
you that every time you hear thunder rolling over the desolate land near the
Pecos River, it’s just Bill’s family having a good laugh upstairs. When you k VISUALIZE
hear a strange ah-hooing in the dark night, don’t be fooled—that’s the sound Reread lines 191–198.
Note the descriptive
of Bill howling on the moon instead of at it. And when lights flash across the details in this passage.
midnight sky, you can bet it’s Bill and Sue riding the backs of some white-hot What do they help you
shooting stars.  k picture?

11. bustle (bOsPEl): a springy steel framework worn under the back of a woman’s skirt to make it puff out.
12. mesas (mAPsEs): high, flat-topped areas of land.
13. lariat (lBrPC-Et): a rope with a slip-knotted loop at one end that a cowhand throws over an animal’s
head or body and pulls tight.

792 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

After Reading

Comprehension
1. Recall Why does a coyote decide to take care of Bill?
2. Clarify How does Bill become the leader of the Hell’s Gate Gang?
3. Summarize How do Bill and Sue end up leaving Earth and living in the sky?

Literary Analysis
4. Examine a Tall Tale In what ways does “Pecos Bill” exhibit the characteristics
of a tall tale? Review the characteristics on page 801. Give examples from
the story to support each one.
5. Visualize Review the chart you filled in as you read. What person or event
did you picture most clearly? Tell what descriptions and sensory details
helped you. Overall, how well do you think the author helped you visualize
the story? Explain.
6. Analyze Characterization How does the Bill’s Words, Thoughts,
Appearance:
author help you get to know what Pecos Bill and Actions:
never bothered to shave
is like? Use a character map to show what
or comb his hair
you learn about Bill through each of the four
methods of characterization. Pecos Bill
7. Draw Conclusions Why do you think Pecos
Other Comments: Narrator’s Comments:
Bill became a folk hero in American culture?
Consider what his personal characteristics and
achievements might represent to people.

Extension and Challenge

8. Creative Project: Comic Strip The incredible characters and events in tall tales
have much in common with cartoons. Choose one of the events described in
“Pecos Bill.” Create a three- to four-panel comic strip that illustrates this event.
9. SOCIAL STUDIES CONNECTION What were the lives of cowboys
in the 19th century really like? Research the topic, and then compare
your findings with the life of Pecos Bill in the story. Are there similarities?

research links
For more on 19th-century cowboys, visit the Research Center at ClassZone.com.

pecos bill 793

 Great
Reads The Pearl
Novella by John Steinbeck

Meet John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck grew up in Salinas, California. Some of his earliest
jobs were in sugar factories and ranches in this fertile area of the
state. He worked alongside many Mexican Americans, and he
gained respect for their culture and sympathized with their tough
living and working conditions. Later, he lived in Mexico for a time,
which made him even more aware of how poverty affects people’s
lives. Even after achieving success, he never flaunted his wealth.
He lived simply and traveled often.
John Steinbeck
1902–1968
Steinbeck wrote stories about the poor at a time when
many people preferred not to think about such things. Though
Steinbeck won many prominent awards, including the 1962 Nobel
Other Books by Prize in literature, he also received hate mail from some readers,
John Steinbeck and some of his work was even banned.
• Cannery Row
• The Grapes of Wrath
• The Red Pony Try a Novella
• Travels with Charley Some stories are too short to be called novels but too long
to be called short stories. These fall into the category of the
novella, a story ranging from about 50 to 100 pages in length.
Being limited in length, a novella usually focuses on a particular
situation or conflict and has fewer characters than a novel.
Some of John Steinbeck’s best-known works are novellas.
The brief form allows his stories to seem simple while conveying
powerful themes. He based his novella The Pearl on a Mexican
parable, a traditional story that is meant to teach a lesson.
He heard it while traveling around the Gulf of California,
also known as the Sea of Cortez.

794
 86A>;DGC>6
Read a Great Book
“If this story is a parable, perhaps everyone takes his own meaning
from it and reads his own life into it.” So begins the story of Kino,
the poor fisherman, his wife, Juana, their baby, Coyotito, and
the great pearl that was found and lost again. When Coyotito
is stung by a scorpion, Kino and Juana travel from their village
to take him to the nearest doctor. However, being poor, they
are unable to pay for treatment and are turned away. But once
they have a large pearl in their possession, the greedy doctor
makes a house call, hoping to get a share of the profits.

from

The
“It is as I thought,” he said. “The poison has gone inward and it will
strike soon. Come look!” He held the eyelid down. “See—it is blue.”
And Kino, looking anxiously, saw that indeed it was a little blue. And he
didn’t know whether or not it was always a little blue. But the trap was
set. He couldn’t take the chance.
The doctor’s eyes watered in their little hammocks. “I will give him
something to try to turn the poison aside,” he said. And he handed the
baby to Kino.
Then from his bag he took a little bottle of white powder and a
10 capsule of gelatine. He filled the capsule with the powder and closed
it, and then around the first capsule he fitted a second capsule and
closed it. Then he worked very deftly. He took the baby and pinched
its lower lip until it opened its mouth. His fat fingers placed the
capsule far back on the baby’s tongue, back of the point where he
could spit it out, and then from the floor he picked up the little
pitcher of pulque and gave Coyotito a drink, and it was done. He
looked again at the baby’s eyeball and he pursed his lips and seemed
to think.

795
 At last he handed the baby back to Juana, and he turned to Kino.
20 “I think the poison will attack within the hour,” he said. “The medicine
may save the baby from hurt, but I will come back in an hour. Perhaps
I am in time to save him.” He took a deep breath and went out of the
hut, and his servant followed him with the lantern.
Now Juana had the baby under her shawl, and she stared at it with
anxiety and fear. Kino came to her, and he lifted the shawl and stared
at the baby. He moved his hand to look under the eyelid, and only
then saw that the pearl was still in his hand. Then he went to a box by
the wall, and from it he brought a piece of rag. He wrapped the pearl
in the rag, then went to the corner of the brush house and dug a little
30 hole with his fingers in the dirt floor, and he put the pearl in the hole
and covered it up and concealed the place. And then he went to the fire
where Juana was squatting, watching the baby’s face.
The doctor, back in his house, settled into his chair and looked at his
watch. His people brought him a little supper of chocolate and sweet
cakes and fruit, and he stared at the food discontentedly.
In the houses of the neighbors the subject that would lead all
conversations for a long time to come was aired for the first time to
see how it would go. The neighbors showed one another with their
thumbs how big the pearl was, and they made little caressing gestures
40 to show how lovely it was. From now on they would watch Kino and
Juana very closely to see whether riches turned their heads, as riches
turn all people’s heads. Everyone knew why the doctor had come.
He was not good at dissembling and he was very well understood.
Out in the estuary a tight woven school of small fishes glittered
and broke water to escape a school of great fishes that drove in to
eat them. And in the houses the people could hear the swish of the
small ones and the bouncing splash of the great ones as the slaughter
went on. The dampness arose out of the Gulf and was deposited on
bushes and cacti and on little trees in salty drops. And the night mice
50 crept about on the ground and the little night hawks hunted them
silently.
The skinny black puppy with flame spots over his eyes came to
Kino’s door and looked in. He nearly shook his hind quarters loose
when Kino glanced up at him, and he subsided when Kino looked
away. The puppy did not enter the house, but he watched with frantic

796
 Great Reads

interest while Kino ate his beans from the little pottery dish and wiped
it clean with a corncake and ate the cake and washed the whole down
with a drink of pulque.
Kino was finished and was rolling a cigarette when Juana spoke
60 sharply. “Kino.” He glanced at her and then got up and went quickly to
her for he saw fright in her eyes. He stood over her, looking down, but
the light was very dim. He kicked a pile of twigs into the fire hole to
make a blaze, and then he could see the face of Coyotito. The baby’s face
was flushed and his throat was working and a little thick drool of saliva
issued from his lips. The spasm of the stomach muscles began, and the
baby was very sick.
Kino knelt beside his wife. “So the doctor knew,” he said, but he said
it for himself as well as for his wife, for his mind was hard and suspicious
and he was remembering the white powder. Juana rocked from side to
70 side and moaned out the little Song of the Family as though it could
ward off the danger, and the baby vomited and writhed in her arms.
Now uncertainty was in Kino, and the music of evil throbbed in his
head and nearly drove out Juana’s song.
The doctor finished his chocolate and nibbled the little fallen pieces
of sweet cake. He brushed his fingers on a napkin, looked at his watch,
arose, and took up his little bag.
The news of the baby’s illness traveled quickly among the brush
houses, for sickness is second only to hunger as the enemy of poor
people. And some said softly, “Luck, you see, brings bitter friends.”
80 And they nodded and got up to go to Kino’s house. The neighbors
scuttled with covered noses through the dark until they crowded
into Kino’s house again. They stood and gazed, and they made little
comments on the sadness that this should happen at a time of joy, and
they said, “All things are in God’s hands.” The old women squatted
down beside Juana to try to give her aid if they could and comfort if
they could not.
Then the doctor hurried in, followed by his man. He scattered the
old women like chickens. He took the baby and examined it and felt
its head. “The poison it has worked,” he said. “I think I can defeat
90 it. I will try my best.” He asked for water, and in the cup of it he
put three drops of ammonia, and he pried open the baby’s mouth
and poured it down. The baby spluttered and screeched under the

797
 treatment, and Juana watched him with haunted eyes. The doctor
spoke a little as he worked. “It is lucky that I know about the poison
of the scorpion, otherwise—” and he shrugged to show what could
have happened.
But Kino was suspicious, and he could not take his eyes from the
doctor’s open bag, and from the bottle of white powder there. Gradually
the spasms subsided and the baby relaxed under the doctor’s hands. And
100 then Coyotito sighed deeply and went to sleep, for he was very tired
with vomiting.
The doctor put the baby in Juana’s arms. “He will get well now,” he
said. “I have won the fight.” And Juana looked at him with adoration.
The doctor was closing his bag now. He said, “When do you think
you can pay this bill?” He said it even kindly.
“When I have sold my pearl I will pay you,” Kino said.
“You have a pearl? A good pearl?” the doctor asked with interest.
And then the chorus of the neighbors broke in. “He has found the
Pearl of the World,” they cried, and they joined forefinger with thumb
110 to show how great the pearl was.
“Kino will be a rich man,” they clamored. “It is a pearl such as one
has never seen.”
The doctor looked surprised. “I had not heard of it. Do you keep
this pearl in a safe place? Perhaps you would like me to put it in
my safe?”
Kino’s eyes were hooded now, his cheeks were drawn taut. “I have it
secure,” he said. “Tomorrow I will sell it and then I will pay you.”
The doctor shrugged, and his wet eyes never left Kino’s eyes. He
knew the pearl would be buried in the house, and he thought Kino
120 might look toward the place where it was buried. “It would be a shame
to have it stolen before you could sell it,” the doctor said, and he saw
Kino’s eyes flick involuntarily to the floor near the side post of the
brush house.
When the doctor had gone and all the neighbors had reluctantly
returned to their houses, Kino squatted beside the little glowing coals
in the fire hole and listened to the night sound, the soft sweep of the
little waves on the shore and the distant barking of dogs, the creeping
of the breeze through the brush house roof and the soft speech of his
neighbors in their houses in the village. For these people do not sleep

798
 Great Reads

130 soundly all night; they awaken at intervals and talk a little and then
go to sleep again. And after a while Kino got up and went to the door
of his house.
He smelled the breeze and he listened for any foreign sound of secrecy
or creeping, and his eyes searched the darkness, for the music of evil was
sounding in his head and he was fierce and afraid. After he had probed
the night with his senses he went to the place by the side post where the
pearl was buried, and he dug it up and brought it to his sleeping mat,
and under his sleeping mat he dug another little hole in the dirt floor
and buried the pearl and covered it up again.
140 And Juana, sitting by the fire hole, watched him with questioning
eyes, and when he had buried his pearl she asked, “Who do you fear?” 

