Reading skill Tuyệt kỹ làm bài đọc hiểu tiếng anh (P2)

Ready? Start Reading It’s time to get started. As you learn from this worktext, your teacher
will also give you reading assignments from your Anchor Book.
Your Anchor Book

before
while reading
reading your
your anchor
anchor book
book

1-4 Writing About Your Anchor Book
Keeping a Reader’s Journal

How to Set Up Your Reader’s Journal
Whether you write your responses on a computer or in a notebook, be
sure to set up your responses as demonstrated in the student model. If
you are keeping your Reader’s Journal in a notebook, write neatly in
legible print or cursive.
As you read your Anchor Book, monitor your understanding of the
book by writing down informal responses in your Reader’s Journal.
You can use these notes, questions, and ideas as the basis for
discussions of your Anchor Book.
Student Model
Julio Melino

February 12

The Devil’s Arithmeticc by Jane Yolen
Confused about: Why does Fayge let herself get shot? How would the
story be different if Rivka and Wolfe weren’t related to Hannah?

Seems important: The image of a door—Chaya/Hannah chooses to enter
the crematorium and that door brings her to her grandparents’ home. The
fact that the whole story happens on Passover

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Lesson 1-4


Tips for Writing Strong Responses
▶ Include specific details and quotations from your Anchor Book.
▶ Make connections among events, characters, and ideas in your
Anchor Book to your own experience; to other books you have
read; and to events, people, and ideas in the real world.
Julio Melino

February 15

Question: Why do authors of fi
fiction
ction sometimes use historical events as
part of their fictional plots?

while reading your anchor book

Answer: I think that authors of fiction use historical events to teach
people about history in a way that is different from your typical history
book. In The Devil’s Arithmetic, Hannah gets a history book’s version of
the events from her grandparents. When she is transported back in time
and taken to a concentration camp, the Holocaust becomes something

she experiences first-hand. This book is a different way of learning about
history because we learn it from a regular kid’s perspective.

Directions Score the response and explain your scores in the
“Comment” column.
RUBRIC FOR READER’S JOURNAL RESPONSES
1 (Can Do Much Better)
2 (Okay)
3 (Nice Work)
4 (Excellent Job)

Comments

shows proof of deep thinking
about what you are reading
shows evidence that you are
applying what you have learned
about analyzing literature
is long enough to explain
your ideas fully

Reader’s Journal

19


1-5

Analyzing an
Informational Text

Reading a Diagram

Examine how the diagram explains two versions of the greenhouse
effect. Then, answer the questions that follow.

while reading your anchor book

THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT:
Differences Between Natural and Amplified Warming
The Greenhouse Effect
The natural warming
process by which gases in
the Earth’s atmosphere
trap this energy is
called the “greenhouse
effect.” Sunlight enters
a greenhouse and is
absorbed. The interior of
the greenhouse radiates
back energy in the form
of infrared radiation, or
heat. Much of the heat is
trapped and held inside
the greenhouse, warming
it.

1

5

3

3
2
4

2
1

The Greenhouse Effect
1 Sunlight carries energy into the
Earth’s atmosphere.

Amplified Greenhouse Effect
1 Sunlight carries energy into the
Earth’s atmosphere.

2 The Earth’s warmed surface emits
infrared radiation.

2 The Earth’s warmed surface emits
infrared radiation.

3 This energy warms the lower
atmosphere and is absorbed by
greenhouse gases.

3 This energy warms the lower
atmosphere and is absorbed by

greenhouse gases. Greater amounts
of greenhouse gases mean that more
heat is trapped in the atmosphere
and radiated
surface.

4 Some energy is released back
toward the Earth’s surface.
5 Some energy is released back
into space.

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Amplified Greenhouse
Effect
Many scientists
hypothesize that human
activities that add
greenhouse gases to
the atmosphere may
increase the greenhouse
effect and result in
global warming, a
gradual increase in the
temperature of the
Earth’s atmosphere.

Lesson 1-5

Examine Analyzing a diagram involves reading in a different
way. Instead of reading left to right, you read according to the
path that the writer created. Do you have to start at one point
for this diagram to make sense or can you start in different
places? Explain.

2

Identify According to data included in the diagram, what
happens when sunlight hits the Earth’s surface and how does
this affect the atmosphere?

3

Compare How does the author use the diagram to show the
difference between natural and amplified warming?

4

Infer Think about what it means when a scientist
hypothesizes. Why is the amplified greenhouse effect a
hypothesis to explain global warming?

5

Predictt Based on the information you learned in the diagram,
what would cause a decrease in amplified warming?

6

Evaluate How does this diagram help you understand the
greenhouse effect better than a text without a graphic would?

7

Create Complete the following task on a separate sheet of
paper. Using a combination of words and pictures, create a
diagram to explain the process of making a peanut butter and
jelly sandwich.

while reading your anchor book

1

Reading a Diagram

21


1-6 Literary Analysis
Narrative Texts

while reading your anchor book

or obstacle. Use that event to fill in the graphic organizer of narrative
elements below.

