"); document.write("
| ");
if(pos =='L'){
document.write(" | ");
document.write("");
if(pos =='R')
{
document.write(" | |
"); document.write(" | ||
| ");
if(pos =='L'){
document.write(" | ");
document.write("");
document.write(" | ");
document.write("");
if(pos =='R')
{
document.write(" |
"); document.write(" | ||
| ");
document.write(" | ");
document.write(""); document.write(" | ");
document.write(" | ");
}
else {
document.write("");
document.write(" | ");
document.write(""); document.write(" | ");
document.write(" | ");
}
document.write("
"); document.write(" |
| "); if(num !=""){document.write("Page " + num);} else {document.write(" ");} document.write(" | "); document.write("");
/*
if(imgnotcoy !=""){
document.write(" | ");
document.write("");
if(link !=""){
document.write("");
document.write(" | ");
document.write("
| "); document.write("FCAT 2006 Sample Test Materials © 2005 Florida Department of Education"); document.write(" | ||
| "); document.write("FCAT 2006 Sample Test Materials © 2005 Florida Department of Education"); document.write(" | ||
| Benchmark | "); document.write("Content Focus | "); document.write("Content Difficulty | "); /*document.write(""); document.write(answeTitle); | */ document.write("
| "); document.write(benchmark); document.write(" | "); document.write(focus); document.write(" | "); document.write(difficulty); document.write(" | "); if(correctAnswer !=''){document.write(correctAnswer);} else {document.write(" ");} document.write(" | "); */ document.write("
| "); document.write("Percentage of Students Answering Correctly"); document.write(" |
| "); document.write(Percentage); document.write(" |
| Benchmark | "); document.write("Content Focus | "); document.write("Content Difficulty | "); /*document.write(""); document.write(answeTitle); | */ document.write("
| "); document.write(benchmark); document.write(" | "); document.write(focus); document.write(" | "); document.write(difficulty); document.write(" | "); if(correctAnswer !=''){document.write(correctAnswer);} else {document.write(" ");} document.write(" | "); */ document.write("
| "); document.write("Percentage of Students Answering Correctly"); document.write(" |
| "); document.write(Percentage); document.write(" |
 | |
| Woman With Flower | |
| ");
document.write("I wouldn’t coax the plant if I were you. "); document.write("Such watchful nurturing may do it harm. "); document.write("Let the soil rest from so much digging "); document.write("And wait until it‘s dry before you water it. "); document.write("The leaf’s inclined to find its own direction; "); document.write("Give it a chance to seek the sunlight for itself. "); document.write(" | |
| ");
document.write("Much growth is stunted by too careful prodding, "); document.write("Too eager tenderness. "); document.write("The things we love we have to learn to leave alone. "); document.write(" | |
| Offspring | |
| I tried to tell her: | |
| ");
document.write("This way the twig is bent. "); document.write("Born of my trunk and strengthened by my roots, "); document.write("You must stretch newgrown branches "); document.write("Closer to the sun "); document.write("Than I can reach."); document.write(" | |
| I wanted to say: | |
| ");
document.write("Extend my self to that far atmosphere "); document.write("Only my dreams allow. | |
| But the twig broke, And yesterday I saw her Walking down an unfamiliar street, | |
| And yesterday I saw her | |
| Walking down an unfamiliar street, | |
| ");
document.write("Feet confident, "); document.write("Face slanted upward toward a threatening sky, "); document.write("And "); document.write("She was smiling "); document.write("And she was "); document.write("Her very free, "); document.write("Her very individual, "); document.write("Unpliable "); document.write("Own. | |
| Naomi Long Madgett: “Woman with Flower” from Star by Star. Copyright © 1965, 1970. “Offspring” from Pink Ladies in the Afternoon. Copyright © 1972, 1990. Reprinted by permission. | |
 ");
document.write(""); document.write("20,000 Golf Balls Under the Sea"); document.write(" "); document.write("Only a true entrepreneur1 could find the hidden treasure."); document.write(" | ||
| ");
document.write("Condensed from “MONSTER TRUCKS & HAIR-IN-A-CAN”");
document.write(" "); document.write("by Bill Geist | ||
| "); document.write("SAILING HIGH off the eighth tee at Orlando's Grand Cypress golf course, the ball climbs straight and true into the warm, blue sky, powered—with a neat click!—by a state-of-the-art graphite-shafted driver. Descending a bit early, the dimpled sphere falls short of the green, landing in a charming lake. | ||
| "); document.write("“Attaboy!” whoops Jim Reid, sitting in a golf cart on the shores of the water hazard.2 | ||
| "); document.write("Next comes a ball flying low off the tee. It skips once, twice, three times on the water, before sinking to Davy Jones's pro shop3 beneath it. | ||
| "); document.write("“It's a sweet sound, isn't it?” Reid asks, listening to the bloop! plop! kerplunk! of golf balls landing in the lake. | ||
| "); document.write("He has reason to cheer. Where others see grief and frustration, Jim Reid sees opportunity. “Basically, I profit from the mistakes of others,” he says. Reid began capitalizing on those mistakes in 1981, becoming the Used Golf Ball King of Florida. | ||
| "); document.write("He moved there from Oklahoma in 1971, taking a job as a surveyor. He met Beverly, who worked for the phone company, and married her. They bought a little house. | ||
| "); document.write("Jim took up scuba diving, scouring shipwrecks for gold doubloons and such. Then one day he put on his scuba gear and hopped into a water hazard on the Rolling Hills golf course in Longwood, just to see what he could see. | ||
| "); document.write("“What I saw was amazing,” Jim recalls. “The entire bottom was solid white. Thousands of golf balls!” | ||
| "); document.write("He examined a bunch in the daylight. “Most of them looked just like new,” he recalls. He showed them to the course manager, who offered Reid ten cents a ball. | ||
| "); document.write("Reid dived back in. He came up with more than 2,000 balls that day, making almost as much as he was normally paid for a week’s work. After talking it over with Beverly, he decided to take the plunge: quit his job and go golf-ball diving full time. | ||
| "); document.write("“It was kind of embarrassing,” Reid admits. “When people ask you what you do for a living and you say you dive in mudholes for golf balls, they kind of back off.” | ||
| "); document.write("But dive he did, and the harvest was plentiful. First he brought home carloads of balls and cleaned them in Beverly’s washing machine. Beverly, although supportive, drew the line at letting Jim destroy her machine, so he bought his own. | ||
| "); document.write("The neighbors didn’t care for the idea either. Imagine listening to 500 golf balls go round and round in a washing machine until all hours of the night. So Jim hired the neighbors. | ||
| "); document.write("Over time he experimented with technology. He tried cleaning the balls in a cement mixer, but the process scoured the dimples off the balls and they wouldn’t fly straight. A golf pro called to complain about this; later he called back to say it wasn’t so bad after all—everybody was signing up for lessons. | ||
| "); document.write("Reid and his staff of neighbors went back to washing the balls, which they then perched on trios of nails and spray-painted. They boxed them up and sold them at half the price of new balls. | ||
| "); document.write("Word spread, and other divers began to take an interest. Jim bought balls from them. Soon, semitrailer trucks were backing up to his garage, bringing in old muddy balls and taking them away like new. Not able to hire all the complainers in his neighborhood, Jim moved his business to an industrial area. | ||
| "); document.write("“How’s the fishing today?” Jim yells to divers unloading the catch of the day on his dock. | ||
| "); document.write("“Pretty good,” says one of them. “About 2,500 balls, I’d say.” | ||
| "); document.write("“Get ’em over at Grand Cypress?” Jim asks. | ||
 ");
document.write("“Yeah. Off the tee there on the ninth,” the diver replies, graciously divulging a hot spot to the other divers.");
document.write(""); document.write(""); document.write("Divers collect eight cents a ball. One diver, Dan Becher, is at the top of his trade, probably the best Used Golf Ball Diver in the state. In 1993 he retrieved 652,000 balls. He drives an El Camino with a car phone and makes about $50,000 a year."); document.write(" "); document.write(""); document.write("But Reid stresses it’s no picnic out there: “It takes a special breed of person to be down there for hours in the dark with snakes and eels—and your imagination.”"); document.write(" | ");
document.write("||
| "); document.write("Water hazards range as deep as 50 feet. Divers tell of stepping on broken glass or jagged pieces of metal. Several have been struck by golf balls. Reid himself was hit by lightning while underwater. | ||
| "); document.write("It is late afternoon and the used-golf-ball fleet keeps coming in, one diver after another with the harvest of a bounty of bad shots. | ||
| "); document.write("After the balls are unloaded, they are counted, rinsed, and marinated in a vat of Jim’s secret sauce, a whitener. And he does mean secret. Employees have to sign a five-page pledge that they will not divulge its contents. | ||
| "); document.write("After whitening, the balls are sprayed with an acrylic. They are then sorted by brand and quality by people sitting at a table and dropping balls into a contraption that has plastic pipe running every which way before finally emptying the balls into buckets. The ones in bad condition used to be sold to cruise ships for use on the ultimate water hazard—but environmental regulations put a stop to that. Now they’re being stored in case someone ever comes up with a nifty use for them. | ||
| "); document.write("“When I quit my job,” Jim said, “I figured I’d have to find 2,500 golf balls a week to break even.” Between 80,000 and 100,000 balls a day now arrive at the Orlando company, called Second Chance Golf Ball Recyclers, from courses as far away as Hawaii. In 1993 Second Chance had gross revenues of about $5 million. | ||
| "); document.write("“The only thing that could hurt Second Chance now,” Reid says, “is if one of the major companies comes up with a floating golf ball. But that would hurt them worse. The way it is now, everybody but the guy who hits the ball makes money.” | ||
| "); document.write("Some 200 million new golf balls are manufactured every year. Where do they all go? Blop! Plop! Kerplunk! | ||
| "); document.write("“When will they ever learn?” I ask Jim. | ||
| "); document.write("“Never, I hope.” | ||
| "); document.write("After selling Second Chance for $5.1 million in May 1994, Jim Reid now relaxes on his yacht, the Ball Bandit. “I may take up golf,” he says. “You know, I’ve never played the game.” | ||
| "); //document.write("1 entrepreneur: a person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture |
| 1 | entrepreneur: a person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture |
| 2 | water hazard: a water obstacle (such as a pond) on a golf course |
| 3 | Davy Jones's pro shop: a reference to Davy Jones's locker, commonly understood as the bottom of the sea |
| "); document.write("The Police Beat"); document.write(" |
| ");
document.write("by Wayne Dawkins");
document.write(" "); document.write("an excerpt from My First Year as a Journalist"); document.write(" |
 ");
document.write("");
document.write("Wayne Dawkins is an assistant metro editor at the Courier-Post in Camden/Cherry Hill, New Jersey, where he also ");
document.write("was an editorial writer. He also writes a weekly opinion editorial column that covers topics such as urban issues, race relations, and ");
document.write("diversity. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Long Island University and a master’s degree in journalism from the ");
document.write("Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he received a distinguished alumni award in 1990. He is the author of ");
document.write("Black Journalists, The NABJ Story, published by August Press.");
document.write(" |
| "); document.write("Young reporters often get assigned to cover the police beat because it requires a lot of energy. You definitely learn from it, but "); document.write("it’s a beat that doesn’t get the priority it deserves. It really deserves experienced people because it’s a sensitive beat."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("A lot of things in journalism you learn by osmosis. Coworkers don’t tell you directly and textbooks can’t teach you, but in certain "); document.write("situations you have to make ethical calls by trusting your instincts. No one is there to tell you the right course of action to "); document.write("take. In interviews, for example, you can ask official sources really tough questions because they’re sophisticated about talking to the "); document.write("press. But it’s different when talking with ordinary people, and you need to know when you may be taking advantage of them or "); document.write("invading their privacy. I try to make it as clear as possible that I am from the newspaper, that my intent is to write stories, and not "); document.write("try to mislead them. Being so eager to get a story, some reporters may misrepresent themselves."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("Five or six reporters and two editors were based at my office. There was a strong New England influence at Westchester-"); document.write("Rockland newspapers, which felt different from my first journalism experience as an intern in Brooklyn. With hard news and "); document.write("fast-breaking stories, the Argus editors were very detail-oriented, making sure you got all the essential elements. There was "); document.write("so much breaking news, but if you had holes in your stories, the editors still would ask, “What about this? What about that? Was a "); document.write("weapon found near a crime scene?” I wouldn’t be angry at the editors for asking. I’d be madder at myself for forgetting to ask in "); document.write("the first place. They wanted this information, so I’d pick up the phone and call or find some other way to get it. Later on, I had "); document.write("a better idea of what questions to ask. You have to get those important details."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("One of the biggest things I learned that first year is that you have to be accurate. The Argus is an afternoon paper, and covering "); document.write("the police beat, I was the only reporter who wrote on deadline. One of the editors, Nancy Keefe, would often yell at me, even "); document.write("when I was writing brief items for the police notebook, about minor style rules such as when to abbreviate “street” or “avenue.” "); document.write("It was a big thing to her. Aside from style, which is cosmetic, I also learned to make sure to get the facts right, the names right. "); document.write("Sometimes stories about events that had happened at six or seven that morning would get printed in the paper so quickly that the "); document.write("public could read them by eleven. When you’re writing with not that much time, you have to work hard to get it right, and when "); document.write("you get it wrong, you hear about it—that day."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("There’s one mistake I always wince about. We ran a Monday feature called “Spotlight,” where each reporter on a rotating "); document.write("basis had to write a twenty-five-inch profile of a person in the community who had done something interesting in a job or "); document.write("hobby. I did one on a local woman, a schoolteacher, and I spelled her name wrong throughout the story. That was terrible. This was "); document.write("a profile, not just a story that I had to write fast. You don’t take things for granted, especially with names."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("The paper also emphasized good writing. At newspapers you often have very strong writers, or very strong reporters, and some "); document.write("with a rare ability who are good at both gathering information and telling a story. I learned a lot about both, although I’m probably a "); document.write("stronger reporter. If I can go out and look at something, or interview someone face-to-face, I can craft a pretty good story. Some people can sit in their offices and turn out beautiful copy without seeing "); document.write("what they’re writing about. I have to see it."