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Study Island Assignment #12

Drawing Inferences

Dispatches from a Public Librarian
by Scott Douglas

Tale #1: In Which an Elderly Patron Unintentionally Tries to Destroy a Computer

     Elderly patrons are very sweet people who very frequently bring me food, tell me how much they appreciate the library�s presence in the neighborhood, and small-talk about their favorite mysteries and true-crime books. They�re pleasant to be around�unless they want to use a computer. I am convinced that grandkids are inherently evil people who tell their grandparents to �just go to the library and open up an e-mail account�it�s free and so simple.�
     Of course, the free part gets them to the library in swarms, and, of course, they don�t want to take part in the library�s free Internet classes because . . . well, in the words of one elderly patron, �I don�t need a class because my grandkid said it was simple, and you can just show me the basics.� One such elderly patron came to the library not too long ago with such ideas. Strangely, his trouble was not so much opening an e-mail account as it was using the print card.
     Print cards are pesky little things librarians institute for the sake of harassing patrons and discouraging them from printing anything. Often, it works, but this little old man was persistent. I showed him step by step what to do to print, and he was doing pretty well. He seemed to be paying careful attention: he hit the print button like a pro, walked to the print station like a king. Then he screwed up�big time. At the print station, another patron told me some teenagers had just said a cuss word to her five-year-old son and then ran off to the boys� room, where she was pretty sure they were up to no good. I told the elderly gentleman to hang tight and I�d be right back to help him.
     I learned in just a short time that expecting him to hang tight was a mistake. When I returned to the man, he looked hopelessly confused. �It didn�t work,� he explained, frustrated. �And it won�t give me my print card back.� I walked to the print station and stared for several seconds at the card reader. I studied it from several angles but did not see his card. �You�re sure it didn�t come out?� I asked. He nodded, but then pointed at his computer. �It�s in there.�
     I looked at the computer, confused. He pointed at the floppy-disk drive and said, �I tried pushing the button, but it still won�t come out.� I kneeled down and immediately saw the print card wedged deep inside the floppy-disk drive. I had seen paper clips, scrap paper, and pencils inside the floppy-disk drive, but this was the first print card.
     I went to the workroom to get out some tweezers, and when I returned, the man was gone. I never saw him again.
adapted from http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/librarian/dispatch8.html

1.	What can the reader infer about the elderly man?

	A.	He thinks his grandkids are "inherently evil."
	B.	He thinks the narrator is a bad librarian.
	C.	He does not have computer experience.
	D.	He got angry and scared the teenagers.

2.	What information from the passage shows that the old man was embarrassed by his mistake?

	A.	He talked to the librarian about books.
	B.	He asked the librarian for help with printing.
	C.	He left and did not return to the library.
	D.	He wanted to attend a free Internet class.

     Adriana Gonzalez is finally turning 15. �I can�t wait to have my quincea�era!� she said as she excitedly told all her friends about the big party she was planning.
      Adriana and her mom had already picked out a beautiful, flowing white dress for her quincea�era. It had a full skirt and a train. �I feel like Cinderella in this dress, Mommy,� she had whispered in the store the first time she tried it on.
     Adriana�s mother�s eyes had lit up when she saw Adriana in the mirror. �Oh mija, my daughter! You have grown into such a beautiful young woman, right before my very eyes,� she said with tears in her eyes, before turning to the shop keeper. �We�ll take the dress.�
     �The best part is, you all get to participate in the party too,� Adriana told her friends. �You ladies get to be on my court. You will wear beautiful dresses, too, and have escorts,� she said. �We�ll all dance a big waltz.�
     The girls chattered eagerly about the party the rest of the day. Each already knew who she wanted her escort to be for the quincea�era. When she got home, Adriana found out her parents had invited family members from out of town to come for the occasion. �You can invite people from school too,� her mom said.
     When they went to pick up decorations for the party with her padrinos, or god parents, Adriana got to pick out whatever she wanted. �We just want you to be happy and enjoy your special night,� her dad said. Adriana was the happiest she had ever been. Her 15th was going to be the best birthday ever!