Question

Character(s)

Who was involved?

Conflict

What was the problem,
challenge, or obstacle?

Plot

What happened?

Setting

Where and when did the
event happen?

You have just demonstrated how important details from your life can
be given a narrative structure.
You have learned how to mark the text in order to make predictions. Now
let’s practice general guidelines for marking a text when you read.

Marking the Text
As you read, your eyes can quickly pass over a page without thinking
too much about what you have just read. Marking the text helps slow
you down so that you can identify the information you need and think
more deeply about what it means. When you mark the text, you read
first and then “talk back” to the text by deciding after each paragraph
or section what is important enough to mark.
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Lesson 1-6

Details of the Story


Guidelines for Marking the Text
In this book, you are going to read a variety of texts and learn how to
mark the text for different purposes. You can mark any kind of text
according to the following guidelines.

▶ Use the margin to record your thoughts.
• If a detail you read seems important, jot down notes to explain
why you think it is important.
• Write down connections between what you are reading and
what you have discussed in class, read about in other books,
your own experience, or heard about happening in the world.

▶ Draw a box around unfamiliar words. See if you can get the
meaning from context clues. If not, use a dictionary to find the
meaning. Write the meaning in the margin.
▶ Develop your own “code.” There is no need to write full
sentences. Here are some symbol codes you can use.
I knew that.
What does this mean? I am confused.
This seems important.
I disagree.
Directions Read the passage and student model of marking the text. Then, answer the question that
follows.

while reading your anchor book

▶ Ask yourself questions as you read. To help train yourself to
do this, try writing questions in the margin or in your Reader’s
Journal. These questions can serve as reminders of areas of
confusion or disagreement with the author, as well as topics for
discussion.

Student Model: Marking the Text
The Pledge of Allegiance
I pledge allegiance to the Flag

Flag = nation

of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one Nation, under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.

indivisible = cannot be
broken

How does the student’s marking of the text help you think about the
text more deeply?

Narrative Texts

23

Directions Now read the following memoir, or nonfiction narrative.
As you read, mark the text according to the guidelines.

from “Water

Man Comics” by Dav Pilkey

I first started drawing the Water Man Comics in 1977, when I was eleven
years old. My parents actually encouraged me to make these comics. They
weren’t too fond of my Captain Underpants and Diaper Man comics, and were
trying to persuade me to make comics that were a little less “potty oriented.”
So I began in November of 1977, and over the next few months compiled
twenty issues of my Water Man Epic Saga. These comics featured not only
Water Man and his crime-fighting pals Molecule Man and Mr. Shape-O, but also
a cast of famous bad guys, including King Kong, the Invisible Man, and Jaws 2.
I started each comic by grabbing a big stack of paper. My dad always brought

while reading your anchor book

home paper from work for me to draw on (you might see the Republic Steel logo
bleeding through some of the pages). I went through the paper as fast as my
dad could bring it home.
I made my comics up as I went along. I started with the title, then made up
the stories as I drew the pictures (much the same way I do today). Sometimes
it worked out great … other times it didn’t. For example, in the comic “We
Must Destroy Water Man,” there’s only one bad guy. Who’s the we? I didn’t know
then, and I don’t know now. Often these comics contain misspelled words, and
sometimes you can tell where my pen started running out of ink as the pages
piled up. But that didn’t stop me. I was on a roll.
While none of these comics are masterpieces, they always remind me of

the homemade comics that children now send me every day. They have the
same spirit. There’s something about the work of a kid who is being creative
on his or her own time. Nobody forces a kid to make a comic book. Kids just
do it sometimes. And there is always something wonderful about that kind of
spontaneous creativity. It’s magic!
I’m really grateful that my parents encouraged me to make these comics, and
even more grateful that they refused to let me bring them to school. I begged
and pleaded, but they always said no. All of my other comics (including the
ones I made in junior and high school) have disappeared. Some were torn up
by angry teachers, others were borrowed by friends who never returned them,
and some just got lost. But because my parents had forbidden me to take
these comics to school, I still have every single one of them. They’re the only
childhood comics I have left. Don’t you hate it when your parents are right?

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Lesson 1-6

About the Author
Visit: PHSchool.com
Web Code: exe-8102


while reading your anchor book

A Water Man comic by Dav Pilkey, age eleven

1

Identify What elements of narrative are in this memoir?

2

Explain Describe the plot. How do the characters and conflict
influence the plot?

3

Respond Pilkey is grateful to his parents for influencing his
comics. How would you feel toward your parents if you were
in a similar situation? Would you consider them meddlesome,
intrusive, or concerned?

Narrative Texts

25


People frequently write narratives about their
lives so that others may learn from their experience.
Guiding Question: What truth do you think Angelou
wants us to learn from this nonfiction narrative?

while reading your anchor book

Occupation: Conductorette
from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Background The young Maya Angelou has just returned to
San Francisco after an adventure-filled trip. Things are changing

at home, she discovers, and her brother moves out soon after her
return. Restless and discontented, Angelou ponders her next step.