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("My editor, Nancy Keefe, would take time working with me on writing. After I was there about seven months, she left and was "); document.write("replaced by Steve Burgard, who also came in early and read a lot of my copy. Steve, who is now at The Los Angeles Times, always "); document.write("asked a lot of questions about facts in the story. It wasn’t that he changed things. He just wanted to make sure he understood the "); document.write("story and that the details checked out. I knew why Steve was doing what he was doing. If something was wrong, he’d point it "); document.write("out and say, “Maybe you should do it this way.” Some editors annoy reporters because they make changes without asking and "); document.write("ruin the meaning of a story. The rare times when there was time, stories would kick back to us, and we’d get another chance at trying "); document.write("to improve them. I’m grateful for that. There are a lot of reporters who think they’re hotshots1 and who don’t know how "); document.write("bad their copy is. I got rigorous training where I worked. When I moved on, my stories didn’t have to be heavily rewritten. "); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("I had decided to be a journalist when I was fifteen. My favorite subjects in school were social studies and English. I liked to write "); document.write("and read, and had developed the newspaper reading habit. I was used to seeing my parents read the paper, and I had an uncle in "); document.write("Panama who was a newspaperman. I started as a sportswriter in high school, covered sports in college, then switched to "); document.write("news stories, and eventually was an associate editor. I now have bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism, and I’m glad I do. "); document.write("I have some designs to teach."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("At the end of my first year in Mount Vernon, I joined the National Association of Black Journalists. Recently I wrote a book, "); document.write("Black Journalists, The NABJ Story, a history of modern-day African-American journalists who have broken into mainstream "); document.write("journalism since the 1960s. I felt there was nothing out there that told that story. I feel an obligation as an African-American journalist "); document.write("to increase our numbers in daily journalism and all parts of the craft. "); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("1 hotshots: slang for people of impressive, often aggressive skill "); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("“The Police Beat” by Wayne Dawkins (originally titled “The Cop Beat”), from My First Year as a Journalist, edited by Dianne Selditch. Copyright © 1995 "); document.write("by Dianne Selditch. Walker Publishing Company, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the publisher."); document.write(" |
 ");
document.write(" |
| "); document.write("When a caterpillar feeds on a tomato leaf, the plant moves swiftly to protect itself, systematically releasing “proteinase "); document.write("inhibitors”—proteins that interfere with the caterpillar’s digestion—throughout the plant, especially in the leaves. But how "); document.write("does the message get from the wounded leaf to the rest of the plant?"); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("Most scientists believed the alarm was spread by chemical messengers until a team of researchers headed by David Wildon—"); document.write("a biologist at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England—made a shocking discovery. An injured leaf, the "); document.write("researchers found, sends an electrical signal to warn neighboring leaves of imminent danger. It’s a “terribly tiny current” driven "); document.write("by an electrical potential difference of only 20 millivolts, says Wildon, who measured the voltage after electrodes were attached to the plant’s surface. "); document.write(" |
 ");
document.write("");
document.write("“Right now, all we can say is that there is a correlation,” Wildon notes. “If you wound the plant, you’ll see an electrical signal ");
document.write("accompanied by a biochemical response.” To learn more about the reaction, Wildon’s team plans to insert electrodes within the ");
document.write("plant tissue (rather than on the surface) to determine what’s going on at the cellular level. ");
document.write("");
document.write("The findings may help explain other mysteries surrounding plants. For example, many plants start to flower in springtime, as days grow longer, but plants sense the change in the day length through their leaves, while flowers begin to bloom at the buds. “There must be a signal from the leaf to the growing points,” Wildon says. “So far, no one has come up with a convincing chemical mechanism. Maybe an electrical signal is involved.”");
document.write(" |
| "); //document.write("The findings may help explain other mysteries surrounding plants. For example, many plants start to flower"); //document.write("in springtime, as days grow longer, but plants sense the change in the day length through their leaves, while flowers"); //document.write("begin to bloom at the buds. “There must be a signal from the leaf to the growing points,” Wildon says. “So far, no one has"); //document.write("come up with a convincing chemical mechanism. Maybe an electrical signal is involved.”"); //document.write(" |
| "); document.write("“Electric Tomatoes” from Omni Magazine June 1994. Reprinted by permission of Omni, copyright © 1992 Omni Publications International, Ltd."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("LINDA HOGAN"); document.write(" | |
| Walking"); document.write(" | |
 | ");
document.write("|
| ");
document.write("It began in dark and underground weather, a slow ");
document.write("hunger moving toward light. It grew in a dry gully beside ");
document.write("the road where I live, a place where entire hillsides are ");
document.write("sometimes yellow, windblown tides of sunflower plants. ");
document.write("But this one was different. It was alone, and larger than the ");
document.write("countless others who had established their lives further up ");
document.write("the hill. This one was a traveler, a settler, and like a dream ");
document.write("beginning in conflict, it grew where the land had been disturbed.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("I saw it first in early summer. It was a green and ");
document.write("sleeping bud, raising itself toward the sun. Ants worked ");
document.write("around the unopened bloom, gathering aphids and sap. A ");
document.write("few days later, it was a tender young flower, soft and new, ");
document.write("with a pale green center and a troop of silver gray insects ");
document.write("climbing up and down the stalk. ");
document.write("");
document.write("Over the summer this sunflower grew into a plant of ");
document.write("incredible beauty, turning its face daily toward the sun in ");
document.write("the most subtle of ways, the black center of it dark and alive ");
document.write("with a deep blue light, as if flint had sparked an elemental1 ");
document.write("fire there, in community with rain, mineral, mountain air, and sand. ");
document.write("");
document.write("As summer changed from green to yellow there were ");
document.write("new visitors daily: the lace-winged insects, the bees whose ");
document.write("legs were fat with pollen, and grasshoppers with their ");
document.write("clattering wings and desperate hunger. There were other ");
document.write("lives I missed, lives too small or hidden to see. It was as if ");
document.write("this plant with its host of lives was a society, one in which ");
document.write("moment by moment, depending on light and moisture, ");
document.write("there was great and diverse change. ");
document.write("");
document.write("There were changes in the next larger world around the ");
document.write("plant as well. One day I was nearly lifted by a wind and ");
document.write("sandstorm so fierce and hot that I had to wait for it to pass ");
document.write("before I could return home. On this day the faded dry petals ");
document.write("of the sunflower were swept across the land. That was when ");
document.write("the birds arrived to carry the new seeds to another future. ");
document.write("");
document.write("In this one plant, in one summer season, a drama of ");
document.write("need and survival took place. Hungers were filled. There ");
document.write("was escape, exhaustion, and death. Lives touched down a ");
document.write("moment and were gone. ");
document.write(" | |
| "); //document.write("There were changes in the next larger world around the "); //document.write("plant as well. One day I was nearly lifted by a wind and "); //document.write("sandstorm so fierce and hot that I had to wait for it to pass "); //document.write("before I could return home. On this day the faded dry petals "); //document.write("of the sunflower were swept across the land. That was when "); //document.write("the birds arrived to carry the new seeds to another future. "); //document.write(" | |
| "); //document.write("In this one plant, in one summer season, a drama of "); //document.write("need and survival took place. Hungers were filled. There "); //document.write("was escape, exhaustion, and death. Lives touched down a "); //document.write("moment and were gone."); //document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("I was an outsider. I only watched. I never learned the "); document.write("sunflower’s golden language or the tongues of its citizens. I "); document.write("had a small understanding, nothing more than a shallow "); document.write("observation of the flower, insects, and birds. But they knew "); document.write("what to do, how to live. An old voice from somewhere, gene "); document.write("or cell, told the plant how to evade the pull of gravity and "); document.write("find its way upward, how to open. It was instinct, intuition, "); document.write("necessity. A certain knowing directed the seedbearing birds "); document.write("on paths to ancestral homelands they had never seen. They believed it. They followed. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("There are other summons and calls, some even more "); document.write("mysterious than those commandments to birds or those "); document.write("survival journeys of insects. In bamboo plants, for instance, "); document.write("with their thin green canopy of light and golden stalks that "); document.write("creak in the wind. Once a century, all of a certain kind of "); document.write("bamboo flower on the same day. Whether they are in "); document.write("Malaysia or in a greenhouse in Minnesota makes no "); document.write("difference, nor does the age or size of the plant. They flower. "); document.write("Some current of an inner language passes between them, "); document.write("through space and separation, in ways we cannot explain in "); document.write("our language. They are all, somehow, one plant, each with a "); document.write("share of communal knowledge. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("John Hay, in The Immortal Wilderness, has written: “There "); document.write("are occasions when you can hear the mysterious language of "); document.write("the Earth, in water, or coming through the trees, emanating2 from the mosses, seeping through the undercurrents of the "); document.write("soil, but you have to be willing to wait and receive.” "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Sometimes I hear it talking. The light of the sunflower "); document.write("was one language, but there are others, more audible. Once, "); document.write("in the redwood forest, I heard a beat, something like a drum "); document.write("or heart coming from the ground and trees and wind. That "); document.write("underground current stirred a kind of knowing inside me, a "); document.write("kinship and longing, a dream barely remembered that disappeared back to the body. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Another time, there was the booming voice of an ocean "); document.write("storm thundering from far out at sea, telling about what lived "); document.write("in the distance, about the rough water that would arrive, "); document.write("wave after wave revealing the disturbance at the center. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Tonight I walk. I am watching the sky. I think of the "); document.write("people who came before me and how they knew the "); document.write("placement of stars in the sky, watched the moving sun long "); document.write("and hard enough to witness how a certain angle of light "); document.write("touched a stone only once a year. Without written records, "); document.write("they knew every night, the small, fine details of the world "); document.write("around them and of immensity above them. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Walking, I can almost hear the redwoods beating. And "); document.write("the oceans are above me here, rolling clouds, heavy and "); document.write("dark, considering snow. On the dry, red road, I pass the "); document.write("place of the sunflower, that dark and secret location where "); document.write("creation took place. I wonder if it will return this summer, if "); document.write("it will multiply and move up to the other stand of flowers in a territorial struggle. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("It’s winter and there is smoke from the fires. The square, "); document.write("lighted windows of houses are fogging over. It is a world of "); document.write("elemental attention, of all things working together, listening to what speaks in the blood. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Walking, I am listening to a deeper way. Suddenly "); document.write("all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and "); document.write("listen. You are the result of the love of thousands. "); document.write(" | |
| 1 elemental: basic"); document.write(" | |
| 2 emanating: coming forth"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Hogan, Linda. “Walking.” Reprinted by permission of the author."); document.write(" | |
| Cutting Off the World’s Roof BY KEN HOWARD"); document.write(" | |
 ");
document.write(" | |
| The tremendous heights of mountains have fascinated humankind for ages. Geologists, however, wonder "); document.write("why mountains aren’t even taller, and they have formulated theories to explain why peaks have not reached greater heights. "); document.write(" | |
The mighty Himalaya would be higher were it not for a buzz saw made of ice."); document.write(" | |
| Now that everybody is climbing peaks in the Himalaya, this so-called Roof of the World is starting to seem a lot closer to the ground. ");
document.write("After all, Ramaposhi, Nanda Devi, and Nanga Parbat (mountains) are just five miles up. K2 and Everest reach five and a half, give or take a few hundred yards. ");
document.write(" ");
document.write("You probably drive farther than that to your local multiplex.1 Jaded thrill seekers must be wondering ");
document.write("why there are so few really tall mountain ranges on Earth, and why the ones we have aren’t even taller. ");
document.write(" | |
| You probably drive farther than that to your local multiplex.1 Jaded thrill seekers must be wondering "); //document.write("why there are so few really tall mountain ranges on Earth, and why the ones we have aren’t even taller. "); //document.write(" | |
| Three Theories "); document.write(" | |
| Geologists wonder about that, too. Some of them think that the problem lies on the supply side—that "); document.write("tall peaks are fast-rising peaks, and to make more of them Earth would have to shove its crust skyward faster than it actually "); document.write("does. Others say the important thing is how fast mountains are coming down: as mountains rise, they scrunch down under their own weight. Or perhaps they get their tops "); document.write("lopped off by erosion. So far, however, no one has had good numbers to support any of the various theories. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Now a team of California geologists say they do. And the numbers favor erosion. As the Himalayan mountains "); document.write("come up, glaciers shear off their tops like a buzz saw. In a younger, warmer, less glacier-friendly world, these peaks may have been much taller. "); document.write(" | |
