JBall Have you ever been to a baseball game in another country or watched one on television? ' Alex and Emily Godfrey had been in Japan with their parents for nearly a week. They were there to visit their mother’s old college roommate, who had moved to Japan after college to teach English. She had planned to ‘come home after a few years, but she had fallen in love with the country and with the man who ‘would eventually be her husband, 2 “What's our plan for the afternoon?” asked ‘Alex after lunch one day. ) “Well,” said Mr. Ito, “we have tickets for a 4:00 baseball game, How does that sound?” * “Thad no idea baseball was popular in Japan,” replied Alex. + “Dad takes us to professional games a few times a year at home,” said Emily. “Alex and I keep a list of cities we've visited where we have had a chance to go to a game. I had no idea that Tokyo would ever be on our list!” © The Itos and the Godfreys prepared for the afternoon's events. Just a few hours later, they found themselves standing inside the stadium among a crowd of excited fans 7 “What are the names of the teams that are playing today?” asked Alex, looking around curiously. 8 “The home team is the Yakult Swallows. They will be playing the Hiroshima Toyo Carp,” said Mrs, It, “Baseball isn’t my cup of tea, but this promises to be a good game.” * The two families found their seats in the bleachers, Alex and Emily grinned as they listened to all the noisemakers around them. Some people were hitting together plastic bats, and others were yelling through megaphones that looked as though they had been hinged together. © “Are those cheerleaders?” asked Emily. She was referring to a group of men on the ball field who led the crowd in chants and cheers. 11 Mrs, Ito nodded, “I forget that Americans don’t have cheerleaders for baseball games. It also probably seems unusual that they're all ‘men. That's just one of the differences between American and Japanese baseball culture.” © Once the game began, Emily and Alex became quickly engrossed. The game itself didn't seem much different at all from the American baseball games they had attended, They were surprised, though, to see people waving American flags from time to time. © Mr Ito explained, “Japanese teams are each allowed to have three foreign players. When American players come up to bat, their fans show support by waving your country’s flag” In between innings, Mrs. Ito bought Alex and Emily a snack. Some vendors sold pretzels, popcorn, and hot dogs, but Alex and Emily decided to try one of the Japanese alternatives. With Mrs. Ito's help, they selected yakisoba, noodles flavored with ginger and soy sauce. 1s Atthe end of the game, the Godfreys and the Itos piled back into the car to head home. Alex and Emily were tired, but their minds were racing with all they had seen that day. 4 “Did you have a good day, kids?” asked Mrs, Godfrey, turning to Alex and Emily. 17 They nodded. “I wish we could go to JBall games at home, too,” said Emily. “After today, I have a feeling that American baseball may never be quite as interesting again.”NAME Vocabulary Skills Write the words from the story that have the meanings below. 1. happening after some time 2. cone-shaped devices used for projecting sounds Reading Skills 1. Why were the Godfreys in Japan? 2. What do you think Emily meant when she said, “American baseball may never be quite as interesting again”? 3. directing attention 4. completely absorbed or occupied 5. options; choices ————————— An idiom is a group of words that has a special ‘meaning. For example, the idiom hit the hay means 10 go to bed. Write the idiom from paragraph 8 on the line next to its meaning. 6. something of interest; something a person enjoys A prefix is a group of letters added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning. The prefix um- means nor. For example, uninterested ‘means not interested. Add um to each word below. Then, write the meaning of the new word, 1 aware fortunate a 10. even 3. What is one way American and Japanese bascball are similar? What is one way they are different? 4. Do you think that Alex and Emily will go to another JBall game if they have a chance? Why or why not? Circle the word that best completes each sentence. 5S. Alex and Emily decide to try food that they ‘would not be to find at an American game. allowed likely impressed 6. The Godfreys are to Jearn how American and Japanese baseball are different. curious refusing apprehensive 7. Noisemakers are a popular at Japanese baseball ‘games, explanation resource custom Spectrum Reading Grade 6 3A Schoolyard Garden What are your favorite fruits and vegetables? \ Have you ever eaten something that you grew in your own garden? Many people have not had the pleasure of this experience. Alice Waters, the owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant, set out to change all that for a special group of students at Martin Luther King Junior Middle School in Berkeley, California. 