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Grade 8

8.2.A: Reading - Vocabulary Development

8.2.A Determine The Meaning Of English Words

The Peace Corps: Service to the World

1. On March 1, 2011, the United States celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Peace Corps. This special agency sends American volunteers to other countries to provide aid in the fields of education, agriculture, health, technology, and community development. Its mission is to promote world peace and friendship.

2. To achieve its mission, the Peace Corps has three goals. The first is to assist countries interested in developing skilled workers. The second is to help people of other cultures better understand Americans. The third goal is to help Americans better understand other cultures.

Peace Corps Origins
3. The Peace Corps came into being as a result of a 1960 presidential campaign stop made by John F. Kennedy. Kennedy arrived at the University of Michigan on October 14 at 2:00 A.M. He was scheduled to speak later that day, but 10,000 students, stirred by his candidacy, were waiting to meet him. Rather than disappoint the students, Kennedy gave an impromptu speech. He asked the crowd whether they would be willing to serve their country and the cause of peace by living and working in the developing world. 

4. Young people quickly and enthusiastically responded to the challenge. Within weeks the students had gathered 1,000 signatures in support of the idea. Many more letters of support arrived at Kennedy’s campaign headquarters. Kennedy did not forget about the idea. He created the Peace Corps less than six months after meeting the Michigan students. On August 30, 1961, the first group of 51 volunteers arrived in Ghana, a country in western Africa.

Service Through the Decades
5. Since then, more than 200,000 Americans have served in the Peace Corps. Volunteers currently serve in 76 countries in Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Islands. The agency truly has a global impact. 

6. The world has changed since 1961, and the focus of the Peace Corps has evolved with it. While many volunteers continue to teach children, train adults in agricultural techniques, and bring clean water to communities, others are addressing needs that have emerged in recent years. In response to the development and spread of information technology, volunteers now provide technical training and support to groups that want to make better use of computers and the Internet.

Service to Others
7. On the fiftieth anniversary of the Peace Corps, President Barack Obama issued a proclamation in which he honored the “volunteers who have collectively given over a half-century of service to the cause of peace.” These volunteers take satisfaction in building schools or constructing water purification systems, but they often say that their real reward is intangible.

8. Mike Roman is a teacher on an island in Kiribati, a country in the Pacific. He chose to serve “because it’s the ‘right thing’ to do. After some time you learn what the ‘right thing’ is in any situation—it’s the voice inside your head; you just have to learn to listen to it.”

9. Another volunteer, Christian Deitch, teaches English in the Kyrgyz Republic in central Asia. When asked about his work with the Peace Corps, Deitch commented, “I know the students I worked with got a lot out of our time together, but I felt like I was the lucky one. It’s hard to explain, but it made me realize that working for others . . . was the best paycheck I ever got.”

10. In his inaugural address in 1961, President Kennedy issued a challenge: “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” More than 50 years later, many Americans continue to respond to this challenge each year by joining the Peace Corps.

Marching to Different Drummers
by Charles Boisseau

1. Imagine flying over Texas on some warm Friday night this autumn.

2. Look down from your window seat and you could easily spot a most interesting phenomenon: all those blazing stadium lights and the buzzing of all the crowds attending hundreds of high school football games simultaneously under way across the Lone Star State. At halftime, you’ll see a real spectacle: uniformed marchers fanning across green fields, forming patterns, drumming beats, blaring horns, flashing flags and twirling batons.

3. As you hover, consider this: Every Friday night during the fall, an estimated 140,000 young people from more than 850 Texas high schools dress up in crisp uniforms, tall hats with fancy plumes and gawky white shoes, and march and make music for countless fans, family members and townspeople.

4. We all know that Texans are mad about football, and the players usually get the attention. But what’s a football game without the marching band?

5. “Yes, you can say that Texas has more high school bands and more participants than any other state. That’s pretty much a ‘no brainer’ when you consider the size of the state and the number of bands,” said Richard Floyd. He’s state director of music for the University Interscholastic League (UIL), the governing body that oversees extracurricular academic, athletic and music contests in the state’s public school system.

