English | Graded Assignment | Interim Checkpoint 3, Part 2

Name: Date:
Graded Assignment
Interim Checkpoint 3, Part 2

Total score: ____ of 15 points

(Score for Question 1: ___ of 5 points)

1. Read the passage. Then answer the question.

excerpt from “Living or Dead?” by Rabindranath Tagore

(This excerpt from “Living or Dead?” contains authentic references to cultural and historical practices of
the past, so it is authentic to the time period and the place, India. Many of these practices would be
considered archaic or inappropriate by today’s standards, but they serve as an important lesson to help
readers imagine what life was like in other times and places, so they are better able to understand and
appreciate the evolution of societies over time.)
The widow in the house of Saradasankar, the Ranihat zemindar, had no kinsmen of her father's family.
One after another all had died. Nor had she in her husband's family any one she could call her own,
neither husband nor son. The child of her brother-in-law Saradasankar was her darling. For a long time
after his birth, his mother had been very ill, and the widow, his aunt Kadambini, had fostered him. If a
woman fosters another's child, her love for him is all the stronger because she has no claim upon him—
no claim of kinship, that is, but simply the claim of love. Love cannot prove its claim by any document
which society accepts, and does not wish to prove it; it merely worships with double passion its life's
uncertain treasure. Thus all the widow's thwarted love went out towards this little child. One night in
Sraban, Kadambini died suddenly. For some reason her heart stopped beating. Everywhere else the
world held on its course; only in this gentle little breast, suffering with love, the watch of time stood still
forever.
Lest they should be harassed by the poike, four of the zemindar's Brahmin servants took away the body,
without ceremony, to be burned. The burning-ground of Ranihat was very far from the village. There was
a hut beside a tank, a huge banian near it, and nothing more. Formerly, a river, now completely dried up,
ran through the ground, and part of the watercourse had been dug out to make a tank for the performance
of funeral rites. The people considered the tank as part of the river and reverenced it as such.
Taking the body into the hut, the four men sat down to wait for the wood. The time seemed so long that
two of the four grew restless and went to see why it did not come. Nitai and Gurucharan being gone,
Bidhu and Banamali remained to watch over the body.
It was a dark night of Sraban. Heavy clouds hung in a starless sky. The two men sat silent in the dark
room. Their matches and lamp were useless. The matches were damp, and would not light, for all their
efforts, and the lantern went out.
After a long silence, one said: "Brother, it would be good if we had a bowl of tobacco. In our hurry we
brought none."
The other answered: "I can run and bring all we want."
Understanding why Banarnali wanted to go (from fear of ghosts, the burning-ground being considered
haunted), Bidhu said: "I daresay! Meanwhile, I suppose I am to sit here alone!"
Conversation ceased again. Five minutes seemed like an hour. In their minds they cursed the two, who
had gone to fetch the wood, and they began to suspect that they sat gossiping in some pleasant nook.
There was no sound anywhere, except the incessant noise of frogs and crickets from the tank. Then
suddenly they fancied that the bed shook slightly, as if the dead body had turned on its side. Bidhu and
Banamali trembled and began muttering: "Ram, Ram." A deep sigh was heard in the room. In a moment
the watchers leapt out of the hut and raced for the village.

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 English | Graded Assignment | Interim Checkpoint 3, Part 2
After running about three miles, they met their colleagues coming back with a lantern. As a matter of fact,
they had gone to smoke and knew nothing about the wood. But they declared that a tree had been cut
down and that, when it was split up, it would be brought along at once. Then Bidhu and Banamali told
them what had happened in the hut. Nitai and Gurucharan scoffed at the story, and abused Bidhu and
Banamali angrily for leaving their duty.
Without delay all four returned to the hut. As they entered, they saw at once that the body was gone;
nothing but an empty bed remained. They stared at one another. Could a jackal have taken it? But there
was no scrap of clothing anywhere. Going outside, they saw that on the mud that had collected at the
door of the hut there were a woman's tiny footprints, newly made. Saradasankar was no fool, and they
could hardly persuade him to believe in this ghost story. So after much discussion the four decided that it
would be best to say that the body had been burnt.
Towards dawn, when the men with the wood arrived they were told that, owing to their delay, the work
had been done without them; there had been some wood in the hut after all. No one was likely to question
this, since a dead body is not such a valuable property that anyone would steal it.
What cultural experiences are reflected in the excerpt from “Living or Dead?” How does the culture and the history
of the time period affect the passage? Use evidence from the text to support your response. Your response
should be at least one paragraph.
Answer:
Type your answer here.