Vocabulary Builder
Before you read, you will discuss the following words. In
the Vocabulary Builder box in the margin, use a vocabulary
building strategy to make the words your own.
self-sufficiency

dingy

supercilious

As you read, draw a box around unfamiliar words you could
add to your vocabulary. Use context clues to unlock their
meaning.

I had it. The answer came to me with the suddenness of a
collision. I would go to work. Mother wouldn’t be difficult to
convince; after all, in school I was a year ahead of my grade and
Mother was a firm believer in self-sufficiency. In fact, she’d be
pleased to think that I had that much gumption, that much of her
in my character. (She liked to speak of herself as the original “doit-yourself girl.”)

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Lesson 1-6

Marking
n the

t Te
T xt
Narrative Texts
As you read, analyze the
text for elements of narrative
nonfiction. Underline words
and phrases that help you
understand a nonfiction
narrative. Write any
questions you have in
the margins.

Vocabulary Builder
self-sufficiency
(self s fish‘ n se¯) n.
Meaning


1

Marking
n the
t Te
T xt

Guam (gwäm) and Germany
y were places where World War II (1939–1945) was
fought. Guam is an island in the Pacific Ocean.

Good to Know!

During World War II, women
often worked in factories
making equipment for the war.
As a result of this social change,
many women became more
assertive in the workplace.

Narrative Texts

while reading your anchor book

decide which kind of job I was most fitted for. My intellectual
pride had kept me from selecting typing, shorthand or filing as
subjects in school, so office work was ruled out. War plants and
shipyards demanded birth certificates, and mine would reveal me
to be fifteen, and ineligible for work. So the well-paying defense
jobs were also out. Women had replaced men on the streetcars
as conductors and motormen, and the thought of sailing up and
down the hills of San Francisco in a dark-blue uniform, with a
money changer at my belt, caught my fancy.
Mother was as easy as I had anticipated. The world was moving
so fast, so much money was being made, so many people were
dying in Guam, and Germany,1 that hordes of strangers became
good friends overnight. Life was cheap and death entirely free.
How could she have the time to think about my academic career?
To her question of what I planned to do, I replied that I would
get a job on the streetcars. She rejected the proposal with: “They
don’t accept colored people on the streetcars.”
I would like to claim an immediate fury which was followed
by the noble determination to break the restricting tradition.

But the truth is, my first reaction was one of disappointment.
I’d pictured myself, dressed in a neat blue serge suit, my money
changer swinging jauntily at my waist, and a cheery smile for the
passengers which would make their own work day brighter.
From disappointment, I gradually ascended the emotional
ladder to haughty indignation, and finally to that sad state

27


while reading your anchor book
28

of stubbornness where the mind is locked like the jaws of an
enraged bulldog.
I would go to work on the streetcars and wear a blue serge suit.
Mother gave me her support with one of her usual terse asides,
“That’s what you want to do? Then nothing beats a trial but a
failure. Give it everything you’ve got. I’ve told you many times,
‘Can’t Do is like Don’t Care.’ Neither of them have a home.”
Translated, that meant there was nothing a person can’t do, and
there should be nothing a human being didn’t care about. It was
the most positive encouragement I could have hoped for.
In the offices of the Market Street Railway Company, the
receptionist seemed as surprised to see me there as I was
surprised to find the interior dingy
y and the décor drab. Somehow
I had expected waxed surfaces and carpeted floors. If I had met
no resistance, I might have decided against working for such a
poor-mouth-looking concern. As it was, I explained that I had

come to see about a job. She asked, was I sent by an agency,
and when I replied that I was not, she told me they were only
accepting applicants from agencies.
The classified pages of the morning papers had listed
advertisements for motorettes and conductorettes and I reminded
her of that. She gave me a face full of astonishment that my
suspicious nature would not accept.
“I am applying for the job listed in this morning’s Chronicle
and I’d like to be presented to your personnel manager.” While I
spoke in supercilious accents, and looked at the room as if I had
an oil well in my own backyard, my armpits were being pricked
by millions of hot pointed needles. She saw her escape and dived
into it.
“He’s out. He’s out for the day. You might call tomorrow and
if he’s in, I’m sure you can see him.” Then she swiveled her chair
around on its rusty screws and with that I was supposed to be
dismissed.
“May I ask his name?”
She half turned, acting surprised to find me still there.
“His name? Whose name?”
“Your personnel manager.”
We were firmly joined in the hypocrisy to play out the scene.
“The personnel manager? Oh, he’s Mr. Cooper, but I’m not sure
you’ll find him here tomorrow. He’s …Oh, but you can try.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
And I was out of the musty room and into the even mustier
lobby. In the street I saw the receptionist and myself going
faithfully through paces that were stale with familiarity, although
I had never encountered that kind of situation before and,

probably, neither had she. We were like actors who, knowing the
Lesson 1-6

Marking
n the
t Te
T xt

Vocabulary Builder
dingy
(din‘ je¯) adj.
Meaning

supercilious
(soo‘ p r sil‘e¯ s) adj.
Meaning


Marking
n the
t Te
T xt

ng
h shows
e 1940s,
egation was
ny. Do you
ght have
Angelou?