| Evidence for the Erosion Theory "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("The geologists took five million satellite measurements of elevations in the northwest Himalaya and Karakoram "); document.write("ranges, where summits soar to heights of more than twenty-six thousand feet above sea level, and fed the numbers into computer programs "); document.write("designed to tease out slope angles, the amount of land at every elevation, and other features. The results showed that the "); document.write("snowcapped Himalayan peaks, the mountains that launched a thousand wall calendars, make up only a small percentage of the total ground area—like "); document.write("pins sticking up through a piece of paper. The landscape as a whole lies thousands of feet closer to sea level. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("The average elevation varies from place to place, but the statistics show that it corresponds to the elevation at which "); document.write("glaciers start to form. That’s also where the sheer mountainsides start to level off. In other words, the rocks stop where "); document.write("the ice begins. In the Himalayan mountains, at least, it looks as if it’s glaciers that are wearing the heights down. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“Landscape is trying to get higher, but surface processes are trying to erode it,” says one of the researchers, "); document.write("Nicholas Brozović, a geomorphologist2 at the University of California, Berkeley. “Glaciers effectively form a limit.” "); document.write(" | |
| Evidence Against the Other Two Theories "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Of course, a statistical match between glaciers and elevations doesn’t prove that glaciers are controlling the elevations. "); document.write("To strengthen their case, the researchers had to deal with the other possibilities.The faster-is-higher hypothesis was easy to eliminate. Because rocks of similar ages "); document.write("appear at different heights in different mountains, geologists know that some of these mountains are rising faster than others. In the area Brozović and his "); document.write("colleagues studied, the rate of rise changes from east to west. If speed were king, the sizes and shapes of mountains ought to vary from east to west, too. "); document.write("But the numbers showed that was not the case. So much for the supply side. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("What about trickle down—the possibility that the mountains are collapsing under the force of gravity? When rock piles "); document.write("up so high that its weight exceeds its strength, the rock cracks, forming faults. Along those faults (which can be as much as forty miles long and several miles deep) huge blocks of rock may slide back toward the sea. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Faults like that are known to exist in the mountain-and-valley regions of the Himalaya, but they have been inactive for about twenty "); document.write("million years. That’s too long to have affected the heights of the mountains today. And in any case, Brozović points out, it’s unlikely that faults would "); document.write("turn up in just the right places to make terrain taper off right above the snow line."); document.write(" | |
| How Glacial Erosion Works "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Glaciers, however, are in the right place. They start to form after a mountaintop pokes up past the snow line. The "); document.write("faster the mountain rises, the more of its surface there is for the ice to cover; the more ice, the more erosion. High peaks are especially "); document.write("prone to glacial erosion, because they tend to catch clouds that might otherwise drop snow onto lower mountains nearby. That turns the peaks into what Brozović calls “topographic lightning rods”—catalysts for their own destruction."); document.write(" | |
 ");
document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("But if that’s so, how can snowcapped peaks exist at all? Because glacial scouring isn’t perfect, Brozović says. It’s bound to miss a few parts of a few "); document.write("mountaintops, or at least work too slowly to keep them down. When it does, the survivors may grow so steep that ice slides off their sides before it builds up enough weight to do any damage. Or they may "); document.write("get so cold that they freeze to the rocks and stop sliding altogether. Motionless glaciers don’t wear down mountains. The tallest, pointiest peaks, then, can become glacier-proof. "); document.write("Their height really does depend on the strength of the rock."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("If Brozović and his colleagues are right, it may be no coincidence that the highest mountains in the "); document.write("world lie within thirty degrees of the equator. At higher latitudes (for example, in Alaska) the air is colder, so glaciers form at "); document.write("lower elevations, and mountains can’t get as tall. It may also be true that mountains rise and fall along with long-term global temperatures. For "); document.write("most of the past two million years, Himalayan glaciers probably formed more than a thousand feet lower than they do today and may have covered "); document.write("almost twice as much area. If the “glacier buzz saw” theory is correct, mountains should have been wearing away faster during the cold spells."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Warmer, drier climates, on the other hand, ought to produce fewer glaciers and taller mountains. If so, the "); document.write("Himalaya should have been taller fifteen to twenty million years ago, when Earth was hotter, and it could grow again if the planet heats up for a million years or so in the future."); document.write(" | |
| 1 multiplex: a movie complex with multiple theaters"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("2 geomorphologist: a person that studies the shapes or features of the earth"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Howard, Ken. “Cutting Off the World’s Roof” from Earth, December 1997, Vol. 6, No. 6. Reprinted by permission of Kalmbach Publishing. Photograph reprinted by permission of Index Stock Imagery."); document.write(" | |
| There’s More to Forests than Trees; There’s a World of Hidden Wildlife "); document.write(" | |||
| Dead trees are crucial to forest life; a single fallen log can harbor dozens of different species. "); document.write(" | |||
 by Jay HeinrichsWhat came first, the tree or the log? A simple question if there ever was one: a log is a dead tree. But "); document.write("see beyond the tree to the forest, and the question grows infinitely more complicated. An increasing number of researchers say that, in terms of the whole forest, the log is father to the tree. A dead trunk is a participant in a vital process that goes on even after the wood crashes to the ground. "); document.write(" "); document.write("Unseen by the casual observer and as yet poorly understood by the scientist, a hidden world of birds and insects, tiny microbes and shy animals contributes to the death of a forest and the life of its successor. The fulcrum1 of this vast living machinery is the log. Seething with plant and animal invaders, it bursts forth with a forest’s next generation. The log is thus as much a "); document.write("symbol of life as it is of death. “The forest is a living organism,” explains biologist Chris Maser. “As part of that organism, the fallen tree is only superficially dead; it supports the larger being.” "); document.write(" | |||
| "); document.write("In an earlier phase, of course, the log is that triumph of self-contained organisms, a living tree. A thriving white pine in the "); document.write("Northeast, for example, may reach maturity after a century, when it towers over other trees and plants. But, paradoxically, when the pine passes its prime, its association with the rest of the forest becomes even more lively. "); document.write(" | |||
| "); document.write("A healthy tree is mostly impermeable to the outside world; the bark, which contains a potent natural fungicide, presents a formidable barrier to enemies. Boring "); document.write("insects find it tough, and its waterproof qualities keep moisture in. As time goes on, however, the barrier begins to break down. The bark loosens from the tree, and bark beetles find entry. They bore a labyrinth into "); document.write("the protein-rich inner bark and lay eggs for their wood-chewing larvae. Fungi and bacteria hitch a ride on the beetles. The tiny microbes contain enzymes that begin dissolving the wood cells, making chewing even easier for insects. "); document.write(" | |||
| "); document.write("And the invasion begins. Decades before the pine ever falls, the surrounding forest is preparing it for fallen logdom. At the same time, the tree becomes an "); document.write("increasingly important wildlife host. A downy woodpecker bores into it to find insects. A rotting cavity begins to form—an ideal nesting site for a pair of flickers. The hole admits the outside "); document.write("world to the center of the tree, and heart rot begins to set in. The trunk is now structurally unsound. A fierce spring storm bends the pine too far, and with a vicious crack most of the tree falls to the forest floor. "); document.write(" | |||
 Crawling across the underside of a fallen tree, a spider encounters a forest of fungi mycelium (left). Researchers have found that some fungi release a chemical that stimulates the growth of seedlings in a woodland. ");
document.write("");
document.write("According to Chris Maser, this is when the real action begins. The 49-year-old wildlife research biologist, formerly with the Interior Department in Oregon, "); document.write("believes the fallen tree serves as a locus for creatures that in turn are crucial to the renewal of the forest. He and retired Forest Service mycologist2 Jim Trappe have pioneered in research revealing this strange relationship between small mammals, young trees and so-called “dead” logs. "); document.write(" | |||
| |||
| "); document.write("Although the most intensive studies have been conducted in the old evergreen forests of the Northwest, new data are beginning to indicate that the discoveries of Trappe and Maser may hold true in "); document.write("temperate forests around the world. As more people look into ecosystems elsewhere, they seem to be reaching one common conclusion: the fallen log is not just an element of the forest but a participant in its many functions. "); document.write(" | |||
| The Importance of Old Growth | |||
| "); document.write("NOWHERE are logs more important to the self-renewal of forests than in the Pacific Northwest. There, ancient stands of evergreens called “old growth” serve as laboratories for "); document.write("investigations into the role of fallen trees in forest ecology. The resulting discoveries are more than interesting bits of science; a research-inspired debate over whether to let dead trees lie has become a controversial environmental issue in the Northwest today. "); document.write(" | |||
| "); document.write("Some of the most impressive forests consist of old-growth stands of Douglas fir trees ranging in age from 250 to more than 1,000 years. Beneath these giants lies an understory "); document.write("that provides habitat for a variety of animals, as well as fungi and insects that help renew young forests. “Old growth is an investment in the next stand,” says Chris Maser, a former federal biologist. "); document.write(" | |||
| "); document.write("The investment is diminishing rapidly. Most of the precious little old growth that remains—some three million acres—is on federal land, where more than a square mile per week of it is being logged off to become lumber. "); document.write(" | |||
| "); document.write("Efforts to save old growth by the National Wildlife Federation and other groups have focused on the role such woodlands play in sustaining long-term forest production and providing high-quality water and wildlife habitat. The United States Forest Service has "); document.write("created a plan that preserves pockets of old trees for the northern spotted owl, a species that depends on ancient forests for survival. But, conservationists fear, saving the species in the short term may not keep old growth intact over the long run. "); document.write(" | |||
| "); document.write("“We can’t just save islands of it,” says Rick Brown, a Federation resource specialist in Oregon. Brown advocates a reserve system that spans age groups of forests, including unmanaged stands that will become future old growth. "); document.write(" | |||
| "); document.write("Short-sightedness could be disastrous, warns Maser. “By converting old growth to young stands, we’re redesigning forests,” he says. “We can’t duplicate what nature has been doing for centuries. And we cannot have a sustainable timber industry without a sustainable forest.” "); document.write(" | |||
| 1 fulcrum: central support"); document.write(" | |||
| 2 mycologist: a biologist dealing with the study of fungi"); document.write(" | |||
| Heinrichs, Jay. “There’s More to Forests than Trees; There’s a World of Hidden Wildlife.” From National Wildlife February/March 1988 issue, Vol. 26, No. 2. Copyright © 1988 National Wildlife Federation. Photographs by Dwight R. Kuhn."); document.write(" | |||
| "); //document.write("Permission has not been granted for reprinting the poem The Leaf and the Tree by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The following questions associated with this poem have been provided in this Test Book."); document.write(" | |||
 By JENNIFER OLSSON "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("ALTHOUGH it maintained a humble exterior, the Montana dude ranch1 where I was to meet my latest client was much more than a corral-and-bunkhouse affair. "); document.write("A chef with a tall white hat prepared gourmet meals; the massage sign-up sheet was posted on an easel by the front desk; the fax and copy machine were to the left. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("I stepped out of my vehicle to meet my client and his wife. He was strong and solidly built. He looked like a model for an outdoor catalogue. The fishing vest was stiff with newness; all of the correct hardware, shiny and untested, hung from his chest, "); document.write("like tools in a toolshed. The felt on his wading boots was as white as snow. A handcrafted net swung on his back. The rod had never gotten wet, much less caught a fish, and the line was shiny from lack of use. The reel was on backward. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Typical beginner, I thought. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("I reached out to shake his hand. A firm grip grabbed back. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("His wife, an attractive woman brimming with confidence, took a photo of us, then waved good-bye with an arm heavily weighted with turquoise bracelets. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("First I turned his reel around. He smiled and shrugged. Then we began his casting lesson on the lawn behind the main lodge. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("To my surprise, he was one of those rare people who connect with a fly rod2 almost immediately. It just looked right from the beginning, and he was charmed by the way the line seemed to magically flow above his silhouette on the lawn. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“I could just stand here all day and cast,” he said, smiling. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("We did not have to travel far to the water, since a perfectly sweet little creek ran along the last six miles of the rutted dirt road I had traveled that morning. The warmth of the sun raised the water temperature enough to awaken the rainbow and cutthroat trout that slumbered, and the caddis flies were dancing their erratic dance, here and there, over the water. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Even in hip waders3 we were overdressed for the ankle-deep creek, but we stepped in, waded out to the middle and faced upstream. My client cast, and I pointed to the place the fly should land. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“Oh, hey! Look at that,” he said when the first fish struck. He was truly awed. The second time a trout struck, his shouts of surprise and joy rang up and down the creek, and we happily reeled in a sparkling, eight-inch wild rainbow. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“Isn't that beautiful?” he said softly, and every trout after that was beautiful, incredible, amazing, fantastic. A little brook trout took the fly, and I held it so my client could see the blue rings around the bright-orange spots. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“That's the prettiest thing I've ever seen,” he said with sincerity. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("To be with someone who was able to treasure the moment the way he did made me feel like I was exploring fly-fishing for the first time. I showed him how to keep his fly from dragging, how to fish the deeper pools. "); document.write("He was absorbed by the whys and the hows and the execution. And the fish, whether six inches or ten, were praised like precious stones. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("In the late afternoon, about the time the skin begins to feel sore from a fresh sunburn, my client stopped fishing. His shoulders dropped, and he paused to look at the water, the trees and, finally, at me. