Directions: Read the following passage and answer questions 1-10.
The Pioneers
from Chew on This
by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson
1
The story of fast food begins in October 1885, near the
small town of Seymour, Wisconsin. A friendly and outgoing
fifteen-year-old boy named Charlie Nagreen was driving his
family’s ox cart down a dirt road amid wide-open fields.
Charlie was going to Outagamie County’s first annual fair,
where he wanted to earn some extra money selling
meatballs. What happened next was the unlikely origin of a
delicious sandwich that would one day change the world.
2
As Charlie sold meatballs at the fair, he noticed that
customers had trouble eating them and strolling at the
same time. People were impatient. They wanted to visit Mr. John Bull’s popular beehives
(encased in glass), to see the fancy new harvesting machines, and to enjoy all the other thrilling
attractions at the fair. They didn’t want to waste time eating meatballs. Charlie suddenly had an
idea: if he squashed the meatballs and put them between two slices of bread, people could walk
and eat. And so Charlie invented the hamburger.
3
German immigrants lived in Charlie’s hometown of Hortonville, Wisconsin, and he later
claimed that the new sandwich was named after the German town of Hamburg, long famous for
its ground-beef steaks. Charlie continued selling burgers at the Outagamie County Fair until
1951. By then he was an old man who liked to sing this rhyme while flipping burgers on the
grill:
Hamburgers, hamburgers, hamburgers hot!
Onions in the middle, pickle on top.
Makes your lips go flippity flop.
Charlie had not only invented the hamburger but also composed one of the first advertising
jingles for it.
4
A number of other cities—including New Haven, Connecticut; Akron, Ohio; and Hamburg,
New York—now claim to be the true birthplace of America’s favorite sandwich. But the residents
of Seymour, Wisconsin, will have none of that. The signs that welcome people into Seymour let
everybody know they’re entering the home of the hamburger. And every August the town has a
big parade in honor of Hamburger Charlie.
Killer Burgers
5
Despite Charlie’s best efforts, burgers didn’t become America’s national dish overnight. For a
long time after that 1885 Outagamie County Fair, hamburger meat had a bad reputation. Many
people assumed that ground beef was dirty. According to one historian, during the early 1900s
the hamburger was considered “a food for the poor,” polluted and
unsafe to eat. Restaurants generally didn’t sell them. Burgers were
served at lunch carts parked near factories, at circuses, and at
carnivals. It was widely believed that ground beef was made from
rotten old meat full of chemical preservatives. “The hamburger habit
is just about as safe,” one food critic warned, “as getting meat out of
a garbage can.”
6
The hamburger’s reputation wasn’t helped when murderers
started using ground beef to kill people. In 1910, Alexander J. Moody,
a wealthy baker from Chicago, died after somebody put poison in his
burger. The police were never able to solve the case. One year later,
a Chicago pie maker was poisoned the same way. Similar murder
stories appeared in newspapers across the United States. Ground beef
seemed like the perfect food in which to hide a deadly poison.
7
The widespread fear of hamburgers caused a
great deal of frustration among butchers. They
liked to grind leftover pieces of beef into
hamburger meat. They liked selling every scrap of
meat in the store. They didn’t want to waste any
of it. But most customers preferred to buy solid
pieces of steak. That way you could see exactly
what you were buying—and feel confident there
was nothing poisonous in it.
8
In 1925, when New Yorkers were asked to
name their favorite meal, hamburger ranked
nineteenth. Of the 180,000 people who voted for
their favorites, just 2,912 voted for hamburger. It
beat out gefilte fish (1,361 votes). But the burger
lost big to corned beef and cabbage (23,061
votes) and roast loin of pork (5,411 votes). By a wide margin, most New Yorkers even preferred
eating cow tongue and spinach (8,400 votes).
9
Around this time Walt Anderson set out to defend the hamburger from its many critics. A
former janitor and short-order cook, Walt loved burgers and opened a small restaurant in
Wichita, Kansas, devoted to selling them. Walt grilled the burgers right in front of his customers,
so they could see for themselves that the meat and the equipment were clean. The place was
so successful that Walt found a business partner and started opening more hamburger
restaurants, built in the shape of small white medieval forts. Walt called them White Castles, a
name suggesting that the place was solid and the food was pure. White Castle restaurants
claimed that their ground beef was delivered twice a day, to insure freshness, and supported an
unusual experiment at the University of Minnesota. For thirteen weeks a medical student there
consumed nothing but White Castle burgers and water. When the student not only survived the
experiment but also seemed pretty healthy, people started to view hamburgers in a new light.
Now hamburgers seemed wholesome, not deadly.
“The Pioneers” by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson, from Chew on This: Everything You Don’t Want to Know About Fast Food.
Copyright © 2006 by Eric Schlosser.
