Braille Challenge
2015 Preliminary
Sophomore
Speed & Accuracy
Passage 1
NOTES: Blue numbers at left margin are line numbers
(sp) word was spelled out in narration
(2 words) score as separate words
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Robert Louis (sp) Stevenson (sp)
The author was born Robert
Louis Balfour (sp) Stevenson in
Edinburgh, (sp) Scotland, on
November 13, 1850 to Margaret
Isabella (sp) Balfour and Thomas
Stevenson, a leading lighthouse
engineer. Lighthouse design was the
family profession.
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Stevenson had many coughs and
fevers, which became worse when the
family moved to a damp, chilly
house in 1851. The family moved
again to the sunnier 17 Heriot (sp) Row
when Stevenson was six years old,
but the tendency to keep getting sick
in winter remained with him until he
was eleven. Illness was chronic
throughout his adult life and left him
very thin.
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Stevenson's parents were both
Presbyterians, (sp) but the household
was not strict about religion. His
nurse, Alison (sp) Cunningham (sp)
(known as Cummy), (sp) was much more
religious. Her Calvinism (sp) and
folk beliefs gave Stevenson
nightmares when he was a child, and he
showed an early concern for religion.
But his nurse also cared for him
tenderly in illness, reading to him from
Bunyan and the Bible as he lay
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sick in bed, and telling tales of the
Covenanters. (sp) Stevenson recalled
this time of sickness in "The Land of
Counterpane" in (dbl ital) A Child's Garden
of (sngl ital.) Verses (1885), dedicating the
book to his nurse.
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An only child, strange in look
and manner, Stevenson found it hard
to fit in when he was sent to a nearby
school at age six, a problem
repeated at age eleven when he
went on to the Edinburgh Academy.
But he mixed well in lively
games with his cousins in summer
holidays at Colinton. (sp) His
illnesses often kept him away from his
first school, so he was taught for long
stretches by private tutors. He
was a late reader, first learning at
age seven or eight, but even before this
he dictated stories to his mother and
nurse. He wrote stories throughout
his childhood. His father was proud of this
interest; he had also written
stories in his spare time until his
own father found them and told him to
"give up such nonsense and mind your
business." He paid for the printing of
Robert's first publication.
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(dbl ital) A Child's Garden of (sngl ital)Verses
is a collection of poetry for children.
It contains about 65 poems including
the cherished classics "Foreign
Children," "The Lamplighter," "The
Land of Counterpane," "Bed in
Summer," "My Shadow" and "The
Swing."
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Learn more about Robert Louis
71 Stevenson's life and work on the
72 Internet.
Total for Passage 1
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10
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1
Braille Challenge
2015 Preliminary
Sophomore
Speed & Accuracy
Passage 2
44
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To Alison Cunningham
(cell-5 heading)
From Her Boy
(cell-5 heading)
For the long nights you lay awake
And watched for my unworthy sake:
For your most comfortable hand
That led me through the uneven land:
For all the story-books you read: (2 words)
For all the pains you comforted:
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(blank line here)
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For all you pitied, all you bore,
In sad and happy days of yore:-- (dash)
My second Mother, my first Wife,
The angel of my infant life-- (dash)
From the sick child, now well and old,
Take, nurse, the little book you
hold!
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(blank line here)
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And grant it, Heaven, that all who
read
May find as dear a nurse at
need,
And every child who lists my rhyme,
In the bright, fireside, nursery
clime, (sp)
May hear it in as kind a voice
As made my childish days rejoice!
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(blank line for cell-5 heading)
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25
Escape at Bedtime (cell-5 heading)
26 The lights from the parlor and kitchen
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shone out
28 Through the blinds and the windows and bars;
29 And high overhead and all moving about,
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There were thousands of millions of
stars.
There ne'er (sp) were such thousands of leaves
on a tree,
Nor of people in church or the Park,
As the crowds of the stars that looked
down upon me,
And that glittered and winked in the dark
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(blank line here)
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The Dog, and the Plough, (sp) and the
Hunter, and all,
And the star of the sailor, and Mars,
These shown in the sky, and the pail by the
wall
Would be half full of water and
stars.
They saw me at last, and they chased
me with cries,
And they soon had me packed into bed;
But the glory kept shining and bright in
my eyes,
And the stars going round in my head.
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(blank line for cell-5 heading)
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The Lamplighter
(cell-5 heading)
My tea is nearly ready and the sun
has left the sky;
It's time to take the window to see
Leerie (sp) going by;
For every night at teatime and before you
take your seat,
With lantern and with ladder he comes
posting up the street.
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(blank line here)
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60 Now Tom would be a driver and
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Maria go to sea,
62 And my papa's a banker and as rich
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as he can be;
64 But I, when I am stronger and can
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choose what I'm to do,
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66 O Leerie, I'll go round at
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night and light the lamps with you!
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(O spelled out so they know it isn’t Oh; no letter sign.)
(blank line here)
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For we are very lucky, with a lamp before
the door,
And Leerie stops to light it as he
lights so many more;
And O, before you hurry by with ladder and with
light,
O Leerie, see a little child and nod
to him to-night!
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(to-night should be tn contraction)
414
Total for Passage 2
809
Total for Passages 1 and 2