?

Narrative Texts

while reading your anchor book

play by heart, were still able to cry afresh over the old tragedies
and laugh spontaneously at the comic situations.
The miserable little encounter had nothing to do with me, the
me of me, any more than it had to do with that silly clerk. The
incident was a recurring dream concocted years before by stupid
whites and it eternally came back to haunt us all. The secretary
and I were like Hamlet and Laertes2 in the final scene, where,
because of harm done by one ancestor to another, we were bound
to duel to the death. Also, because the play must end somewhere.
I went further than forgiving the clerk, I accepted her as a
fellow victim of the same puppeteer.
On the streetcar, I put my fare into the box and the
conductorette looked at me with the usual hard eyes of white
contempt. “Move into the car, please move on in the car.” She
patted her money changer.
Her Southern nasal accent sliced my meditation and I
looked deep into my thoughts. All lies, all comfortable lies. The
receptionist was not innocent and neither was I. The whole
charade we had played out in that crummy waiting room had
directly to do with me, Black, and her, White.
I wouldn’t move into the streetcar but stood on the ledge over
the conductor, glaring. My mind shouted so energetically that the
announcement made my veins stand out, and my mouth tighten
into a prune.

I WOULD HAVE THE JOB. I WOULD BE A
CONDUCTORETTE AND SLING A FULL MONEY CHANGER
FROM MY BELT. I WOULD.

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dies

Literature in Context
San Francisco and the Gold Rushes

while reading your anchor book

When she looks at the buildings of San Francisco, Angelou thinks of names associated with
the gold rushes of the 1800s:
• Forty-Niners the prospectors who poured
into the San Francisco area in the California
Gold Rush of 1849. They transformed San
Francisco from a small town of 800 to a
rough-and-tumble city of 25,000.

30

L

• Robert Service poet who iportrayed the
miners of the Yukon gold rush of the 1890s
• John Augustus Sutter owner of the
sawmill where gold was first discovered in

California
• Jack London writer who recreated his
experiences in the Yukon Gold rush in
stories and the novel Call of the Wild (1903)

The next three weeks were a honeycomb3 of determination with
apertures for the days to go in and out. The Negro organizations
to whom I appealed for support bounced me back and forth like
a shuttlecock on a badminton court. Why did I insist on that
particular job? Openings were going begging that paid nearly
twice the money. The minor officials with whom I was able to win
an audience thought me mad. Possibly I was.
Downtown San Francisco became alien and cold, and the
streets I had loved in a personal familiarity were unknown
lanes that twisted with malicious intent. Old buildings, whose
gray rococo façades4 housed my memories of Forty-Niners, and
Diamond Lil, Robert Service, Sutter and Jack London, were then
imposing structures viciously joined to keep me out. My trips to
the streetcar office were of the frequency of a person on salary.
The struggle expanded. I was no longer in conflict only with the
Market Street Railway but with the marble lobby of the building,
which housed its offices, and elevators and their operators.
During this period of strain Mother and I began our first steps on
the long path toward mutual adult admiration. She never asked for
reports and I didn’t offer any details. But every morning she made
breakfast, gave me carfare and lunch money, as if I were going to
work. She comprehended the perversity of life, that in the struggle
lies the joy. That I was no glory seeker was obvious to her, and that
I had to exhaust every possibility before giving in was also clear.
On my way out of the house one morning she said, “Life

is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole
heart in everything you do and pray, then you can wait.”
3

honeycomb (hun‘ e¯ ko¯m) wax structure, filled with holes, that bees build to store
honey.

4

rococo façades (r ko¯‘ ko¯ f säds‘) elaborately designed front sides of buildings.

Lesson 1-6

Lin
Socia k t o
l Stud
ies

Marking the Text

Good to Know!
Footnotes are a common
text feature. They provide
information that helps your
understanding of the text
without distracting you from
the body of the text.


Marking

n the
t Te
T xt

while reading your anchor book

Another time she reminded me that “God helps those who help
themselves.” She had a store of aphorisms which she dished
out as the occasion demanded. Strangely, as bored as I was
with clichés, her inflection gave them something new, and set
me thinking for a little while at least. Later, when asked how
I got my job, I was never able to say exactly. I only knew that
one day, which was tiresomely like all the others before it, I
sat in the Railway office, ostensibly waiting to be interviewed.
The receptionist called me to her desk and shuffled a bundle of
papers to me. They were job application forms. She said they
had to be filled in triplicate. I had little time to wonder if I had
won or not, for the standard questions reminded me of the
necessity for dexterous lying. How old was I? List my previous
jobs, starting from the last held and go backward to the first.
How much money did I earn, and why did I leave the position?
Give two references (not relatives).
Sitting at a side table my mind and I wove a cat’s ladder of near
truths and total lies. I kept my face blank (an old art) and wrote
quickly the fable of Marguerite Johnson, aged nineteen, former
companion and driver for Mrs. Annie Henderson (a White lady)
in Stamps, Arkansas.
I was given blood tests, aptitude tests, physical coordination
tests, and Rorschachs,5 then on a blissful day I was hired as the
first Negro on the San Francisco streetcars.

