Braille Challenge
2015 Preliminary
Sophomore
Reading Comprehension – Passage 1
Pearl S. Buck
By Anastasia Knudsen
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It is a chilly Christmas morning when my grandma hands me a small,
rectangular package, her eyes sparkling with anticipation. "Open it."
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I've gone through this same episode every year, so by now it's pretty much
a ritual. My grandmother loves Pearl S. Buck and often gives me a gift that has
something to do with her. To be honest, I hardly know anything about her. I only
know she wrote books. However, everyone is always telling me to find out more
about her because she was an incredible person. One afternoon, I Google Pearl
S. Buck out of curiosity. Rather quickly I find out that for her, writing books just
wasn't enough. It wasn't just a hobby. It wasn't simply for her own pleasure. It
was a way to communicate her huge ideas to the world.
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She was born in 1892 in Hillsboro, West Virginia, to missionaries. When
she was three months old, her parents took her to China. This exposed her to a
different way of life. A vast majority of her books are about her experiences in
China. Other books are about her political views and her ideas. She addressed
some hard topics long before it was safe to do so.
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In 1949, she found out that adoption agencies considered Asian and
mixed-race children unadoptable. Infuriated, she opened Welcome House, Inc.,
the first international, interracial adoption agency. For almost 50 years Welcome
House has found homes for over 5,000 children.
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When I read about Welcome House, I have to smile. She was able to save
5,000 children from lives of rejection, poverty, and depression. That in itself is
unbelievable, but she had many other accomplishments. In 1932, she won the
Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Good Earth, which was a bestseller in the United
States. In 1938, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.
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I close down the Internet window and exhale, leaning back in my chair. I sit
there for a few moments, unsure of whether I'm dumbfounded or inspired.
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I can definitely say now I know why my grandmother loves Pearl S. Buck so
much. I've always wanted to become an author, and maybe someday I'll travel
around the world as well. For now, I can write my own novels, crossing out
passages and underlining sentences, and think of Pearl S. Buck. She makes me
ask myself, "How is my book going to make the world a better place?" Authors
have power tingling at their fingertips. They can use that power for construction
or destruction.
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Pearl S. Buck did everything she could to open our eyes to the world to see
how we can change it. I just know that she's going to play an influential role in my
life and in my writing.
Thirteen-year-old Anastasia Knudsen of Morgantown is home-schooled and
loves writing and music. She plays piano and guitar, takes voice lessons, and
writes her own songs. She also writes novels and is working on a four-book
series. She aspires to one day be a country singer or a music therapist, as well
as a novelist.
"Pearl S. Buck" by Anastasia Knudsen, first published in the November 2013
issue of Wonderful West Virginia Magazine. Used with permission.
Questions for “Pearl S. Buck”
1. Which fact about Pearl S. Buck is true?
a. She was born and raised in West Virginia.
b. She was born and raised in China.
c. She was born in China and moved to West Virginia when she was
young.
d. She was born in West Virginia and moved to China when she was
young.
2. Why did Pearl S. Buck establish Welcome House, Inc.?
a. She wanted to help Asian and mixed-race children learn English.
b. She wanted to start an orphanage for Asian and mixed-race children.
c. She wanted to find families who would adopt Asian and mixed-race
children.
d. She wanted to bring Asian and mixed-race children to the United States.
3. Read the following sentence from Paragraph 7:
"For now, I can write my own novels, crossing out passages and underlining
sentences, and think of Pearl S. Buck."
What does this sentence tell us about the author of this essay?
a. She thinks hard about how to communicate her ideas.
b. She enjoys the process of writing.
c. She wants to write about the same topics as Pearl S. Buck.
d. She wishes she had as much talent as Pearl S. Buck.
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4. Pearl S. Buck's parents went to China because they wanted to _____
a. take a vacation in a foreign country.
b. teach the Chinese people how to speak English.
c. convert the Chinese people to their religion.
d. have their baby daughter grow up there.
