Read the passage "Kipling and I" before answering Numbers 1 through 8.

Kipling and I by Jesus Colon

S ometimes I pass Debevoise Place at the by, a way of life, a compendium of the wise, the corner of Willoughby Street . . . . I look at true and the beautiful. All I had to do was to live the old wooden house, gray and ancient, the according to the counsel of the poem and follow

house where I used to live some forty years ago . . . its instructions and I would be a perfect man-the My room was on the second floor at the useful, the good, the true human being. I was very

comer. On hot summer nights I would sit at the happy that day, forty years ago. window reading by the electric light from the The poem had to have the most prominent street lamp which was almost at a level with the place in the room. Where could I hang it? I windowsill. decided that the best place for the poem was on

It was nice to come home late during the the wall right by the entrance to the room. No one winter, look for some scrap of old newspaper, coming in and out would miss it. Perhaps someone some bits of wood and a few chunks of coal, and would be interested enough to read it and drink start a sparkling fire in the chunky fourlegged the profound waters of its message . . . coal stove. I would be rewarded with an intimate Every morning as I prepared to leave, I stood warmth as little by little the pigmy stove became in front of the poem and read it over and over alive puffing out its sides, hot and red, like the again, sometimes half a dozen times. I let the crimson cheeks of a Santa Claus. sonorous music of the verse carry me away. I

My few books were in a soap box nailed to the brought with me a handwritten copy as I stepped wall. But my most prized possession in those days out every morning looking for work, repeating was a poem I had bought in a five-and-ten-cent verses and stanzas from memory until the whole store on Fulton Street. (I wonder what has become of these poems, maxims and saylngs of wise men that they used to sell at the five-and- ten-cent stores?) The poem was printed on gold paper and mounted in a gilded frame ready to be hung in a conspicuous place in the house. I bought one of those fancy silken picture cords finishing in a rosette to match the color of the frame.

I was seventeen. This poem to me then seemed to summarize, in one poetical nutshell, the wisdom of all the sages that ever lived. It was what I was looking for, something to guide myself

poem came to be part of me. Other days my lips kept repeating a single verse of the poem at intervals throughout the day.

In the subways I loved to compete with the shrill noises of the many wheels below by chanting the lines of the poem. People stared at me moving my lips as though I were in a trance. I looked back with pity. They were not so fortunate as I who had as a guide to direct my life a great poem to make me wise, useful and happy.

And I chanted:

lfyou can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you . . . lfyou can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated don't give way to hating. . . lfyou can make one heap of all your winnings;

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings . . . . "If-," by Kipling, was the poem. At seventeen,

my evening prayer and my first morning thought. I repeated it every day with the resolution to live up to the very last line of that poem.

I would visit the government employment office on Jay Street. The conversations among the Puerto Ricans on the large wooden benches in the employment office were always on the same subject. How to find a decent place to live. How they would not rent to Negroes or Puerto Ricans. How Negroes and Puerto Ricans were given the pink slips first at work.

From the employment office I would call door to door at the piers, factories and storage houses in the streets under the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. "Sorry, nothing today." It seemed to me that that "today" was a continuation and combination of all the yesterdays, todays and tomorrows.

From the factories I would go to the restaurants, looking for a job as a porter or dishwasher. At least I would eat and be warm in the kitchen.

"Sorry" . . . "Sorry" . . . Sometimes I was hired at ten dollars a week,

ten hours a day including Sunday and holidays. One day off during the week. My work was that of three men: dishwasher, porter, busboy. And to clear the sidewalk of snow and slush "when you

have nothing else to do." I was to be appropriately humble and grateful not only to the owner but to everybody else in the place.

If I rebelled at insults or at a pointed innuendo or just the inhuman amount of work, I was unceremoniously thrown out and told to come "next week for your pay." "Next week" meant weeks of calling for the paltry dollars owed me. The owners relished this "next week."

I clung to my poem as to a faith. Like a potent amulet, my precious poem was clenched in the fist of my right hand inside my secondhand overcoat. Again and again I declaimed aloud a few precious lines when discouragement and disillusionment threatened to overwhelm me.

Ifyou can force your heart and newe and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone . . .

The weeks of unemployment and hard knocks turned into months. I continued to find two or three days of work here and there. And I continued to be thrown out when I rebelled at the ill treatment, overwork and insults. I kept pounding the streets looking for a place where they would treat me half decently, where my devotion to work and faith in Kipling's poem would be appreciated. I remember the worn-out shoes I bought in a secondhand store on Myrtle Avenue at the comer of Adarns Street. The round holes in the soles that I tried to cover with pieces of carton were no match for the frigid knives of the unrelenting snow.

One night I returned late after a long day of looking for work. I was hungry. My room was dark and cold. I wanted to warm my numb body. I lit a match and began looking for some scraps of wood and a piece of paper to start a fire. I searched all over the floor. No wood, no paper. As I stood up, the glimmering flicker of the dying match was reflected in the glass surface of the framed poem. I unhooked the poem from the wall. 1 reflected for a minute, a minute that felt like an eternity. I took the frame apart, placing the square glass upon the small table. I tore the gold paper on which the poem was printed, threw its pieces inside the stove and, placing the small bits of wood from the frame on top of the paper, I lit it, adding soft and hard coal as the fire began to gain strength and brightness.

I watched how the line of the poem withered into ashes inside the small stove.

So Smar n Long Run

Read the editorial "Physical Education: Neglecting Daily Exercise Isn't So Smart in Long nun

hys. ed. teachers and other educators bemoan the emphasis on academics and class scheduling to match. It whittles

into time for gym and allows activities such as marching band to suffice.

Rather than today's high school students taking some form of phys. ed. every day, students are more likely to be required to take only one credit for their entire four-year high school career. In other words, daily gym class is an anachronism. In Lee County's public schools, students aiming to graduate as quickly as possible with a bare minimum of credits can opt out completely.

and the article "Exercise: Extra Gym Time May Not Help Students" before answering Numbers 9 through 16.

Beyond that, each Florida school system is on its own. Though Collier and Lee counties' elementary schools offer about 90 minutes a week, the policies then diverge. In Collier middle schools there are daily, graded phys. ed. classes; in Lee, most students get only one semester.

It is important to point out what everybody ought to know about the need for young people to exercise: There is time after school for youngsters, with or without parental supervision or encouragement, to get out and run and jump and play and compete.

Yet, because health and fitness are so important, and because if some students are not exposed to phys. ed. in school they won't be anywhere else, we need to affirm its place in the public school curriculum.

I

I I

The strongest argument is straight from the headlines: American youth's expanding waistline could use some thinning. Maintaining or expanding our schools' phys. ed. programs could help make that happen.

Expanding the school day to handle all the pressing business is at least under discussion in Collier in the context of reading and other academics. Making room for health could be part of any long-term planning to that effect.

A healthy choice indeed.

Girls from Washington, D.C., at Y.W.C.A. camp near Winona, Maryland, doing outdoor exercises. Circa 1920's.

8 Mastering the Florida Reading Retake 2.0

Exercise: Extra Gym Time M a y Not Help Students

by Eric Nagourney

M ore gym in school must mean more exercise time, right? Not necessarily.

As state legislatures, worried about the increasing obesity problem, consider bills to require more physical education classes, a new study says that more gym time may not make students any fitter. The report appears in the fall issue of the journal Education Next.

"We're not saylng P.E. is hopeless," said the lead author of the study, John Cawley, an economist at Cornell. The problem, Professor Cawley says, is that a lot of time in gym classes is spent on activities that are not especially vigorous.

The study found that in the last year, 44 states considered measures to increase gym requirements. Several proposals under consideration would require half an hour of gym a day.

"The solution," the authors wrote, "seems straightforward."

But the study cited earlier research indicating that gym classes often fail to meet state

requirements, and it quoted a government report that said physical education too often means "roll out the balls and let them play."

Their own research, the authors said, found that when states required more gym, girls reported spending slightly more time in vigorous exercise. But they also report less physical activity outside of gym class.

The findings were based on a review of state physical education requirements and a federal health survey of high school students. In that survey, the teenagers were asked a range of questions about their fitness, including how active they were each week and how much they weighed. The students were also asked how often they had gym and how much time they spent exercising there.