Keep Reading
Is Kino right to fear that something bad is going to happen
now that he has the “Pearl of the World”? As you continue to
read the novella, you’ll follow Kino and Juana as they seek their
fortune, dodging danger at every turn. Discover how finding
the pearl will change their lives forever.

799
 Before Reading

One Last Time

Memoir by Gary Soto

What can you learn

from a ? job
KEY IDEA Does the thought of taking out the trash make you groan?
Would you rather stay in bed than deliver newspapers on a rainy
morning? Lots of times, jobs don’t sound fun. But they can teach
86A>;DGC>6
important lessons and help you figure out your goals for the future.
R3.7 Analyze a work of literature,
showing how it reflects the heritage, In this memoir, the author discovers that finding out what he doesn’t
traditions, attitudes, and beliefs of its want to do is almost as important as finding out what
author. (Biographical approach)
Also included in this lesson: R1.1
he does want to do.
(p. 828), R3.7 (p. 829), LC1.5 (p. 829)
QUICKWRITE What have you learned from a job? Whether it was
inside or outside your home, describe a job you’ve had or a chore
you’ve done and the lessons you took away from it.

800
literary analysis: author’s perspective 86A>;DGC>6
Your view of the world is based on the people you know, the
Saved by Poetry
places you’ve lived, and the experiences you’ve had. Similarly, Born to parents of
an author’s perspective—the way a writer looks at a topic—is Mexican descent,
shaped by his or her experiences, environment, and values. Gary Soto grew up
In his memoir, Gary Soto describes his teenage years working in Fresno, California.
as a field laborer. As you read, look for direct statements, When Soto was five
years old, his father
thoughts, and actions that reflect Soto’s heritage, attitudes,
died in an industrial
and beliefs. accident, which
left Soto feeling
reading strategy: analyze sensory details alone and confused.
Struggling in school, Gary Soto
Does it ever feel like you’re actually seeing or hearing the he assumed he would born 1952
experiences described on the page? If so, it’s probably because lead a life much like
of the author’s expert use of sensory details. Sensory details that of his parents, who worked at picking
are words and phrases that appeal to a reader’s five senses. crops and other low-paying jobs. However,
By using such details, a writer helps the reader create vivid he chose to enroll in college. Soto planned
to study geography, but in his second year,
mental pictures of settings, people, and events.
he stumbled across a book of modern
For example, in “One Last Time” Soto describes a bus that American poetry. This book changed his
“started off in slow chugs”—a detail that helps you “hear” the goals for the future. Soto was inspired
rickety old bus. As you read, look for two or three details that to become a writer and began studying
appeal to each sense and record them in a web. literature. Writing poetry and prose helped
him reflect on his life and express himself in
a new way.
Sight
Writing from Experience Soto began
Taste Hearing “started off writing for young readers in the 1990s.
Sensory in slow chugs .” In his poetry and fiction, he draws on
Details
his personal experience in books such as
Baseball in April and Other Stories (1990),
Smell Touch
which describes the joys and challenges
of Mexican-American boys and girls living
in California. Soto also began writing
vocabulary in context biographies and other nonfiction. He says
the greatest challenge of writing nonfiction
The words in Column A help Soto describe his jobs. See how
is “making it exciting,” although he adds
many you know by matching each word to the word or phrase that any reader who claims to be bored by
in Column B that is closest in meaning. the book should “cut grapes for a season.
Then he or she will know boredom.”
Column A Column B
1. ramble a. weak more about the author
For more on Gary Soto, visit the
2. foreman b. angry Literature Center at ClassZone.com.
3. grope c. workers’ boss
4. stoop d. bend over at the waist
5. contractor e. unpleasant situation
6. irate f. awkwardly grab for
7. feeble g. talk on and on
8. predicament h. one who provides services for a price
one last time 801
 One
Last
Time g a ry soto

Y esterday I saw the movie Gandhi 1 and recognized a few of the people—
not in the theater but in the film. I saw my relatives, dusty and thin as
sparrows, returning from the fields with hoes balanced on their shoulders.
ANALYZE VISUALS
What can you infer about
the boys based on their
posture and clothing?
The workers were squinting, eyes small and veined, and were using their
hands to say what there was to say to those in the audience with popcorn. . . .
I didn’t have any, though. I sat thinking of my family and their years in the
fields, beginning with Grandmother who came to the United States after the
Mexican revolution2 to settle in Fresno where she met her husband and bore
children, many of them. She worked in the fields around Fresno, picking
10 grapes, oranges, plums, peaches, and cotton, dragging a large white sack like
a sled. She worked in the packing houses, Bonner and Sun-Maid Raisin, where
she stood at a conveyor belt passing her hand over streams of raisins to pluck
out leaves and pebbles. For over twenty years she worked at a machine that
boxed raisins until she retired at sixty-five. a a AUTHOR’S
Grandfather worked in the fields, as did his children. Mother also found PERSPECTIVE
What does Soto think
herself out there when she separated from Father for three weeks. I remember
about when he sees the
her coming home, dusty and so tired that she had to rest on the porch before working people in the
she trudged inside to wash and start dinner. I didn’t understand the complaints movie? As you continue
about her ankles or the small of her back, even though I had been in the grape reading, notice how his
20 fields watching her work. With my brother and sister I ran in and out of the family history affects his
view of field work.
rows; we enjoyed ourselves and pretended not to hear Mother scolding us to
sit down and behave ourselves. A few years later, however, I caught on when
I went to pick grapes rather than play in the rows.

1. Gandhi (gänPdC): a 1982 film biography of Mohandas Gandhi (1869–1948), an Indian spiritual and
political leader who, through nonviolent struggle, forced England to grant India’s independence.
2. Mexican revolution (1910–1920): an armed conflict during which revolutionaries overthrew Mexico’s
longtime dictator and reformed the government.
Detail of Los Comaradas del
Barrio (1976), Jesse Treviño. Acrylic on
802 unit 7: history, culture, and the author canvas, 36˝ × 48˝. Collection of the artist.
 Mother and I got up before dawn and ate quick bowls of cereal. She drove
in silence while I rambled on how everything was now solved, how I was ramble (rBmPbEl) v. to talk
going to make enough money to end our misery and even buy her a beautiful at length and aimlessly
copper tea pot, the one I had shown her in Long’s Drugs. When we arrived I
was frisky and ready to go, self-consciously aware of my grape knife dangling at
my wrist. I almost ran to the row the foreman had pointed out, but I returned foreman (fôrPmEn) n. the
30 to help Mother with the grape pans and jug of water. She told me to settle leader of a work crew
down and reminded me not to lose my knife. I walked at her side and listened
to her explain how to cut grapes; bent down, hands on knees, I watched her
demonstrate by cutting a few bunches into my pan. She stood over me as I
tried it myself, tugging at a bunch of grapes that pulled loose like beads from
a necklace. “Cut the stem all the way,” she told me as last advice before she
walked away, her shoes sinking in the loose dirt, to begin work on her own row.
I cut another bunch, then another, fighting the snap and whip of vines.
After ten minutes of groping for grapes, my first pan brimmed with bunches. grope (grIp) v. to reach
I poured them on the paper tray, which was bordered by a wooden frame that about with uncertainty
40 kept the grapes from rolling off, and they spilled like jewels from a pirate’s
chest. The tray was only half filled, so I hurried to jump under the vines and
begin groping, cutting, and tugging at the grapes again. I emptied the pan,
raked the grapes with my hands to make them look like they filled the tray,
and jumped back under the vine on my knees. I tried to cut faster because
Mother, in the next row, was slowly moving ahead. I peeked into her row and
saw five trays gleaming in the early morning. I cut, pulled hard, and stopped
to gather the grapes that missed the pan; already bored, I spat on a few to wash
them before tossing them like popcorn into my mouth. b b SENSORY DETAILS
So it went. Two pans equaled one tray—or six cents. By lunchtime I had What details in lines 37–48
50 a trail of thirty-seven trays behind me while Mother had sixty or more. We help you understand the
experience of cutting
met about halfway from our last trays, and I sat down with a grunt, knees wet grapes? Add this
from kneeling on dropped grapes. I washed my hands with the water from the information to your web.
jug, drying them on the inside of my shirt sleeve before I opened the paper
bag for the first sandwich, which I gave to Mother. I dipped my hand in again
to unwrap a sandwich without looking at it. I took a first bite and chewed it
slowly for the tang of mustard. Eating in silence I looked straight ahead at the
vines, and only when we were finished with cookies did we talk.
“Are you tired?” she asked.
“No, but I got a sliver from the frame,” I told her. I showed her the web of
60 skin between my thumb and index finger. She wrinkled her forehead but said
it was nothing.
“How many trays did you do?”
I looked straight ahead, not answering at first. I recounted in my mind the
whole morning of bend, cut, pour again and again, before answering a feeble feeble (fCPbEl) adj. weak
“thirty-seven.” No elaboration, no detail. Without looking at me she told me or faint
how she had done field work in Texas and Michigan as a child. But I had a
difficult time listening to her stories. I played with my grape knife, stabbing it

