CASI 5
Reading Passages
Contents
The LivingTown by Nigel Hester 3
Why the Sky Is Far Away retold by Marci Stillerman 5
The Wild Horses of SableIsland by Laurie Mackenzie 8
Shonar Arches by Nazneen Sadiq 11
Birds: Grounded 16
Granpa Is Missing on the Mars Tranship by Julia West 18
Where Black Meets White by Doug Cowell 22
The Island That Took Care of Itself by Shelley Tanaka Albert Einstein by Ibi Lepscky 27 Elizabeth's Wish by Debbi Chocolate 30
CASI 5 Reading Passages
DEVELOPMENT TEAM
Project Director Anne Gibson Superintendent, Academic Accountability Authors Roz Doctorow Educational Consultant Maria Bodiam Consultant Heather McGowan Consultant Development Team Julia Arnold Instructional Leader, Literacy Donna Creighton Consultant, Academic Accountability Rosemary Dale Consultant, Academic Accountability Sandy Quinn Consultant, Academic Accountability
Mary Reid Consultant, Academic Accountability Reviewers Toronto District School Board Literacy Team Toronto District School Board Equity Department Many thanks to Barbara Taylor, Principal, Flemington Public School, for helping to select reading materials and the approximately 600 teachers and 15 000 students who field tested CASI and approximately 60 teachers/ administrators who marked the students' work, and to the clerical and support staff in the Toronto District School Board's Academic Accountability Department.
THOMSON NELSON PUBLISHING TEAM Director of Publishing David Steele Publisher Mark Cressman Program Manager Norma Kennedy Senior Managing Editor Nicola Balfour Senior Production Editor Joanne Close Production Coordinator Helen Locsin Composition and Cover Design Suzanne Peden Printer Transcontinental
COPYRIGHT © 2003 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited. Printed and bound in Canada 3 4 05 04 For more information contact Nelson, 1120 Birchmount Road, Toronto, Ontario, M1K 5G4. Or you can visit our Internet site at htt p:// ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced, transcribed, or used in any form or by any means--graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, Web distribution, or information storage and retrieval systems-- without the written permission of the publisher. For permission to use material from this text or product, contact us by Tel 1-800-730-2214 Fax 1-800-730-2215 Every effort has been made to trace ownership of all copyrighted material and to secure permission from copyright holders. In the event of any question arising as to the use of any material, we will be pleased to make the necessary corrections in future printings.
National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data Doctorow, Roz CASI 5 reading assessment [kit] / Roz Doctorow, Maria Bodiam, Heather McGowan. ISB N 0-17-626462-0 (kit).-- ISBN 0-17-626468-X (program guide).--ISBN 0-17-626480-9 (Passages booklet).--ISBN 0-17-626470-1 (scoring guide).-- ISBN 0-17-626474-4 (question sheets) 1. Reading--Ability testing. I. Bodiam, Maria II. McGowan, Heather, 1964- III. Title. LB1050.46.D64 2002 428.4'076 C2002-903458-2 Credits "The Living Town" by Nigel Hester, excerpted from Watching Nature: The Living Town by Nigel Hester. © Franklin Watts 1992; "Why the Sky Is Far Away" by Marci Stillerman, reprinted by permission of SPIDER magazine, November 1996, Vol. 3, no. 11, © 1996 Marci Stillerman; "The Wild Horses of Sable Island" by Laurie Mackenzie, Wild Magazine; "Shonar Arches" from Camels Can Make You Homesick and Other Stories by Nazneen Sadiq, James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers. Reprinted by permission; "Birds: Grounded" From Birds: A Reader's
Digest Pathfinder. All rights reserved; "Granpa Is Missing on the Mars Tranship." Used by permission of Julia West, author; "Where Black Meets White" by Douglas Cowell. Appeared in Wild Magazine. Reprinted with permission of the author; "The Island That Took Care of Itself" from A Great Round Wonder: My Book of the World. Copyright © 1993 by Shelley Tanaka. Published in Canada by Douglas & Mclntyre Ltd. Reprinted by permission of the publisher; "Albert Einstein" by Ibi Lepscky. First paperback edition published 1992 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. First English language edition published 1982 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. © copyright 1982 by Emme Edizioni. All rights reserved. Reprinted with arrangement with Barron's Educational Series, Inc, Hauppauge, NY; "Elizabeth's Wish" by Debbi Chocolate. Excerpted from Elizabeth's Wish, Just Us Books. Reprinted by permission. Illustrators Vesna Krstanovic, Jock MacRae, Rene Mansfield, Sharon Matthews, David Moore, Scot Ritchie, Gordon Sauv, Margot Thompson Photo credits pp. 16-17: Weldon Owen Pry Limited; pp. 27-29: Illustrated by Paolo Cardoni. Used by permission of Barron's Educational Series, Inc.
Wherever people live, animals live also.