When the researchers compared the information, they found little evidence to prove that more gym resulted in more fitness.

"The results of our study suggest that the effect of increased state P.E. requirements is mixed at best," they wrote.

Read the article "Fingernails on a Chalkboard Garner Vanderbilt Psychologist Ig Nobel Prize" and the text box "Hearing Sounds" before answering Numbers 17 through 24.

fingernails on a Chalkboard Garner Vanderbiit Psychologist

Ig Nobel Prize by Melanie Moran

G iving a closer listen to a sound most of over a chalkboard, which is almost universally us try to avoid-fingernails scraping aversive?" he said. on a chalkboard-has won Vanderbilt Blake and his colleagues recorded the sound

psychologist Randolph Blake an unusual and of a three-pronged garden tool scraping over coveted award, the Ig Nobel Prize. a chalkboard and then analyzed the various

The prizes, awarded annually by the Society frequencies present in the sound. Going on the for Improbable Research since 1991, are given to theory that the high-pitched components of research that "makes people laugh and then makes the sound produced the chilling quality, they them think." The society receives thousands of produced various versions of the sound that were nominations each year for the awards, which are missing the high, middle and low frequencies. covered by press around the globe. They then played these sounds for volunteers who

"It came absolutely out of the blue," Blake rated them on how much they disliked each. said of learning he was a 2006 winner. "I was "To our surprise, the removal of the high flabbergasted that it got nominated and was frequencies didn't reduce the aversive qualities of awarded this prize." the sound, but removing the middle frequencies of

The award ceremony-which was attended by the sound did," he said. over 1,200 people and included someone scraping their fingernails on a chalkboard on the stage-took place Oct. 5 at Harvard University. Actual , Nobel Laureates were on hand to distribute the prizes.

\ Blake's award was given I

for research he published with colleagues D. Lynn Halpern and James Hillenbrand in the journal Perception G F

Psychophysics in 1986. The j 4

study examined why nearly everyone cringes at the sound I

or even thought of fingernails 1 i scraping on a chalkboard.

"We asked the very simple question, what is the nature of the acoustic signal associated with scraping your fingernails . . .- ----. ..--, _ ._ ___ _.. _... -_. _. .... -- -

Diagnostic Test 11

Intrigued by this finding, Blake set about for Integrative and Cognitive Neuroscience and examining the sound waves associated with other is a founding member of the Vanderbilt Vision vocalizations, including primate warning calls. Research Center. Blake was inducted into the

"It turns out the sound waves associated with American Academy of Arts and Sciences on primate warning cries, particularly chimpanzee October 7, 2006. warning cries, are remarkably similar in appearance to the aversive, middle Middle

frequency sound waves produced by Outer ear ear .. Inner .A ear r A

Y Y

fingernails on a chalkboard," he said. "When you hear those cries, they are eerily similar to fingernails on a chalkboard.

"Our speculation was that the Auditory nerve

reason the sound of fingernails on a to brain

chalkboard have an almost universal aversive quality is that it triggers in us an unconscious, automatic reflex that Eustachian tube

we're hearing a warning cry." to pharynx

Blake is Centennial Professor of Psychology and an investigator in the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development. He is also Structure of Human Ear a member of the Vanderbilt Center

Hearing Sounds Initially, sound of a certain frequency enters the ear canal, causing the eardrum to vibrate. T h e small bones of the middle ear transfer the vibrations to the membranous part of the cochlea, causing i t to vibrate. Vibrations of the membranous part of the cochlea then cause a fluid i n the cochlea to vibrate. T h e vibrating fluid causes hairs o n receptor cells to vibrate, which produce signals. T h e signals pass into the auditory nerve, which transfers them to the brain. The brain interprets the signals as different sounds.

I -. lvlasrerlng rne rlorlaa Heading Hetake 2.0

Read the article "Graphic Novels: Not Just Comic Books" and the text box "YALSA Announces Plan to Create Annual Graphic Novel List for Teens" before answering Numbers 25 through 32.