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“I have to tell you something,” he said. “This has been one of the best days of my life. The reason I'm telling you is, I wasn't supposed to be here right now. "); document.write("I've been very sick, and the doctors didn't think I was going to make it. I wasn't sure I was going to make it, but I've been well since last fall, and everything is fine now. "); document.write("My wife gave me this equipment because I've always wanted to fly-fish, and this trip is kind of a celebration for our family. This really has been one of the best days of my life.” "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("I could not speak. I looked into his eyes and nodded. He smiled at me and cast again. We left the creek only after hearing the triangle ringing for dinner in the distance. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("His wife, who was waiting on the front porch of their cabin, embraced him and asked how he had done. “Fantastic, absolutely fantastic.” His children, a seven-year-old girl and a teenage boy, followed him inside, interrupting each other to tell him what they had done that day. "); document.write("I could see that the dark cloud that had hung over them for so long had passed, and they were finally able to enjoy something as simple as being a family. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Down the dirt road my vehicle bounced over ruts and rocks as I followed the creek that had given us “fantastic,” “beautiful,” “amazing” trout. "); document.write("The next day there would be a new fisherman to meet. And I would not let stiff, expensive clothes or a backward-mounted reel deceive me into thinking he had nothing to teach me. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("1 dude ranch: a hotel in a ranch setting where guests can participate in ranching activities "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("2 fly rod: a long, flexible fishing rod used for casting artificial flies or insects "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("3 hip waders: waterproof hip-high boots worn while fishing "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“A Day in the Stream” from Cast Again by Jennifer Olsson. Copyright © 1996 by Jennifer Olsson. Reprinted by permission of Lyons Press, an imprint of Globe "); document.write("Pequot Press. Reprinted with permission from the June 2000 Reader's Digest. Original-Image © 2000 by Michael Melford. Reprinted with permission of the photographer. All rights reserved. "); document.write(" | |
| THE TRUTH ABOUT ANIMAL CLICHÉS ");
document.write(" BY ROGER DI SILVESTRO "); document.write(" | |
 ");
document.write("WE'VE ALL HEARD 'EM. We've all used 'em: well-worn clichés1 about animals that we use as metaphors2 to describe one another. He's quiet as a mouse. She eats like a bird. But what do these pithy3 phrases tell us about animals? How quiet is a mouse? How much ");
document.write("does a bird eat? When it comes to accurately depicting animals, are those who use these colorful expressions as wise as owls or as crazy as coots? Let's take a look at some familiar animal clichés and see if there is a grain of truth, or just a grain of sand, in these pearls of wisdom. ");
document.write(" | |
| QUIET AS A MOUSE | |
| Most mice are pretty quiet, except when they are frightened into squeaking. But one species—the grasshopper mouse of the Midwest and the American Southwest—is known for the noise it makes. This mouse marks its territory in part by unleashing "); document.write("long, high-pitched squeals, just like tiny howling wolves. And although these rodents weigh less than half an ounce and scarcely project the look of a voracious hunter, they're like wolves in another way, too: they're predators, hunting down insects, scorpions and sometimes even other rodents. "); document.write(" | |
| EYES LIKE A HAWK | |
| This is what you want your optometrist to tell you. A hawk can see a rabbit from two miles away or a dime from 1,200 feet. The smallest object a human can see from 1,200 feet is a grapefruit. "); document.write(" | |
| BLIND AS A BAT | |
| "); document.write("“All bats can see,” says Bob Benson, a spokesman for Bat Conservation International. “But most species—about 70 percent—augment their vision with echolocation.” Many bats have tiny eyes, which probably gave rise to the belief that they are blind. But even if they couldn't see, bats that use echolocation could still detect tiny objects in their environment because the sounds they emit bounce back to them, telling them what lies ahead as they flit "); document.write("through the air. In experiments, bats with their vision completely obscured have been able to fly across rooms crisscrossed wall to wall with string and not become entangled. On the other hand, flying foxes and other fruit bats of Africa and Asia, which do not echolocate, have large eyes and see well, finding fruit trees by sight. "); document.write(" | |
| CRAZY AS A COOT | |
 ");
document.write("It's unlikely that Sigmund Freud4 ever analyzed a coot—a black water bird with a white beak—so no professional opinion can be cited on this issue. The coot's reputation may be founded on several behavioral ");
document.write("characteristics. During courtship, males and females may look a touch crazed, chattering to one another and splashing water to signal interest. Coots also splash when they spot predators, but that's hardly crazy. The behavior that earned them their place in the world of clichés is probably their method of taking flight. Because their wings are stubby, coots can't get aloft efficiently. So they run along the surface of ");
document.write("the water, flapping and squawking and generally raising a ruckus long before they rise into the air. For short flights of 100 yards or so, they may not even get airborne. They just run across the water. Crazy? Not likely, but it sure looks that way. One thing is certain: Because coots are the most social members of the rail family, gathering in loose flocks, they warn one another about incoming predators—which means there are always likely to be a few old coots around. ");
document.write(" | |
| HUNGRY AS A BEAR | |
| "); document.write("Now that's hungry. “In fall when salmon first arrive in the streams and grizzlies are most hungry, a big male can eat up to 90 pounds of fish in a single day,” says National Wildlife Federation (NWF) bear biologist Sterling Miller. He suspects that when a real bonanza is encountered, such as a whale carcass, a hungry polar bear may be able to "); document.write("eat more than 100 pounds of blubber and meat in a day. So if you have friends who eat like polar bears, you might tell them to watch their cholesterol. And remind them that about 80 percent of the grizzly bear's diet is made up of plenty of greens, fruit and tubers—some 200 plant species in all. "); document.write(" | |
| BUSY AS A BEE | |
| "); document.write("Bees are very busy, if you mean honey bee workers and workers of other hive-dwelling social bees. All the bees in a hive have assigned duties. For the queen and also the males, called drones, the tasks are simple. The queen lays eggs, producing more bees, and the drones fertilize the queen. But the "); document.write("real busy bees are the workers, which are undeveloped female bees. Workers gather nectar to make honey, build the wax combs in which larvae are raised, defend the hive, feed the queen and the larvae, and when the hive gets too warm, they cool things down by flapping their wings—up to 11,000 times per minute. A big hive will include as many as 60,000 busy workers, each of which may live for about 35 days. "); document.write(" | |
| WISE AS AN OWL | |
| "); document.write("Wise as an owl looks might be a better way to phrase it, says Ron Austing, an owl researcher. Hawks and crows are often thought of as the whiz kids of the bird world, but if appearances count, owls are at the head of their class. “Owls have eyes that face forward similar to ours and they look calm, indifferent and scholarly, like a judge,” "); document.write("says Austing. The owl's reputation for wisdom traces to Greek mythology. Athena, goddess of wisdom, traveled with an owl on her shoulder. The link of owls to wisdom, at least in ancient Greece, apparently dates to 490 B.C., when King Darius I of Persia was attacking Athens. In a battle on the Plain of Marathon, 10,000 Greeks fought back and seemed to be losing when an owl soared "); document.write("over the field and landed on the shoulder of the Greek general, Miltiades. The Greeks took this to mean that Athena was on their side and, heartened, won the battle. After that, owls were popular in Athens. The wealthy even strolled around town with owls in cages or perched on their shoulders. "); document.write(" | |
| BIG AS A MOOSE | |
| "); document.write("That's plenty big. The moose is the largest member of the deer family. The biggest moose come from Alaska, where they may weigh more than 1,800 pounds and stand more than 7.5 feet tall at the shoulder. "); document.write(" | |
| EATS LIKE A BIRD | |
| "); document.write("If someone says you eat like a bird and has songbirds in mind, you might consider going on a diet. “Birds are voracious eaters,” says NWF chief naturalist Craig Tufts. Most birds eat 25 to 50 percent of their body weight daily. Birds have high metabolisms, burning up calories faster than a long-distance "); document.write("runner. Hummingbirds are probably the metabolic champs, maintaining their wing-blurring flight by eating almost continuously all day long, putting away a meal of flower nectar—supplemented with the occasional spider or insect—every 10 minutes. They must eat about twice their body weight daily, the equivalent of a 150-pound man chowing down about 1,000 quarter-pound burgers a day, bread and all. "); document.write(" | |
| LAZY AS A SLOTH | |
 ");
document.write("Sloths, those tree-hanging denizens5 of Latin American rain forests that look like little bears suspended upside down from branches, are not lazy. They're just slow. And their slowness is a product of their metabolism, ");
document.write("which is only 40 to 45 percent of what a biologist would expect to see in an animal a sloth's size. Everything they do is slow. On average, a sloth will move about 125 feet per day. Sloths even digest slowly, taking a full month to process the food in a full stomach. ");
document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Animal clichés, right or wrong, are the mementos of a time when we knew far less about wildlife than we do now. In many cases the phrases are what remains of "); document.write("long-ago beliefs and mistaken ideas, such as the fear that bats will entangle in your hair. But although scientific knowledge has undermined some of these metaphors, we still go on using them, like a leopard that can't change its spots. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("1 clichés: commonly used expressions "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("2 metaphor: one thing that represents another; a symbol "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("3 pithy: full of meaning "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("4 Sigmund Freud: Austrian physician and founder of psychoanalysis "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("5 denizens: inhabitants "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Roger Di Silvestro is now senior director of communications for the National Parks Conservation Association. He thinks of himself as lazy as a bee and wise as a bat. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“The Truth About Animal Clichés” by Roger Di Silvestro. Reprinted with permission from National Wildlife magazine’s February/March 2003 issue. Copyright "); document.write("© 2003 by the National Wildlife Federation. Photo “Male Southern Grasshopper Mouse Calling Out” © Michael & Patricia Fogden/CORBIS. Photo “American "); document.write("Coot Takes Off From Water” © Joe McDonald/CORBIS. Photo “Male Brown-Throated Three-Toed Tree Sloth” © Michael & Patricia Fogden/CORBIS."); document.write(" | |
 | |
| "); document.write("Even back in the big-band heyday, band leader Benny Goodman couldn’t do it. When asked to describe swing music, he called it “as difficult to explain as the Mona "); document.write("Lisa’s1 smile or the nutty hats some people wear—but it’s just as stimulating. It remains something you take 5,000 words to explain, then leaves you wondering what it is.” "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("While the exact definition may be elusive, swing music—as played by the big bands of the 1930s and ’40s—is as uniquely American as baseball and apple pie. The music provided a real-life "); document.write("soundtrack for two of America’s most trying eras—the Depression and World War II. An outgrowth of the music played by the dance orchestras of the 1920s, swing was the first form of jazz to be embraced by a mass audience, dominating the pop charts, dance halls, radio airwaves and concert halls of America for 20 years. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("As Goodman said so well, swing is a slippery term. While any music can be played with “swing,” musical historians generally define the genre as jazz music played by a “big band” containing at least 10 musicians. The infectious, up-tempo beat and rich orchestration were—and still are—tailor-made for dancing. "); document.write(" | |
| Some Background | |
| "); document.write("Though swing music came of age in the 1930s, its roots go back much earlier to the blending of African and Euro-American musical traditions that flourished in New Orleans in the early 20th century. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Benny Goodman typically gets credit for bringing the music to mainstream America. A master clarinet player, Goodman combined great musicianship with exceptional improvisational2 skills. In 1935, "); document.write("the big-band sound was launched onto the national scene when a Los Angeles performance of Goodman and his orchestra drew a frenzied teenage audience. The group was similar to those who would later flock to hear the sounds of Elvis Presley and the Beatles. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("During the hard years of the Depression, big-band music provided pleasure and solace for millions, as well as serving an important social function. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("As Goodman, Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong, Woody Herman, and Artie Shaw played in huge, newly constructed ballrooms across the country, swing developed its own slang, culture and style "); document.write("of dress—“zoot suits” and two-toned shoes—and young people flocked to dance marathons across the country. "); document.write(" | |
| The Duke | |
| "); document.write("Of all the musicians playing swing, the greatest was the legendary Duke Ellington. A musical genius who wrote thousands of compositions, Ellington also excelled at recruiting brilliant musicians. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("The Duke’s musical career spanned several decades, from the 1920s until his death in 1974, and gave the world such immortal tunes as “It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing),” “Mood Indigo,” and “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore.” "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("During World War II, big-band music reached its height of popularity and became a symbol of America for the soldiers fighting abroad. The Andrews Sisters’ “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” filled the "); document.write("airwaves, and Glenn Miller, one of the most famous band leaders of the day, became a war hero when he was killed in a plane crash after enlisting in the Army. President Franklin Roosevelt even declared that the music could “inspire a fervor for the spiritual values in our way of life and strengthen democracy.” "); document.write(" | |
| After The War | |
| "); document.write("The war’s end also brought a surprisingly swift end to swing’s popularity. Television began competing for people’s attention, and returning soldiers were more interested in settling down and raising families than in dancing. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Popular taste also shifted from big bands to individual singers, such as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Peggy Lee. Jazz also changed, evolving into other forms like bebop, which failed to capture large audiences. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Though swing never completely died out, it wasn’t until the late 1980s that the music experienced a true rebirth. Young people in cities from Los Angeles to New York led the way, rediscovering dances like the Lindy Hop and the fun of retro clothing shops. And like their grandparents "); document.write("before them, they discovered that there is no better accompaniment to dancing than the toe-tapping sounds of a big band. While old recordings from the 1930s and ’40s were dusted off, new singers like Harry Connick Jr., and groups such as The Manhattan Transfer also helped popularize older musical styles and a group with a swinging sound even performed at the Super Bowl. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“I think many younger people are initially attracted to this music because of the fun of dancing to it,” says David Miller, host of “Swingin’ Down the Lane,” a program of big-band music on National "); document.write("Public Radio. “They start with the music being played by contemporary swing bands, and then they discover the originals. These young people eventually come to appreciate what wonderful music was made during the Big Band Era.” "); document.write(" | |