2 Waters worked with the school’s principal, Neil Smith, to create a cooking and gardening program at the school. Waters believes in the importance of people knowing where their food comes from. She also believes that there is a strong relationship between food, health, and the environment. Her goal at the middle school was to show children the pleasure in gardening and in preparing the foods that they cultivated. She ‘wanted to teach them that a healthy body and a healthy environment go hand in hand. ) The project that Waters began took a lot of time and patience. She relied on the help of teachers, students, and community volunteers to turn an asphalt parking lot into a garden. At the same time, renovation was begun to turn an old, unused cafeteria into a kitchen where students could prepare foods and share meals with their teachers. 4 In the 1995-1996 school year, the first usable crops were planted. They included greens such as arugula and mustard, as well as lettuce, kale, bok choy, carrots, turnips, beets, and potatoes. The following year brought the addition of plants such as citrus trees, apples, plums, black currants, hazelnuts, figs, raspberries, runner beans, and hibiscus. Every year since then, new crops are added and old crops are evaluated to make sure that they are best suited for the environment and the needs of | the school. 5 Students have found that they look forward to the time they spend in the garden each week. They have learned how to weed, prune, and harvest. They have learned about the life cycles of various plants. They also know how to enrich Spectrum Reading Grade 6 10 the soil through composting, a process in which leftover scraps of fruits and vegetables are used as fertilizer. Many have discovered that they like fruits and vegetables that they had never before been willing to try. ¢ Alice Waters dreams that one day there will be a garden in every school in the United States. ‘She hopes that school lunches can be prepared using the produce from the gardens and other locally-grown organic produce. If you are interested in learning more about Martin Luther King Junior Middle School's Edible Schoolyard, seeing pictures of the students and their garden, and finding out about how to start a garden at your school, visit www.edibleschoolyard.org.NAME Vocabulary Skills Write the words from the passage that have the meanings below. 1. the renewal and repair of a building 2, determined the worth or condition of Reading Skills 1. What is composting? 2. Name four fruits or vegetables that are ‘grown in the Edible Schoolyard, 3. viewed as appropriate for SS 4. to make richer or improve the quality of grown without the use of chemicals and pesticides —S Read each word below. Then, write the letter of its abbreviation in the space beside it, 6 California a Ir A United States. b. CA 8. ___ Junior ©. yt 9. ____ year 4. US. Write the idiom from paragraph 2 on the line next to its meaning. 10. goes together ‘A word that sounds the same as another word but has a different spelling and meaning is a homophone. Circle the homophone that correctly completes each sentence below. 11. Neil Smith is a middle school (principle, principal) 12. Ladded a cup of chopped to the vegetable soup. (beets, beats) 3. Do you think that other schools will create gardens based on Alice Waters's ideas? 4. Check the sentence that best states the main idea of the selection, or tells what the passage is mostly about. Alice Waters owns Chez Panisse Restaurant in California. Students look forward to the time they spend gardening each week. Alice Waters founded the Edible Schoolyard, a program in which students learn to grow and prepare their own foods. 5. Check the words that describe Alice Waters. generous unfriendly talented ambitious stingy Spectrum Reading Grade 6 WPassage 2 — Octavia 1 ‘The summer wore away, and autumn set in, with rain, damp and an unseasonal frost at night. ‘When | put gloves on the baby she chewed them and had to sit in her pram with cold, wet hands. | did not mind for myself, but | did not know how to keep her warm. She dribbled too and her chest was always damp. She resisted for some time but in the end she caught a cold. | did not know what to do with her, as | hated going to the doctor. | had thought | would be finished with doctors at her birth, though | subsequently discovered there was an unending succession of inspections and vaccinations yet to be endured. Now, hearing Octavia's heavy spluttering, | knew | would have to take her, much as | would hate it. fet | was bothering the busy doctor unnecessarily. But it was not a simple choice between comfort and duty, and ‘moreover it was not even my own health that was in question, but Octavia’s, and so | tried to dismiss the thought of sitting in a freezing cold waiting room with her. Had it been my own health, ! would never have gone. After | had made up my mind to see the doctor, | consulted my friend Lydia, who suggested that | should ring up the doctor and ask him to come and see me at home, instead of going to him; | immediately thought how nice it would be if only | dare. 