6. Floyd and a chorus of other educators cite numerous national studies showing a link between studying music and improved cognitive skills, higher scores on standardized tests and lower dropout rates.

7. Texas not only has the most marching bands, but it also has earned a reputation for having some of the nation’s best, with many bands touring the country, winning national awards and sending graduates on to music careers. To be sure, most band members don’t make music their life and may seldom play after they graduate, but band alumni will likely tell you that it was there they learned the skills and habits for success.

8. With the football season well under way, it’s an ideal time to tune in and learn more about high school marching bands.

Bands in All Sizes
9. Texas marching bands range in size from Class 5A Allen High School’s approximately 650 members, including a drill team and color guard, to numerous Class 1A schools, and others, with 20 or fewer members.

10. Known as the Allen Eagle Escadrille (French for “squadron”), Allen’s band is considered the largest in the country—high school or college. It’s larger than The University of Texas or Texas A&M University bands, each of which has fewer than 400 members. The Allen band is so large that when it takes the field, it stretches from end zone to end zone. So loud, it can create a wall of sound that has factored in the outcome of games.

11. When playing at away games, the band requires 20 buses and a team of nearly 100 parent volunteers to help with logistics and other chores, such as moving equipment, chaperoning, handing out snacks and water bottles, and carefully managing plumes that go with marchers’ hats, said Tim Carroll, spokesman for the high school and also a band parent.

12. The band, still growing in a district with a single 5,000-student high school, has more members than the U.S. House of Representatives. Last year’s band had 59 trombones, and Band Director Charles Pennington has promised if it reaches 76 he’ll add the show tune “Seventy-Six Trombones” to the playlist.

13. In contrast, Kenneth Griffin, executive secretary of the Texas Association of Small School Bands, said some of the smallest bands have about a dozen members. Griffin’s organization was formed in 1991 to better represent small schools at band competitions.

14. At some small schools, roughly half of the student body is in the band. Last year, Sundown High, on the South Plains near Lubbock, won the UIL Class 1A marching band title with 117 band members, including some eighth-graders. The high school’s entire student body was 188, said Assistant Band Director Zane Polson. It was Sundown’s sixth state marching band title, more than any other school in any classification.

15. Polson said the community’s strong support and high expectations motivate band students. “In some places, being in the band is not the in thing; it’s not cool. It’s cool to be in the band in Sundown,” he said.

Geeks and Nerds
16. At some places, band members are labeled “geeks” or “nerds.” Usually good-natured ribbing, such teasing may help members rally around each other to form one of the strongest subcultures within high schools.

17. “You have your preps, your jocks and your band nerds,” said Jolynn Harwell, 24, who played clarinet and served as drum major for two years at Stephenville High School. She now teaches English at North Garland High School, where she also serves as unofficial adviser to clarinet players. “We always called ourselves ‘band nerds.’ I don’t think it’s derogatory or anything. It doesn’t bother me one bit.”

18. Band kids bond by hanging out together in the band hall; enduring seemingly endless rehearsals, particularly during the grueling summer band camp; engaging in all sorts of fundraising activities; and sharing many experiences outside the classroom on long bus trips to games and competitions.

19. “It’s like camaraderie,” Harwell said. “For four years, it’s your family.”

20. Of course, none of this means there isn’t plenty of friendly competition among players in different sections. Carroll, of Allen High, remembered his son, John, a horn player, coming home from his first day of summer band camp and having already been indoctrinated by the upper-class horn players in his section. He blurted out gleefully: Flutes stink!

Dear Fellow Writer
by Pat Mora

Dear Fellow Writer,
1. A blank piece of paper can be exciting and intimidating. Probably every writer knows both reactions well. I know I do. I wanted to include a letter to you in this book because I wish I could talk to you individually. I’d say: Listen to your inside self, your private voice. Respect your thoughts and feelings and ideas. You—yes, you—play with sounds. With language(s), explore the wonder of being alive.