| Still Swingin’ | |
| "); document.write("Today, the blossoming interest in ballroom dance has continued to feed the revival of swing music, with dance clubs forming at colleges around the country. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Fans can even attend week-long summer camps dedicated to swing music and live out fantasies of the Big Band Era. “This is fun, happy, joyous music, and once people are exposed to it—no matter what "); document.write("their age—they’re often hooked,” says Byron Siegal, owner of Vermont Jazz and Ballroom Vermont summer camps. “We have people coming back year after year to be part of the camps.” "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("While swing music probably won’t again dominate the popular musical scene as it once did, the sound remains a vital part of American culture—even though the exact definition has remained elusive for even the best musicians. When Louis Armstrong was asked to define swing, he simply replied, “If you don’t know, don’t mess with it.” "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Thankfully, you don’t need to be able to define or analyze the music to simply enjoy its enduring appeal. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("1 Mona Lisa: a portrait painted by Leonardo da Vinci in 1503 "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("2 improvisational: performed with little or no preparation "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“Swing Is the Thing!” by Lori Erickson, from GEICO Direct, Fall 2001. Text copyright © 2001 by Lori Erickson. Photos used by permission of Getty Images, Inc."); document.write(" | |
| In Lighthouse Cove by DAVID HOWARD DAY "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("I decide to enter the water on the sheltered side of the lighthouse, in a cove where brilliantly painted lobster buoys nose into a light wind. I drop the heavy backpack containing my diving gear on a flat expanse between two upright granite slabs. "); document.write(" | |
 ");
document.write("Suiting up is a not-so-minor ritual. First there’s an underwater tuxedo, the skintight, two-piece wetsuit that will shield me from the cold waters of the Gulf of Maine by admitting a thin layer of water to warm ");
document.write("between my skin and the suit itself. Then comes the diver’s hood, resembling a piece of medieval chain-mail, that protects the nerves at the back of my neck from low marine temperatures; almost paralyzing, such cold can take one’s breath away even in mid-summer. ");
document.write("");
document.write("Gloves permit me to approach barnacles and crabs and to handle various other crustacea with surprising dexterity. Chosen with great care, the goggles become a ");
document.write("picture-window on the sea, and I clean and adjust them for several minutes. I then put the ungainly snorkel in my mouth. Finding a seaweed-covered perch, I finally pull on the fins. ");
document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("All this yanking and tugging has taken a quarter of an hour. Fully suited under the hot sun, I feel like some mutant penguin ready to slip and slither. I look for my spotter’s good-luck smile and, with a wave, slide comfortably down into the ginger-ale bubbles beneath me. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Within seconds I am surrounded by enormous subaquatic canyons, ledges, and dark kelp forests. Gliding over boulders the size of small cottages shingled with mermaid’s tresses,1 I feel like Saint Nick flying over the roofs of sleeping houses. But there is no whiteness here, rather the green, brown, pink, and ochre of an equally wondrous landscape I can neither taste nor smell. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("To get my bearings, I look up and scan the shore for my diving buddy. I give him another wave, take a deep breath, and plunge almost vertically into an arroyo littered with hundreds upon hundreds of sea stars. Literally huddled together, some are pink-orange and medium-size. Others, gray, "); document.write("larger, and older, cling to each other in the icy solitude of deep crevices that may also harbor a forbidding lumpfish or sculpin. I am amazed to see the tiny young stars at all, so great is the strength of these currents, brushing them back and forth, at once feeding them and testing them. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Much less streamlined, the sidewinding crabs scuttle about, intimidated, I suspect, by my approaching shadow; like everything here, it too is larger underwater than topside. We seem to learn from small children how "); document.write("to pick up crabs; when grasped gently from behind by their carapace, they flail their pincers and legs in all directions and finally stiffen. Neighbors of the crabs and sea stars, the turbanlike sea urchins scarcely seem to move at all, yet even through my gloves I can feel them pulsating. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("The pace quickens out by the point, where waves whipped by a southeast wind have begun to crash against the granite fingers. If I get too close I’ll be tossed, sliced, or diced in this briny soup. Kelp "); document.write("wands wave frantically, alerting me to the spooky outcrops they hide. For as long as I care to linger I am afforded a visual taste of an undersea storm, momentarily lost in a smokescreen of bubbles and rocked hypnotically by enormous swells. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Veering outward from these foam laps and sloshings, I am propelled into a rain of dustlike particles, a phytoplankton bloom illuminated by elongated triangles of sunlight filtering down from the surface "); document.write("above. Occasionally, larger strands turn, twist, and jerk, careening noiselessly into the lens of my mask. Golden, balletic shadows cast on a nautical movie screen, they vanish as I turn my head. All part of the cove’s rich food chain. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Now the ocean bottom simply drops away. Too deep here; I cannot see it and there is no point in snorkeling in bottomless bouillabaisse.2 I allow myself to drift with the tidal surge back toward my spotter, "); document.write("making out the faint forest of rockweed straining at its holdfasts on the chocolate ledges, waving eerily. This and the longer golden kelp strands always give me pause; tangled, beckoning, they are the beguiling sirens of the sea. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Suddenly, out of nowhere, a swarm of silversides appears—more than I can count—and for several moments we hang motionless together. Then, in a flash, the small fish vanish into the mazy depths, perhaps tens of thousands of them, gone in an instant. Although I probably looked to them like a clumsy seal, I feel that I belong with all these fish, right here at the edge of immensity. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("I’m joined by a school of sea bass; they are larger, brownish. I take a breath and plummet silently right through them, then roll over so that I am looking up at their undersides, aloof silhouettes against the almost indescribable aquamarine at the ocean’s surface, the very bottom of the top of the sea. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Despite my wetsuit, I begin to chill. I plunge straight down, gently lift a sea star, and swim to the shore where a small boy crouches, peering into the water. With a gloved hand, I offer him the pink and wriggling creature. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("DAVID HOWARD DAY teaches anthropology at Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("1 tresses: locks of hair "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("2 bouillabaisse: a soup or stew containing different types of fish or shellfish "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“In Lighthouse Cove” by David Howard Day. Reprinted with permission from the September/October 1994 issue of Sierra. Photograph of Echinoderm copyright © Bill Curtsinger, All Rights Reserved."); document.write(" | |
| INSIDE OUT "); document.write("by Lisa Vihos "); document.write(" | ||||
 ");
*/
document.write(" | ||||
| ");
document.write(" INSIDE OUT ");
document.write(""); document.write("by Lisa Vihos ");
document.write("When you paint or draw a flower, do you ever stop to think about what a flower looks like from the inside? ");
document.write("");
document.write("The American painter Georgia O’Keeffe shows us flowers from the inside out in her large flower paintings, begun in 1924. Over time, she made more than 200 paintings of petunias, irises, jack-in-the-pulpits, poppies, and many others. ");
document.write("Looking at O’Keeffe’s flowers is like looking through a magnifying glass at a single poppy. Her work lets us imagine what a bee might see in the center of a blossom. Her paintings surround us with rich colors and curving shapes. Artists have been painting pictures of flowers for centuries, but no one has ever painted them quite like Georgia O’Keeffe.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("The first U.S. woman to achieve widespread fame and fortune for her art, Georgia O’Keeffe knew what she wanted at an early age and held fast to her vision. She was born on a farm in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, on November 15, 1887. As a girl, she loved to explore the fields around her home and was enchanted by wildlife and wildflowers.");
document.write(" | ||||
| "); document.write("Although she had six brothers and sisters, she preferred to play alone and liked to create gardens in the grass for her dolls. She also tried to paint things that seemed especially interesting or beautiful to her, like a lighthouse by the sea or a tree on a moonlit winter night. She knew by the age of 12 that she wanted to be an artist."); document.write(" | ||||
| "); document.write("When O’Keeffe was 14, her parents enrolled her in a convent school where she took art classes. Her mother encouraged her talent, hoping perhaps that Georgia might have a career as an art teacher. No one, except maybe Georgia herself, thought that she could be an artist. "); document.write(" | ||||
| "); document.write("After high school, O’Keeffe continued her studies, first in Chicago and then in New York. She supported herself for a time teaching art in Texas. In 1916, a friend of O’Keeffe’s showed some of her drawings to an important New York photographer and gallery owner, Alfred Stieglitz. When Stieglitz saw her work for the first time, he was impressed by her originality, and he found that her art was new and passionate. Her work was so different from anything he had seen before that Stieglitz wanted the world to see it. He exhibited her work "); document.write("several times and also took many photographs of her. By 1923, O’Keeffe’s name was well known in the art world. Stieglitz and O’Keeffe fell in love and married in 1924."); document.write(" | ||||
| ORIENTAL POPPIES | ||||
| "); document.write("O’Keeffe became famous around the world. She painted many different subjects during her long and productive life, including skyscrapers, animal bones, shells, and the desert of New Mexico, where she lived for many years until her death in 1986 at the age of 98."); document.write(" | ||||
| "); document.write("Shapes and colors were what interested O’Keeffe in her paintings of flowers. Her strategy of making the blooms much larger than life, and cropping their familiar shapes, makes people see the flowers in a new way. She wrote: “I’ll paint it big and they will be surprised "); document.write("into taking time to look at it—I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers.” O’Keeffe’s paintings still remind us to stop and notice the importance of little things, the beauty of flowers and of the world all around us."); document.write(" | ||||
| ");
document.write(" ");
document.write(" ");
document.write("
| ||||
| "); document.write("“Inside Out” by Lisa Vihos. Reprinted, with permission, from New Moon ®: The Magazine For Girls And Their Dreams; Copyright New Moon "); document.write("Publishing, Duluth, MN. “Georgia” by Judy Loest, from The Cortland Review, Issue 15. Copyright © 2000 by Judy Loest. Reprinted by permission of the author. Photo provided by Van Dyck’s."); document.write(" | ||||
 |
| "); document.write("Of all the rights that United States citizens enjoy, which are the most important to a free society? Freedom of speech? Freedom of religion? Freedom to vote for the candidate of your choice?"); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("Freedom of the press might not rank first on many people’s lists. It may seem as though this freedom directly affects only the small group of people who publish newspapers. Viewed that way, the freedom of the press clause in the Constitution is little more than an insurance policy to make the business of journalism less troublesome."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("Freedom of the press, though, is not about protecting a select group of people in a business venture. It is concerned with protecting all the people of the United States. Freedom of the press really means freedom of information. That is why the term “press” refers not just to newspapers, but to other organized methods of spreading news, such as radio and television broadcasts, books, and motion pictures."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("Freedom of information guarantees the right of every citizen to know what the government is doing. A free press provides people with the facts they need to make intelligent decisions about their country. It helps them to be valuable members of society by keeping them abreast of current ideas and issues. "); document.write(" |
 ");
document.write("Without a free press, a democratic form of government would be unlikely. Only ideas approved by those in power would be published. Without a free press, government officials could violate other rights, such as freedom of speech, religion, and assembly, with little fear of being stopped. ");
document.write("");
document.write("A free press is the watchdog that guards all of our individual freedoms. That is one of the reasons why freedom of the press is among the rights protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. The First Amendment states that: ");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. ");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, felt strongly about the importance of a free press: ");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("The people are the only censors of their governors. . . . The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right (full information of government affairs) and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter! ");
document.write(" |
| "); document.write("Support for an entirely free press has never been unanimous in the United States, however. At times the media seem to cross the bounds of fairness or decency. Should a magazine be allowed to print lies? Should a book be allowed to ruin someone’s reputation? Should television, which exerts a powerful influence over young people, be allowed to show any program it chooses? Must the government sit back idly when a "); document.write("newspaper spills secrets that are vital to the national security? "); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("Questions such as these have forced many people to debate the limits of freedom of the press. What is to be done when the press acts irresponsibly? Even Thomas Jefferson, a champion of freedom of the press, had little tolerance for newspapers that printed what he thought was malicious criticism. In 1803, while president, Jefferson wrote, “I have . . . long thought that a few prosecutions of the most prominent offenders would have a wholesome effect in restoring the integrity of the press.” "); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("Every society must decide how to deal with the abuses of the press. In the United States, the government sets most of the controls. But if the government controls the press, then it also controls the information citizens receive. That is exactly what the United States’ founders hoped to prevent. "); document.write(" |