(Score for Question 2: ___ of 5 points)

2. Read the passage. Then answer the question.

Teaching Pilots to Fly

At some point in their lives, certain people have a desire to fly—they want to experience the exhilaration
of taking control of an airplane and soaring through the sky. For me, Daryl Estevez, that desire has been
with me my whole life. I grew up surrounded by pilots. My grandfather was an Army fighter pilot in the
Korean War, and three of my uncles fly airplanes for a living. I got hooked on planes at a young age and
dreamed of becoming a pilot. In an officer’s training program in college, I learned I would not be eligible to
fly for the military because of problems with my eyesight, but I was determined to fulfill my dream anyway.
Earning a pilot’s license is not a simple process. I wanted to earn a private pilot’s license so that I would
be able to fly small airplanes all over the world. To get this type of license, student pilots must complete at
least 40 hours of training, practice flying with a flight instructor in numerous circumstances—such as at
night and in various weather conditions—and practice flying an airplane solo for at least 10 hours.
Even though my vision did not meet the stringent requirements of the military, I met the criteria to become
a private pilot, and my dream came true in 2004 when I earned my license to fly. Since then I have flown
from coast to coast in the United States, and it’s everything I imagined it would be and more. There is
nothing more thrilling than having the freedom to travel wherever I want. In 2007, I realized I wanted to
help other people follow their passion for flight, too, and I that’s when I earned another license—as a flight
instructor.
I truly enjoy guiding students as they build that foundation—from teaching them the mechanics of how a
plane works to helping them master the rules of flight. It is paramount that pilots develop a solid
foundation of aeronautical knowledge before they ever hit the runway. The Federal Aviation
Administration actually requires it. Just like driver’s education classes prepare students to be skilled and
safe on the road, ground school classes teach pilots to be skilled and safe in the sky.
Unfortunately, there are hundreds of deaths every year due to pilot error. But student pilots who take their
training seriously will understand the value of all of those hours of preparation and will learn to operate an
airplane safely from takeoff to touchdown. Then, like I did that first time I climbed above the clouds, they
will know the thrill of flight.

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 English | Graded Assignment | Interim Checkpoint 3, Part 2
The central idea of “Teaching Pilots to Fly” is that the thrill of piloting an airplane requires a serious and complex
learning process. How does the central idea emerge and develop over the course of the passage? Use evidence
from the text to support your response. Your response should be at least one paragraph.
Answer:
Type your answer here.

(Score for Question 3: ___ of 5 points)

3. Read the passage. Then answer the question.

The Reunion
Marty woke up much too early for a weekend. He was still a little groggy from staying up late talking with
relatives he hadn’t seen in almost five years. There was a house full of people in town for the family
reunion, the first one in five years. Marty, the oldest of the younger cousins and considered the grandpa
of that set, was ten years old at the last reunion, and the cousins near his age were almost all back now.
Today was the day of the actual reunion at his grandparents’ house out in the country. His parents were
hosting two of his father’s five brothers and their families, which included three cousins near his age and
three that were closer to his younger sister’s age. Four boys, including Marty, the two cousins who were
also teens, and a nine-year-old cousin slept in his room, and as Marty awakened more, he could hear
their soft sounds of slumber around him. His mother had suggested he give up his bed to company, but
Marty and his cousins assured her that they could work out the sleeping arrangements among
themselves.
Marty stretched now as his ears opened further to the sounds outside his bedroom door. Clanging pans,
adult laughter, and the smell of bacon told him that manna from heaven had arrived in the form of
breakfast that would be ready soon. Above the clanging of dishes he could also hear shrieking and what
seemed to be giggling. Of course there was giggling. There were girls in the house, pre-teen girls who
always seemed to giggle. Marty had learned long ago from his two sisters to ignore their giggles as the
giggling had nothing to do with him. He chuckled as their muffled noises reminded him of whimpering
puppies down at the animal shelter where he volunteered. Puppies always seemed to make noises as
they played and whined for attention from the older dogs or volunteers. He liked working in the smaller
dog area where all the older dogs looked out for the puppies, just like family, just like his family of older
members looking out for the younger ones. He glanced over then at his ten-year-old cousin who was
curled up asleep in the sleeping bag. Andre was his name, and Marty towered over him like Goliath over
David, but Andre didn’t care. He was grateful to be with the big dogs, as he called his cousins. It made
Marty smile as he recalled how Andre beamed when he found out he would bunk with the bigger, older
cousins, and then practically begged to sleep in the sleeping bag as they figured out sleeping
arrangements. He had never slept in a sleeping bag before, and he jumped at the chance. Marty hadn’t
wanted to be a Scrooge, and so he agreed.
Marty sat up in bed and noticed that his mother or someone had put a pile of navy blue T-shirts on the
chair by the door. He chuckled to see the “Wear These Today” sign that had been posted on the pile, and
stepped over his sleeping cousin, Charlie, to grab one of the shirts. He unfolded it, held it up to look at it,
and smiled. There was the family name, Hamilton, printed in white capital letters in a semicircle at the top,
the Statue of Liberty and a palm tree in the center to represent what they came to and came from, and the
words St. Croix—New York in a semicircle underneath. His family had migrated to New York from the
tropical island of St. Croix years ago, though by airplane and not through Ellis Island where European
immigrants had first come. They hadn’t seen the Statue of Liberty from Ellis Island as they waited to be
processed, but his family paid tribute to the lady with the torch every summer, noting that they owed a lot
to this country for the freedoms and opportunities it offered. Marty flung the T-shirt over his shoulder and
turned to his sleeping cousins. “Hey fellas,” he called out to them as he tossed a T-shirt to each cousin.
“Time to wake up and get this party started!”
What impact does the extended dog metaphor have on the tone of “Reunion”? Use evidence from the text to
support your response. Your response should be at least one paragraph.

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 English | Graded Assignment | Interim Checkpoint 3, Part 2
Answer:
Type your answer here.

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