WHO WAS SACAGAWEA?

There are more statues of her than of any other American woman. Her face is on a U.S. coin.
Clearly, she was an important person. But what do we know about the real Sacagawea?

Sacagawea was part of a Native American tribe called the Shoshone. At the age af 13, she was
taken away by people from the Hidatsa tribe. She was living among the Hidatsa when
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark met her in 1804.

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were mapmakers. These pioneers were exploring the
western part of the U.S. Because Sacagawea spoke two different Native American languages,
they asked her to travel with them, along with her husband and baby son.

Sacagawea became an important part of the group and helped the explorers in many ways. For
example. on May 14, 1805, a strong storm tipped over one of their boats. Sacagawea stayed
calm. She acted quickly and was able to save many of the maps and other things from the
water. Her actions saved important knowledge from being lost.

As they traveled, Sacagawea helped Lewis and Clark talk to the Native American people in each
village they visited. She helped the explorers make friends among the Native Americans. so
they could trade with them. She also helped Lewis and Clark find a way across the mountains
to the Pacific Ocean, and helped them find food on the way.

Sacagawea died when she was about 25. Sadly, we don’t know much more about this amazing
woman. But two hundred years later. she is remembered as an important woman in U.S.
history.

1. The reading is mainly about why __ .

a. not much is known about Sacagawea

b. Sacagawea left Lewis and Clark's group

c. Sacagawea was an important woman in U.S. history

2. Which of these semences about Sacagawea is NOT true?

a. She took her child with her on the trip.

b. She asked Lewis and Clark if she could come on the trip.

c. She started living with the Hidatsa tribe when she was 13 years old.

3. When the explorers' boat tipped over, Sacagawea __.

a. lost all the food they were carrying

b. was able to save Meriwether Lewis

c. was able to save maps from the water

4. Which of the following did Sacagawea do to help Lewis and Clark?

a. She helped them draw maps of the places they saw.

b. She helped them make friends with the native people.

c. She saved their lives when wild animals attacked them.

5. The word trade (Iine 19) means __.

a. fight

b. tell stories

c. buy and sell things

6. Which of the following sentences is likely to be true?

a. The author thinks Sacagawea was too young to travel.

b. The author would like to know more about Sacagawea.

c. The author believes the story of Sacagawea is not true.

CREATING A TIMELINE OF EVENTS

When you read a passage that has a series of events, it can be useful to place them on a
timeline. This gives you a clear picture of what things happened in the order that they
happened. Look carefully at ages, dates, and years. But be careful---events may not always
appear in the passage in the order that they happened.

AMY JOHNSON-A PIONEER OF FLIGHT

1903 Amy Johnson is born in Hull, England.

1928 She takes flying lessons. She is 1.__ not a natural-at first, she is quite bad at it. But she
doesn't give up and after a lot of hard work, finally learns to fly.

1930 Johnson becomes the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia. The world starts
to take notice of her, and her 2.__ inspire many other pilots. When she returns to England, the
king and queen are 3. __ the many people who send their congratulations.

1931 Johnson is the first person to 4.__ from London to Moscow in one day. She then flies
across Siberia to Tokyo.

1936 Johnson becomes the first person to fly solo from England to South Africa.

1941 Johnson's plane crashes in the River Thames in London. People from a nearby ship try to
5.__ her, but they are too late.
MATLHEW HENSON: ARCTIC EXPLORER

Robert Peary and Matthew Henson both wanted to be great explorers. When Peary needed
someone to join him on his trip to the North Pole, he thought of Henson. They had once
worked together in Central America. At the time, it was unusual for an Afriean American to be
a well-known explorer. Henson wanted to change that. So, though he knew the trip would be
hard, he agreed to go.

First, they traveled by ship to Greenland. The members of Peary's team lived among the Inuit
people there. The Inuit called Henson "Maripaluk-Matthew, the Kind One," Henson learned
their language. The Inuit taught him how to live outdoors on the ice, find food, build ¡gIoos,
make snowshoes. and drive dogsleds through the snow and ice.

TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD

Between 1891 and 1906, the Peary-Henson team made seven attempts to get to the North
Pole. Each time, they learned hard Jessons about the dangers there. Sleds broke. Dogs died.
Men got hurt. They got close to the North Pole, but they always had to go back.

In 1909, they decided to make one more attempt. Peary and Henson found themselves within
56 kilometers (35 miles) of the North Pole. Peary sent Henson ahead. Henson made a trail
through the snow for Peary to follow. Peary followed 45 minutes later. "I think I am the f¡rst
man to sit on top of the world," Henson told Peary.

The team returned home as heroes. Both men's dreams had come true: They were the first
explorers to reach the North Pole.

1. Whal is the main idea of the second paragraph (from line 8)?

a. The Inuit have a difficult life in Greenland.

b. Henson learned how to speak the lnuit language.

c. Henson learned many things from the Inuit.

2. Which of the follawiog sentences about Matthew Henson is true?

a. He was from Central America.

b. The Inuii called him "the Kind One.”

c. He was the leader of the team on this trip to the North Pole.