'Of course you dare,’ said Lydia. "You can't take a sick baby out in weather like this’ Then, with sudden illumination, she said, ‘Anyway, look how flushed she is! Why don't you take her temperature?’ ‘Astounded, | stared at her, for truly the thought of doing such a thing had never crossed my mind. Looking back, after months with the thermometer as necessary as a spoon or a saucepan, | can hardly believe this to be possible, but so it was; my life had not yet changed for ever. | took Octavia’s temperature and it was high enough to justly ringing for the doctor. ‘To my surprise, the doctor's secretary did not sound at all annoyed when I asked if he could call: think | had half expected a lecture on my indolence. When the doctor arrived, he took Octavia's pulse and temperature, and told me it was nothing serious, in fact nothing at all. Then he said he ought to listen to her chest; | pulled up her vest land she smiled and wriggled with delight as he put the stethoscope on her fat ribs. He listened for a long time and I, who was beginning to think that perhaps | should not have bothered him after all, sat there absently aware of how innocent she was, how sweet she looked and that her vest could do with a wash. Had | known, | would have enjoyed that moment more, or perhaps | mean that | did enjoy that moment but have enjoyed none since. For he said, ‘Wel I don't think there's anything very much to worry about there.’ I could see that he had not finished, and did not mean what he said. ‘Just the same, he added, ‘perhaps | ought to book you an appointment to take her along to the hospital.’ | suppose most people would have asked him what was wrong, but | was too frightened. | think that the truth was the last thing | wanted to hear. When | heard his voice coming at me, ‘saying that the hospital appointment would probably be for the next Thursday, | was relieved a litle; he could not be expecting her to die before next Thursday. | even mustered the strength to ask what I should do about her cold, and he said, ‘Nothing, nothing at all’ ‘When he had gone, | went back and picked Octavia up and sat her on my knoe and gazed at ther, paralysed by fear, aware that my happy state had changed in ten minutes to undefined anguish. | wept, and Octavia put her fingers in my tears as they rolled down my cheek, as though they were raindrops on a window pane. It seemed that, in comparison with this, ‘moment, the whole of my former life had been a summer afternoon. 10 15 20 255 Section 2: Reading for Meaning Read Passage 2 in the insert and answer all the questions below in the order set From paragraph 1 5 (a) What one feature of the weather was unusual for the time of year? [1] (b) Apart from the bad weather, what were the two reasons why the baby caught a cold? @ qi [2] From paragraph 2 6 (a) The writer ‘hated going to the doctor’. Pick out and write down the other single word Used in the paragraph which reinforces this idea. ol {b) What two aspects of ‘going to the doctor’ did the writer expect to hate? @ iy (2) (c) What eventually made the writer decide to take the ‘spluttering’ baby to the doctor, despite her initial reluctance to do so? hh aFrom paragraph 3 7 For what two reasons did Lydia recommend that the doctor should be asked to come to the writer's house? 0 ~ Ww (2) From paragraph 4 8 (a) According to the writer, how had her life ‘changed for ever"? ol] (b)_ The doctor's secretary ‘did not sound at all annoyed’ when the writer asked the doctor to call. Explain in your own words what the writer expected to happen. (2) From paragraph 5 9 (a) What did the baby do which showed ‘how innocent she was"? (1) (b)_ Explain fully why the writer says that the doctor ‘did not mean what he said’ of)From paragraph 6 10 (a) The writer was ‘frightened’. Explain exactly what she was frightened of. 11] (b) The writer says that the doctor's voice was ‘coming at’ her. What effect is created by the expression ‘coming at’? From paragraph 7 11. (a) The writer says that her happy state ‘had changed in ten minutes’. Explain in your own words what this change was. [2] (b) The writer says that the whole of her former life ‘had been a summer afternoon’. Explain what she means by this. 11]