804 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

 into the ground, but stopped when Mother reminded me that I had better not
lose it. I left the knife sticking up like a small, leafless plant. She then talked
70 about school, the junior high I would be going to that fall, and then about
Rick and Debra, how sorry they would be that they hadn’t come out to pick
grapes because they’d have no new clothes for the school year. She stopped
talking when she peeked at her watch, a bandless one she kept in her pocket.
She got up with an “Ay, Dios,” 3 and told me that we’d work until three, leaving
me cutting figures in the sand with my knife and dreading the return to work.
Finally I rose and walked slowly back to where I had left off, again kneeling
under the vine and fixing the pan under bunches of grapes. By that time, 11:30,
the sun was over my shoulder and made me squint and think of the pool at the
Y.M.C.A. where I was a summer member. I saw myself diving face first into the
80 water and loving it. I saw myself gleaming like something new, at the edge of the
pool. I had to daydream and keep my mind busy because boredom was a terror
almost as awful as the work itself. My mind went dumb with stupid things, and
I had to keep it moving with dreams of baseball and would-be girlfriends. I even
sang, however softly, to keep my mind moving, my hands moving. c c AUTHOR’S
I worked less hurriedly and with less vision. I no longer saw that copper pot PERSPECTIVE
What do Soto’s statements
sitting squat on our stove or Mother waiting for it to whistle. The wardrobe
about work in lines 75 and
that I imagined, crisp and bright in the closet, numbered only one pair of jeans 81–82 tell you about his
and two shirts because, in half a day, six cents times thirty-seven trays was two attitude toward field
dollars and twenty-two cents. It became clear to me. If I worked eight hours, I work?
90 might make four dollars. I’d take this, even gladly, and walk downtown to look
into store windows on the mall and long for the bright madras4 shirts from
Walter Smith or Coffee’s, but settling for two imitation ones from Penney’s.
That first day I laid down seventy-three trays while Mother had a hundred
and twenty behind her. On the back of an old envelope, she wrote out our
numbers and hours. We washed at the pump behind the farm house and walked
slowly to our car for the drive back to town in the afternoon heat. That evening
after dinner I sat in a lawn chair listening to music from a transistor radio while
Rick and David King played catch. I joined them in a game of pickle, but there
was little joy in trying to avoid their tags because I couldn’t get the fields out of
100 my mind: I saw myself dropping on my knees under a vine to tug at a branch
that wouldn’t come off. In bed, when I closed my eyes, I saw the fields, yellow
with kicked up dust, and a crooked trail of trays rotting behind me. d d AUTHOR’S
PERSPECTIVE

T
What effect does
he next day I woke tired and started picking tired. The grapes rained into
the author’s work
the pan, slowly filling like a belly, until I had my first tray and started environment have on his
my second. So it went all day, and the next, and all through the following week, life away from work?
so that by the end of thirteen days the foreman counted out, in tens mostly, my
pay of fifty-three dollars. Mother earned one hundred and forty-eight dollars.
She wrote this on her envelope, with a message I didn’t bother to ask her about.

3. Ay, Dios (F dC-IsP) Spanish: “Oh, God.”

4. madras (mBdPrEs): cotton cloth, usually with a plaid pattern.

one last time 805

 ANALYZE VISUALS
Why might a setting like
that in the picture be a
difficult place for Soto to
spend time?

La Calle Cuatro (2001), Emigdio Vasquez. Oil on canvas, 22˝ × 28˝. © Emigdio Vasquez.

The next day I walked with my friend Scott to the downtown mall where
110 we drooled over the clothes behind fancy windows, bought popcorn, and sat
at a tier of outdoor fountains to talk about girls. Finally we went into Penney’s
for more popcorn, which we ate walking around, before we returned home
without buying anything. It wasn’t until a few days before school that I let
my fifty-three dollars slip quietly from my hands, buying a pair of pants, two
shirts, and a maroon T-shirt, the kind that was in style. At home I tried them
on while Rick looked on enviously; later, the day before school started, I tried
them on again wondering not so much if they were worth it as who would see
me first in those clothes.
Along with my brother and sister I picked grapes until I was fifteen,
120 before giving up and saying that I’d rather wear old clothes than stoop like stoop (stLp) v. to bend
a Mexican. Mother thought I was being stuck-up, even stupid, because there forward and down from
the waist or the middle of
would be no clothes for me in the fall. I told her I didn’t care, but when Rick
the back
and Debra rose at five in the morning, I lay awake in bed feeling that perhaps
I had made a mistake but unwilling to change my mind. That fall Mother
bought me two pairs of socks, a packet of colored T-shirts, and underwear.
The T-shirts would help, I thought, but who would see that I had new
underwear and socks? I wore a new T-shirt on the first day of school, then an
old shirt on Tuesday, then another T-shirt on Wednesday, and on Thursday
an old Nehru shirt5 that was embarrassingly out of style. On Friday I changed
130 into the corduroy pants my brother had handed down to me and slipped into
my last new T-shirt. I worked like a magician, blinding my classmates, who
were all clothes conscious and small-time social climbers, by arranging my
wardrobe to make it seem larger than it really was. But by spring I had to
do something—my blue jeans were almost silver and my shoes had lost their
form, puddling like black ice around my feet. That spring of my sixteenth year,

5. Nehru (nAPrL) shirt: an Indian-style shirt with a stand-up collar.

806 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

 Rick and I decided to take a labor bus to chop cotton. In his old Volkswagen,
which was more noise than power, we drove on a Saturday morning to West contractor (kJnPtrBkQtEr)
n. one who agrees to
Fresno—or Chinatown as some call it—parked, walked slowly toward a bus,
provide services for a
and stood gawking at the . . . blacks, Okies,6 Tejanos7 with gold teeth, . . . specific price
140 Mexican families, and labor contractors shouting “Cotton” or “Beets,” the
work of spring. e e AUTHOR’S
We boarded the “Cotton” bus without looking at the contractor who stood PERSPECTIVE
Reread lines 119–141.
almost blocking the entrance. . . . We boarded scared. . . . We sat . . . looking
What reasons does Soto
straight ahead, and only glanced briefly at the others who boarded, almost give for rejecting field
all of them broken and poorly dressed in loudly mismatched clothes. Finally work? Tell why his views
when the contractor banged his palm against the side of the bus, the young change.
man at the wheel, smiling and talking in Spanish, started the engine, idled
it for a moment while he adjusted the mirrors, and started off in slow chugs.
Except for the windshield there was no glass in the windows, so as soon as we
150 were on the rural roads outside Fresno, the dust and sand began to be sucked
into the bus, whipping about like irate wasps as the gravel ticked about us. We irate (F-rAtP) adj. very
closed our eyes, clotted up our mouths that wanted to open with embarrassed angry
laughter because we couldn’t believe we were on that bus with those people
and the dust attacking us for no reason. f f SENSORY DETAILS
When we arrived at a field we followed the others to a pickup where we each Reread lines 142–154.
took a hoe and marched to stand before a row. Rick and I, self-conscious and What words and phrases
help you feel, hear, and
unsure, looked around at the others who leaned on their hoes or squatted in see what it was like to
front of the rows, almost all talking in Spanish, joking . . . all waiting for the ride the “Cotton” bus?
foreman’s whistle to begin work. Mother had explained how to chop cotton by
160 showing us with a broom in the backyard.
“Like this,” she said, her broom swishing down weeds. “Leave one plant
and cut four—and cut them! Don’t leave them standing or the foreman will
get mad.”
The foreman whistled and we started up the row stealing glances at other
workers to see if we were doing it right. But after awhile we worked like we
knew what we were doing, neither of us hurrying or falling behind. But slowly
the clot of men, women, and kids began to spread and loosen. Even Rick
pulled away. I didn’t hurry, though. I cut smoothly and cleanly as I walked at
a slow pace, in a sort of funeral march. My eyes measured each space of cotton
170 plants before I cut. If I missed the plants, I swished again. I worked intently,
seldom looking up, so when I did I was amazed to see the sun, like a broken
orange coin, in the east. It looked blurry, unbelievable, like something not of
g SENSORY DETAILS
this world. I looked around in amazement, scanning the eastern horizon that
What sensory details
was a taut line jutted with an occasional mountain. The horizon was beautiful, does Soto use to help
like a snapshot of the moon, in the early light of morning, in the quiet of no you see the beauty of his
cars and few people. g surroundings?

6. Okies (IPkCz): people from Oklahoma and other midwestern states who moved to California to find
work during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
7. Tejanos (tA-häPnIs): Texans of Mexican ancestry.

one last time 807

 The foreman trudged in boots in my direction, stepping awkwardly over
the plants, to inspect the work. No one around me looked up. We all worked
steadily while we waited for him to leave. When he did leave, with a feeble
180 complaint addressed to no one in particular, we looked up smiling under straw
hats and bandanas.
By 11:00, our lunch time, my ankles were hurting from walking on clods8
the size of hardballs. My arms ached and my face was dusted by a wind that
was perpetual, always busy whipping about. But the work was not bad, I
thought. It was better, so much better, than picking grapes, especially with the
hourly wage of a dollar twenty-five instead of piece work. Rick and I walked
sorely toward the bus where we washed and drank water. Instead of eating
in the bus or in the shade of the bus, we kept to ourselves by walking down
to the irrigation canal9 that ran the length of the field, to open our lunch of
190 sandwiches and crackers. We laughed at the crackers, which seemed like a cruel
joke from our Mother, because we were working under the sun and the last predicament
(prG-dGkPE-mEnt) n. an
thing we wanted was a salty dessert. We ate them anyway and drank more water unpleasant situation from
before we returned to the field, both of us limping in exaggeration. Working which it is difficult to free
side by side, we talked and laughed at our predicament because our Mother oneself
had warned us year after year that if we didn’t get on track in school we’d have
to work in the fields and then we would see. We mimicked Mother’s whining
voice and smirked at her smoky view of the future in which we’d be trapped by
marriage and screaming kids. We’d eat beans and then we’d see. h h SENSORY DETAILS
Rick pulled slowly away to the rhythm of his hoe falling faster and Which detail in lines
182–198 most helps
200 smoother. It was better that way, to work alone. I could hum made-up songs or
you feel what it was like
songs from the radio and think to myself about school and friends. At the time to be with Soto and Rick
I was doing badly in my classes, mainly because of a difficult stepfather, but that day?
also because I didn’t care anymore. All through junior high and into my first
year of high school there were those who said I would never do anything, be
anyone. They said I’d work like a donkey and marry the first Mexican girl that
came along. I was reminded so often, verbally and in the way I was treated at
home, that I began to believe that chopping cotton might be a lifetime job for
me. If not chopping cotton, then I might get lucky and find myself in a car
wash or restaurant or junkyard. But it was clear; I’d work, and work hard. i i AUTHOR’S
210 I cleared my mind by humming and looking about. The sun was directly PERSPECTIVE
How might Soto’s
above with a few soft blades of clouds against a sky that seemed bluer and more
experiences at school
beautiful than our sky in the city. Occasionally the breeze flurried and picked and home affect his
up dust so that I had to cover my eyes and screw up my face. The workers were expectations for himself?
hunched, brown as the clods under our feet, and spread across the field that ran
without end—fields that were owned by corporations, not families.
I hoed trying to keep my mind busy with scenes from school and pretend
girlfriends until finally my brain turned off and my thinking went fuzzy
with boredom. I looked about, no longer mesmerized by the beauty of the

8. clods: hardened clumps of soil.