 ");
document.write("The answers to questions concerning a free press are not always simple. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights were adopted to ensure freedom for the people from abuses of government. But exactly what did the writers of the Constitution mean by freedom of the press? Does the ");
document.write("Constitution give us freedom to print anything, no matter how irresponsible, or does it simply mean freedom from censorship? (Censorship refers to the act of withholding, confiscating, or deleting material so that it cannot be printed, broadcast, or distributed.)");
document.write("");
document.write("Even if everyone agreed on what the writers of those documents meant, many questions would remain unanswered. The founders could not have predicted all the situations or cultural changes in later centuries. The issues concerning freedom of the press must be continually studied and debated to prevent important rights from being taken for granted. ");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("Each generation must struggle with the questions of freedom, responsibility, and security. The lessons of the past must be studied; the influences of the present must be identified. Only by understanding the lessons of the past and being aware of the problems of the present can we make sure that the flow of information in the United States remains free. ");
document.write(" |
| "); document.write("From Freedom of the Press, by J. Edward Evans. Copyright © 1990 by Lerner Publications: A Division of the Lerner Publishing Group. Used by "); document.write("permission of the publisher. All rights reserved. Photograph of news anchors preparing to go on the air © Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS. "); document.write("Photograph of journalist copyright © Jacques M. Chenet/CORBIS. Photograph of moviemakers copyright © Robert Landau/CORBIS. "); document.write(" |
| Gail Devers "); document.write("by Arlene Bourgeois Molzàhn | |||||||||
| “YOU’VE WORKED HARD FOR THIS. Go get it,” Jackie Joyner-Kersee told her friend, Gail Devers, just before the 100-meter dash in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain."); document.write(" | |||||||||
| "); document.write("Devers set her feet in the starting blocks and hoped that she would run a good race. The blast from the starter’s gun sounded, and she burst forward. She ran down the track, using every ounce of strength in her body, and hurled herself across the finish line."); document.write(" | |||||||||
| "); document.write("Then she waited. The race was so close that it looked as if at least five sprinters might have won."); document.write(" | |||||||||
| "); document.write("The instant replay on the stadium scoreboard kept showing the five runners crossing the finish line. After the judges studied the finish-line photo, they found that Devers’s shoulder had crossed the finish line first. Finally, the announcement came over the loudspeakers. Gail Devers had won the 100-meter dash in 10.82 seconds."); document.write(" | |||||||||
| "); document.write("Then Devers experienced the highlight of any sprinter’s career, as she stood on the huge platform in the giant stadium and received an Olympic gold medal."); document.write(" | |||||||||
| "); document.write("Eighteen months earlier she wasn’t thinking about running. She was hoping that she would be able to walk again."); document.write(" | |||||||||
| "); document.write("Just four years earlier, in the summer of 1988, as Devers was training for the Olympic Games, to be held in Seoul, South Korea, she began to feel very tired all the time and failed to make the Olympic finals."); document.write(" | |||||||||
| "); document.write("By 1991, she had lost some of her eyesight, most of her hair, and forty pounds in weight."); document.write(" | |||||||||
| "); document.write("Her feet were covered with blisters, which made it too painful for her to walk. Her doctors really did not know what was wrong with her."); document.write(" | |||||||||
| "); document.write("Then, just in time, a doctor discovered that Devers had Graves’ disease. If she had gone two more days without proper medication, her doctors might have had to amputate her feet."); document.write(" | |||||||||
| "); document.write("With new treatment, Devers began to recover. Soon she was well enough to begin training for the 1992 Olympic Games."); document.write(" | |||||||||
| "); document.write("Gail Devers was born in Seattle, Washington, and grew up in San Diego, California. She and her brother were happy, although their parents were strict. At night they had to be in the house as soon as the streetlights came on. Their parents limited the amount of television the children could watch. They taught their children to feel good about themselves, to grow up to be independent; able to live their own lives."); document.write(" | |||||||||
| "); document.write("After a successful high school track career at Sweetwater High School in National City, California, Devers enrolled at the University of California at Los Angeles. Bob Kersee, who had become the track coach at the university, gave her much encouragement and told her she could be a world-class runner someday. He was right."); document.write(" | |||||||||
| "); document.write("After winning the Olympic gold medal in 1992, Devers brought her winning ways to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. She won the 100-meter dash, was a member of the 4 X 100-meter relay team that won the gold medal, and finished fourth in the 100-meter hurdles."); document.write(" | |||||||||
| "); document.write("Gail Devers is a great runner and an excellent example of the meaning of the saying “Never give up.”"); document.write(" | |||||||||
| "); document.write("“Use me as an example,” Devers said. “When the walls are closing in, when someone doesn’t know where to turn, tell people I was there. I kept going. So can others.”"); document.write(" | |||||||||
 ");
document.write(" | |||||||||
");
document.write("
| |||||||||
| "); document.write("“Gail Devers” by Arlene Bourgeois Molzàhn. From Top 10 American Women Sprinters by Arlene Bourgeois Molzàhn. Copyright © 1998 by Arlene Bourgeois "); document.write("Molzàhn. Enslow Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Photo of Gail Devers. © AFP/CORBIS. “Knowing How to Overcome Failure Is Part of Being Successful.” Tim Connor, best-selling author, speaker and trainer."); document.write(" | |||||||||
 by Mario M. Cuomo"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("In this essay Mario Cuomo, former governor of New York, recalls an experience with his father that serves as an inspiration to him. It was first published in the Diaries of Mario M. Cuomo."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Poppa taught me a lot about life, especially its hard times. I remembered one of his lessons one night when I was ready to quit a political campaign I was losing and wrote about it in my diary:"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Tired, feeling the many months of struggle, I went up to the den to make some notes. I was looking for a pencil, rummaging through papers in the back of my desk drawer, where things accumulate for years, when I turned up one of Poppa’s old business cards, the ones we made up for him, that he was so proud of: Andrea Cuomo, Italian-American Groceries— Fine Imported Products. Poppa never had occasion to give anyone a calling card, but he loved having them."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("I couldn’t help wondering what Poppa would have said if I told him I was tired or discouraged. Then I thought about how he dealt with hard circumstances. A thousand pictures flashed through my mind, but one scene came sharply into view."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("We had just moved to Holliswood, New York, from our apartment behind the store. We had our own house for the first time; it had some land around it, even trees. One, in particular, was a great blue spruce that must have been 40 feet tall."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Less than a week after we moved in, there was a terrible storm. We came home from the store that night to find the spruce pulled almost totally from the ground and flung forward, its mighty nose bent in the asphalt of the street. My brother Frankie and I could climb poles all day; we were great at fire escapes; we could scale fences with barbed wire—but we knew nothing about trees. When we saw our spruce, defeated, its cheek on the canvas, our hearts sank. But not Poppa’s."); document.write(" | |
");
document.write(" ");
document.write("Maybe he was five feet six if his heels were not worn. Maybe he weighed 155 pounds if he had a good meal. Maybe he could see a block away if his glasses were clean. But he was stronger than Frankie and me and Marie and Mamma all together.");
document.write("");
document.write("We stood in the street looking down at the tree. The rain was falling. Then he announced, “O.K., we gonna push ’im up!” “What are you talking about, Poppa? The roots are out of the ground!” “Shut up, we gonna push ’im up, he’s gonna grow again.” We didn’t know what to say to him. You couldn’t say no to him. So we followed him into the house and we got ");
document.write("what rope there was and we tied the rope around the tip of the tree that lay in the asphalt, and he stood up by the house, with me pulling on the rope and Frankie in the street in the rain, helping to push up the great blue spruce. In no time at all, we had it standing up straight again!");
document.write(" ");
document.write("With the rain still falling, Poppa dug away at the place where the roots were, making a muddy hole wider and wider as the tree sank lower and lower toward security. Then we shoveled mud over the roots and moved boulders to the base to keep the tree in place. Poppa drove stakes in the ground, tied rope from the trunk to the stakes, and maybe two hours later looked at the spruce, the crippled spruce made straight by ropes, and said, “Don’t worry, he’s gonna grow again . . . .”");
document.write(" ");
document.write("I looked at the card and wanted to cry. If you were to drive past that house today, you would see the great, straight blue spruce, maybe 65 feet tall, pointing straight up to the heavens, pretending it never had its nose in the asphalt.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("I put Poppa’s card back in the drawer, closed it with a vengeance. I couldn’t wait to get back into the campaign.");
document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“Poppa and the Spruce Tree.” From DIARIES OF MARIO M. CUOMO by Mario M. Cuomo, copyright © 1984 by Mario M. Cuomo. Used by permission of Random House, Inc."); document.write(" | |
 ");
document.write("Clown Alley ");
document.write(""); document.write("by Linda Granfield ");
document.write("Circus legend has it that a collection of eggs painted with the faces of famous clowns was tragically destroyed by fire long ago. Linda and Leon McBryde of Virginia have honored this egg-painting tradition by creating their Department of Clown Registry, a collection of more than six hundred eggs that ");
document.write("documents for history the faces of male and female clowns from around the world. Linda paints each face on a goose egg and then completes the decoration with a variety of materials. It takes up to a week to create one egg portrait. ");
document.write("");
document.write("Throughout history there have always been people who can make other people laugh. Early clowns, from the stupidus of ancient Rome to the court jester, often both offended and delighted listeners with their comments and songs. They were not the silent performers seen in today's circus rings. Clowns lost their voices when the large dimensions of three-ring circuses made it impossible for the audience to hear them.");
document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("There are different categories of circus clowns. Walk-around clowns use an animal or a prop, like a huge rubber hammer, as part of their routines. A carpet clown mingles with the audience and performs while the acts change in the rings. Then there are acrobatic clowns, riding clowns, juggling clowns and others. They all join in the charivari [shiv-uh-ree], the noisy entrance of the clowns."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Everything a clown does looks easy, but it's not. Making people laugh can be hard work."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Clowns must be in good physical condition to prevent injuries. Each slapstick1 move is carefully timed and well-rehearsed. Most clowns have also been trained as acrobats, jugglers or aerial artists, and many incorporate such skills into their acts."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Clown alley—from the old ringmaster's2 call, “Clowns, allez” [ah-lay] (French for “go”)—is the name of the dressing area where the clowns put on their makeup and costumes. This area is usually near the entrance to the arena because of the frequent number of costume changes, the many props to grab, and the need for the clowns to be ready at all times to hustle out into the ring."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Generally, there are three categories of circus clowns—whiteface, auguste [oh-gust] and character. Each has a specific makeup style and costume. Each has a typical act as well."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("The neat whiteface is usually a strict, in-charge character who sets up the punch line for the joke with a partner who is typically an auguste. His facial features are neatly detailed in red or black, and his outfit looks something like loose pajamas with a ruffle around the neck."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Circus legend has it that the auguste clown got his name from a German nickname for someone who is clumsy. The auguste wears light-colored makeup, but white is used around the mouth and eyes, and there’s a big red nose. This clown performs a great deal of slapstick humor. An oversized suit or baggy pants with suspenders allows freedom of movement for all the clumsy tumbles he takes. He also wears big shoes."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Character clowns perform as different personalities—cowboys, scarecrows, grandmothers or symphony conductors. The most famous character clown, however, is the tramp. Tramps wear different styles of makeup and costumes that are torn or shabby. Some tramp clowns are happy-go-lucky. Others are extremely sad. Still others act like gentlemen who just happen to be out of money. "); document.write(" | |
| Making Faces | |
| "); document.write("Entertainers have been wearing makeup since ancient times. In the early days, the face was sometimes whitened with flour to emphasize large, dark eyes and bright red lips, so "); document.write("everyone in the audience could see each exaggerated facial expression. (Legend has it that a French clown who was a baker by profession was the first to perform with his face white from his job!)"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("A clown today whitens his face with greasepaint. All the makeup can be ordered from companies whose catalogs advertise everything from “age stipple” and “crepe wool hair” to clown white makeup (often the choice of performers who entertain at a fast-food restaurant)."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("A closeup look at a clown’s face frightens some people because the eyebrows aren’t drawn where they naturally grow, lips are lost in a sea of red, and the hairline is often gone completely. But the face is meant to be seen fifty feet above the ring, and from this distance every feature looks right."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("It takes clowns a great deal of practice to create their performance faces. A clown’s face is a protected trademark and is never to be exactly copied. It’s also considered bad taste for a clown to appear in public partially out of costume, or for a clown to do “normal” things, like eating lunch, while in character."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Clowns have a long and interesting history and use serious techniques. However, the children and adults at the circus don’t need to know these facts to get ready for fun when they hear “Bring in the clowns!” "); document.write(" | |
| 1 slapstick: funny and exaggerated "); document.write(" | |
| 2 ringmaster: a person who introduces the acts in a circus ring "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“Clown Alley.” Excerpt from Circus. Copyright © 1997 by Linda Granfield. First published in Canada by Groundwood Books/Douglas & McIntyre Ltd. "); document.write("Reprinted by permission of the publisher. Photo of painted eggs as clowns. Used by permission of Linda McBryde, Department of Clown Registry, Buchanan, VA."); document.write(" | |