TheLivingTown
byNigel Hester
Living Close to People.
At night, when most people are asleep, many animals are moving about in our towns. Some of them, such as raccoons and opossums, are surprisingly large, but they may be harder to spot than small ones, such as rats, rabbits, and bats. All these animals live in urban areas as well as in the country. Many of them feed at night and rest during the day.
Rabbits need plenty of grass to eat. You may see them at dawn or dusk feeding in parks or in large gardens. Black and brown rats will eat almost anything, but black rats prefer fruit and brown rats like to eat cereals. Urban raccoons often overturn garbage cans and spread litter in their search for food.
Rabbits live in burrows.
Black rats are excellent climbers. They live in the rafters of buildings in ports.
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Foxes live in many towns and cities. They take food scraps from garbage cans and dumps.
High-Rise Life.
The buildings that make up our towns and cities provide homes and places of work and leisure for people. However, to many kinds of wildlife, these buildings are good substitutes for natural habitats. Tall office blocks and warehouses are treated as inland "cliffs" by some kinds of birds. The pigeon, for example, has evolved from the rock dove, which lives on rocky coasts. The pigeon roosts and nests on tall buildings. Seagulls also nest on tall buildings. Urban gulls usually breed more successfully than their coastal relatives.
As the sun sets in many large towns and cities, the twittering and chattering of huge flocks of starlings may be heard above the noise of the traffic. Starlings, and
pigeons, gather together on the ledges and sills of buildings to roost for the night.
Wherever people live, animals live also. Think about where you live--whether that's in a city, in a town, or on a farm. Which animals share your home?
Tall buildings provide roosting and nesting sites for birds.
The sky became angry because of the waste and the people's ingratitude for his gift.
Why the Sky isFar Away
A Nigerian Folktale
retold by Marci Stillerman.
In the beginning, the sky was close to the earth, and the people didn't have to work for their food. All they had to do was cut away a piece of sky to eat. It tasted delicious, like meat or corn or honey or anything else they felt like eating. Since they didn't have to hunt for their food, all they did was weave and carve and tell stories all day.
When the great King Oba wanted to give a party, his servants would cut out pieces of the sky and shape them into wonderful forms--animals, diamonds, leaves, or flowers.
But as time went on, the people forgot to appreciate the sky. They took their food for granted, and they became wasteful. They
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cut far more sky than they needed and threw what they didn't use onto the garbage heap.
The sky became angry because of the waste and the people's ingratitude for his gift.
One day, the sky grew very dark. The people were frightened.
"Oba," a voice boomed above the king's palace. "Wasteful one, king of wasteful, ungrateful people. If you continue to waste food, you will have no more of the sky to cut.
" Oba was terrified. He sent messengers all over his kingdom. "Take only what you need," they warned. "The sky is angry because of your greed. Stop wasting the sky, or there will be trouble."
For a while, the people were very careful. They cut only what they needed from the sky. They ate all they took. Nothing was thrown on the garbage heap. Nothing was wasted.
Once every year, there was a great festival in Oba's kingdom in celebration of this greatness. All the people looked forward to wearing their best clothes, dancing all day and night, and feasting on wonderful foods.
Oba's servants prepared magnificent food. They pulled pieces of sky down and shaped them into flowers and animals and every imaginable form. They coloured them and cooked them and placed them on huge platters so that the food looked tempting and inviting.
The people came in gorgeous robes. Music played, and everyone danced. Soon the people became hungry and started to eat. The food was so delicious that they ate and ate until everything was gone.
But the people were greedy and wanted to eat more, even though they were no longer hungry. They pulled down great quantities of sky and gobbled them up. What they couldn't stuff into themselves, they threw on the garbage heap. Greedy and wasteful, they forgot all about the sky's warning.
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Suddenly, while the festival was still going on, the sky grew ominously dark. Thunder rumbled and roared, and fearsome knives of lightning sliced through the sky.
"People of the earth," the sky boomed, "you are wasteful and greedy. I warned you. I will no longer give you food. You will have to work to eat."
The sky sailed up high above the earth, far out of the reach of the tallest person. Ever since then, no one has been able to reach up and grab a piece of it, and the people must work hard on farms and in factories for their food.
SableIsland's horses have been runningfree for over 200 years. TheWildHorsesofSableIsland
by Laurie Mackenzie.
SableIsland.
There's a special place in Canada where horses still run wild. SableIsland lies in the Atlantic Ocean southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The island is just 44 km long and a little over 1 km wide. It is often blanketed by fog.
Some people think that explorers brought horses to the island when they visited between200 and 400 years ago. Others believe that an American merchant brought farm horses from Acadia (now the province of Nova Scotia) to SableIsland in the mid-1750s. He may have been moving them to America and left some behind on SableIsland.
A Different Breed of Horse.