2. Living hurts, so sometimes we write about a miserable date, a friend who betrayed us, the death of a parent. Some days, though, we’re so full of joy we feel like a kite. We can fly! Whether we write for ourselves or to share our words, we discover ourselves when we truly write: when we dive below the surface. It’s never easy to really reveal ourselves in school, but remember that writing is practice. Without practice, you will never learn to hear and sing your own unique song.

3. I have always been a reader, which is the best preparation for becoming a writer. When I was in grade school in El Paso, Texas (where I was born), I read comic books and mysteries and magazines and library books. I was soaking up language.

4. I’ve always liked to write, too—but I was a mother before I began to create regular time for my writing. Was it that I didn’t think that I had anything important to say? Was it that I didn’t believe that I could say anything that well? Was it that when I was in school we never studied a writer who was like me—bilingual, a Mexican American—and so somehow I decided that “people like me” couldn’t be writers?

5. I have a large poster of an American Indian storyteller right above my desk. Children are climbing all over her, just as my sisters and my brother and I climbed over nuestra tía, our aunt, Ignacia Delgado, the aunt we called Lobo. She was our storyteller. Who is yours? Would you like to be a storyteller? Would you like to write or paint or draw or sing your stories?

6. I became a writer because words give me so much pleasure that I have always wanted to sink my hands and heart into them, to see what I can create, what will rise up, what will appear on the page. I’ve learned that some writers are quiet and shy, others noisy, others just plain obnoxious. Some like enchiladas and others like sushi; some like rap and others like rancheras. Some write quickly, and some are as slow as an elderly man struggling up a steep hill on a windy day.

7. I’ll tell you a few of our secrets.

8. The first is that we all read. Some of us like mysteries and some of us like memoirs, but writers are readers. We’re curious to see what others are doing with words, but—what is more important—we like what happens to us when we open a book, how we journey into the pages.

9. Another secret is that we write often. We don’t just talk about writing. We sit by ourselves inside or outside, writing at airports or on kitchen tables, even on napkins.

10. We’re usually nosy and very good at eavesdropping. Just ask my three children! And writers are collectors. We collect facts and phrases and stories: the names of cacti, the word for cheese in many languages.

11. In the last twenty years, I’ve spent more and more time writing my own books for children and adults. I have received many rejections and will probably receive many more, darn it. I just keep writing—and revising. Revising is now one of my favorite parts of being a writer, though I didn’t always feel that way. I enjoy taking what I’ve written—a picture or a book or a poem—and trying to make the writing better, by changing words or rhythm. Sometimes by starting over!

12. Writing is my way of knowing myself better, of hearing myself, of discovering what is important to me and what makes me sad, what makes me different, what makes me me—of discovering my own true name. And writing makes me less lonely. I have all these words in English and Spanish whispering or sometimes shouting at me, just waiting for me to put them to work, to combine them so that they leap over mountains on small hooves or slip down to the sandy bottom of the silent sea.

13. And you? Maybe these poems—taken from my collections Chants, Borders, and Communion, along with some new poems written for this book, for you—will tempt you to write your own poems about a special person or a special place, about a gray fear or a green hope. What are your blooms, your thorns, your roots?

14. Remember, my friend, never speak badly of your writing. Never make fun of it. Bring your inside voice out and let us hear you on the page. Come, join the serious and sassy family of writers.

The Power of Young People to Change the World
by T. A. Barron

1. If I could give today’s young people three wishes, they would be:

2. More hugs.

3. More time outside in nature.

4. More belief in their own power to change the world.

5. While most people understand the importance of the first two wishes, the third one leaves some folks scratching their heads, wondering why young people’s belief in their own power is so essential.

6. Let’s start with the notion that all of us—especially young people—need heroes. We need them to be our guides on the twisting, sometimes difficult trail we call life. To show us just how far we can go, to help us know just how high we can climb.

7. And we need heroes today more than ever. Our modern society is terribly confused about the difference between a hero and a celebrity. And the difference is crucial.