Mother gave me the money to have my blue serge suit tailored,
and I learned to fill out work cards, operate the money changer and
punch transfers. The time crowded together and at an End of Days

Narrative Texts

31


while reading your anchor book

I was swinging on the back of the rackety trolley, smiling sweetly
and persuading my charges to “step forward in the car, please.”
For one whole semester the streetcars and I shimmied up and
scooted down the sheer hills of San Francisco. I lost some of my
need for the Black ghetto’s shielding-sponge quality, as I clanged
and cleared my way down Market Street, with its honky-tonk
homes for homeless sailors, at the quiet retreat of Golden Gate
Park and along closed undwelled-in-looking dwellings of the
Sunset District.
My work shifts were split so haphazardly that it was easy to
believe that my superiors had chosen them maliciously. Upon
mentioning my suspicions to Mother, she said, “Don’t worry
about it. You ask for what you want, and you pay for what you
get. And I’m going to show you that it ain’t no trouble when you
pack double.”
She stayed awake to drive me out to the car barn at four thirty
in the mornings, or to pick me up when I was relieved just before
dawn. Her awareness of life’s perils convinced her that while I
would be safe on the public conveyances, she “wasn’t about to

trust a taxi driver with her baby.”
When the spring classes began, I resumed my commitment for
formal education. I was so much wiser and older, so much more
independent, with a bank account and clothes that I had bought
for myself, that I was sure that I had learned and earned the
magic formula which would make me a part of the gay life my
contemporaries led.

Vocabulary Builder
After you read, review the words you decided to add to your
vocabulary. Write the meaning of words you have learned in
context. Look up the other words in a dictionary, glossary,
thesaurus, or electronic resource.

Maya Angelou

(b. 1928)

Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri. She is best
known as the author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
Angelou has had many accomplishments in her work as
a writer, dancer, teacher, and actress. She was nominated
for an Emmy for her role in the television miniseries
Roots. She was nominated for a National Book Award
and a Pulitzer Prize, and won Grammy Awards for spoken
word poetry. She is an inspiration and a symbol of pride for
women, especially African American women.
32

Lesson 1-6

Marking
n the
t Te
T xt


Thinking About the Selection
Occupation: Conductorette
Recall What is the conflict in this story? Describe it.

2

Analyze How does the historical setting affect Maya
Angelou’s experience in getting a job? Explain.

3

Analyze How did this life experience affect Maya Angelou’s
life and shape her perspective of the world around her? Use
evidence from the story to prove your point.

4

Speculate What was the author’s purpose for writing this
story? Why did she choose to write it in the form of a nonfiction
narrative?

while reading your anchor book

1

About the Author
Visit: PHSchool.com
Web Code: exe-8103

Write Answer the following questions in your Reader’s Journal.

5

6

What truth do you think Angelou wants us to
learn from this nonfiction narrative? If Angelou had used
a different literary genre—such as fiction—to express the
theme of this text, would the text have been as powerful?
Explain why or why not.
Analyze Describe one of the narrative elements in your
Anchor Book. Explain the importance of that element to
the book.
Narrative Texts

33


1-7 Literary
Conflict

Analysis

Literary Terms
▶ Conflictt is a struggle between opposing forces.

while reading your anchor book

▶ An external conflict occurs when a character struggles against some
outside force, such as another character, nature, or society.
▶ An internal conflict occurs within the mind of a character who
struggles with opposing feelings, beliefs, needs, or choices.
Directions Read the following examples of external and internal conflicts.
Then, write an example of each type of conflict.
EXTERNAL CONFLICT Character Versus Character
In this type of conflict, the main character struggles against another character.
Example Maria wants her mother to give her more independence.

1

Give an example of a conflict a character might have with another character.

EXTERNAL CONFLICT Character Versus the World
In this type of conflict, a character struggles against some aspect of nature or society.
Example Susan B. Anthony fought the U.S. government for women’s rights.

2

Give an example of a conflict a character might have with society.

INTERNAL CONFLICT Character Versus Self
In this type of conflict, a character struggles to make a decision, or overcome a feeling.
Example Ethan wants to be in the school play, but he is too shy.

3

34

Give an example of a conflict a character might experience
within his or her own mind.