Most SableIsland horses are a solid reddish-brown colour, called bay. But some of the animals have white markings on their faces and legs. This animal's deep chest, heavy neck and shoulders, and stocky legs give it a chunky, thick-bodied look.
Banded Together.
Almost 300 horses range across SableIsland today, living in families, or bands, of about six
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The horses of SableIsland play by frolicking among grass-covered dunes and galloping along sandy beaches.
members. An adult male, or stallion, leads his band of females and young over their territory of about 3 km. They know that his lowered head, stretched out neck, and pinned back ears mean: "Keep grazing and moving together.
" One or more females, called mares, live with the male. The oldest mare decides when and where the band will graze and water. While the others eat and drink, the stallion stands guard. He is watching for other males who might try to steal his mates.
Pregnant mares leave their bands in May or June. They go off on their own to give birth, usually to a single baby, or foal. Wobbling on its shaky legs, the newborn foal
stands within an hour and begins nursing. It will remain close to its mother for about 10 months.
Sandhills.
On SableIsland, there are no trees, but the bands find shelter from the wind among the sand dunes. These rounded hills of sand are shaped by ocean winds and can be 25 m high.
There is plenty of food and fresh water for the horses. The horses' favourite foods include beach grass, beach pea, and sandwort. The animals have no problem finding drinking water, either. Small freshwater ponds lie between some of the sand dunes. The horses also dig their own wells. Using their front hooves, they dig
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holes in the sand to reach the water underneath. When the water turns to ice, they eat snow.
SableIsland's horses are always hungry, and during the summer and fall they grow fat from all the plants they eat. Building a thick layer of fat is important; they need it to survive the winter. There isn't much snow on the island and it doesn't get very cold, but the horses have only winter-dried leaves to eat.
Running Wild.
SableIsland's horses have been running free for over 200 years. They've shared their home with humans from time to time, but the only people who live there now are the scientists who work at the weather station. People are allowed to visit the horses only with permission from the Canadian government. With this kind of protection, these wild horses will continue to gallop over the sandy dunes for a long time to come.
SableIsland horses always have sand in their food.
She doesn't look like a regular grandmother, Amit thought to himself.
Shonar Arches
by Nazneen Sadiq.
Amit scowled at the stalk of broccoli on his dinner plate. Then he narrowed his eyes, pretending they were laser guns. Zap! shot the beam, and all that was left on his plate were traces of melted butter.
"Eat your vegetables, Amit," said his father.
"I'm going to," he muttered in disgust. It never worked. Somebody, he thought, should arrest all the farmers who grew vegetables. Meanwhile, the best thing that could happen was for Mom to be struck with a sudden case of colour blindness. Then she wouldn't see all the horrible green vegetables in the supermarket.
"Why can't we have French fries?" he grumbled.
"Because you had them yesterday," Mom replied.
"Amit!" snapped Dad, a warning note in his voice.
"Guess what's for dessert?" asked Mom, and Amit knew that she was changing the subject.
That was his mom, all right! Whenever things got sticky, she changed the subject.
"I know a boy at school who choked on Brussels sprouts," he whispered to Mom.
"And his mother had probably made his favourite dessert too," she said, sounding sympathetic, but not looking it.
Knowing that the battle was lost, Amit viciously speared the broccoli with his fork. "This stuff," he muttered, "could kill me."
"We'll risk it, son. I'm sure you're tougher than you look." The edges of his father's lips pressed away a smile.
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Crazy, thought Amit. Sometimes parents were really crazy. What was so funny about watching your child choke himself over vegetables! He swallowed the entire stalk with a glass of water.
His mother said, "Gulabjamuns, Amit, that's what I made for yOU.
Amit tried to scowl at her, but the announcement really cheered him up considerably. He knew how long it took to make the special Bengali dessert. When he was younger, he used to watch in fascination as the round confectionery balls spun crazily in the sugar syrup on the stove. But the best part was the taste. The spongy balls were smooth, creamy, and never quite melted away. The syrup was piercingly sweet. Even a double fudge sundae didn't taste as good. But no way he was going to give Mom a break; he was going to let her sweat it out for making him eat broccoli!
"I'm going to have to bring Bob home from the office one day to eat your gulabjamuns," Dad said with smile.
"Has he ever had them?" asked mom.
"Yes. I took him to a Bengali restaurant for lunch one day, but they weren't half as good as yours
" Mom brought the glass bowl out of the fridge and set it on the dining room table in front of Amit. "As many as you want," she whispered to him, and sat down in her chair.
Amit dug the spoon into the syrup and lifted two of the golden-brown spongy balls into his bowl. Then he ladled three large spoonfuls of syrup over them. The
tantalizing smell of cardamom and rosewater filled the air, and for a moment he just sat there inhaling deeply.
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"Get your nose out of that bowl, Amit," said his father.
"How do you get our food to smell so good?" he asked his mom as he passed the bowl to his father.