3. The word their in line 10 can be replaced by __.

a. the Inuit's

b. the team's

c. Peary and Henson's

4. The phrase hard lessons (line 16) refers to __.

a. things that are hard to understand

b. ways they learned to break up hard ice

c. things they learned because bad things happened

5. The sentence Peary sent Henson ahead, (line 21) is closest in meaning to __.

a. Peary sent Henson a message

b. Peary asked Henson to go first

c. Peary and Henson traveled together

6. Which of these statements would Henson likely agree with?

a. He and Peary were a good team.

b. Bringing dogs to the North Pole was a bad idea.

c. The explorers could have reached the North Pole without the help of the Inuit.

UNDERSTANDING COMPOUND NOUNS

A compound noun is a word created by putting two words together. It can be formed from
different parts of speech, such as a noun + a noun (e.g., homework), an adjective + a noun
(e.g., whiteboard), or a preposition + a naun (e.g., afternoon).

ARCTIC FIRSTS

Following in the footsteps of Peary and Henson, many people have traveled to the North Pole.
Here are some of their stories.

• 60 years after Peary's team, well-known British explorer Wally Herbert reached the North
Pole. He completed the trip in 1969.

• Teenager Jan Mela became a hero to many when he joined Polish explorer Marek Kaminski
and two others for 2004's "Together to the Pole" trip. They walked to both the North and
South Poles in the same year.

• In 2007, a team from the TV show Top Gear became the first to drive a car to the North Pole.
As part of the trip, the team raced against a dogsled. The car won, getting there ahead of the
sled.
NATIVE AMERICANS

Narrator: They were the first people in North America. We don’t know when they arrived, or
the reason for their movement. But many scientist believe that 30,000 years ago, people from
Asia walked or salied along land that used to join Russia and North America.

We don’t have full knowledge of their history, but these people were the first Native
Americans, or American Indians.

The Native American moved across the land and changed their ways of living in places with
different conditions. They became hundreds of different groups, with different languages and
ways of living. In some places, the Indians lived by hunting buffalo. Near the Pacific Ocean,
they caught fish instead, and sailed in boats. They used the tall trees to build villages, boats,
and traditional art called tótem poles.

When the first white people arrived in the 1500s, there was a healthy population of about one
million Native Americans living north of Mexico. But things were different once the foreigners
arrived. The brought European diseases which caused many deaths among the Indians.

The settlers wanted to take the Indian’s land. Some groups accepted the white people, and
others tried to fight. But in the end, they lost their land. In the late 1800s, the United States
government told the Indians to leave their homes and live on sites called reservations.

Over the next hundred years, Native Americans continued to fight for a better life.

Today, there are more than 550 recognized tribes or nations in the United States. Some have
held meetings with the government to discuss returning their land.

Native Americans are working towards better living condition on the reservation. They also
want to keep their languages, religions, and cultural identities. This ceremony is called a
“potlatch.”

In the past, the ceremony was stopped by the Canadian government. Now the Kwakiutl nation
is performing it again.

The Navajo nation also mixes old and modern ways. This painting represents the cloud people.
The artista is making it to keep a group of people safe while they travel on a plane.

Many Native Americans artists are bringing back traditional art forms – and helping their
culture to grow stronger in the future.

When the fisrt Europeans arrived in North America, they found a population of one million
Native Americans already living there. There were many tribes, each with its own culture and
language.

The new settlers wanted the native peoples’ land. There was a lot of fighting between the two
groups. The Native American tribes lost their land. Today many tribes are still trying to win
back their land, while othes work to rebuild parts of their culture and tribal identity-
Amelia Earhart--A Passion for Flying

1897: Earhart is born in Atchison, Kansas. Atchison is a small town, but it is bigger
than a __. Earhart's mother does not want her daughters to be "nice little girls," so
Earhart is not comfortable __ "nice" children. Instead, she __ wants to go on adventures.

1920 - 1928: Earhart experiences her first airplane flight. She is determined to be a __.
Two years later, Earhart flies at 14,000 feet. She sets a world record for women's flying.
In 1928, Earhart becomes the first woman to __ across the Atlantic Ocean, but she
travels as a __.
.

1932 - 1937: Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
She succeeds because she stays __ in bad weather. In this year, she also becomes the
first woman to fly non-stop across the United States. She breaks speed records. She is
awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Gold Medal of the National Geographic
Society, and other medals. Earhart then becomes the first woman to fly solo across the
Pacific. She breaks more flying records and wins more awards. In 1937, she attempts a
flight around the world, but her airplane disappears in the Pacific.

Exploring Mount Everest

In 1953, Tenzing Norgay __ Edmund Hillary to climb the highest mountain in the
world. There was no __ for them to follow. They were part of a team of several men,
but only Hillary and Norgay went to the top. They left their team and
went __. Their __ to reach the top was successful.

After their trip, both men became __ explorers. Norgay became a __ in his country,
Nepal. His son __ in his footsteps and also climbed Mount Everest. Hillary
was knighted and became Sir Edmund Hillary. He went to new places such as the North
Pole and was an explorer for the rest of his life.