9. irrigation canal: a ditch that brings water to crops.

808 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

 landscape, . . . no longer dreaming of the clothes I’d buy with my pay. My
220 eyes followed my chopping as the plants, thin as their shadows, fell with each
strike. I worked slowly with ankles and arms hurting, neck stiff, and eyes
stinging from the dust and the sun that glanced off the field like a mirror.
By quitting time, 3:00, there was such an excruciating pain in my ankles
that I walked as if I were wearing snowshoes. Rick laughed at me and I
laughed too, embarrassed that most of the men were walking normally and I
was among the first timers who had to get used to this work. “And what about
you . . .” I came back at Rick. His eyes were meshed red and his long hippie
hair was flecked with dust and gnats and bits of leaves. We placed our hoes in
the back of a pickup and stood in line for our pay, which was twelve fifty. I
230 was amazed at the pay, which was the most I had ever earned in one day, and
thought that I’d come back the next day, Sunday. This was too good.
Instead of joining the others in the labor bus, we jumped in the back of
a pickup when the driver said we’d get to town sooner and were welcome to
join him. We scrambled into the truck bed to be joined by a heavy-set and
laughing Tejano whose head was shaped like an egg, particularly so because the
bandana he wore ended in a point on the top of his head. He laughed almost
demonically as the pickup roared up the dirt path, a gray cape of dust rising
behind us. On the highway, with the wind in our faces, we squinted at the
fields as if we were looking for someone. The Tejano had quit laughing but was
240 smiling broadly, occasionally chortling tunes he never finished. I was scared of
him, though Rick, two years older and five inches taller, wasn’t. If the Tejano
looked at him, Rick stared back for a second or two before he looked away to
the fields. j j SENSORY DETAILS
I felt like a soldier coming home from war when we rattled into Chinatown. Reread lines 234–243.
What details help you
People leaning against car hoods stared, their necks following us, owl-like; . . .
understand what the
Chinese grocers stopped brooming their storefronts to raise their cadaverous Tejano looks like and
faces at us. We stopped in front of the Chi Chi Club where Mexican music sounds like as he rides
blared from the juke box and cue balls cracked like dull ice. The Tejano, who in the truck?
was dirty as we were, stepped awkwardly over the side rail, dusted himself off
250 with his bandana, and sauntered into the club. k k AUTHOR’S
Rick and I jumped from the back, thanked the driver who said de nada10 PERSPECTIVE
Reread line 244. What
and popped his clutch, so that the pickup jerked and coughed blue smoke. We
does Soto’s statement
returned smiling to our car, happy with the money we had made and pleased reflect about his attitude
that we had, in a small way, proved ourselves to be tough; that we worked as toward the work he’s
well as other men and earned the same pay. been doing?
We returned the next day and the next week until the season was over and
there was nothing to do. I told myself that I wouldn’t pick grapes that summer,
saying all through June and July that it was for Mexicans, not me. When August
came around and I still had not found a summer job, I ate my words, sharpened
260 my knife, and joined Mother, Rick, and Debra for one last time. 

10. de nada (dE näPdE) Spanish: “You’re welcome—it’s nothing.”

one last time 809

 Connect: Poem

How
Things
Work
g a ry soto

Today it’s going to cost us twenty dollars

To live. Five for a softball. Four for a book,
A handful of ones for coffee and two sweet rolls,
Bus fare, rosin1 for your mother’s violin.
5 We’re completing our task. The tip I left
For the waitress filters down
Like rain, wetting the new roots of a child
Perhaps, a belligerent cat that won’t let go
Of a balled sock until there’s chicken to eat.
10 As far as I can tell, daughter, it works like this:
You buy bread from a grocery, a bag of apples
From a fruit stand, and what coins
Are passed on helps others buy pencils, glue,
Tickets to a movie in which laughter
15 Is thrown into their faces.
If we buy a goldfish, someone tries on a hat.
If we buy crayons, someone walks home with a broom.
A tip, a small purchase here and there,
And things just keep going. I guess.

1. rosin (rJzPGn): a substance derived from tree sap that is used

to increase sliding friction on stringed instruments’ bows.

810 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

After Reading

Comprehension 86A>;DGC>6
1. Recall What does Gary Soto dream of buying his mother? R3.7 Analyze a work of literature,
showing how it reflects the heritage,
2. Recall What does Soto think about when he is bored at work? traditions, attitudes, and beliefs of its
author. (Biographical approach)
3. Summarize Describe Soto’s first day chopping cotton.

Literary Analysis
4. Make Inferences How might Soto’s family history affect his thoughts and
feelings about working in the fields? Cite evidence from the story and the
biography on page 817 to support your response.
5. Analyze Sensory Details Review the sensory details you noted in your web.
What single detail best captures for you what it was like to pick grapes or
chop cotton?
6. Compare and Contrast Which does Soto like more, picking grapes or
chopping cotton? Note the similarities and differences between the two
jobs. Then explain why Soto prefers the one he does.
7. Examine Author’s Perspective In what ways does Gary Soto’s perspective
toward work change throughout the selection? Consider what happens to
Soto’s dreams the longer he works in the fields. Track his attitude toward his
jobs on a timeline like the one shown. Record his positive feelings above the
line and negative feelings below the line.
Positive enthusiastic about
Feelings job and making money

Negative
Feelings

8. Compare Literary Works Think about Gary Soto’s childhood experiences as

a field laborer. What effect might they have had on the view of money he
expresses in his poem “How Things Work” on page 826? Explain.

Extension and Challenge

9. Big Question Activity What might Soto say he learned from his jobs working in
the fields? Respond to the Quickwrite activity on page 816 as if you were Soto.
10. Readers’ Circle Writers choose titles for their selections very carefully. Why
do you think Gary Soto titled this memoir “One Last Time”? Reread the last
paragraph of the memoir and think about the ideas Soto emphasizes. Then,
in small groups, brainstorm other possible titles. Share your best idea with
the class.

one last time 811

Vocabulary in Context
vocabulary practice
Show that you understand the vocabulary words by telling whether each contractor
statement is true or false.
feeble
1. Someone who rambles on about a topic gets right to the point.
2. It is a foreman’s job to tell workers what to do. foreman
3. Someone who gropes for an item finds it right away. grope
4. If you drop something on the floor, you can stoop to pick it up.
irate
5. Contractors supply labor and materials for a project.
6. Most people feel irate on their birthdays. predicament
7. A feeble voice is difficult to hear.
ramble
8. Having two appointments at the same time might be called a predicament.
stoop
vocabulary in writing
What is the worst summer job you can imagine? Using at least two vocabulary
words, write a paragraph describing your first day.

example sentence

The labor contractor hired us to work.

vocabulary strategy: similes

Writers sometimes use similes, or figures of speech that compare two unlike
things using the words like or as. In “One Last Time,” the author says that the 86A>;DGC>6

dust and sand flying into their moving bus was “whipping around like irate R1.1 Analyze idioms, analogies,
metaphors, and similes to infer the
wasps.” This simile helps readers imagine what it would feel like to be riding literal and figurative meanings of
in the bus. phrases.

Similes can also provide context clues to help you figure out unfamiliar word
meanings. If you know that “whipping around” implies fast, curving motion and
that wasps move more quickly when they’re angered, then you can figure out
that irate means “very angry.”

PRACTICE Use the simile in each sentence as a context clue to help you define
the boldfaced word.
1. His elaborate story was as layered as a wedding cake.
2. The idling engine purred like a lazy kitten. vocabulary
practice
3. She stared at me as intently as a cat watches a bird. For more practice, go
4. The lightning illuminated the sky like a fireworks display. to the Vocabulary Center
at ClassZone.com.
5. Her excruciating sense of homesickness felt like physical pain.

812 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

 86A>;DGC>6
Reading-Writing Connection R3.7 Analyze a work of literature,
showing how it reflects the heritage,
Deepen your appreciation of “One Last Time” by responding to the prompts. traditions, attitudes, and beliefs of
its author.
Then complete the Grammar and Writing exercise.

writing prompts self-check

A. Short Response: Write a Letter to the Editor A strong letter will . . .

Do you think children under the age of 16 should • clearly state your position for
be allowed to work jobs harvesting crops? Write a or against the issue
one-paragraph letter to the editor of a newspaper,
• give reasons that support your
expressing your opinion.
opinion

B. Extended Response: Compare Narrators An effective comparison will . . .

Gary Soto in “One More Time” and the narrator in • identify each person’s heritage
“The Snapping Turtle” (page 766) are both deeply and how he feels about it
affected by their cultural heritage. In a two- or
• support your points with
three-paragraph response, compare and contrast
evidence from the selections
how their heritages influence their actions.

grammar and writing

USE SEMICOLONS CORRECTLY When there are commas within parts of a series,
you must use a semicolon to separate the parts. 86A>;DGC>6
LC1.5 Use correct punctuation and
Original: Some children need to earn money to buy bus tokens, capitalization.
clothing, and school supplies, such as pencils, paper, and
notebooks.
Revised: Some children need to earn money to buy bus tokens;
clothing; and school supplies, such as pencils, paper, and
notebooks. (Because one part of the series contains commas,
a semicolon should separate the parts.)

PRACTICE In the following sentences, insert semicolons as needed.

1. Not all parents can afford to buy food, clothing, and other necessities, pay
for their children’s education, and maintain a roof over their heads.
2. Hard work teaches children responsibility, independence, and self-respect,
enables them to earn a living, and instructs them in the value of money.
3. Children should be able to work on farms if they attend school, don’t handle
pesticides, machinery, or dangerous animals, and are paid a decent wage.
4. A job harvesting crops provides children with exercise, sunshine, and clean
air, gets them away from TV, and teaches them to appreciate their food.