3.	Which sentence best supports the inference that Adriana's parents care about their daughter?

	A.	"Her 15th was going to be the best birthday ever!"
	B.	" 'We just want you to be happy and enjoy your special night,' her dad said."
	C.	" 'You will wear beautiful dresses, too, and have escorts,' she said."
	D.	"The girls chattered eagerly about the party the rest of the day."

     At the Blue Bonnet Caf� in Marble Falls, the owners say every customer is a celebrity. And the pie is so good it makes you want to holler.
      John and Belinda Kemper, the cafe's owners, have served locals, presidents, governors and celebrities, including Willie Nelson, who once called for tips on hiring cooks, the couple said.
      Over the years, the Blue Bonnet has become the unofficial gathering place for a town that looks postcard pretty from the bridge that crosses the Colorado River at Lake Marble Falls. J.C. Cornelius, who sipped coffee and joked with the waitresses on a recent weekday, used to slip into the cafe at 5 a.m., before it opened, to make coffee.
      "We've been sort of a sleepy community until about five years ago," said Mayor Scott Giddings, who moved from Minnesota 18 years ago.

Which conclusion can the reader draw after reading the passage?

	A.	The Blue Bonnet Caf� is the only caf� in town.
	B.	Scott Giddings has a Minnesota accent.
	C.	J.C. Cornelius owns the Blue Bonnet Caf�.
	D.	Marble Falls has grown considerably in the past five years.

     Shori took an acting class in eighth grade and enjoyed it. In fact, she thinks she may want to become an actress. Next year, Shori is going to high school and has heard a lot about the Paul Robeson High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. After some encouragement from her friends, she decided to check the school out a bit more. I�ll stop by the counselor�s office to pick up an application after school, Shori thought.
     On the bus ride home from school, she flipped through the application requirements. Shori was surprised to find out students must audition and perform a scene from a play as part of the application for the acting department.
     �I�ve never performed a scene by myself,� Shori said. �Oh boy, I can either do really well or totally embarrass myself!�
     She lay awake in bed all night thinking about her audition. What play could Shori use? Would she be able to remember her lines in front of a room full of strangers? What if she wasn�t good enough for the acting program?
     �Bzzzzzzz!� her alarm clock was going off. Shori didn�t even realize she had finally fallen asleep. As she hurried to get dressed in time to catch the bus for school, she knocked over her entire DVD collection. One of the silvery disks fell from its case and rolled under her mahogany desk. I know if I don�t get this DVD right now, I�ll forget about it, Shori thought, as she felt under the desk for the movie.
     �Gotcha!� she said and pulled it out. As she turned it over, the title�s crisp white lettering made her heart skip a beat. The DVD was a copy of Romeo and Juliet. �This must be a sign,� Shori said to herself as she placed the movie back in its case.
      After school, Shori headed over to the library to check out a book of Shakespeare�s plays and immediately began memorizing a scene from Romeo and Juliet, her favorite play.

5.	Why does Shori check out a book of Shakespeare's plays?

	A.	Shori plans to perform a scene from Romeo and Juliet for her audition.
	B.	Shori plans to use the book as a doorstop because it's pretty thick.
	C.	Shori will read A Midsummer Night's Dream with her mom and dad.
	D.	Shori is going to act out scenes from Hamlet with her friends for fun.

     After considering an outside search to fill one of its most visible positions, the University of Texas named one of its own employees Friday to lead the McCombs School of Business.
      George Gau, 54, will replace outgoing dean Bob May, who will return to teaching. In a career dating to 1988, Gau has earned a strong reputation for starting joint ventures with businesses and creating a nationally recognized real estate program.
     UT President Larry Faulkner said Friday in a letter to administrators and search committee members that he spent the past three weeks trying to decide whether to choose Gau or look for an outsider who might bring a higher profile and shake things up.
      "There was a hope by many involved in this search that we could recruit the right person from the outside, in part just because we had gone inside for so long. I was among them," Faulkner wrote. "However, my hope does not extend to the point of being willing to take a pass on the strongest candidate just because he comes from the inside."

