recreations fun things to do, such as sports or hobbies enroll join offi cially remodeled made over or redone expanded made larger bumped into came across muttered spoke unclearly or qui
Trang 11 “Your form isn’t complete, Fiona,” said the
recreations director “I can’t let you enroll in the
folk dancing class until it’s completely fi lled in.”
2 The recreation center is located at the park not
far from my school For years the center had been
used for adult education classes, such as pottery
and language lessons Recently the building was
remodeled and expanded, and they started having
classes for young people, too
3 When I heard there were folk dancing classes, I
immediately went over to enroll I had never fi lled out one of
their forms before, and I didn’t know what the director meant
by the form not being completely fi lled in I looked it over
again
4
5 It looked good to me
6 “You didn’t check a box for race,” she said “To get
government funding, we have to let them know how many
kids we have in each of the race categories.”
7 This was a problem I’d bumped into before, but I still
wasn’t sure how to handle it I took the form from her “I’ll
fi nish it later,” I muttered, and quickly left the recreation
center
recreations fun things to do, such as sports or hobbies
enroll join offi cially
remodeled made over or redone
expanded made larger
bumped into came across
muttered spoke unclearly or quietly
Half and Half
by Lensey Namioka
✓
Analyze Problem/
Solution What is Fiona’s problem?
Why is it a problem?
Reading Strategy
Fiona Cheng 11 2134 Hillside Blvd E Folk Dancing
Seattle, WA
Reading Check
1 Recall details
Why does Fiona need to fi ll out a form?
2 Relate to own experiences
What forms have you fi lled out?
Reading Check ✓
Reading 1
Literature
Trang 28 On the way home, I tried to decide on the best way to complete the form I had to check one of the boxes that said,
“White,” “Asian,” “Black,” “Hispanic,” “Native American,”
or “Other.” None of them would be right, though, because I’m not any one of those things I’m half and half: my father
is Chinese and my mother is Scottish I couldn’t just check either “White” or “Asian” since I’m half of each
9 I suppose I could have checked the box for “Other,” but
I didn’t want to It would make me feel like an outsider, a
weirdo who didn’t belong anywhere I wanted to fi t in like
everyone else Why didn’t they have a box for people like me, who were half and half ?
10 When I got home, Mom was in the kitchen, pouring herself a cup of tea She teaches math
at the university, so she’s often home in the afternoon She drinks tea instead of coffee, even though we live in Seattle, the nation’s coffee
capital Tea is cheaper than coffee since you can use the bag
over again You see, Mom is very thrifty.
11 She says it’s because a mathematician’s aim when proving
a theorem is to use as little as possible to prove as much as
possible In other words, you always spend a teeny bit to get
a whole lot After doing this for years and years, you wind up being ver-r-r-y thr-r-r-ifty
12 I took a seat at the kitchen table “Mom, what am I?”
I asked
13 She frowned “What do you mean? You’re Fiona Cheng,
last time I looked.”
14 “I’m not asking you who I am,” I said “I’m asking you what I am.”
Analyze Problem/
Solution What are
Fiona’s choices for
solving the problem?
Why is Fiona having
a hard time making a
choice?
Reading
Strategy
weirdo a person who seems strange thrifty careful about spending money theorem an idea in math that can be shown to be true frowned had a look of disapproval on her face
Trang 315 “What brought this on?” asked Mom, sipping her tea and
looking at me over the rim of the cup I think she suspected
that the problem had something to do with our family being
racially mixed It’s not something the two of us often discuss.
16 I told her about the form I had to fi ll out for the folk
dancing class Mom didn’t answer right away The
expression in her hazel eyes didn’t tell me much “Why not
check two boxes, one for ‘Asian’ and one for ‘White’?” she
suggested after a while
17 “I don’t think they’ll accept that,” I sighed Suddenly I
became angry “Why do grown-ups always have to sort
people into boxes anyway?”
18 “They like to do that, don’t they?” said Mom “But you
can’t always sort people by the way they look.”
19 To be honest, though, I sorted people, too Whenever I
met another racially mixed kid for the fi rst time, I thought
about percentages I said to myself, “Let’s see … 65%/35%,”
meaning that he looks 65% one race and 35% another Later,
when I got to know the person well, I’d forget about the
percentage business for the most part But it was a tough
habit to break completely Maybe I get it from Mom’s love of
mathematics
racially mixed of more than one race
expression way of appearing or looking
hazel greenish brown
percentages amounts that are parts of 100
tough diffi cult
Analyze Problem/
Solution What
solution does Fiona’s mother offer? Evaluate the
solution against the information about Fiona’s problem in paragraphs 8 and
9 Does it solve her problem? Explain
Reading Strategy
Reading Check
1 Recall details What
kind of work does Fiona’s mother do?
2 Make inferences
Why do you think Fiona thinks about percentages when she fi rst meets racially mixed kids?