For more help with semicolons, see page R49 in the Grammar Handbook.

one last time 813

 Media Political Cartoons
Study Image Collection on MediaSmart DVD

Can cartoons
have a point?
KEY IDEA In the United States, everyone can express an opinion, and
there are countless ways opinions are expressed. In this lesson, you’ll
look at how images and words can be carefully combined to make
86A>;DGC>6
timely statements about American life.
LS 1.9 Interpret and evaluate
the various ways in which visual
image makers (e.g, graphic artists,
illustrators, news photographers) Background
communicate information and affect
impressions and opinions. Cartoon Comments A political cartoon is a humorous drawing
that makes a comment about a political issue or an event.
Political cartoons usually appear on the editorial pages of
newspapers, alongside writings that express opinions. These
cartoons can reflect current topics in a funny or serious way.
The following cartoon presents two characters who might
look familiar. In political cartoons, the elephant often appears as
the symbol of the Republican Party and the donkey stands for the
Democratic Party. These characters often represent two sides of
an issue. In this case, though, does the cartoonist seem to think
that either side is correct?

814 © 20 06 La rry W
right. The Detro
it News. All Righ
ts Reser ved.
 86A>;DGC>6
Media Literacy: Messages in Political Cartoons
For any cartoon, the cartoonist’s aim is to include images and details that help
you figure out his or her message. One of the most enduring images in political
cartoons is the figure of Uncle Sam. Political cartoonists use him as a symbol for
the United States. His appearance may vary from cartoon to cartoon. However,
he’s usually easy to recognize, and the message he communicates is tied to a
national issue. Use the following strategies to analyze political cartoons.

strategies for analyzing a political cartoon

© Frank Evers/Courtesy New York Daily News.

Identify the subject. Identify symbols and specific details.

Look for labels. Any words you see might be used to Almost every detail in a political cartoon is
identify people, groups, or events. What label appears carefully chosen to communicate part of the
in this cartoon? message. What key symbols and images appear
in this cartoon?

Look for exaggeration. Figure out the point of view.

Just as in ordinary comics, the humor in political In any political cartoon, look for clues to the
cartoons is delivered often through exaggeration. cartoonist’s point of view. Are characters
In this political cartoon, what details appear to be portrayed positively or negatively? Are their
extreme or unusual? actions admirable, foolish, or criminal?

Notice how the art elements are used to catch the eye and to create certain effects.
• Political cartoons usually appear in black and white. When you spot any other color, consider what the
cartoonist is highlighting and what message he or she is communicating.
• Lines convey certain moods. Straight lines can signal an issue is serious. Curvy lines convey playfulness.
• To get your attention, cartoonists exaggerate shapes, often making objects appear to be larger than life.
Most often, cartoonists exaggerate by changing the sizes of familiar objects or of labels.

media study 815

 Viewing Guide for
. MediaSmart DVD Political Cartoons
• Selection 1: “Acid Rain”
• Cartoonist: Frank Evers
Use the DVD to see larger versions of the political cartoons. As you
• Selection 2: “The Silver Sun
examine each one, think about when it was created and the issue it
of Prosperity”
• Cartoonist: Bernard Gillam comments on. The political cartoon on page 851 was published at a
• Genre: Political Cartoons time when the effects of acid rain first became a topic in the news.
The cartoon here first appeared in 1890, when the U.S. Congress
passed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. This act called for the
government to put more money into circulation by purchasing
more silver than ever before.
Think about the way Uncle Sam is drawn in each political cartoon
and the images and words each cartoonist uses to make a comment.
Use these questions to help you interpret the messages.

now view

FIRST VIEWING: Comprehension

1. Identify Name any object that appears unusually large in size in the
“Acid Rain” political cartoon.

2. Clarify Apart from the title, “The Silver Sun of Prosperity,” what helps
you to understand the subject of this political cartoon?

CLOSE VIEWING: Media Literacy

3. Identify Exaggeration In the “Acid Rain” political cartoon, what looks

exaggerated about the appearance of Uncle Sam and the rain?

4. Analyze the Message In “Acid Rain,” Uncle Sam seems to be a bit

confused. What comment might the political cartoonist be making
by drawing Uncle Sam in this way?

5. Analyze the Message The political cartoonist of “The Silver Sun of

Prosperity” was in favor of the Sherman Silver Act. What evidence
do you see of this in the political cartoon? Think about
• Uncle Sam’s action in the cartoon and what he symbolizes
• the color choices and the use of text and exaggeration
• the specific objects the cartoonist chose to depict

816
 Media Study

Write or Discuss
Compare Political Cartoons You’ve seen how the image of Uncle Sam has
spanned generations. The political cartoons in this lesson were created at
different times to address different issues. How else are they alike or different?
Write a brief comparison-contrast paragraph that describes at least two more
differences. Think about
• whether the political cartoon includes many details or only a few
• the message of each political cartoon
• whether each cartoonist uses color

Produce Your Own Media media tools

Create a Political Cartoon Choose an issue that you think would make a good For help with creating a
subject for your own political cartoon. This issue may be something that affects political cartoon, visit
the Media Center at
your school, your neighborhood, or the entire nation. The basic rule is to choose ClassZone.com.
an issue that’s familiar to your audience and that is important enough for them
to care about. It may help you to briefly discuss your ideas with your teacher.
HERE’S HOW Use these suggestions in making your political cartoon:
• What details could you use to represent the issue?
• What might you exaggerate in the image to highlight your point?
• Draw attention to the most important part of your image through the use
of art elements. For example, make the person or object that matters most
larger in size than the other objects.
• Draw or label the people or objects in the political cartoon so that they’re easy
to recognize. You can also use speech balloons to show what a character is
saying. Make sure there are reasons for using any words you include.

student model
Tech Tip
If available, use a software
program to make a slideshow
of the cartoons in your class.

Big Oil Rules

media study 817
 Before Reading

I Want to Write
Sit-Ins
Poems by Margaret Walker

How can we fight

injustice ?
KEY IDEA A girl is blamed for someone else’s mistake. A boy is
accused because of the color of his skin. People are denied rights
because of the group they belong to, or they are put into danger
86A>;DGC>6
because of what they believe. Witnessing injustice can make you feel
R3.6 Identify significant literary
devices (e.g., metaphor, symbolism, angry, powerless, or even physically sick. But there are ways to fight
dialect, irony) that define a writer’s back. In the poems you’re about to read, Margaret Walker celebrates
style and use those elements to
interpret the work. working for what’s right.
R3.7 Analyze a work of literature,
showing how it reflects the heritage, LIST IT How can people fight injustice? With a small group, brainstorm
traditions, attitudes, and beliefs of its
author. (Biographical approach) a list of ways people can help make the world a fairer place. Then
compare your lists with those of other groups. Who came up with the
most examples? Who came up with ideas no one else did?

818
literary analysis: historical context 86A>;DGC>6
Just as a writer’s cultural background can affect his or her work,
Privilege and Pain
the time period in which a writer lives also can influence his or Margaret Walker
her subject matter and attitude. When you look at literature had a middle-class
in its historical context, you consider what was happening in upbringing in the
society at the time a piece of writing was created. South at a time
Margaret Walker wrote the two poems you are about to when many African
Americans weren’t so
read in different decades. She wrote “I Want to Write” in the
lucky. Her parents’
1930s and “Sit-Ins” in the 1960s. First study the background on jobs provided a nice
this page, and read the excerpt from A Dream of Freedom on income, but the family
page 823. Then, as you read the poems, try to connect historical still suffered from
events with Margaret Walker’s words. discrimination. In an Margaret Walker
interview, she recalled 1915–1998
the effects of racial
reading skill: analyze repetition prejudice: “Before I was 10, I knew what it was
Sound devices can add interest and appeal to all types of poems, to step off the sidewalk to let a white man
whether long, short, funny, or serious. One of the sound devices pass; otherwise he might knock me off. . . .”
used in Walker’s poems is repetition, in which a sound, word, For Her People While Walker was growing
phrase, or line is repeated for emphasis or unity. To understand up in the 1920s, an African-American cultural
the effect of repetition in a poem, follow these steps: movement called the Harlem Renaissance
was flourishing in New York City. Walker
• Write down repeated words, phrases, or lines. discovered the works of these new writers
• Think about what ideas these repeated elements emphasize. when she was 11 years old. Already showing
a gift for writing, Walker knew that she,
• Notice how the repetition relates to the poem’s overall message. too, wanted to tell the stories of African
As you read each poem, record examples of repetition in a chart Americans. Encouraged by poet Langston
Hughes, Walker went to college in the North
like the one shown, and describe the effect each has on your
in 1932. Ten years later, Yale University
understanding of Walker’s ideas. published her first collection of poetry,
For My People.
Repetition Effect

Background
Civil Rights In the South, “Jim Crow” laws
kept blacks and whites separated in public
places, such as schools and restaurants. In
the 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. and other
leaders organized nonviolent protests
against segregation. Tactics included
boycotts (refusing to buy products from
companies that supported segregation)
and sit-ins (peacefully demanding service
at segregated businesses).

more about the author

and background
To learn more about Margaret Walker
and the civil rights movement, visit the
Literature Center at ClassZone.com.

i want to write / sit-ins 819

 Illustration by Jérôme Lagarrigue.

 ant to rite Margaret Walker

I want to write ANALYZE VISUALS

I want to write the songs of my people. Look at the image on
this page. Describe the
I want to hear them singing melodies in the dark.
expression on the girl’s
I want to catch the last floating strains1 from their sob-torn throats. face. What do you think
5 I want to frame their dreams into words; their souls into notes. her personality is like?
I want to catch their sunshine laughter in a bowl;
fling dark hands to a darker sky
and fill them full of stars
then crush and mix such lights till they become
10 a mirrored pool of brilliance in the dawn. a a REPETITION
Note the phrase in this
poem that is repeated.
What idea does it
emphasize?

1. strains: tunes.

820 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

 Illustration by Jérôme Lagarrigue.

it-Ins Margaret Walker

Greensboro, North Carolina, in the Spring of 1960

You were our first brave ones to defy their dissonance of hate ANALYZE VISUALS
With your silence What can you infer about
why the woman and child
With your willingness to suffer
might be walking away
Without violence from the counter?
5 Those first bright young to fling your names across pages
Of new southern history
With courage and faith, convictions, and intelligence b b REPETITION
The first to blaze a flaming path for justice Reread lines 1–7. What
does the repetition help
And awaken consciences you to understand about
10 Of these stony ones. the people Walker is
describing?
Come, Lord Jesus, Bold Young Galilean1
Sit Beside this Counter, Lord, with Me! c c HISTORICAL CONTEXT
What historical details
does Walker cite in the
poem?