What conclusion can the reader draw about Mr. Gau?

	A.	He graduated from the University of Texas.
	B.	He worked for the University of Texas before he was picked to lead the business school.
	C.	He wanted the job more than the other candidates did.
	D.	He is personal friends with Mr. Faulkner and other administrators.

Saul and his brother Nick are crazy about sports. They are constantly playing, though never the same sport. Saul loves tennis. He plays on his school team and has won several tournaments. He loves to watch Pete Sampras play. In the summer, when he's not in school, Saul plays tennis for ten hours a day. Nick, on the other hand...

What words might come next?

	A.	plays twelve hours of tennis a day
	B.	likes Andre Aggasi better than Sampras
	C.	spends his time playing football
	D.	has only won two tennis tournaments

Quadratic
by Michael Martone

     Mr. Clark taught four sections of high-school algebra that year. The classes met in the first four periods of the day, finishing up before we juniors went to lunch. Early in the semester, we noticed Mr. Clark had a persistent habit of speech.
     Some of us were also taking a speech class. Mr. Schultz, the speech teacher, had us do what he called a "clapping speech." It was meant to illuminate the little things we say and do without thinking, like saying "you know" or looking up at the ceiling to remember the next word. Mr. Schultz listened to us give a speech and picked out a particular tick you were repeating. Then he clapped his hands together, startlingly loud. You'd jump, but you would have to go on with your speech, trying to figure out what you were doing.
     Mr. Clark said "for it" at the end of his sentences. He did it so many times you would be clapping all the time if the class were a clapping speech. He didn't seem to notice. "This is what you would do for it." It got worse as the semester wore on. He would point to the problem on the board and simply say, "for it." Then he even began saying "for it, for it," sending my classmates into fits of laughter. "What's so funny, for it?" he asked.
     All the classes had been driven to distraction by this. Everyone was keeping track and comparing figures at lunch. Mark Maxwell organized the effort and designated a counter for each class. At lunch each day, he posted the final tally. He kept running charts and bar graphs. There was a special category for the double "for it" and a place for the triple "for it" that never came.
     Mr. Clark commented often on our attentiveness. We were hanging onto his every word. We waited through his long string of explanations and proofs to get to his conclusion of "for it." We looked for patterns at lunch. Some tried to cook the books, asking questions about the material designed to make Mr. Clark think. This made it all the more likely he would utter the phrase during his reflections.
     Mr. Clark gave an assignment to create our own quadratic equations. We all used "i" and "t" as variables. At the board, Mr. Clark reduced and cancelled our integers. He drew the final equals sign and solved for "x." The answer was always the same: x= 4it. He tapped the chalkboard and turned to us triumphantly. "The solution is four-eye-tee, for it." We applauded.
     We didn't learn a thing about quadratics, of course. I am writing this, years later, on graph paper I found lying around. I like filling in the spaces of the grid, one letter to a square, a few words in each ten by ten box of squares. I am doing this early in the morning before my kids wake up. They find everything I do very strange.
adapted from http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/20minutes/quadratic.html

8.	Which statement from the passage above supports the inference that Mr. Clark was most likely unaware of what was going on?

	A.	"Then he clapped his hands together, startlingly loud."
	B.	"We didn't learn a thing about quadratics, of course."
	C.	"Mr. Clark commented often on our attentiveness."
	D.	"Mr. Clark taught four sections of high-school algebra that year."

9.	The reader can infer from the passage that Mr. Clark

	A.	liked that his students laughed in class.
	B.	was a very effective algebra teacher.
	C.	said "for it" so his students would pay attention.
	D.	was unaware of his habit of saying "for it."

10.