Graphic Nove Comic Books

by Michael Ray

L ong a fixture on the fringes of American popular culture, the graphic novel has made notable forays into the literary mainstream

in recent years. The year 2004 saw the film adaptation of Harvey Pekar's American Splendor nominated for an Academy Award, the final issues of both Dave Sim's 6,000-page magnum opus Cerebus and Jeff Smith's influential Bone, and the long-awaited debut of Alan Moore's Lost Girls. With collected volumes of Sandman by Neil Gaiman and Japanese manga titles becoming a common sight on public library shelves and film versions of landmark books such as Sin City, Watchmen, and Batman: Year One in production, the graphic novel had reached levels of respectability and marketability that transcended the disparaging label "comic book."

While the graphic novel format had a long tradition in Europe (albums collecting Belgian artist Herge's Tintin stories appeared as early as the 1930s) and Japan (with manga publications aimed at every age and interest), it struggled to take hold in the United States. One reason for this was the creation of the Comics Code Authority in 1954. The Authority, created by the comics industry to police itself, had a chilling effect on creativity. Publishers dared run only the tamest of stories; sales plummeted; and once-thriving medium was soon seen as disposable entertainment for children. By the late 19805, however, most major publishers had dropped the code's certification stamp from their books, and, not coincidentally, a flood of creativity had followed.

The other difficulty faced by the medium is the necessarily vague answer to the question "What is a graphic novel?" Most loosely defined, it is an illustrated story that stands alone or as part of a limited series (a distinction that sets it apart from monthly comic books or serials). The

book frequently cited as the first modern graphic novel, Will Eisner's A Contract with God (1978), is actually a collection of four semiautobiographical novellas. Art Spiegelman's Maus (1986) is perhaps the most critically acclaimed graphic novel, and yet it is not a novel at all but a work of nonfiction that uses animal characters to depict the horrors of the Holocaust. The conflict in the Balkans produced notable works that could most accurately be called illustrated journalism. Joe Kubert's Fawfrom Sarajevo (1996) and Joe Sacco's Safe Area Gorazde (2000) stretched the

Diagnostic Test 15

nor the ont

,,,,,,,darIes of the medium by offering uniquely of life in a modem war zone.

suggested the term sequential art to El'

1llC describe this evolving genre, but

ap that, however inaccurate it may be, the

label will stick. With the advent of direct marketing to

~ ~ ~ k s t o r e s and specialty shops (thus bypassing [hr Colnlcs Code and the newsstand comics

pblishers are far more open to the gallhlc novel format than they were in the past. The continued interest in groundbreaklng titles

as Moore's Watchmen (1987), Frank Miller's fiat,llan: The Dark Knight Returns (1986), and Galman's Black Orchid (1988) has opened the door for the next generation of graphic novelists. Craig Thompson's Good-bye, Chunky Rice (1999), Chris Ware'sJirnmy Cowigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (2000), and Marlane Satrapi's Persepolis (2003) eschew the superheroic to focus on human stories of friendship, hope, and despair. Critical acclaim has led to increased sales and a more prominent place in the retail landscape. Although graphic

~e l s still account for less than one percent of book trade in the United States, they represent of the fastest-growing markets, with over $120

1n1Lllon in sales in 2003.

YALSA Announces Plan to Create Annual 1 i

Graphic Novel List for Teens IICAGO-The Young Adult Library

( ervices Association (YALSA) , the fastest - gowing division of the American L~brary Association (ALA) , plans to begin an annual list of graphic novels for teens. The decision to create the list was made at ALA's Annual Conference in Chicago, June 23-29, 2005.

The list, which is anticipated to debut at 'he ALA's Midwinter Meeting in 2007, will Consist of long form stories or compilations of comics' issues. Graphic novels will be judged on Tpropriateness for young adults aged 12-18, how well image and word are integrated, clarity of the panel's flow on the page, ability of the

images to convey the necessary meaning, and the quality of the artwork's reproduction.

"With a teen population raised in the visual world of television, the Internet, cartoons and videogames, it's only natural that graphc novels are fast becoming the "book of choice" for many," said YALSA President Pam Spencer- Holley. "The expertise of YALSA members will be invaluable in the compilation of this list."

A committee of 11 YALSA members, both school'and public librarians, will select the graphic novels that appear on the list. Nominations for inclusion on the list will be solicited from teens, YALSA members, and the committee.