1. Galilean (gBlQE-lCPEn): According to the Bible, Jesus lived near the Sea of Galilee, in Israel.

i want to write / sit-ins 821

 After Reading

Comprehension 86A>;DGC>6
1. Recall In “I Want to Write,” what does the speaker want to write about? R3.6 Identify significant literary
devices (e.g., metaphor, symbolism,
2. Recall In “Sit-Ins,” what qualities do the people participating in the sit-ins have? dialect, irony) that define a writer’s
style and use those elements to
interpret the work.
Literary Analysis R3.7 Analyze a work of literature,
showing how it reflects the heritage,
3. Understand Imagery Recall that imagery consists of words and phrases that traditions, attitudes, and beliefs of its
author. (Biographical approach)
appeal to readers’ senses. In a chart like the one shown, note the images
in “I Want to Write” that appeal to the
Hearing Sight Touch
senses of hearing, sight, and touch.
What do these images help you to “singing
understand about the people Walker melodies”
wants to write about?
4. Examine Historical Context Margaret Walker writes, “I want to write the songs
of my people.” Tell what you know about conditions and events that affected
African Americans in the 1930s. How might Walker have been trying to protest
racial injustice in “I Want to Write”? Support your answer with quotations from
the poem.
5. Interpret a Passage In “Sit-Ins,” Walker describes those participating in
the sit-ins as “The first to blaze a flaming path for justice/And awaken
consciences/Of these stony ones.” Who might the “stony ones” be? Think
about the qualities the word stony suggests.
6. Compare Texts What information in the excerpt from A Dream of Freedom
does the most to help you understand the poem “Sit-Ins”? What details do
you get in the poem that help you understand the book excerpt? Explain.
7. Analyze Repetition Look at the chart you completed as you read. Decide
which poem makes greater use of repetition. What is the overall effect
of this repetition on your understanding of Walker’s ideas?

Extension and Challenge

8. Big Question Activity Review the list you came up with on page 818. After
reading the poems and the book excerpt, do you have anything you want to
add to the list? With your group, decide which method you think would be
most effective in achieving justice.
9. SOCIAL STUDIES CONNECTION Research another major event in the
civil rights movement, such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott or the March
on Washington. How did people participating in these events hope to achieve
justice? In a presentation to the class, explain the event and its significance.

research links
For more on the civil rights movement, visit the Research Center at ClassZone.com.

822 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

Reading for Information
BOOK EXCERPT In 1960, four African-American college students decided to protest
racial segregation in a new way. This book excerpt describes their bold actions and
how the students inspired others to join their cause.

from A Dream of Freedom

BY DIANE McWHORTER

Four protesters sit at a whites-only lunch counter at Woolworth’s.

On the last day of January 1960, a North cash register. One of the most insulting
Carolina teenager named Ezell Blair Jr. hypocrisies of segregation was that stores
announced to his mother, “Mom, we are in the South, as Franklin McCain put it,
going to do something tomorrow that “don’t separate your money in this cash
may change history, that might change register, but, no, please don’t step down
the world.” Blair attended a black college to the hot dog stand.”
in Greensboro called North Carolina The youths sat at the counter for
Agricultural and Technical. On Monday an hour. They were heckled by a black
afternoon, February 1, he and three A&T dishwasher, and stared at by a white
classmates, Franklin McCain, David policeman. An elderly white woman
Richmond, and Joseph McNeil, went cheered in a loud whisper: “You should
downtown to Woolworth’s department have done it ten years ago!”
store, took a seat at the lunch counter, The store manager turned off the lights
and ordered a doughnut and coffee. at five-thirty, half an hour before closing
“I’m sorry,” said the waitress, “we don’t time. “By then,” McCain recalled, “we
serve you here.” had the confidence, my goodness, of a
Though white-only lunch counters Mack truck.” In a week, the Greensboro
were a fact of southern life, one of the Four had grown to hundreds. Within two
students replied, “We just beg to disagree months, protests had taken place in 125
with you.” Before sitting down, they had cities in nine states. . . .
deliberately bought some school supplies. The sit-ins, as the lunch counter
Holding up a receipt, they pointed out campaign became known, sparked a
that they had just been served at a nearby freedom flame.

reading for information 823

 Writing Cause-and-Effect Essay
Workshop In this unit, you learned the effects that some early experiences had on Gary Soto,
Beverley Naidoo, and other writers. Check out the Writer’s Road Map and begin
exposition
writing about a cause-and-effect relationship that is important to you.

writer’s road map

Cause-and-Effect Essay

writing prompt 1 key traits

Writing from the Real World Write an essay about 1. ideas
a cause-and-effect relationship that you think is • Identifies a true cause-and-effect
important or interesting. Make sure you can show relationship
clearly how one event caused another event to • Presents a thesis that explains
happen. how causes and effects are
connected
Topics to Consider
• Supports points with evidence
• a natural event, such as a hurricane or a storm
• Differentiates between facts
• a historical event, such as the California gold rush and opinions
• a community event, such as building a skate park 2. organization
• Uses parallel structure to present
writing prompt 2 causes and effects
Writing from Literature Literature can be full of • Uses transitions to show the
cause-and-effect relationships. Write an essay that cause-and-effect relationship
traces a cause-and-effect relationship in a literary • Is well balanced, with an
work. introduction, body, and conclusion
Literature to Consider 3. voice
• experiencing how others live (“Out of Bounds”) • Uses a tone that is appropriate for
the audience and purpose
• the effects of political protest (“Sit-Ins”)
4. word choice
writing tools • Uses precise language to explain
For prewriting, revision, and each cause and effect
editing tools, visit the Writing 5 . sentence fluency
Center at ClassZone.com.
• Uses a variety of sentence types
(statements, questions, and
exclamations)
6. conventions
• Uses correct grammar, spelling,
and punctuation

824 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

 Included in this lesson: W1.1, W1.2,

Part 1: Analyze a Student Model 86A>;DGC>6

W1.3, W1.5, W1.6, W2.4ab, LC1.5 (p. 830),
LS1.6 (p. 831)

interactive model Chris Hawkins

classzone.com Danvers Intermediate School

Why Is It So Noisy?

One afternoon last week, I was sitting in the park, trying to relax. I
had gone there because I thought the sound of the wind in the trees and key traits in action
the waves on the shore of the lake would help get my mind off a problem
Introduction includes an
that was bothering me. What I heard instead wasn’t soothing natural anecdote that gets the
5 sounds, but noise, noise, and more noise. The blaring car horns, beeping reader interested.

trucks, squealing bus brakes, shrieking ambulance sirens, and barking

dogs made me even more nervous than I was before. “I can’t even hear
Thesis states a cause-
myself think!” I shouted. This kind of noise pollution is everywhere, and
and-effect relationship:
it’s not just annoying—it’s harmful because it may lead to hearing loss. excessive noise leads to
harm.
10 Traffic sounds like the ones I heard in the park are the major cause of
noise pollution. Just think how much noise a passing car, truck, bus, train,
or motorcycle makes. Can you imagine hearing dozens of them at once? It
Details and a fact are
doesn’t take much imagination, because we actually experience that racket evidence that noise
every time we go outside. Don’t look up for relief, either. According to the pollution is a serious
issue. The writer varies
15 Council on the Environment of New York City, an airplane 2,000 feet sentence types by
away makes a noise as loud as a car blowing its horn just a step away. The including a question.

sound of a jet taking off can actually cause buildings near an airport to
vibrate, so just imagine what it does to our bodies.
Another cause of noise pollution is machinery like jackhammers, Entire essay has a parallel
structure. The writer
20 bulldozers, leaf blowers, and lawnmowers. As anyone who lives in the city has already discussed
or suburbs knows, the annoying vibrations from these machines can have the major cause of noise
pollution and moves on
immediate and dramatic effects. The noise interrupts our thoughts, makes to other sources in this
conversations difficult, and can even be painful to our ears. paragraph.

writing workshop 825

 When it’s loud, music becomes noise, too. The noise level at concerts,
Highlighted precise
25 arcades, parties, and other events can be almost deafening. We have language makes the
causes and effects clear.
actually gotten so used to blaring music that it doesn’t even seem loud
to us. As a result, when we listen to music at home, or even through
Highlighted transition
headphones, we turn the volume way up. brings attention to one
The effects of all this noise pollution are frightening. According to an effect that loud music
has on people.
30 article I read in the Danvers Ledger, “Loud noises can actually destroy the
cells inside our ears.” The longer we’re exposed to the noise and the louder
The writer gives an
it is, the worse the damage will be. If these cells are destroyed, there is no opinion in the first
way to restore them or our hearing. The House Ear Institute estimates sentence and supports it
with facts.
that almost 10 million Americans suffer from hearing loss caused by noise.
35 Living in the world means dealing with noise. However, since we
The word we helps
understand the causes of noise pollution, we can try to prevent its harmful to create a tone that
effects. We can avoid noisy environments as much as possible and wear makes the reader feel
comfortable. Conclusion
earplugs or earmuffs when we’re in construction zones or at the airport. We summarizes the causes
can turn down our TVs, DVD and CD players, computers, and personal of noise pollution
and suggests ways to
40 music players. Finally, we need to tell other people about the dangers of minimize its effects.
noise pollution and start doing what we can to prevent it—now.

826 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

 Writing Workshop

Part 2: Apply the Writing Process

prewriting
What Should I Do? What Does It Look Like?

1. Decide on the right topic for you.

My World The Wider World
Think of events in your life or the world that
made you ask yourself “Why did that happen?” • Sid’s skateboarding • melting glaciers
or “What happened after that?” List the accident • noise pollution
ideas that come to mind. Circle the topic that • Leslie wanting to • lowering the voting
interests you most. get a dog age to 16
4)0 Grouping your ideas into categories can • getting lost during • stereotypes of
help you focus. school field trip teenagers
• earning my blue belt
in judo

2. Use a flow chart to explore causes and effects.

Causes
Ask yourself if the events are true causes and
effects. One event may follow another but not Traffic noise Effect
be caused by it. “I went out without drying my Machinery noise Hearing loss
hair and caught pneumonia” is an example of Loud music
a false cause. Germs cause illness; wet hair
does not.

3. Draft a coherent, well-defined thesis.

Working thesis statement
Your thesis should make a clear and
knowledgeable judgment. In other words, Our world is definitely not a quiet place, and the
it should state your opinion. An opinion is a noise pollution we experience every day is annoying
statement that can’t be proved or disproved and can also cause hearing problems.
because it expresses someone’s feelings.