Lesson 1-7


Directions Read the following passage. Underline details that reveal
the conflict, and then answer the questions that follow.

from “Tears

of Autumn” by Yoshiko Uchida

Hana Omiya stood at the railing of the small ship that shuddered

About the Author
Visit: PHSchool.com
Web Code: exe-8104

toward America in a turbulent November sea. She shivered as she pulled
the folds of her silk kimono close to her chest and tightened the wool
shawl about her shoulders.
She was thin and small, her dark eyes shadowed in her pale face, her
black hair piled high in a pompadour that seemed too heavy for so slight
a woman. She clung to the moist rail and breathed the damp salt air deep

into her lungs. Her body seemed laden and lifeless, as though it were
simply the vehicle transporting her soul to a strange new life, and she
longed with childlike intensity to be home again in Oka Village.

while reading your anchor book

She longed to see the bright persimmon dotting the barren trees beside
the thatched roofs, to see the fields of golden rice stretching to the
mountains where only last fall she had gathered plump white mushrooms,
and to see once more the maple trees lacing their flaming colors through
the green pine. If only she could see a familiar face, eat a meal without
retching, walk on solid ground, and stretch out at night on a tatami mat
instead of in a hard narrow bunk. She thought now of seeking the warm
shelter of her bunk but could not bear to face the relentless smell of fish
that penetrated the lower decks.
Why did I ever leave Japan? she wondered bitterly. Why did I ever
listen to my uncle? And yet she knew it was she herself who had begun
the chain of events that placed her on this heaving ship. It was she who
had first planted in her uncle’s mind the thought that she would make a
good wife for Taro Takeda, the lonely man who had gone to America to
make his fortune in Oakland, California.

4

Analyze What is the conflict? How does Hana Omiya’s
situation create this conflict? Explain.

Conflict

35

Understanding Plot

Literary Terms
Plott describes both events in the story and phases of the story
(beginning, middle, and end). The plot in most stories follows a
pattern that has five parts.

while reading your anchor book

▶ The exposition is the beginning of the story. It introduces the
characters, the setting, and the basic situation.
▶ The rising action introduces the central conflict. During the
rising action, the conflict builds in intensity.
▶ The climax
x is the point in the plot when the conflict reaches its
greatest intensity. This is also called a turning point.
▶ The falling action consists of everything that happens after the
climax, as the conflict starts to wind down and move toward a
resolution.
▶ The resolution resolves the conflict and ties up all the plot’s
loose ends.
Because most of you are familiar with the fairy tale “Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs,” it is a good story to analyze in a plot diagram.
Climax
Prince finds Snow White and
kisses her.

Queen poisons Snow White.

on
Ac
ti
ing
Ris

Evil Queen wants Snow White
dead because of Snow White’s
beauty.

The Prince marries Snow White.
Queen dies.

on

Lesson 1-7

Conflict

ti
Ac

36

Exposition
(Beginning)

Events

ing

•

Events

ll
Fa

Queen believes she is the most
beautiful woman in the world. Her
magic mirror tells her that Snow
White is the most beautiful.

Snow White awakens.

Resolution
(Ending)


Marking the Text for Plot
Now see if you can identify the elements of plot in this selection.

▶ As you read, underline the most important events.
▶ After you read, identify each element of plot in the margin.
Note that neither rising action nor falling action is one specific event.
They describe how the plot moves toward the climax (rising action)
and toward the resolution (falling action).

The Attic by Alvin Schwartz

About the Author
Visit: PHSchool.com
Web Code: exe-8105

A man named Rupert lived with his dog in a house deep in the woods. Rupert was
a hunter and a trapper. The dog was a big German shepherd named Sam. Rupert had
raised Sam from a pup.
Almost every morning Rupert went hunting, and Sam stayed behind and guarded

while reading your anchor book

the house. One morning, as Rupert was checking his traps, he got the feeling that
something was wrong at home.
He hurried back as fast as he could, but when he got there he found that Sam was
missing. He searched the house and the woods nearby, but Sam was nowhere to be
seen. He called and he called, but the dog did not answer. For days Rupert looked for
Sam, but he could find no trace of him.
Finally he gave up and went back to his work. But one morning he heard something
moving in the attic. He picked up a baseball bat. Then he thought, “I’d better be
quiet about this.”
So he took off his boots. And in his bare feet he began to climb the attic stairs. He
slowly took one step—then another—then another, until at last he reached the attic
door.
He stood outside listening, but he didn’t hear a thing. Then he opened the door,
and—
“AAAAAAAAAAAH!”
(At this point, the storyteller stops, as if he has finished. Then usually somebody
will ask,
“Why did Rupert scream?”

The storyteller replies, “You’d scream too if you stepped on a nail in your bare
feet.”)

Analyze What is the conflict in this passage? How do you know?

Understanding Plot

37


Now, read the following short story and focus on plot.
Guiding Question: Does the resolution seem true to life?
Why or why not?

Amigo
Brothers
while reading your anchor book

by Piri Thomas

Background The annual Golden Gloves tournament is probably
the most famous amateur boxing event in the United States.
Local and regional elimination bouts lead to final championship
matches. Notice that the title of the story is a mixture of Spanish and
English: amigo is Spanish for “friend.” (For English translations of
other Spanish words in the story, see “Literature in Context.”)

Marking
n the
t Te

T xt

Vocabulary Builder
Before you read, you will discuss the following words. In
the Vocabulary Builder box in the margin, use a vocabulary
building strategy to make the words your own.
pensively

dispelled

feinted

savagery

As you read, draw a box around unfamiliar words you could add
to your vocabulary. Use context clues to unlock their meaning.