8. A celebrity is all about fame—temporary, superficial fame, usually for qualities that are easy to see: a pretty face, a good hook shot, a great dance move. A hero, by contrast, is about character—qualities beneath the surface that aren’t visible until they prompt action. Qualities like courage, hope, compassion, and perseverance.

9. Heroes, real heroes, are all around us. They truly hold our world together, through their unselfish devotion to helping others, supporting families, teaching children, protecting the environment. They don’t want fame, or glory, or even credit; they just want to help. In so many ways, these unsung heroes steer the boat in which all of us sail.

10. Yet... young people hear a lot more about celebrities than about heroes, in every form of media. Worse yet, young people are treated too often as just another target market by advertisers. The underlying message they get from all this is that their self-worth comes from what they buy—which drink, which shoes, which cell phone—not who they are down inside.

11. What gets lost in this? Young people’s sense of their own potential for heroic qualities—their own power to make a positive difference in the world.

12. Truth is, there is a potential hero, a future difference maker, in every young person. Each of them, from whatever background, is a bundle of untapped energy—a positive force who can do something to steer that communal boat that carries us all.

13. All it takes for that to be true... is belief. For if young people believe in their own power, they will use it. And they will discover that any person—regardless of gender, age, race, cultural background, or economic circumstance—can make a genuine, lasting impact.

14. How do we help skeptical young people believe in their own power? The best way by far is simply to share examples of other young people who have made a difference.

15. To turn the spotlight on such amazing young people—to share their stories—I founded a national award, the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes. Named after my mom, who was a quiet hero in my own life, this award, now in its tenth year, honors 25 young people each year. They come from every background, and they are as diverse as the youth of America. The one thing they all have in common is a belief in their own power to make a difference—and the dedication to make it happen.

16. This prize is really just a small thing, but its winners are shining examples of what young people can achieve.

17. Here are a few of the winners from recent years:

18. Katie, age 10, has rallied hundreds of people in her town in South Carolina to help her create vegetable gardens to feed the hungry. How did she begin? As a third grader, she raised a tiny seedling into a huge 40-pound cabbage. When she saw how many people that cabbage fed at a local soup kitchen, she decided that she could do more. So far, she has donated more than 1,000 pounds of fresh produce to people in need.

19. Ryan, age 11, has worked tirelessly to raise money to provide clean drinking water to African villages. When he first heard about the plight of African children who died from impure water, Ryan was only six years old. He decided to do something about it. In the next five years, he raised over $500,000—enough to build over 70 water wells.

20. Barbara, age 17, grew up on a farm in Texas. When she realized that local farmers were pouring their used motor oil into rivers and on the ground, causing pollution, she organized the creation of a recycling center for crude oil. Her project, called “Don’t Be Crude,” has grown to include 18 recycling centers in Texas.

21. The list could go on and on. These are but a few examples of young people who have discovered that they can build on their own energy and ideals to do something truly great.