1. What is the most likely reason the author begins the passage with a picture of Hamburger
Charlie?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Charlie is credited with inventing the hamburger.
The picture shows the uniform of fast-food workers.
Charlie started a major chain of fast-food restaurants.
The picture shows how long hamburgers have been around.
2. Read the sentence from paragraph 4.
The signs that welcome people into Seymour let everybody
know they’re entering THE HOME OF THE HAMBURGER.
What do the capital letters in the sign mainly emphasize?
A.
B.
C.
D.
the age of the sign
the size of the sign
Seymour residents’ pride in their history
Seymour residents’ dislike for other towns
3. Based on paragraph 9, what is the main way Walt Anderson changed people’s opinions about
hamburgers?
A.
B.
C.
D.
He
He
He
He
hired a business partner to help him.
found a new way to shape the hamburgers.
demonstrated how safe the hamburgers were.
concentrated his business in a new part of the country.
4. What is the main purpose of including the newspaper clipping with the passage?
A. to show where a majority of the crimes occurred
B. to show a common style of journalism at that time
C. to emphasize how serious the outbreak of poisoning was
D. to emphasize how upset doctors were about the poisonings
5. Read the sentence from paragraph 5.
Despite Charlie’s best efforts, burgers didn’t become America’s
national dish overnight.
Which of the following sentences uses the word dish in the same way as it is used in the box?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Elizabeth’s favorite dish is lobster salad.
The satellite dish is a familiar sight in rural areas.
Karen kept the antique dish in a locked cupboard.
Some people can dish out criticism but cannot take it.
6. What caused the frustration that butchers felt?
Cause

A.
B.
C.
D.
Effect
Many butchers felt
frustrated.
The cost of hamburger meat
Cutting the meat into tiny pieces
Selling every scrap of meat in the store
Widespread fear of hamburger meat
7. The suffix -ian in historian has the same meaning as the suffix in
A.
B.
C.
D.
artist
running
chronologically
sensation
8. Which two notes DO NOT belong?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Hamburg is famous for ground-beef steaks
Hamburgers are hot.
People did not think hamburger was safe.
People choke on hamburgers.
White castle sold the first healthy hamburgers
Directions: Read the statements from the passage carefully then answer questions 9 and
10. You may “drag and drop” the answer choice by selecting the answer THEN dragging
it to the correct section of the chart.
9. Which two statements from
the passage are facts?
10. Which two statements from
the passage are opinions?
Directions: You do not need to read a passage to answer the following questions. Read
and answer the questions.
11. Which two words are synonyms for heap?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
pile
row
corner
mound
pattern
12. Adding the prefix de- to the word frost forms a word that meansA.
B.
C.
D.
to play with frost
to remove frost
to look like frost
to enjoy frost
13. Which words would appear on the same dictionary page with these guide words?
Bridge ____________ Bull
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
broom
bustle
bunk
brisk
bubble
14. Read this sentence.
The job termination upset the man greatly.
Adding the suffix -tion to the word terminat(e) makes a word that meansA.
B.
C.
D.
The result of terminating
To terminate in the past tense
Terminating someone again
Someone who terminates
15. Read this sentence.
Amy decided that some dates in a biography were not
consistent with what she read in other resources.
Which word from this sentence has a prefix that means life?
A.
B.
C.
D.
decided
biography
consistent
resources
16. Which three words in the sentence have negative connotations?
Mary hesitated to participate in the fierce debate
because she feared being mocked by the arrogant
team on the opposing side.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
participate
fierce
mocked
arrogant
side
17. Which word from the selection contains a root that means “to throw”?
A.
B.
C.
D.
specialized
projection
impressive
efficient
18. Read this table of contents
Table of Contents
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
1
2
3
4
The Beginning of Drive-In Movie Theaters ….................. 6
What to See at Drive-In Movie Theaters ….................. 17
Famous Drive-In Movie Theaters …............................. 29
Drive-In Movie Theaters Today …................................ 41
Chapter 4 most likely has information aboutA.
B.
C.
D.
the first drive-in movie theater
who invented the drive-in theater
the largest drive-in movie theater
how drive-in movie theaters have changed
19. Which word from the glossary entry best describes Jefferson's plants in the these sentences?
Jefferson brought seeds and plants back from his
travels. He even tried to grow broccoli from Italy and
peppers from Mexico.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Domesticated: to be tamed
Imported: to be transported from one country into another
Organic: grown without the use of chemicals
Rotation: the act of going through a cycle of change
Tropical: Very hot and humid
20. Read this dictionary entry for the word pull.
Pull\’pul\ v
1. To attract
2. To exert force
3. To perform or carry out 4. To express sympathy for
What is the definition of pulls as it is used on the following sentence?
Free glowsticks at a dance is not the only thing that
pulls in students.
A.
B.
C.
D.
Definition
Definition
Definition
Definition
1
2
3
4