Antonio Cruz and Felix Vargas were both seventeen years old.
They were so together in friendship that they felt themselves to be
brothers. They had known each other since childhood, growing up
on the lower east side of Manhattan in the same tenement building
on Fifth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.
Antonio was fair, lean, and lanky, while Felix was dark, short,
and husky. Antonio’s hair was always falling over his eyes, while
Felix wore his black hair in a natural Afro style.
Each youngster had a dream of someday becoming lightweight
champion of the world. Every chance they had the boys worked
38

Lesson 1-7

Conflict and Plot
As you read, underline
important details that establish
and develop the conflict. In
the margin, write notes that
identify the events that form the
five main parts of the plot.


Marking
n the
t Te
T xt

while reading your anchor book

out, sometimes at the Boys Club on 10th Street and Avenue A
and sometimes at the pro’s gym on 14th Street. Early morning
sunrises would find them running along the East River Drive,
wrapped in sweat shirts, short towels around their necks, and
handkerchiefs Apache style around their foreheads.
While some youngsters were into street negatives, Antonio
and Felix slept, ate, rapped, and dreamt positive. Between them,
they had a collection of Fightt magazines second to none, plus
a scrapbook filled with torn tickets to every boxing match they
had ever attended, and some clippings of their own. If asked a
question about any given fighter, they would immediately zip out
from their memory banks divisions, weights, records of fights,
knock-outs, technical knock-outs, and draws or losses.

Each had fought many bouts representing their community and
had won two gold-plated medals plus a silver and bronze medallion.
The difference was in their style. Antonio’s lean form and long reach
made him the better boxer, while Felix’s short and muscular frame
made him the better slugger. Whenever they had met in the ring for
sparring sessions, it had always been hot and heavy.
Now, after a series of elimination bouts, they had been
informed that they were to meet each other in the division
finals that were scheduled for the seventh of August, two weeks
away—the winner to represent the Boys Club in the Golden
Gloves Championship Tournament.
The two boys continued to run together along the East River
Drive. But even when joking with each other, they both sensed a
wall rising between them.
One morning, less than a week before their bout, they met as
usual for their daily work-out. They fooled around with a few
jabs at the air, slapped skin, and then took off, running lightly
along the dirty East River’s edge.
Antonio glanced at Felix who kept his eyes purposely straight
ahead, pausing from time to time to do some fancy leg work
while throwing one-twos followed by upper cuts to an imaginary
jaw. Antonio then beat the air with a barrage of body blows and
short devastating lefts with an overhand jaw-breaking right. After
a mile or so, Felix puffed and said, “Let’s stop a while, bro. I think
we both got something to say to each other.” Antonio nodded.
It was not natural to be acting as though nothing unusual was
happening when two ace-boon buddies were going to be blasting
each other within a few short days.
They rested their elbows on the railing separating them from
the river. Antonio wiped his face with his short towel. The sunrise

was now creating day.
Felix leaned heavily on the river’s railing and stared across to
the shores of Brooklyn. Finally, he broke the silence.
“Man, I don’t know how to come out with it.”

Conflict and Plot

39


while reading your anchor book
40

Antonio helped. “It’s about our fight, right?”
“Yeah, right.” Felix’s eyes squinted at the rising orange sun.
“I’ve been thinking about it too, panín. In fact, since we found
out it was going to be me and you, I’ve been awake at night,
pulling punches on you, trying not to hurt you.”
“Same here. It ain’t natural not to think about the fight. I mean,
we both are cheverote fighters and we both want to win. But only
one of us can win. There ain’t no draws in the eliminations.”
Felix tapped Antonio gently on the shoulder. “I don’t mean to
sound like I’m bragging, bro. But I wanna win, fair and square.”
Antonio nodded quietly. “Yeah. We both know that in the ring
the better man wins. Friend or no friend, brother or no . . .”
Felix finished it for him. “Brother. Tony, let’s promise
something right here. Okay?”
“If it’s fair, hermano, I’m for it.” Antonio admired the courage of
a tugboat pulling a barge five times its welterweight size.
“It’s fair, Tony. When we get into the ring, it’s gotta be like we

never met. We gotta be like two heavy strangers that want the
same thing and only one can have it. You understand, don’tcha?”
“Sí,
í I know.” Tony smiled. “No pulling punches. We go all the
way.”
“Yeah, that’s right. Listen, Tony. Don’t you think it’s a good
idea if we don’t see each other until the day of the fight? I’m
going to stay with my Aunt Lucy in the Bronx. I can use Gleason’s
Gym for working out. My manager says he got some sparring
partners with more or less your style.”
Tony scratched his nose pensively. “Yeah, it would be better
for our heads.” He held out his hand, palm upward. “Deal?”
Lesson 1-7

Marking
n the
t Te
T xt

Vocabulary Builder
pensively
(pen‘ siv le¯) adj.
Meaning


L

ink
Langu t o
age

Literature in Context
Spanish Words
Throughout the story, the author uses
Spanish words to reflect the flavor of life
for the two Puerto Rican main characters:
• amigo ( me
¯‘ go¯) adj. friend (usually a
noun but used here as an adjective).
• panín (pä ne
¯n´) n. pal.
• cheverote (che be
¯ ro
¯‘te
e) the greatest.
• hermano (er mä´ no) n. brother.

