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Grade 8

8.RI.6 

NCSCOS Grade 8 ELA / Reading - Skill: 8.RI.6 

PADRE ISLAND NATIONAL SEASHORE, TEXAS
Park Geology 
Profile of a Barrier Island 

Padre Island is one of a chain of islands that stretches along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States from Maine to Texas. These islands are barrier islands, so-called because they guard the mainland from the direct onslaught of storms. On many of these low-lying islands, man has left his mark: seaside homes, lighthouses, fishing villages, vacation resorts. But on Padre Island, it is not the work of man but the handiwork of nature that is most evident. 

Padre Island, like all barrier islands, is a dynamic place where you can witness change: 
•        change wrought by the gentle touch of breezes, 
•        by the relentless crashing of waves, 
•        by the rhythmic coming and going of tides, and, most dramatically, by the violent battering of tropical storms and hurricanes. 
The many environments of Padre Island-beach, dunes, grasslands, and tidal flats-are shaped and reshaped daily in response to these natural sculptors. You can see the signs of change everywhere: sand blowing in the wind, new seashells deposited by a wave, a washover channel cut into the island by the power of a great storm. Another more subtle change that is occurring, according to scientists, is the slow expansion of the entire island toward the mainland as winds and storms deposit sand on the island's west side. 

The plants and animals of Padre Island are well-adapted to the ever-changing nature of their native home. Sea oats, for example, thrive here. This wild shore plant is a pioneer species, one that moves into areas of loose, blowing sand where few other plants can grow and takes root. With the sand anchored by roots, other plants take hold and dunes grow, sometimes to heights of 30 or 40 feet. The dunes are held in place unless something destroys the plants. A particularly fierce storm can do it. People can do it, by trampling the grasses or driving over them; that's why hiking and driving in the dunes are prohibited. 

For years, legends have been told of great treasures hidden on Padre Island and just off its shores. The stories are of fortunes of gold and silver carried by Spanish galleons lost at sea and of vast sums of money and gems buried in the sand. Some of this wealth has indeed been found, and more may be discovered in the future. Meanwhile, there are natural treasures just as great-perhaps even greater-to enjoy in Padre Island National Seashore. Located along the south Texas coast, this sparkling preserve by the sea embraces 80 miles of white sand-and-shell beaches, picturesque windswept dunes, wild landscapes of grasslands and tidal flats teeming with shore life, and warm offshore waters. The National Seashore is one of the longest stretches of primitive, undeveloped ocean beach in the United States. Throughout this coastal wilderness, you can enjoy the riches of relaxation and recreation. 
•        If you're a beach-lover, the sun, sand, and surf of Padre Island are ideal for swimming and sunbathing almost all year. 
•        If you're a fisherman, you can choose between the Gulf of Mexico and the shallow, extremely salty waters of Laguna Madre-both are renowned for their bounty of game fish. 

For those who delight in the discovery of a seashell of exquisite design and color, or a peculiar piece of driftwood, there are miles of shoreline for beachcombing. Campers can awake to the sights and sounds of water and island birds such as gulls, herons, and ducks that live by the water's edge. If it's adventure and a chance to get away from it all that you seek, you can hike or drive a 4-wheel-drive vehicle along the long roadless Gulf beach. For those who like to poke around in the past, Padre Island has a history of small Indian tribes that once hunted and fished here, shipwrecks, hurricanes, cattle ranches, and oil and gas exploration. However you spend your time at Padre Island National Seashore, the rewards will be generous.

QUEEN'S ENGLISH
by Janice Weaver 

The English language, now spoken by about half a billion people worldwide, was actually brought to England by invaders from northern Germany. In the mid-fifth century A.D., three seafaring tribes-the Angles, the Jutes, and the Saxons-saw their chance to fill the void left by departing Roman soldiers and launched their own assault on the southern and eastern coasts of England (or "the land of the Angles"). The language they carried with them across the cold and stormy North Sea developed into Old English, then Middle English, and finally Modern English, the most widely used language in the world. 