from
The Election
by Don Zolidis

Characters
KARL  
MARK 
CHRISTY 
VOICEOVER 
KYLI
FEMALE STUDENT 
MALE STUDENT

1. KARL: Well—we got three weeks to the election, now we just make a few posters and coast to victory.
2. MARK: Sounds good.
3. [They get out markers and poster board to start making posters.]
4. KARL: Let’s think of a slogan: We need three adjectives to describe you.
5. MARK: How about awesome, awesome, and awesome?
6. KARL: Um...
7. MARK: Okay, fine. Hardworking.
8. KARL: You’re a B student.
9. MARK: Which requires me to work hard.
10. KARL: Okay.
11. MARK: Responsible.
12. KARL: Isn’t that the same as hardworking?
13. MARK: No. And um... Awesome.
14. KARL: So your slogan is: Mark. Hardworking. Responsible. Awesome.
15. MARK: I like it. It’s catchy. Time to watch some TV.
16. [To the audience.]
17. MARK: And that’s when I saw it:
18. [Lights up elsewhere on stage. Stirring, emotional campaign music. Two students enter and hold up an American flag. Christy enters.]
19. CHRISTY: America. Land of opportunity. Land of freedom. At least it was. Now, I don’t know that I even recognize it anymore. But I say: America’s best days aren’t behind her. I say we will build a nation, and build a school that is still the greatest in the world. I’m Christy Martin. Stand with me, and we will stand tall once again. Vote for me for Presley Student Body President.
20. [She looks wistfully off into the distance. A breeze blows her hair.]
21. VOICEOVER: Paid for by the committee to elect Christy Martin.
22. [Mark and Karl sit there for a second.]
23. MARK: What was that?
24. KARL: Just—all right—you’ll crush her in the debate, right? Just crush her in the debate.
25. MARK: Sure.
26. [Kyli enters as the debate is set up.]
27. KYLI: And welcome to our first presidential debate! The future of our school hangs in the balance. Tonight will feature the two candidates for president: Mark Davenport and mysterious newcomer Christy Martin, who has surged in recent polls and could be considered the front-runner. We will be featuring a town hall style tonight, in which the moderator, that’s me, will solicit questions from our town hall audience, that’s you. Each candidate will be given one minute to speak, and their opponent will be given a thirty-second rebuttal. All right?
28. [Christy enters. She walks toward Mark and gives him a hug.]
29. CHRISTY: I will crush you like a bug.
30. [She waves and smiles and heads back to her podium. Mark retreats to his.]
31. KYLI: Okay, question number one.
32. [A female student steps forward.]
33. FEMALE STUDENT: Yes—my question is for both candidates: What are your qualifications to be president?
34. MARK: Um... Well uh...I think I’m qualified because I have good ideas—and um... I’m hardworking, and responsible... and awesome.
35. KYLI: You have forty-five more seconds.
36. [Pause.]
37. MARK: Oh. Um... and also . . . because um...I have good ideas. And I like sports.
38. [He stops.] 
39. KYLI: You have thirty-five seconds left.
40. MARK: Oh come on! That was more than ten seconds. How much time do I have left now?
41. KYLI: I’m not counting arguing time against you. You still have thirty-five seconds.
42. MARK: Can I cede the rest of my time to my opponent?
43. KYLI: Sure.
44. CHRISTY: I’m glad you asked this question. And thank you, Mark, for the opportunity to expound on my qualifications. When my family came to this country, they had nothing. My grandfather had a fourth-grade education—and still, he managed to open his own hair salon with just a pair of rusty scissors and a dream. A dream that someday he could provide for his children. That’s what America is about, my friends. Thank you.
45. [Applause.]
46. KYLI: Great answer. And now we’ll take another question.
47. MALE STUDENT: How would you change things here at Presley High School?
48. MARK: Well—I have a three point plan. One—student evaluations for teachers. Two—increased funding for the arts. Three—soda and candy machines. And Three point five—fast food in the cafeteria.
49. [Pause.]
50. KYLI: You have forty seconds left.
51. MARK: I cede the rest of my time to let my opponent lay out her crazy plans.
52. CHRISTY: What we need in this school is change. Change of culture at the very top, and through all levels of the school. And when someone is negative, that creates a negative culture that filters down through all levels. And that’s what I aim to change. Thank you.
53. MARK: You didn’t actually say anything there.
54. CHRISTY: I’m not going to sink to your level of negativity, Mark.
55. MARK: But you didn’t actually say what you’re going to do. You didn’t answer the question.
56. KYLI: All right, all right.
57. CHRISTY: The frustration you’re feeling is understandable because you’re losing, but you don’t need to get hostile. I’m not getting hostile towards you.
58. [Applause from the audience.]
59. KYLI: And that’s all the time we have! Thank you for being in the debates!
60. [Lights change. Christy and everyone leave the stage. Karl and Mark sit on the side.]
61. KARL: Wow.
62. MARK: I don’t get it. I was actually talking about issues. She said nothing the whole time.
63. KARL: She destroyed you.
64. MARK: But she didn’t say anything. She has no plan.
65. KARL: We’ve still got two and a half weeks to turn this thing around. It’ll be all right.