Li

¯´ t−
o) take it easy
• suavecito (swä ve se
• sabe (sä be) v. understand. (Used here as
part of a question.)
• salsa (säl´ sä) n. Latin American music.
• Señores y Señoras (se ny−
o´ res
o´ ras) Gentlemen and Ladies.
e
¯ se ny−

• mucho corazón (m—
oo´ ch−
o kô rä sôn´)
much courage.

Marking
n the
t Te
T xt
while reading your anchor book

“Deal.” Felix lightly slapped open skin.
“Ready for some more running?” Tony asked lamely.
“Naw, bro. Let’s cut it here. You go on. I kinda like to get things
together in my head.”
“You ain’t worried, are you?” Tony asked.
“No way, man.” Felix laughed out loud. “I got too much smarts
for that. I just think it’s cooler if we split right here. After the fight,
we can get it together again like nothing ever happened.”
The amigo brothers were not ashamed to hug each other
tightly.
“Guess you’re right. Watch yourself, Felix. I hear there’s some
pretty heavy dudes up in the Bronx. Suavecito, okay?”
“Okay. You watch yourself too, sabe?”
Tony jogged away. Felix watched his friend disappear from
view, throwing rights and lefts. Both fighters had a lot of psyching
up to do before the big fight.
The days in training passed much too slowly. Although they
kept out of each other’s way, they were aware of each other’s
progress via the ghetto grapevine.

The evening before the big fight, Tony made his way to the roof
of his tenement. In the quiet early dark, he peered over the ledge.
Six stories below the lights of the city blinked and the sounds of
cars mingled with the curses and the laughter of children in the
street. He tried not to think of Felix, feeling he had succeeded in
psyching his mind. But only in the ring would he really know. To
spare Felix hurt, he would have to knock him out, early and quick.
Up in the South Bronx, Felix decided to take in a movie in an
effort to keep Antonio’s face away from his fists. The flick was The
Champion with Kirk Douglas, the third time Felix was seeing it.
The champion was getting hit hard. He was saved only by the
sound of the bell.
Felix became the champ and Tony the challenger.

Conflict and Plot

41


while reading your anchor book

The movie audience was going out of its head. The challenger,
confident that he had the championship in the bag, threw a left.
The champ countered with a dynamite right.
Felix’s right arm felt the shock. Antonio’s face, superimposed
on the screen, was hit by the awesome blow. Felix saw himself in
the ring, blasting Antonio against the ropes. The champ had to be
forcibly restrained. The challenger was allowed to crumble slowly
to the canvas.
When Felix finally left the theatre, he had figured out how to

psyche himself for tomorrow’s fight. It was Felix the Champion
vs. Antonio the Challenger.
He walked up some dark streets, deserted except for small
pockets of wary-looking kids wearing gang colors. Despite
the fact that he was Puerto Rican like them, they eyed him as
a stranger to their turf. Felix did a fast shuffle, bobbing and
weaving, while letting loose a torrent of blows that would
demolish whatever got in its way. It seemed to impress the
brothers, who went about their own business.
Finding no takers, Felix decided to split to his aunt’s. Walking
the streets had not relaxed him, neither had the fight flick. All it
had done was to stir him up. He let himself quietly into his Aunt
Lucy’s apartment and went straight to bed, falling into a fitful
sleep with sounds of the gong for Round One.
Antonio was passing some heavy time on his rooftop. How
would the fight tomorrow affect his relationship with Felix? After
all, fighting was like any other profession. Friendship had nothing
to do with it. A gnawing doubt crept in. He cut negative thinking
real quick by doing some speedy fancy dance steps, bobbing and
weaving like mercury.1 The night air was blurred with perpetual
motions of left hooks and right crosses. Felix, his amigo brother,
was not going to be Felix at all in the ring. Just an opponent with
another face. Antonio went to sleep, hearing the opening bell for
the first round. Like his friend in the South Bronx, he prayed for
victory, via a quick clean knock-out in the first round.
Large posters plastered all over the walls of local shops
announced the fight between Antonio Cruz and Felix Vargas as
the main bout.
The fight had created great interest in the neighborhood.
Antonio and Felix were well liked and respected. Each had his

own loyal following. Antonio’s fans counted on his boxing skills.
On the other side, Felix’s admirers trusted in his dynamitepacked fists.
Felix had returned to his apartment early in the morning of
August 7th and stayed there, hoping to avoid seeing Antonio. He
mercury
y (m r‘ ky
k re¯) n. element also known as quicksilver because it moves so
quickly and fluidly.
1

42

Lesson 1-7

arking
n the
t Te
T xt