The reader can tell from the passage that sometimes kids

	A.	treat teachers cruelly.
	B.	have poor speech habits.
	C.	are not good at math.
	D.	think adults behave oddly.

(1)     It was almost December, and Jonas was frightened. All of the citizens had been ordered to go into the nearest building and stay there. "IMMEDIATELY," the rasping voice through the speakers had said. "LEAVE YOUR BICYCLES WHERE THEY ARE."
(2)     Instantly, obediently, Jonas had dropped his bike on its side on the path behind his family's dwelling. He had run indoors and stayed there, alone.
(3)     Looking through the front window, he had seen no people. He saw only the abandoned bikes. The sense of his own community silent, waiting, had made his stomach churn. He had trembled.
(4)     But it had been nothing. Within minutes the speakers had crackled again, and the voice, reassuring now and less urgent, had explained that a Pilot-in-Training had misread his navigational instructions and made a wrong turn. Desperately the Pilot had been trying to make his way back before his error was noticed.
(5)     "NEEDLESS TO SAY, HE WILL BE RELEASED," the voice had said, followed by silence. For a contributing citizen to be released from the community was a final decision, a terrible punishment, an overwhelming statement of failure.
(6)     Even the children were scolded if they used the term lightly at play, jeering at a teammate who missed a catch or stumbled in a race. Jonas had done it once, had shouted at his best friend, "That's it, Asher! You're released!" when Asher's clumsy error had lost a match for his team. He had been taken aside for a brief and serious talk by the coach.
(7)     Now, Jonas was careful about language. Not like his friend, Asher, who talked too fast and mixed things up, scrambling words and phrases until they were barely recognizable and often very funny.
(8)     Jonas grinned, remembering the morning that Asher had dashed into the classroom, late as usual, arriving breathlessly in the middle of the chanting of the morning anthem. When the class took their seats at the conclusion of the patriotic hymn, Asher remained standing to make his public apology as was required.
(9)     "I apologize for inconveniencing my learning community." Asher ran through the standard apology phrase rapidly, still catching his breath. The Instructor and class waited patiently for his explanation. The students had all been grinning, because they had listened to Asher's explanations so many times before.
(10)     "I left home at the correct time but when I was riding along near the hatchery, the crew was separating some salmon. I guess I just got distraught, watching them.
(11)     "I apologize to my classmates," Asher concluded. He smoothed his rumpled tunic and sat down.
(12)     "We accept your apology, Asher." The class recited the standard response in unison. Many of the students were biting their lips to keep from laughing.
(13)     "I accept your apology, Asher," the Instructor said. He was smiling. "And I thank you, because once again you have provided an opportunity for a lesson in language. 'Distraught' is too strong an adjective to describe salmon-viewing." He turned and wrote "distraught" on the instructional board. Beside it he wrote "distracted."
adapted from The Giver by Lois Lowry

11.

Based on the information in this selection, which inference can be made?

	A.	The kids in Asher's class looked up to and respected him.
	B.	The rest of the community was as frightened as Jonas.
	C.	Any kid who did not behave in class would be expelled.
	D.	Asher was not the only student who often came late to class.

12.

In paragraph 9, Asher is required to say, "I apologize for inconveniencing my learning community." This punishment suggests that Asher is expected to feel

	A.	suspicious of his teacher and his classmates.
	B.	angry for having to apologize to the class again.
	C.	ashamed for having let down his classmates.
	D.	pleased and proud of his behavior in class.

13.

The reader can infer from paragraph 13 that the Instructor

	A.	respects Asher for his bold behavior.
	B.	thinks the punishment should be stricter.
	C.	has reached the end of his patience.
	D.	tolerates Asher's lateness to class.

14.

When Asher shows up late to class and begins apologizing, the reader can infer that

	A.	Asher purposely came to school late as an act of rebellion.
	B.	Jonas is someone that Asher wishes he could be more like.
	C.	Asher is more popular with the students than Jonas is.
	D.	Jonas is entertained by his friend Asher's behavior.

15.

Which sentence from the story supports the idea that the society does not tolerate mistakes?

	A.	" 'And I thank you, because once again you have provided an opportunity for a lesson in language.' "
	B.	" 'NEEDLESS TO SAY, HE WILL BE RELEASED,' the voice had said, followed by silence."
	C.	"Asher ran through the standard apology phrase rapidly, still catching his breath."
	D.	"All of the citizens had been ordered to go into the nearest building and stay there."