5. When the author of this essay learns about Pearl S. Buck's accomplishments,
she’s not sure whether she is "dumbfounded or inspired." Which word is a
synonym of dumbfounded?
a. stupid
b. astonished
c. encouraged
d. confused
6. In her essay, the author does NOT tell her readers _____
a. her hobbies and interests.
b. whether she has read Pearl S. Buck's novels.
c. when and where Pearl S. Buck was born.
d. the title of any of Pearl S. Buck's novels.
7. How did the author learn about the life of Pearl S. Buck?
a. She read a biography from the library.
b. She studied Pearl S. Buck in school.
c. She asked her grandmother.
d. She searched for information on the Internet.
8. From this essay, you can tell that mixed-raced children _____
a. usually have one Asian parent.
b. mostly live in China.
c. have been discriminated against.
d. are often orphans.
9. What is NOT true about this essay?
a. The author intermixes information about Pearl S. Buck with personal
connections.
b. The author presents the events in Pearl S. Buck's life in chronological
order.
c. The author concludes her essay by explaining how Pearl S. Buck has
inspired her.
d. The author does not mention Pearl S. Buck in her lead.
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10. According to this essay, Pearl S. Buck _____
a. established Welcome House before she received the Nobel Prize for
Literature.
b. wrote about her political views in some of her books.
c. adopted several children from Asia.
d. is still writing books about causes that are important to her.
11. Anastasia Knudsen does all of the following EXCEPT _____
a. take singing lessons.
b. compose songs.
c. write books.
d. go to public school.
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Braille Challenge
2015 Preliminary
Sophomore
Reading Comprehension – Passage 2
Neverland
by Nicole Guenther
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There might be no Neverland,
No heaven, no after.
Only cold Earth.
There might be nothing —
Yet isn’t that something?
So pretend today will last forever.
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And fly now, soar,
Gravity only exists
If you believe in it.
Fly with sunbeams
Tangled in your glowing hair
And fly with moonbeams
Softening your face
And fly on the back of Pegasus.
Fly close to the sun,
And don’t be burned,
Fly to the moon,
And leave your handprint
Denting it for who knows how long.
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Bring me with you
When you go,
Lifting gently from
This battered planet.
We will skim the galaxies
Like tadpoles in a puddle
Or young eagles
Weightless
For the first time.
We will fly past
Where all the maps and pictures show
To un-named universes
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Where we will orbit
Other suns
And we will
Never
Land.
Reprinted with permission of Stone Soup, September/October 2004
Questions for “Neverland”
1. How many people are flying in the third stanza of the poem?
a. one
b. two
c. three
d. too many to count
2. What happens over the course of the poem?
a. The travelers are burned by the sun.
b. The travelers soar with young eagles as they fly.
c. The travelers use maps to guide them in their journey.
d. The travelers fly farther and farther away from home.
3. What is the poet's message in the first stanza?
a. There is nothing to live for on this frigid planet.
b. Make the most of today because no one knows what the future holds.
c. Heaven does not exist, so live life to the fullest on Earth.
d. Pretend that your life is good, and your attitude will change.
4. In the third stanza, how does Earth appear to the travelers?
a. unspoiled
b. blurred
c. damaged
d. far away
5. What solution does the poem suggest for the world’s problems?
a. Join with others and solve them.
b. Pretend they don’t exist.
c. Escape them and find new worlds.
d. Write poetry about them.
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6. The travelers are like tadpoles and eagles because _____
a. they weigh almost nothing.
b. they can either swim or fly.
c. they move quickly and lightly.
d. they no longer live on Earth.
7. All of the following happen in the last two lines of the poem EXCEPT:
a. The poet splits a compound word.
b. The poet changes a noun into an adverb and a verb.
c. The poet emphasizes the theme of flight in a new way.
d. The poet brings the travelers' journey to an end.
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