Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
I. Comprehension
A. Read the story below. Answer the questions that follow. Write your answer on the
space provided.
1
Spoken stories and legends tell us all we know of Hawaiian history before 1778. There was
no written language in Hawaii before that time. This story about Kamehameha (kuh-MAY-
uh-May-uh), Hawaii’s greatest king, is based on that oral history.
2
We often picture palm trees and brightly colored flowers when we think of the Hawaiian
Islands. It seems like an exotic faraway land. Hawaii is one of the states in the United States,
like Iowa or Utah, but it has a very different history. Until 1778, no one from Europe or
North America had seen the islands. The Hawaiian Islands had been settled in the Stone
Age by people from Southeast Asia and later in the twelfth century by Polynesians. The
Polynesians were adventurous people from the South Pacific. The men and women were
often over six feet tall. They loved swimming, wrestling, and riding the powerful surf on
long boards. In fact, they enjoyed sports of all kinds. The island weather was perfect, food
was plentiful, and daily life was filled with pleasure.
3
Each island was a separate kingdom, ruled by a powerful chief. The most powerful chiefs
had the greatest number of well-trained warriors and sixty-foot-long war canoes. Although
they regularly attacked one another, there was never a clear winner. Because of this each
island remained a separate kingdom.
4
Sometime in the 1750s a baby boy was born. His name was Kamehameha – the lonely one.
He was born an Alii, or noble, but not of the highest rank. Because of legends about his
birth, some chiefs feared him, even as an infant. Several attempts were made to harm him,
but loyal teachers guarded him well. He was invited to live in the court of Alapai, chief of the
island of Hawaii. As he grew, other boys teased him. But Kamehameha always believed that
his destiny was to become a great chief.
5
On the island of Hawaii rested a huge lava boulder called the Naha Stone. It was about
eighteen feet long, and weighed as much as a forty-man canoe. The stone was sacred.
Priests, or kahunas, watched over it. Legend said that only in Alii of the highest rank could
move the stone. Others were forbidden to touch it.
6
At fourteen Kamehameha was already a respected athlete and warrior. He was over six-
and-a-half feet tall. He also had powerful muscles from swimming and wrestling. He
decided that he would prove himself by moving the Naha Stone. After whispering a prayer
to the god of war, Kamehameha walked bravely toward the stone. The kahuna watching the
stone glared but said nothing.
7
The boy took his place at the narrowest end of the Naha Stone. Driving his legs into the
ground, he lifted. The stone moved – but just a bit. For Kamehameha, that wasn’t enough.
Again he wrapped his powerful arms around the stone. He pushed with every ounce of his
strength, lifting the stone until it was standing upright. The huge stone teetered then fell
onto its other side. People who had come to watch fell to their knees, knowing the meaning
of this act. Only the most powerful Alii could do what Kamehameha had done. Even the
kahuna, who could have punished him for touching the stone, was silent.
8
Over the next forty years Kamehameha and his islands united into a single kingdom. After
Kamehameha was moi, chief of all the islands, he explained, would he know what they
needed? As a good example he built his own canoe and caught his own fish.
9
Kamehameha encouraged his people to preserve natural resources. Artisans who made
the colorful war cloaks could take only a few feathers from each bird, and then they had to
release it. He forbade them to cut down young trees or to kill too many cattle.
10
A great warrior and leader, Kamehameha was also a skilled statesman. He greeted his
visitors from Europe and America in a magnificent red-and-yellow feathered war cloak. His
helmet brought his height to over seven feet. Kamehameha was clever, intelligent, and
open-minded. Because of this, he was able to learn from his Western visitors and enrich the
lives of his people by using their tools and ideas.
11
During his reign, Hawaii went from using stone, shell, and wooden tools to using iron
nails, chisels, and knives. Kamehameha even had his own ships, and he was able to begin
successful trading with distant countries. Some of his closest advisors were European. It
was always Kamehameha who had the last word about what happened on his islands,
though. He wanted the best of both the old ways and the new so the people would not lose
their heritage.
12
It may have been something as simple as a cold that ended the life of Hawaii’s greatest
king. Visitors from other lands brought many diseases to the islands, and the early
Hawaiians didn’t have immunity to these diseases. In his late sixties Kamehameha began to
weaken from an unknown disease. In the end, struggling for breath, the great king told his
friends, “I have given you the greatest good – peace.”
According to custom, Kamehameha’s closest friends hid his bones somewhere on Hawaii.
13
a. Sixty-foot-long canoes
b. A food shortage
c. Iron tools
________ 16. What did Kamehameha believe was his greatest gift to his people?
________ 18. He led his people in using tools and ideas learned from Europeans and
Americans.
________19. He began trading with other countries.
II. Analysis/Application
A. Look at each number in parentheses. Find the paragraph in the story with the same
number. Then find the word that fits the given meaning. Write the word.
B. Look at each number in parentheses. Find the paragraph the story with the same
number. See how the word in bold type below is used in the3 paragraph. Decide whether it
has meaning a, b, or c. Write a, b, or c.
C. There is an incomplete word in each passage below. Choose the suffix –ly, -able, or –y to
complete the word in a way that makes sense. Write ly, able, or y.
III. Synthesis/Evaluation
An Atlas contains maps and facts about many countries. A dictionary tells the meaning of
words and helps you spell and pronounce them. A book of quotations has famous
statements that various people spoken and written. A telephone book has the names,
addresses, and phone numbers of many people and businesses. Decide which book would
be most helpful in answering the questions below. Write A,B,C,or D for each question.