Selection: F-51

F-51

Grade level: 6

Word count: 1334 words

Author: Barbara D. Krasner

Synopsis: Immigrants to the United States had to pass physical examinations, and a chalk mark on the shoulder indicated their result.

Excerpt: After several hours, the Palmieris approached the inspectors' desks at the back of the Great Hall. A man checked their tags and spoke to Mama in Italian.

The inspector checked her responses against the information on the ship's manifest. He seemed to be satisfied. One official handed "landing cards" to Mama, Angelina, and her sisters. Feeling relief and excitement, they made their way back downstairs and collected their bags.

Question: According to this part in the selection, what is a "landing card"?

1. a document permitting entry into the United States
2. a notation in the passenger list of a ship's manifest
3. a ticket needed to board the ferry to Ellis Island
4. an indication that an immigrant was in good health

Selection: F-15

F-15

Grade level: 6

Word count: 1649 words

Author: Mike Buchanan and Diane Lang

Synopsis: A student visits Honduras, where the water is clear and the people are friendly.

Excerpt: Before a group of classmates and I were to set foot on Roatan, many different cultures had lived there. The most famous early inhabitants of the Bay Islands (as Roatan and its neighbor islands of Guanaja and Utila are called) were the Maya, but other people (called the Paya and Lenca) lived there as well.

In the early 1500s, Christopher Columbus sailed into the area and landed on Guanaja. This was tragic for the gentle native people, who had no defense against the diseases that the explorers brought over from Europe.

For many years, Britain and Spain struggled for control of the Bay Islands, but there was another interesting group of people who lived there. Pirates had stayed on the island we were visiting.

In the following decades, people from the Cayman Islands settled on Roatan. Many of them knew how to fish and found the reefs off the coast of Roatan to be prime fishing areas.

Question: Put the following in the order in which they came to Honduras, starting with the earliest.

1. The Maya settled there.
2. Columbus landed there.
3. Pirates visited there.
4. Cayman Islanders fished there.

Selection: F-3

F-3

Grade level: 6

Word count: 1579 words

Author: Travis J. Best

Synopsis: Jeremy Lin's road to stardom on the basketball court is unique.

Excerpt: Gie-Ming would take Jeremy and his two brothers to the local YMCA to run drills every day after school. He made them practice the same things over and over to perfect them. Bird's picture-perfect jump shot. Magic's kickout passes. Kareem-Abdul Jabbar's famous overhead skyhook, something very rare for a guard to perfect. Gie-Ming pushed them hard, but the boys were game; they could not wait to hit the gym and keep getting better.

Question: Which saying characterized the training Lin received from his dad on the court?

1. Practice makes perfect.
2. First things first.
3. Nice guys finish last.
4. It's what on the inside that counts.