| ");
document.write(" Picking Tomatoes ");
document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("It isn’t the first time I have picked tomatoes with Grandma. It is, however, the first time I realize why she requests my help. "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("For as long as I can remember, Grandma’s plentiful tomato garden has been a sign of summer’s end. Each September, just as the decreased heat of the sun hints at cooler days, Grandma requests my help in her tomato garden. She pats my head and assures me she cannot pick tomatoes without my youthful eyes "); document.write("and quick mind. She says we need to examine each tomato and agree on its readiness for picking. While Grandma’s request for my help in the tomato garden is always the same, her desire for my help seems to increase each year."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Grandma has eyes for finding even the tomatoes hidden by undergrowth and other tomatoes. I, however, just turn circles looking for the ones I think Grandma will like. I spot what looks like a ripe tomato, head in its direction, and then get sidetracked by another that appears to be equally ripe. I usually end up watching Grandma and trying to stay out of her way, "); document.write("which seems the only way my eyes and mind are useful. While Grandma says we need to agree on which tomatoes are ready to be picked, my participation does not seem very important. Grandma knows which tomatoes are ready. It is as if she has been in the garden earlier that day, deciding which tomatoes will be picked. I often feel more of a hindrance than a help."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("It is not until today that I realize it is my company she cannot do without."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("There we are, lost in the tomato vines. As always, Grandma is scurrying from vine to vine, thanking me for my willingness to assist. I have to stand to spot the brim of Grandma’s hat amongst the lush plants. I try to stay near her so I can hear her comments and directions."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Grandma’s eyes are always discerning,1 and they are no different in the vegetable garden. From afar she spots what looks like a ripe tomato. As she walks toward the garden, she evaluates the tomato for a second time, but from a different angle. If it passes such inspection, I already know it will end up in the basket with the mound "); document.write("of others Grandma has carefully chosen. However, Grandma acts as if she needs a final look to be sure. She calls me to her side, kneels beside the vine while enjoying the warmth of the fading sunlight on her face, and clutches the tomato in her hand. She turns each round, red ball toward the sunlight before disconnecting it from the vine with a half-hearted smile."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("She then looks at me. I nod my head and smile. Grandma assumes I smile in agreement with her tomato selection. I know I smile, instead, at her."); document.write(" | |
 | |
| 1 discerning: knowing "); document.write(" | |
| “Picking Tomatoes,” property of the Florida Department of Education."); document.write(" | |
 ");
document.write("Catfish Bigger ");
document.write("Than Kids By Homer Circle ");
document.write("");
document.write("Can you imagine a catfish bigger than a boy? Some bewhiskered giants bigger than several boys lurk in South America’s jungle rivers. Weighing in at 300 pounds, one of them can feed a lot of hungry catfish lovers.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("I encountered one of these whoppers at a remote airstrip in Colombia a few years back. Just as I got off the plane, I saw a man offering a giant catfish for sale. It drooped over a wheelbarrow, head and tail almost touching the ground. I figured it weighed more than 150 pounds.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("Locals told me about seeing huge catfish gobble down many things. I can believe it. The mouth of a 300-pound catfish must be as large as a washtub.");
document.write(" ");
document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("There are more than 1,000 kinds of catfish; 28 species are found in the United States’ lakes and rivers. This huge family has some mighty peculiar members. Let’s meet a few."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Walking catfish. Nature equipped this feisty little catfish, found in southern Florida, with an extra lung for breathing on dry land. When its swimming hole dries up, the walking catfish waddles on stiff forward fins in search of another lake or stream. If an enemy attacks, the fish flares its top and front fins like sabers and leaps at the attacker to scare it off."); document.write(" | |
 ");
document.write("Armored catfish. This cat has heavy, bony plates protecting its body. The armor makes the fish difficult to fillet. To cook it, toss the fish whole into a fire. When it is done, crack it open for eating. Some armored catfish are found in Florida, but the 100-pounders live in South America.");
document.write("");
document.write("Rounding out the family of odd catfish are talking catfish, which make guttural1 sounds when you pull them from the water; climbing catfish, which scramble up shore brush in search of food; electric catfish, which can deliver a mild shock; and blind catfish, which dwell in the inky blackness of underwater caves. Blind catfish find food through taste buds in their eight whiskers.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("Most catfish have four whiskers on the upper jaw and four on the lower jaw. Sensory pores on these whiskers help the fish smell and taste food even in the muddiest of water.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("The United States does not have catfish anywhere near the size of those in South America. But in some large U.S. rivers, blue and flathead catties do top 100 pounds.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("Most of the catfish you are likely to catch will be much smaller, about frying-pan size. All 28 kinds of catfish found in the United States are good to eat. When you catch one, remember that the dorsal, or top, fin and the two forward, or pectoral, fins have poison glands at their bases. They can give you painful puncture wounds.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("The safest way to handle an average-size catfish is to wear a glove and grab it by the lower jaw. Then use wire cutters to clip off these dangerous fins.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("To cook catfish, skin and slice them into fillets or steaks. Flour them and fry in oil until golden brown. You will see how easy it is to overeat these tasty fish.");
document.write(" ");
document.write(" | |
| 1 guttural: growling"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“Catfish Bigger Than Kids” by Homer Circle, copyright © by Homer Circle. Artwork by Ray-Mel Cornelius, copyright © by Ray-Mel Cornelius. Used by permission of the author, the artist, and Boys’ Life, published by the Boy Scouts of America."); document.write(" | |
THE GOLDEN WINDOWS ");
document.write("Retold by Laura E. Richards ");
document.write(" |
| "); document.write("All day long the little boy worked hard, in field and barn and shed, for his people were poor farmers, and could not pay a workman; but at sunset there came an hour that was all his own, for his father had given it to him. Then the boy would go up to the top of a hill and look across at another hill that rose some miles away. On this far hill stood a house with windows of clear gold and diamonds. They shone and blazed so that it made the boy wink to look at them. But after a while the people in the house put up shutters, as it seemed, and then it looked like any common farmhouse. The boy supposed they did this because it was suppertime; and then he would go into the house and have his supper of bread and milk, and go to bed."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("One day the boy's father called him and said: “You have been a good boy, and have earned a holiday. Take this day for your own; and try to learn some good thing.”"); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("The boy thanked his father and kissed his mother. Then he put a piece of bread in his pocket, and started off to find the house with the golden windows."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("It was pleasant walking. His bare feet made marks in the white dust, and when he looked back, the footprints seemed to be following him, and making company for him. His shadow, too, kept beside him, and would dance or run with him as he pleased; so it was very cheerful."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("By and by he felt hungry, and he sat down by a brown brook that ran through the alder hedge by the roadside, and ate his bread, and drank the clear water. Then he scattered the crumbs for the birds, as his mother had taught him to do, and went on his way."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("After a long time he came to a high green hill; and when he had climbed the hill, there was the house on the top. But it seemed that the shutters were up, for he could not see the golden windows. He came up to the house, and then he could well have wept, for the windows were of clear glass, like any others, and there was no gold anywhere about them."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("A woman came to the door, and looked kindly at the boy, and asked him what he wanted."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("“I saw the golden windows from our hilltop,” he said, “and I came to see them, but now they are only glass.”"); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("The woman shook her head and laughed."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("“We are poor farming people,” she said, “and are not likely to have gold about our windows. But glass is better to see through.”"); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("She bade the boy sit down on the broad stone step at the door, and brought him a cup of milk and a cake, and bade him rest. Then she called her daughter, a child of his own age, and nodded kindly at the two, and went back to her work."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("The little girl was barefooted like himself, and wore a brown cotton gown, but her hair was golden like the windows he had seen, and her eyes were blue like the sky at noon. She led the boy about the farm, and showed him her black calf with the white star on its forehead, and he told her about his own at home, which was red like a chestnut, with four white feet. Then when they had eaten an apple together, and so had become friends, the boy asked her about the golden windows. The little girl nodded, and said she knew all about them, only he had mistaken the house."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("“You have come quite the wrong way!” she said. “Come with me, and I will show you the house with the golden windows, and then you will see for yourself.”"); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("They went to a knoll that rose behind the farmhouse, and as they went the little girl told him that the golden windows could only be seen at a certain hour, about sunset."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("“Yes, I know that!” said the boy."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("When they reached the top of the knoll, the girl turned and pointed; and there on a hill far away stood a house with windows of clear gold and diamonds, just as he had seen them. And when they looked again, the boy saw that it was his own home."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("Then he told the little girl that he must go. He gave her his best pebble, the white one with the red band, that he had carried for a year in his pocket; and she gave him three horse-chestnuts, one red like satin, one spotted, and one white like milk. He promised to come again, but he did not tell her what he had learned. He went back down the hill, and the little girl stood in the sunset light and watched him."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("The way home was long, and it was dark before the boy reached his house; but the lamplight and firelight shone through the windows, making them almost as bright as he had seen them from the hilltop. When he opened the door, his mother came to kiss him, and his little sister ran to throw her arms about his neck, and his father looked up and smiled from his seat by the fire."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("“Have you had a good day?” asked his mother."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("Yes, the boy had had a very good day."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("“And have you learned anything?” asked his father."); document.write(" |
| "); document.write("“Yes!” said the boy. “I have learned that our house has windows of gold and diamonds.”"); document.write(" |
 ");
document.write(" |
| "); document.write("Reprinted with the permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc., from The Moral Compass: Stories for a Life's Journey by William J. Bennett. Copyright © 1995 by William J. Bennett."); document.write(" |
 ");
document.write("");
document.write("By Penelope Dyer & Lawrence Lowery ");
document.write("");
document.write("Timmy lay on the porch swing. He rocked slowly back and forth. He liked to come to Grandma’s house during summer vacation. He liked her big front porch and the soft porch swing. Most of the time he liked to swing and think. Timmy thought about how nice it was to have a break.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("But today Timmy was bored. He had read all his library books. Grandma was busy in the garden. Karen and Kathy, the twins next door, both had the chicken pox. Grandma would not let him go over to play with the girls. He was bored all right!");
document.write(" ");
document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Timmy brushed away a fly. It had just landed on his nose. Flies are such pests, he thought. Flies and mosquitoes and ants. Why did there have to be insects, anyway?"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("He felt something on his hand. He looked down. There was a fly crawling up his arm right now! But wait! He looked again. It wasn’t a fly! It was a little, round, red bug. Its body was about the size of a pea. It had black spots all over it. It almost looked like it had chicken pox. Timmy giggled. Maybe it had gotten too close to Kathy and Karen!"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Timmy wanted to go ask Grandma what kind of bug it was. Very carefully, he got up from the swing. Very carefully, he walked down the porch steps and around back to the garden. The little bug was still on his arm when he found his grandmother."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“Grandma, do you know what this funny little bug is?” Timmy asked. He held out his arm so that she could see it."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“Why yes, Timmy, that is a ladybird,” answered Grandma. “Some people call it a ladybug or a lady beetle. It is a very helpful insect to have around.”"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“You mean it’s not a pest, like flies and mosquitoes and ants?” Timmy asked."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“No, it’s not a pest,” Grandma said. “The ladybird is a garden helper. It eats another insect called an aphid. Aphids hurt plants and trees. I like to see ladybirds in my garden!”"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“Well, then, that’s where it is going to go,” said Timmy."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("He walked into the garden. He carefully brushed the ladybird off his arm. It flew right over to a tomato plant and landed on one of its leaves."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“There, little ladybird,” Timmy said. “See if you can find an aphid or two for your supper.” Then he turned to Grandma and said, “I thought all insects were pests. But I guess I was wrong!”"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write(" | |
 ");
document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Dyer, Penelope A. and Lawrence F. Lowery. “Ladybird, Ladybird, Fly Away Home.” Thinking About Science. Cleveland: Modern Curriculum Press, 1988."); document.write(" | |
| A Gift of Trees "); document.write("By Elinor Tripato Massoglia"); document.write(" | |
 ");
document.write("");
