Unit 4: Independent Reading

In summertime, railroads might have to stop service because the heat expands the steel tracks, putting them out of alignment.

Periodic dust storms are normal on the Great Plains.

Since nothing could be done about the storms, you accepted the inconvenience and waited until they passed.

Trillions of dust particles striking against each other generated static electricity. Sometimes there was so much electricity in the air that it knocked people down if they shook hands.

Because the crops live for only one season and have shallow root systems, they do not survive prolonged heat and dry spells.

New York was obscured in a half-light similar to the light cast by the sun in a partial eclipse.

The result, Erica learned, would be a calamity for the area. Some people
estimated that the facility would spew hundreds of tons of pollutants into the air and waters of nearby coastal towns each year.

In 2007, Erica's passion and tenacity was rewarded when she was selected as one of six young people to receive the Brower Youth Award.

Eleven-year-old Kek comes from a country in Africa that has been torn apart by civil war. He was part of a nomadic herding culture.

Dave Kek reunited with his aunt and cousin, who entered America months earlier.

Will Kek find it hard to make an adjustment to a whole new way of learning?

Waiting in a big-windowed room
is a woman with black hair that dances
and sturdy arms
and eyes that tell jokes.

I smother the thought
like an ember near dry grass.

The eating room is grand
with long tables
and strange and wonderful smells
and many students chattering.

Nyima would be her mentor, and Aminata could be a griotte like her.

She spoke, too, in Mandinka and French, and she could see in the faces of her classmates that they had a sudden rapport.