3 Identify cause for character action
Why does Fiona’s mother suggest checking two boxes? Why doesn’t Fiona want to check them? Use your knowledge
of character traits
to support your answer
✓
Trang 420 Since Mom wasn’t any help, I went upstairs to Dad’s studio He writes and illustrates children’s books His best-known books are a series about a dragon living in ancient
China Dragons are supposed to do all sorts of good things, like bringing rain to lands suffering from drought But Dad’s
dragon is secretly scared of water, and just about everything
else, too So how can his dragon present a majestic and fearsome image to the world while preserving his shameful
secret? Each of Dad’s books puts his dragon in a tight spot, but the dragon always manages to get out of it somehow
21 I knew Dad was working on the illustrations for his latest dragon book Normally I don’t like to interrupt him, but this time I needed help
22 Dad looked up from his drawing board and placed a large sheet of paper over the picture he was working on He always
does this automatically whenever anyone comes in while
he’s in the middle of something He hates having people look
at his work before he’s satisfi ed with it
drought a period of time with little or no rainfall majestic spectacular; grand
preserving guarding or protecting automatically without thinking about it
Analyze Problem/
Solution Why does
Fiona go to see her
father? What kind of
help does she need?
Use your knowledge
of Fiona’s situation
and motivation to
support your answer
Reading
Strategy
Trang 5[B-A-1-17: same setting as previous illustration,
but girl is now talking with father]
What’s up? informal (social) way of asking, “What are you doing?” “How are you?”
“What is happening?”
accurate exact or correct
23 “What’s up, Fiona?” he asked.
24 I asked him the same question I had asked Mom “I have
to fi ll out a form for the folk dancing class, and they want to
know what race I am Should I check the box for ‘Asian,’ or
the box for ‘White’?”
25 Dad looked at me His eyes are a dark brown, just like
mine “Would it bother you to check the box for ‘Asian’?” he
asked
26 “Of course it wouldn’t,” I said quickly I’ve always known
that I look more Asian I have my dad’s brown eyes, straight
dark hair, and dark skin By checking the box for “Asian,” I
would be telling him that I belonged with his people
27 “It’s just that I have to be accurate,” I told Dad “The
recreation center has to report the number of kids they have
in each race to get money from the government.”
28 “Then you should do whatever feels right to you,” said
Dad
29 The problem was that I didn’t know what felt right to me
Analyze Problem/
Solution What is the fi rst solution
that Fiona’s father suggests? Evaluate the solution against the information about Fiona’s problem
in paragraphs 8 and 9 What is the second solution? Does either solution solve her problem?
Explain Why might
he respond this way? How does Fiona feel about her father’s response?
Reading Strategy
Reading Check
1 Recall details
What kind of work does Fiona’s father do?
2 Recall details
Who does Fiona look like?
3 Identify cause for character action
Why does Fiona’s father suggest checking the box for “Asian”?
Why doesn’t Fiona like the suggestion? Use your knowledge of character traits and motives to answer
✓
Trang 630 There was only one person left to ask: my brother, Ron
He’s twelve years old and had reddish hair and much paler
skin than mine He takes after Mom I look about 30% white and 70% Asian, while Ron looks maybe 75% white and 25% Asian
31 Ron is small for his age, and he’s sensitive about his size
He’s very conscious that he’s exactly the same height as me, even though he’s a year older Mom keeps telling him, “Boys get their growth spurt later, Ron By the time you’re sixteen, you’ll overtake Fiona in height.”
32 That’s not much comfort to Ron If you’re twelve, sixteen seems an awfully long way off
33 Ron used to get picked on by some bullies in school, so
Dad had him enroll in kung fu classes to give him confi dence Nobody picks on Ron now But I know he’s still conscious
of being one of the shortest boys in his class, and more than
anything else, he hates being called a sissy.
34 I went up to his room “Say, Ron, you’re signing up for the
kickboxing team at the recreation center, right?”
35 He looked up from his homework “Yeah, so?”
Analyze Problem/
Solution Why does
Fiona go to see her
brother?
Reading
Strategy
paler lighter in color sensitive easily hurt or affected emotionally picked on teased or bothered
sissy a cowardly, weak boy or man kickboxing a sport in which players punch with gloves and kick with bare feet
Trang 736 “Have you fi lled out the form yet?” I asked.
37 “It’s fi lled out and ready to hand in.”
38 “Which box did you check for race?”
39 Ron looked at me His eyes are a light brown, not quite
Mom’s hazel, but not dark brown like Dad’s, either “Let’s see
…,” he said “I guess I checked the box for ‘Other.’”
40 “And that was okay with you?” I asked
41 “Why should it?” he asked “None of the other boxes
seemed to fi t.”
42 “But doesn’t that bother you? That anyone who doesn’t
fi t into one of the categories on the form is just lumped into
‘Other’?”
43 Ron shrugged “I kind of like it when they can’t fi t me in a
box so easily.”
44 I decided that I would check the ‘Other’ box as my race
after all when I fi lled out the recreation form It wouldn’t
make me an outsider or a weirdo Since I didn’t fi t in one of
the boxes for race, I didn’t have to choose one culture over
another
Solution How does Fiona fi nd a solution
to her problem? What
is her solution? Why does she choose it?
Reading Strategy
culture the ideas, activities (art, foods, businesses), and ways of behaving that are
special to a country, people, or region
Reading Check ✓
1 Recall details
What does Ron look like?
2 Interpret meaning
Ron says, “I kind
of like it when they can’t fi t me in a box
so easily.” What does he mean?