document.write("We had just arrived at our new home in Japan when my five-year-old came running. “Mother!” he cried. “A popcorn tree is growing in our yard.”");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("The pink puffs on every tree branch did look like popcorn. But they were really cherry blossoms in full bloom.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("The tree was a flowering cherry tree. The Japanese call it sakura, which means “cherry,” but the tree does not bear large delicious cherries. Instead, it bears clouds of pink or white blossoms. In spring, the blossoms can appear all over the country. That’s why Japan is often called The Land of the Cherry Blossoms.");
document.write(" | |
 ");
document.write("");
document.write("Each year for nearly two weeks, the sakura tree brings fun and festival to Japan. All talk is about the beauty of the year’s cherry blossoms. Sometimes schoolteachers take their students to view the trees.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("The United States has cherry blossom festivals, too. The best known festival takes place in Washington, D.C. More than a million people visit that city each year to view the cherry blossoms. But how the trees got there is not well known.");
document.write(" ");
document.write(" | |
 ");
document.write("");
document.write("The idea started with an American named Eliza Scidmore. She was a friend of the twenty-seventh President of the United States, William Taft, and his wife, First Lady Helen Taft. Ms. Scidmore had visited Japan and had written books about it. She suggested to Mrs. Taft that a road lined with Japanese flowering cherry trees would look lovely in Washington, D.C.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("Mrs. Taft liked the idea. So in 1909, she had some cherry trees planted near the place where the Lincoln Memorial now stands. But most of the trees died.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("When a Japanese visitor heard this, he contacted Yukio Ozaki. Ozaki was the mayor of Tokyo, Japan’s capital. Ozaki was so pleased with Mrs. Taft’s interest in his country that he sent her a gift of two thousand cherry trees.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("The trees were lovely but full of insects. They all had to be destroyed.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("A man from the American Embassy in Japan hurried to Mayor Ozaki to apologize. The mayor grinned and said something like this: “Think nothing of it. I know all about destroying cherry trees and telling the truth about it. It is an old American custom started by George Washington, your first President.”");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("Then Mayor Ozaki sent a new shipment of three thousand healthy cherry trees. In March 1912, Mrs. Taft planted the first of Washington’s cherry trees. A Japanese visitor planted the second one. Gardeners later planted the rest.");
document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("This time, the trees lived, and they blossomed. People loved them! By 1927, the cherry trees were so popular that crowds of people gathered to see them. In 1934, the city held America’s first official Cherry Blossom Festival."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("In 1950, when he was ninety-two years old, Yukio Ozaki visited Washington, D.C. How pleased he was to see the trees he had sent thirty-eight years before! Thanks to his gift and Mrs. Taft’s interest in the trees, people in America and in Japan can enjoy the beauty of cherry blossoms."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“A Gift of Trees” by Elinor Tripato Massoglia. Copyright © 1996 by Highlights for Children, Inc., Columbus, Ohio. Reprinted by permission of the publisher. Photograph copyright © 1998 Ulrike Welsch."); document.write(" | |
| Swim, Baby, Swim! "); document.write(" By Mary Leister");
document.write(" | |
 ");
document.write("");
document.write("One summer morning, a young blackbird clung to a cattail stem near his nest. His mother had woven the nest from fresh grasses, but it was now brown and dry. It hung crookedly in a clump of cattails on the edge of a farm pond.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("The little brown bird held tightly to a stem and flapped his wings. On a nearby cattail, his father’s yellow head glowed in the sun. Both parents clucked nervously as they watched their last baby learn to fly.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("The little bird blinked his dark eyes and looked around. He saw a world of green plants and sparkling water. He fluffed up his feathers. Then he flapped his wings again and gave a little push with his feet against the cattail stem.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("All of a sudden, something really special happened—off he went flying through the air!");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("He wobbled as he flew across the edge of the farm pond and looked for a place to land. His toes grabbed a long thin willow branch that hung out over the water. But the branch sagged under his weight. He slipped off the end of it and plopped down into the pond!");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("Now the little bird’s parents hopped around the cattails and called to their baby. But there was nothing they could do to help him.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("Then something special happened again. The little bird began to swim! He dipped his wing tips low into the water. When he pushed back with all his might—just as though he were flying—he moved the tiniest bit toward shore.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("As the young bird splashed his wings in the water, bright sparkling droplets showered on his head. The drops spilled over his back and soaked his last dry feathers.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("The pond looked calm and quiet. But the baby blackbird wasn’t the only animal in the water. And some of the creatures—big fish, bullfrogs, and snapping turtles—would eat little birds whenever they had the chance.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("As the little bird struggled along toward shore, a female bass noticed the ripples he was making. Then the big fish saw tiny feet and wet, feathery wing tips coming toward her. She started to drift upward toward the struggling bird.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("Meanwhile, the bird’s frantic parents were watching from the willow tree. They shrieked and screamed and darted about in the branches while the young bird swam on.");
document.write(" ");
document.write(" | |
 ");
document.write("");
document.write("By now the little bird’s wet feathers felt very heavy, and he was getting tired. He swam slower and slower. All the while, the bass kept moving toward him. With one more powerful swish of her tail and a snap of her jaws, the wet blackbird would be hers—feet, feathers, and all!");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("But just as the bass was about to lunge for the bird, an otter came streaking through the water. The fish zipped away from the hungry otter and went to find cover in the weeds. Off went the otter to search for the bass. So the little bird was safe from the fish!");
document.write(" ");
document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("With a last push of his wing tips, the young blackbird reached the edge of the pond. He flapped out of the water and crawled up on shore. There he dropped onto the damp clay soil in a wet heap of feathers."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Now his parents circled wildly above him, squawking and shrieking. With luck, their noise would frighten away any enemies."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("As the young bird lay there, the rays of the summer sun warmed and dried him. He stood up and began to fluff out his feathers and straighten them with his beak."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Then he stretched his wings and gave a little push with his feet against the damp clay of the shore. Off he flew into a clump of cattails growing on the other side of the pond."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("For the rest of that day the little bird rested in the shelter of the cattails. Meanwhile his parents still clamored and fussed. But now they also brought him all the insects he could eat."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("The next morning, the young bird flew away from the pond and headed for a marsh. There were plenty of dangers in the marsh, as he would soon discover. But for this day, at least, he would stay away from the pond."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“Swim, Baby, Swim!” by Mary Leister. Reprinted from the May 1990 issue of Ranger Rick magazine, with the permission of the publisher, the National Wildlife Federation. Copyright 1990 by the National Wildlife Federation."); document.write(" | |
| ");
document.write(" ");
document.write("Slip, Slop, Slap");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("by Alice Nelson");
document.write(" ");
document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“Hurry up, Bobby!” Cindy shouted. “We’re going to miss the prime suntanning hours.” Seeing that her little brother was not coming down the stairs, Cindy went out to help her parents load the car."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("The trunk was packed with a cooler full of food and cold drinks, a blanket, beach ball, fold-up chairs, and plenty of suntan oil."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“Mom,” Cindy moaned, “Thanks to Bobby we’ll be lucky to find a good spot on the beach.”"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“OK, OK,” Mom said, “I’ll go see what’s taking so long.” As she turned around, Bobby walked out of the front door. He was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, long pants, sunglasses, and a wide-brimmed hat, and was carrying an umbrella under his arm. As he stumbled out the door, he dropped three tubes of sunblock."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“Whoa,” Cindy said. “Where do you think you’re going—Alaska?”"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“No,” replied Bobby. “I’m going to the beach with you.”"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“What’s with all the clothes and the silly umbrella?” Cindy asked. “It’s not going to rain. It’s going to be eighty-five degrees and sunny.”"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“That’s exactly why I’m dressed like this,” Bobby said. “My teacher said everyone should protect themselves from the sun and try not to get sunburned.”"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“But, Bobby,” Mom said, “The sun isn’t evil. Having a tan is healthy, and it is actually a source of vitamin D, which is something our bodies need anyway.”"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“But too much sun can cause skin cancer,” Bobby replied. “So I’m going to Slip, Slop, Slap.”"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“Like a pig?” Dad asked."); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“Not really,” answered Bobby. “I’m going to slip on a T-shirt, slop on the sunscreen, and slap on a hat. If I do, I will reduce my risk of getting skin cancer when I’m an adult.”"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“I think your brother has a good point,” Dad said. “Remember last year when you fell asleep on the beach. You got so red that your skin blistered and peeled.”"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“Thanks, Dad,” Cindy said. “I was trying to forget about that.”"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("Dad made room in the car for the umbrella and closed the trunk. “I think we are all ready to go,” he said. “Where’s Cindy?”"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“Here I am,” Cindy said as she ran out the front door. “I had to get some extra clothes.” Then she smiled and looked at Bobby. “Can I borrow some of your sunscreen?”"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“Sure,” Bobby said. “I brought enough for everybody. I even made up a new slogan. Because I love my sister, mom, and pap, I have taught them about Slip, Slop, Slap.”"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("“You really are pretty smart,” said Cindy. “For a little brother.”"); document.write(" | |
| "); document.write("—The “Slip, Slop, Slap” campaign was developed by the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria, Australia."); document.write(" | |
 | |
| "); document.write("“Slip, Slop, Slap,” by Alice Nelson. From Children’s Digest, copyright © 1996 by Children’s Better Health Institute, Benjamin Franklin Literary & Medical Society, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana. Used by permission."); document.write(" | |
");
document.write("
| ||
 ");
document.write(" | ||
| "); document.write("Snow again! Shawn sighed, and her breath covered the window with a gray fog. In December, snow glittered like a diamond bracelet. It was a magic frosting on a February day. But today was the first day of spring. Snow in March was cold and wet, trampled on and sooty [dirty]. It was not a welcome sight."); document.write(" | ||
| "); document.write("“How can there be snow?” Shawn asked her mother. “It’s spring!”"); document.write(" | ||
| "); document.write("Mother raised her shoulders. “Spring comes when it’s good and ready. The calendar can’t make spring be spring.”"); document.write(" | ||
| "); document.write("Shawn’s breath steamed up another spot on the window. She drew a little flower on it with her finger. “I wish I could make spring be spring,” she said. “I’m tired of boots and snow pants and sweaters.”"); document.write(" | ||
 ");
document.write("");
document.write("“We can’t change the weather,” Mother said, “but we can change your clothes. Let’s pull out your box of summer clothes and see what still fits.”");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("Shawn skipped down the hall to her room, following her mother. Putting on summer clothes was shivery at first, but fun. Shawn danced around the room, pausing only to try on the next shirt or pair of shorts.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("When the box was empty, Mother said, “Put your warm clothes back on now, Shawn.”");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("“But I like this one best,” Shawn said, patting the dolphin swimming across her shirt.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("“Won’t you be too cold?” Mother asked.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("Shawn shook her head and smiled. First she found a huge beach towel and wrapped it around herself like a cape. At the kitchen table she made a sandcastle out of clay. Using a toothpick, she carefully carved out windows and doors. Then she taped a bit of napkin to a straw for a flag.");
document.write(" ");
document.write(" | ||
 ");
document.write(" | ||
| "); document.write("“I think you’re trying to turn spring into summer,” her mother said with a laugh."); document.write(" | ||
| "); document.write("“I’m just pretending it’s a very warm spring day,” Shawn said. “Warm enough for a picnic, maybe,” she added hopefully."); document.write(" | ||
 ");
document.write("");
document.write("Shawn washed grapes while her mother made sandwiches. They spread the beach towel on the living-room floor and sat side by side eating lunch. Snow blew past the window.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("“It must be a sandstorm,” said Mother.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("“I thought it was sea gull feathers,” Shawn said, giggling. “You know what I wish? I wish this really were the beach so I really could go swimming.” She whispered in her mother’s ear, raised her eyebrows, and smiled her biggest smile.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("Mother tried to frown, but her eyes began to twinkle. A smile spread across her face. “Come on,” she said.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("Shawn shivered in her bathing suit as her mother filled the bathtub. Then she took two splashing steps into the water.");
document.write(" ");
document.write("");
document.write("“Have fun,” Mother said, “but when you come out, spring is done. It’s back to cold weather and warm clothes.”");
document.write(" ");
document.write(" | ||
| "); document.write("Shawn played for a long time. She sailed her boat past washcloth islands and made waterfalls flow down her legs. When her lake turned to winter, and her fingers wrinkled like raisins, she let the water swirl down the drain. She dried off with the beach towel and put on her itchy sweater."); document.write(" | ||
 ");
document.write(" | ||
| "); document.write("Snowflakes were still falling, but when Shawn breathed on the window, the little flower she had drawn reappeared. She smiled. Somehow, spring no longer seemed so far away."); document.write(" | ||
| "); document.write("Copyright © 1998 by Nancy L. Edwards. Reprinted with permission of the author. All rights reserved. Illustrations by Tony Ross."); document.write(" | ||