4. Collect details in support of your key points.

Key point: Noise pollution is damaging.
Now it’s time to support your opinion with
facts, statistics, anecdotes, and quotations Evidence:
from experts. A fact is a statement that can • Danvers Ledger reports, “Loud noises can actually
be proved. A statistic is a fact that includes destroy the cells inside our ears.”
a number. • According to the House Ear Institute, almost 10
million Americans have loss of hearing due to noise.

writing workshop 827

 drafting
What Should I Do? What Does It Look Like?

1. Organize your thoughts with an informal

Introduction
outline.
Discuss how noise affects my life
This writer described the major causes
Thesis: Noise pollution annoying and damaging
of noise pollution and then discussed
its most significant effect. You can also Most important cause: Traffic
present the effects first and then analyze Cars, buses, trains, airplanes
their causes. This outline has parallel Second most important cause: Machinery
structure. Each important cause has a Jackhammers, bulldozers, leaf blowers, lawnmowers
paragraph devoted to it. Third most important cause: Music
4)0 Your essay should have a
Concerts, parties, personal music players
controlling impression. In other words, Most important effect: Hearing loss
every part of your essay should relate to Permanent damage to ear cells; 10 million Americans
your thesis. affected
Conclusion
Need to take action to prevent harmful effects of
noise pollution

2. Use evidence, examples, and reasoning.

Another cause of noise pollution is machinery like
Remember the details you collected in
jackhammers, bulldozers, leaf blowers, and lawnmowers.
step 4 on the previous page? Include
As anyone who lives in the city or suburbs knows, the
those and other specific, relevant details
annoying vibrations from these machines can interrupt our
to help your reader understand the
thoughts, make conversations difficult, and even be painful
cause-and-effect relationship.
to our ears.

3. Write a clear, well-supported conclusion.

We understand the causes of noise pollution, so we can
Your conclusion should use fresh, new
try to prevent its harmful effects. We can avoid noisy
language to summarize the causes and
environments as much as possible and turn down our
effects. If possible, it should also show
personal music players. Finally, we need to tell other
how the topic is important to the reader’s
people about the dangers of noise pollution and start
life or suggest what the reader can do
doing what we can to prevent it—now.
to change the situation. This conclusion
uses parallel structure. The sentences
have the same pattern of words—“we
understand,” “we can avoid,” and “we
need to tell”—to show that all three
points are important.

828 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

 Writing Workshop

revising and editing

What Should I Do? What Does It Look Like?

1. Have a classmate review your introduction.

My essay is about noise pollution because I think it is
• Ask a peer reader if the first few sentences of
very important. This issue is getting worse.
your essay make him or her want to read on.
One afternoon last week, I was sitting in the park,
• If the answer is no, try eliminating sentences
trying to relax. I had gone there because I thought
that give little information or adding an
the sound of the wind in the trees and the waves on
interesting detail, quotation, question, or
the shore of the lake would help get my mind off
anecdote.
a problem that was bothering me. What I heard
See page 830: Ask a Peer Reader instead wasn’t soothing natural sounds, but noise,
noise, and more noise.

2. Evaluate your supporting information.

Don’t look up for relief, either. [Jet planes make
• [Bracket] the facts and examples that
a terrible racket.] According to the Council on the
illustrate your key points.
Environment of New York City, an airplane 2,000 feet
• Consider adding quotations, statistics, or away makes a noise as loud as a car blowing its horn
other details that make your statements easy just a step away.
to understand.

3. Use transitions wisely.

We understand the causes of noise pollution, so we
• Underline the transitional words and phrases
can try to prevent its harmful effects. Living in the
you used to begin a paragraph, to end a
world means dealing with noise. However, since we
paragraph, or within a paragraph.
understand the causes of noise pollution, we can try
• Think about adding transitions such as to prevent its harmful effects.
however, since, and as a result to show how
ideas are connected.
See page 830: Add Transitional Words

4. Add a question or exclamation where

Just think how much noise a passing car, truck, bus,
appropriate.
train, or motorcycle makes. Then imagine hearing
• Reread your essay. Do all your sentences end
dozens of them at once. ? Can you
with periods?
• Consider including an exclamation or a
question for a change of pace.
4)0 Use exclamations and questions
sparingly to avoid sounding overexcited
or confused.

writing workshop 829

 Preparing 86A>;DGC>6
LC1.5

to Publish Cause-and-Effect Essay

Consider the Criteria Add Transitional Words

Use this checklist to make sure your Cause Effect
essay is on track.
Ideas because as a result

explains an actual cause-and- if consequently

effect relationship provided that so
presents a thesis and supports it since then
with evidence therefore
differentiates between facts and
opinions
Organization
Check Your Grammar
uses parallel structure
Use a comma to set off an introductory word or
links ideas with transitions phrase.
has an introduction, body, and
conclusion One afternoon last week, I was sitting in the
park.
Voice
maintains an appropriate tone
Word Choice As a result, we turn the volume way up when
precisely describes each cause and we listen to music at home.
effect
Sentence Fluency
However, we can try to prevent the harmful
varies sentence types effects of noise pollution.
Conventions
uses correct grammar, spelling, See page R49: Quick Reference: Punctuation
and punctuation

Ask a Peer Reader

• How can I improve my introduction?
publishing options
• Which causes or effects need more For publishing options, visit the
explanation? Writing Center at ClassZone.com.
• Which point that I made was assessment prepar ation
most interesting, surprising, or For writing and grammar assessment practice,
disturbing? Why? go to the Assessment Center at ClassZone.com.

830 unit 7: history, culture, and the author

 LS1.6
86A>;DGC>6
publishing with technology

Creating a Multimedia Presentation

Now that you have traced a cause-and-effect relationship, share that
information with others by creating a multimedia presentation.

Planning the Presentation

1. Decide on your technology. Ask your school’s media specialist
about doing a power presentation, a slide show, or an interactive
display.
2. Think about the
visuals and audio.
You may be able to
present supporting
evidence through
spoken words, video
clips, photographs,
animations, maps,
charts, or graphs. Sound effect: loud jet engines
Consider adding music Voiceover: What does this sound do to
or sound effects to get your ears?
your message across.
3. Create a storyboard. Sketch exactly what your audience will see
and hear. Include details about text, voiceovers, music, effects,
and other images and sounds.

Delivering the Presentation

1. Put it all together. Scan or download all of your images and
sounds onto a computer. Record voiceovers and insert them
in the proper places. Create title screens, text, and any other
elements you want to include.
4)0 Be sure to get permission for words, images, or audio that
you did not create yourself.
2. Share your results. Deliver your presentation to an audience or
invite small groups to explore it on their own. If you present to
an audience, make sure that your grammar and word choice are
appropriate for a formal presentation. Use standard American
English, the same kind of language you find in a textbook.
3. Find out what others thought. Ask your audience for positive
and negative comments on your presentation. Use the feedback
to improve your next presentation.

writing workshop 831

 Viewing Guide for
. MediaSmart DVD Political Cartoons
• Selection 1: “Acid Rain”
• Cartoonist: Frank Evers
Use the DVD to see larger versions of the political cartoons. As you
• Selection 2: “The Silver Sun
examine each one, think about when it was created and the issue it
of Prosperity”
• Cartoonist: Bernard Gillam comments on. The political cartoon on page 831 was published at a
• Genre: Political Cartoons time when the effects of acid rain first became a topic in the news.
The cartoon here first appeared in 1890, when the U.S. Congress
passed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. This act called for the
government to put more money into circulation by purchasing
more silver than ever before.
Think about the way Uncle Sam is drawn in each political cartoon
and the images and words each cartoonist uses to make a comment.
Use these questions to help you interpret the messages.

now view

FIRST VIEWING: Comprehension

1. Identify Name any object that appears unusually large in size in the
“Acid Rain” political cartoon.

2. Clarify Apart from the title, “The Silver Sun of Prosperity,” what helps
you to understand the subject of this political cartoon?

CLOSE VIEWING: Media Literacy

3. Identify Exaggeration In the “Acid Rain” political cartoon, what looks

exaggerated about the appearance of Uncle Sam and the rain?

4. Analyze the Message In “Acid Rain,” Uncle Sam seems to be a bit

confused. What comment might the political cartoonist be making
by drawing Uncle Sam in this way?

5. Analyze the Message The political cartoonist of “The Silver Sun of

Prosperity” was in favor of the Sherman Silver Act. What evidence
do you see of this in the political cartoon? Think about
• Uncle Sam’s action in the cartoon and what he symbolizes
• the color choices and the use of text and exaggeration
• the specific objects the cartoonist chose to depict

832
 “Amazing,” I said aloud. It was amazing that I would be greeted on the sea
with such enthusiasm, amazing that on one of the most populated coasts in
the world, near a metropolis that stretched nearly two hundred miles from
San Diego to Santa Barbara, where nearly eighteen million people jammed the
freeways and sidewalks, I would be completely alone with the sea and my boat;
40 amazing that the planet still held such a place.

from The Voyage of the Frog

Gary Paulsen

And at two in the morning he saw the light in the water. He saw it first to
the stern. In his wake, in the silent bubbles left by the Frog moving through
the water, there was a rippled, dotted line of eerie light glowing up from the
water. It was blue-green, seemed to come from down in the water, and at first
it startled and frightened him. But then he remembered hearing about it.
Small animals in the water, microscopic organisms, sometimes
phosphoresced—gave off light almost like lightning bugs—when disturbed.
He must be going through a mass of them. In back of the Frog was a long line
of blue light, fading as the water settled down again.
10 He tied the tiller off, leaned over the side, and looked toward the front
where the bow cut a wave that curled over.
“Ohhh . . .” It slipped out of his mouth unbidden, almost a sigh of
amazement. The boat was moving through blue fire, blue fire in the night.
The bow wave was a rolling curve of blue light, sparkled with bits of green
that seemed to want to crawl up the side of the boat and then fold back and
over, splashing out in ripples and droplets of light.
It could not be as beautiful as it was—not be that beautiful and be real.
It was so bright and shining a thing that the Frog seemed to be moving
through, a lake of cold fire, and as he watched he saw a form move beneath
20 the boat, caught in the blue glow of the bow wave, a torpedo form that shot
forward with an incredible burst of speed. He saw first the glowing curved line
around the head of the creature and the line showed him that it was the front
of a dolphin. All in seconds, in short parts of seconds, he saw the head and the
body moving forward beneath the boat and then it exploded—the dolphin
blew out of the water in front of the boat.
It rose in a clean curve just in front of the bowsprit, five, six feet out of the
water in a leap of joy that only dolphins can make, carrying with it a shroud go on
of splashing blue-green fire that whirled and spiraled in the darkness to follow

assessment pr actice 833

 the dolphin up, over and down, back into the water and plunging in green light
30 back to the depths beneath the Frog.
David was frozen with it, did not know how long he stayed with one hand
reaching up as if to touch where the dolphin had been, touch the curve of blue
fire. It was all there and gone—just as suddenly gone as if it had never been—
and his breath burst suddenly out into the night.
He looked back, expecting to see the dolphin as the boat went over it but
there was nothing.