Sneaky Supermarket Spies
Shoppers and Their Buying Habits

1. Shoppers in a grocery store have all kinds of things on their mind as they weave in and out of aisles looking for sales, planning menus, and selecting food. But one new development in supermarket strategy may really surprise them. They’re being watched! And not just by employees or hidden cameras in corners of the store—shoppers and their buying habits are now being tracked in ways they might never imagine.

2. Americans spend about 1.5 billion dollars a day on groceries, but supermarkets and grocery stores want shoppers to spend even more. A typical grocery store has about 50,000 products to sell to customers. Grocery stores have found creative and clever methods to make sure that shoppers buy more of these products.

Who Else Is Watching?
Supermarkets can track your shopping habits, but in what other ways are you tracked as you go about your day?

- Search engines on the Internet track your search data so that the next time you use the search engine, you may see advertisements related to what you have searched for.

- Next time you’re in a car at an intersection, look for a traffic camera. With just a photo of the license-plate number, the police can access a person’s name, address, and driving information.

- The location of many cell phones can be tracked from a computer, which is convenient if you’ve lost your phone. On the other hand, that means that your location can easily be determined by others.

Using Technology to Track and Attract Customers
3. Some stores use heat maps to track which aisles customers linger in, looking at products. This helps supermarket owners and managers figure out where people spend the most time in the store. Many stores provide discount cards that not only offer reduced prices to shoppers but also can electronically track products that customers purchase. At the checkout counter customers will be offered coupons for items similar to their purchases. One supermarket has started giving customers a handheld self-checkout device linked to the store’s discount card. This device alerts customers to sales as they walk by or scan certain products. This may sound convenient, but researchers like Joseph Turow of the University of Pennsylvania worry about customer privacy and the possibility of stores selling the shopping details of their customers to other companies.

Supermarket Strategy
4. Store owners know that milk and eggs are common items on many grocery lists, so these items should be at the front of the store, right? Actually, most stores place those items deeper into the store so that shoppers have to pass tantalizing products on their way to get the needed items. Sights and smells are also powerful and persuasive tools. Florists, bakeries, and produce sections are usually at the front of the store because the items in them will appeal to shoppers’ senses, enticing customers to make purchases. Managers know that red signs get the attention of shoppers and that yellow and white signs have a calming effect. They also know that the human eye is likely to focus on products that are at eye level, so that is where the most expensive products are placed on the shelves. Less expensive products are placed higher or lower. Some companies negotiate with the supermarket to ensure that their products are in prime locations to make them more appealing than a competing brand’s products.

5. Supermarkets know that they can sell products that customers may not even be looking for by placing items commonly bought together, like cheese and crackers, close to each other. Some stores no longer use straight rows of aisles across the store but create loops of aisles that force customers to walk past products they may not ordinarily shop for. And there are other industry tricks that increase food sales. The products at the end of an aisle are more likely to be sold, so items that are close to expiring or that need to sell quickly are often placed there. Many grocers feature chopped or shredded vegetables in their produce departments. Customers like the expediency of these products, but buying them can cost more than twice as much as purchasing the items whole.

Shop Smart
6. While the customer is trying to spend the shortest amount of time and the least amount of money while shopping, the supermarket is trying to encourage the shopper to do the opposite. A study by a food marketing group showed that about 60% of the items bought at the supermarket were not on the customer’s original list. If it sounds sneaky, it is! But an informed customer can see through these gimmicks and avoid coming home with extra items.

Measures 1 skill from
Grade 8
ELAR (2009)
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)

Our brand new solo games combine with your quiz, on the same screen

Measures 1 skill fromGrade 8ELAR (2009)Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)

Our brand new solo games combine with your quiz, on the same screen

Measures 1 skill from
Grade 8
ELAR (2009)
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)