English is often accused of being an impossibly complicated language, horribly difficult for nonnative speakers to learn. It is full of words like "eight" and "enough" and "feign," which look as if they should be pronounced something like ey-get, en-oog, and fi-gen, but of course are not. In fact, though, people who study languages tell us that about 84 percent of English words are entirely straightforward and get pronounced exactly as they seem they should. Another 13 percent follow the rules closely enough that most people can sound them out without making too many mistakes. The problems lie in the final 3 percent, a small but troublesome group of words that don't behave in any predictable fashion and simply have to be committed to memory. Unfortunately for anyone trying to learn the language, that 3 percent includes four hundred of our most commonly used words, such as "of," "four," "done," and "love." 

English is probably the world's most well-documented language, and this is one reason why so many illogical spellings have survived through to the present day. People began producing English-language dictionaries almost as soon as the printing press was invented in Europe, in the 1400s . . . and these dictionaries fixed, perhaps for all time, many of the spellings that make the least sense to us today. 

Over the past four centuries or so, a number of people have argued for the simplification of English spellings. One of them, Noah Webster, the creator of the 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language, was successful enough in his efforts that, to this day, Britons and Americans spell many words differently (with Canadians, as always, trying to occupy a neutral middle ground). Webster gave the world -or spellings instead of -our (favor/favour), -er instead of -re (center/centre), and -yze instead of -yse (analyze/analyse). He also introduced many phonetic spellings-that is, spellings based on how words sound-including "skeptical" (for "sceptial"), "plow" (for "plough"), and "check" (for "cheque"). One theory is that Webster hoped to make the language more rule-abiding so that Americans, who tended to have less formal education, could more easily learn to read and write.
 
But Webster was, by all accounts, a grim, miserable man, and in the end, he was not able to talk people around to accepting some of his more radical changes, like spelling "women" as wimmen and "tough" as tuf. He learned that the more common a word is, the greater the resistance to changing it. There's hardly an English-speaker on earth who won't for example, oppose spelling "of" as ov, whether it makes more sense or not. 

We hang on to many of our oddest spellings because, for one thing, they reflect the English language's far-reaching linguistic ancestry. Though it began life as a Germanic dialect, English has, over 1500 years, picked up influences from all over the world. It is estimated, for instance, that when the Normans ruled England, from 1066 to 1154, they introduced ten thousand French-derived words into the language, a full three-quarters of which we still use today. We have also borrowed freely from Latin, Greek, Danish, Swedish, Spanish, and even Russian. In fact, many people have argued that one of the great strengths of English is its willingness to embrace words from just about anywhere. We adopt, without translation, terms like "macho," "kindergarten," "maitre d", " and, more recently, "smorgasbord" and "glasnost." This gives our language a richness and an inclusiveness that others sometimes lack. (Although English, of course, has repaid the favor, infiltrating languages all over the globe, and sometimes creating hybrid monsters like Denglish, a mix of German and English, and Franglais, a mix of English and French.) 

Today, most language experts agree that there are about 200,000 English words in everyday use. (French makes do with roughly half that number.) With a language so vast, we can often be more precise with meaning than non-English speakers, distinguishing between, for example, "earth" and "ground," "house" and "home," "story" and "history," And the language continues to grow and evolve, transforming itself to meet the requirements of an ever-changing world. When the first English-language dictionaries were published, they listed about 3,000 words. Samuel Johnson's landmark Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755, contained 43,000 words, and the granddaddy of them all, the Oxford English Dictionary, has a mind-boggling 615,000. When you add all the scientific, medical, and technical terms that don't get included in dictionaries meant for the general public, you're probably talking about many millions of words, with perhaps tens of thousands more being coined with each passing year.

SPLASHY RIVER TOWN
by Kim Cross 

Chattanooga just keeps getting better. Ditch your car, and discover new surprises around every bend. 