Comprehension 4. Reread lines 1–5. Paulsen turns off the

motor of his boat because he
DIRECTIONS Answer these questions about the excerpt
from Caught by the Sea. A has to save fuel
B is bothered by its noise
1. Reread lines 1–9. To which of your senses do C senses danger ahead
the details in this excerpt appeal? D doesn’t want to scare the fish
A sight and hearing
B sight, hearing, and touch 5. In lines 19–20, Paulsen writes that there is
C sight, hearing, touch, and taste “something wrong” about using the motor
on a beautiful morning. What can you infer
D sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell
about him from this statement?
2. Reread lines 10–14. To which of your senses A He worries about disturbing others.
do the details in this excerpt appeal? B He enjoys the peaceful setting.
A sight C He is learning how to operate the boat.
B sight and hearing D He is hiding from someone.
C sight and touch
6. What attracts the seabirds, dolphins, and
D sight, hearing, and touch
sharks to the waters around the boat?
3. Which sentence tells you that Paulsen enjoys A light from the moon
his sailing experience? B the smell of a human
A “I lowered the mainsail and sat peacefully C swarms of small fish
drifting around in circles, feeling at home, D the sound of the boat’s motor
truly at home.”
B “I made a small pot of oatmeal on the little 7. In lines 20–23, what sensations does Paulsen
stove and some instant coffee and ate describe?
breakfast in the cockpit. . . . ” A the feeling of being warmed and gently
C “I did not dare to walk forward in the dark rocked
and put up the jib. . . .” B hearing the slap and splash of the water
D “While I lay in the calm, all around the hitting the sides of the boat
boat the sea seethed with life.” C the cozy, warming feeling of eating oatmeal
and sipping hot coffee
D the aromas of oatmeal and coffee

834
 Assessment Practice

DIRECTIONS Answer these questions about the excerpt DIRECTIONS Refer to both selections to answer
from The Voyage of the Frog. this question.
8. Paulsen’s experience as an outdoorsman 14. The excerpt from The Voyage of the Frog
is reflected in the story’s reflects which experience in Paulsen’s
A point of view C setting background?
B conflict D chronology A staying up all night to watch the sunrise
B getting an unexpected glimpse of sea
9. At first, the “eerie light glowing up from animals
the water” in lines 3–5 causes David to feel C cooking and sleeping on a boat
A scared C alone D learning how to operate a sailboat
B giddy D confused

10. Reread lines 6–9. Why are the small animals

in the water giving off light? Written Response
A Their bright light helps them locate food. SHORT RESPONSE Write two or three sentences
B The movement of the boat stirs them up. to answer the questions.
C They sense that predators are nearby.
15. Name two things Paulsen finds amazing
D They are signaling to other fish in the
in the excerpt from Caught by the Sea.
water.
Use quotations from the excerpt to support
11. Reread lines 26–34. You can infer that David your answer.
holds his breath when he sees the dolphin
16. Choose one experience described in
because he
The Voyage of the Frog that is similar to
A plans to capture the dolphin Paulsen’s experiences in Caught by the Sea,
B does not want to disturb the dolphin and explain the similarity between
C is amazed at the sight of the dolphin the two.
D thinks that the dolphin might hurt him
EXTENDED RESPONSE Write a paragraph to answer this
12. When he sees the leaping dolphin and the question.
glowing water around it, David
17. Reread lines 1–9 and 15–17 in Caught by
A tries to sail after the dolphin
the Sea. What effect does his sailing experience
B reaches out as if to touch what he sees have on Paulsen? Support your answer with
C hides in the bow of the boat examples from the excerpt.
D shouts out in disbelief

13. The presence of a dolphin suggests that the

Frog is sailing in
A an ocean C a pond
B a stream D a river

go on

835
 Vocabulary
DIRECTIONS Use context clues and your knowledge 4. Which sentence uses fold as it is used in line 15
of homographs to answer the following questions. of the excerpt from The Voyage of the Frog?
1. Which sentence uses pod as it is used in line 27 “The bow wave was a rolling curve of blue
of the excerpt from Caught by the Sea? light, sparkled with bits of green that seemed
to want to crawl up the side of the boat and
“. . . within minutes a huge pod of dolphins,
then fold back and over. . . .”
hundreds of them, showed up.”
A You can fold the newspaper so it will fit
A The divers descended to the ocean floor in
into your backpack.
a small pod.
B The owner had to fold his company
B A pod of gray whales was visible from the
because he was leaving the city.
shore.
C The farmer kept his sheep in a large fold
C The pod separated from the spacecraft
behind the barn.
during reentry.
D The grandparents welcomed the new baby
D Some insects lay eggs in clusters that are
into the fold.
called pods.

2. Which sentence uses wake as it is used in line 2 DIRECTIONS Use context clues and your knowledge
of the excerpt from The Voyage of the Frog? of similes to help you determine the meaning of each
boldfaced word.
“In his wake, in the silent bubbles left by the
5. The microscopic organisms phosphoresced in
Frog moving through the water. . . .”
the water like lightning bugs illuminating a
A The floodwaters ruined every house and dark night.
barn in their wake. A crawled C glowed
B After the admiral died, the sailors held his B splashed D danced
wake at sea.
C A small boat can be swamped in the wake 6. The boat was as marooned as a car without
of a larger ship. wheels.
D Some of the passengers on the cruise ship A quiet C abandoned
did not wake up until noon. B lifeless D old
3. Which sentence uses bow as it is used in line 11 7. The commotion around the boat was like
of the excerpt from The Voyage of the Frog? rush hour traffic.
“He tied the tiller off, leaned over the side, A noisy activity C speedy pursuit
and looked toward the front where the bow B peaceful calm D crashing and
cut a wave that curled over.” churning
A The pianist took a bow after her
performance.
B He wrapped a big blue bow across the boat.
C It is hard to catch fish with a bow and arrow.
D I saw the sunrise from the bow of the ship.

836
 Assessment Practice

Writing & Grammar

DIRECTIONS Read this passage and answer the questions that follow.

(1) Dolphins live in water. (2) Many people think of them as fish. (3) They are
actually mammals. (4) The following are different types of dolphins the bottle-nosed
dolphin, the common dolphin, and the white-sided dolphin. (5) All dolphins share
the following characteristics smooth skin, flippers, and a blowhole. (6) Dolphins have
no sense of smell. (7) They have a keen sense of hearing. (8) They can detect sounds
that humans cannot. (9) Dolphins have been trained to perform in amusement parks,
zoos, and aquariums, to retrieve objects, and to guard military ships.

1. Choose the correct way to combine sentences 4. Choose the correct way to combine sentences
1, 2, and 3 into one compound-complex 6, 7, and 8 into one compound-complex
sentence. sentence.
A Dolphins live in water, so many people A Though dolphins have no sense of smell,
think of them as fish, but they are actually they have a keen sense of hearing, and they
mammals. can detect sounds that humans cannot.
B Dolphins live in water, and many people B Having no sense of smell but a keen sense
think of them as fish, but they are actually of hearing, dolphins can detect sounds that
mammals. humans cannot.
C Because dolphins live in water, many C Dolphins have no sense of smell but a keen
people think of them as fish, but they are sense of hearing, enabling them to detect
actually mammals. sounds that humans cannot.
D Dolphins are actually mammals living in D Despite having no sense of smell, dolphins
water, although many people think of them have a keen sense of hearing, detecting
as fish. sounds that humans cannot.
2. In sentence 4, a colon should be placed after 5. In sentence 9, a semicolon should be placed
which word? after which words?
A following A to, aquariums, objects
B are B parks, zoos, aquariums, objects
C of C perform, retrieve, guard
D dolphins D aquariums, objects
3. In sentence 5, a colon should be placed after
which word?
A share
B following
C characteristics
D skin
STOP

837
 7
unit

More Ideas for Independent Reading

Great Reads Which questions from Unit 7 made an impression on you?
Continue exploring them with these books.

Where do we get our values?

Betsy and the Emperor Lizzie Bright and the Part of Me
by Staton Rabin Buckminster Boy by Kimberly Willis Holt
After years at boarding school, by Gary D. Schmidt Raised in Louisiana during the
14-year-old Betsy is back home People in Phippsburg, Maine, Great Depression, Rose never
on St. Helena. Her family don’t like it when Turner gets to college, but she tries
is hosting a special “guest”: befriends Lizzie Bright, who to pass on her love of books to
Napoleon, the former emperor lives in a nearby African- her children and grandchildren.
of France, is a prisoner at American settlement. When Although not all of them
Betsy’s house. What can an the town evicts Lizzie’s follow in her footsteps, the
ex-emperor and a rebellious community, Turner helps family stories help each
teenager have in common? fight back. generation stay strong.

What can you learn from a job?

Code Talker Gathering Blue Ghost Boy
By Joseph Bruchac by Lois Lowry Iain Lawrence
World War II is raging, and In the future, when society Harold is an albino, and in his
Ned wants to help. He joins is in ruins from disasters, a small town he’s an outcast.
the Marines and becomes a crippled orphan like Kira is When the circus comes to
secret Navajo code talker. He often destined to die. But town, Harold leaves with it,
helps create a code that can’t Kira’s weaving skills are immediately accepted by
be cracked, and then uses it to discovered, and suddenly members of the sideshow.
send and receive messages in she’s important. If only her He soon finds out that even in
the midst of battle. Will Ned new job didn’t bring with it the circus, he and his friends
survive the fighting? serious problems. are considered strange.

How can we fight injustice?

Stop The Train! The Outcasts of 19 Warriors Don’t Cry
by Geraldine McCaughrean Schuyler Place by Melba Pattillo Beals
In 1893, people came by E.L. Konigsburg Melba Pattillo Beals was one
to Florence, Oklahoma, Margaret Rose is happy to be of the nine African-American
searching for a stake in a rescued from Camp Talequa teenagers who integrated
new prairie town. Now the by her uncles. But they seem the Little Rock Central High
Red Rock Railroad Company to accept that the town School in 1957. In this memoir,
refuses to stop in Florence. wants to destroy the three she describes both the violent
The new town is sure to die beautiful towers they built in protesters she faced as well
unless the settlers can find a the backyard. Someone has as the people and ideals that
way to get the train to stop. to save these works of art. gave her courage and hope.

838 unit 7 : history, culture, and the author