REBIRTH ON THE RIVERBANK
Take a walk down Chattanooga's Riverfront to meet a city that dared to dream big. Fountains meander around buildings like streams. Outdoor art enlivens every step from the aquarium to the art museum. Families gather on the banks of the Tennessee River, where live music spills from a floating stage. People are walking, talking, smiling at strangers, crossing the river on a sky blue footbridge. This is what every city strives to be: a safe haven, a vibrant gathering spot, a place where people want to bring their kids and dogs and friends. This is the new Chattanooga. 

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Unveiled in May 2005, Chattanooga's Riverfront has been heralded as a model of urban renewal. Its scenic network of parks and pathways links restaurants, shops, and family attractions along the river. Where slabs of concrete once lined the bank, grassy terraces cascade toward the water, a soft and scenic gathering spot for sunsets and special events. During concerts, this serves as an amphitheater. Kayakers paddle to the best seat in the house while boats tie up to the pier. 
Visitors kick off their shoes and splash barefoot down the waterfall stairs that meet six fountains arcing into the river. This is The Passage, a special place that honors those who gathered here before embarking on the Trail of Tears. Cherokee symbols engraved in seven bronze discs tell their story. 

A STORY OF HOPE
Nearby, established attractions reveal their own extreme makeovers. The Tennessee Aquarium doubled its size in 2005 with a new saltwater wing. (It formerly featured mostly freshwater fauna. Now it boasts a shark tank, a butterfly garden, and a penguin exhibit.) Creative Discovery Museum expanded with dynamic exhibits for kids. The Hunter Museum of American Art grew into a spectacular metal flower of a building with a new wing designed by ultramodern architect Randall Stout. Inside, its interactive exhibits and plain-English guides have made it easier to "get" fine art. This award-winning building connects with the waterfront via sculpture-lined paths and a stunning bridge of steel and glass that lights up at night, an architectural marvel in itself. 

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To appreciate the city's transformation, consider its past. In 1969, Walter Cronkite declared Chattanooga the nation's dirtiest city. Soot from the iron mills stained the air. The river was tainted, its banks an industrial wasteland. "All we had was hot pavement with litter blowing across it," remembers former mayor Bob Corker, a Chattanoogan who envisioned what his city could be. Now a U.S. Senator, Corker set in motion a plan for a cleaner, greener, friendlier Chattanooga. 

RICH IN HISTORY
Even before Senator Corker got involved, the rebirth started with the 1992 opening of the Tennessee Aquarium, which drew more than 1 million visitors that first year. Restaurants, shops, and attractions sprang up like wildflowers around a stream. The Bluff View Arts District flourished into a neighborhood of galleries, bistros, and bed-and-breakfasts, all tucked in historic homes on the river bluff. 

The energy spread across the river to the North Shore, where cafes and shops popped up along Frazier Avenue. Family-friendly Coolidge Park came alive with children splashing around a giant fountain and riding a refurbished carousel, whose fanciful beasts were hand-carved locally. The Walnut Street Bridge, built in 1891 and condemned in the 1970s, was saved and restored as a pedestrian bridge that spans the river. "We've connected our city so people can walk," says Senator Corker, who helped raise $120 million to complete the city's transformation in just 35 months. 

WALKABLE DOWNTOWN
Making Chattanooga pedestrian friendly was the smartest move of all. Parking can be tough during big events, but you can push a stroller everywhere. Most of the attractions lie within a 5- to 15-minute walk from the aquarium. (A sidewalk elevator carries wheelchairs and strollers up a steep hill.) The new water taxi ferries visitors across the river for $3, and a free electric shuttle stops by the Chattanooga Choo Choo, restaurants, the Sheraton Read House Hotel, and the aquarium. Joggers and cyclists cruise the 13-mile Riverwalk that extends from downtown to the Chickamauga Dam. 

An utterly inspiring turnaround, Chattanooga proves that a vision, a plan, and a community that cooperates can make big dreams happen. We hope other Southern cities on the rise will dare to follow its footpaths.

Measures 1 skill from
Grade 8
English
North Carolina Standard Course of Study

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Measures 1 skill fromGrade 8EnglishNorth Carolina Standard Course of Study

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

Measures 1 skill from
Grade 8
English
North Carolina Standard Course of Study