5th Grade - Common Assessment - S1
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Last updated over 2 years ago
18 Nsɛmmisa
Read the passages and answer the questions.
excerpt from Tiny Island Dwellers by Daniel A. Kelin
1 When I visited the Marshall Islands, mostly the island of Namdrik, I collected stories to create a play about the life and culture there. Namdrik is like most of the other Marshall Islands—it has no cars. Islanders walk or ride bicycles. Namdrik is only half a mile wide at most and five miles long.
2 Jia and Iban were very nice to me when I arrived on Namdrik the first time, but they seemed unsure about sharing stories with me. The first story they told me was very short. When I asked about it, Iban told me that the ending could not be told to people from outside of Namdrik. And then they said they were done. Was I going to hear only one small piece of a story? I was unhappy.
3 When I gave them gifts to thank them for sharing some of their stories, everything changed. I didn’t know it, but I had broken a local custom¹ . Sharing gifts is important on Namdrik, and I hadn’t offered any when I first arrived. In giving gifts to Iban and Jia, I became like a Marshallese, observing custom.
4 After receiving the gifts, Jia and Iban had fun sharing stories with me. They would also bring me fish they had just caught or slices of fried breadfruit, their version of potato chips. One day Iban brought me a small container full of snails. I had a hard time concentrating on his story because I liked eating the snails so much.
5 Watching Jia and Iban tell stories was great fun. Jia used his hands a lot to point out parts of the island where the stories happened. Iban acted out the characters in his stories. In a story that gave me chills, his voice sounded like a creaky old door.
6 I got good at figuring out the stories from their gestures and the sound of their voices. I had to because I didn’t speak their language. Luckily, though, I had a friend who translated the stories for me after they were told.
7 Storytelling was best at night. Jia and Iban would bring a lantern, stretch out on the floor, and tell stories while their shadows danced on the cement walls of my small house. My favorite stories were about Letao, the funny trickster of the Marshall Islands. When Jia told about Letao’s antics, I don’t know if Iban or I laughed more.
8 Late one night Jia and Iban brought a ukulele player and four dancers. As the female ukulele² player sang, the male dancers stamped and weaved in and out of each other, raising dust and bringing all the kids of the island running to see what the celebrating was about.
9 Jia and Iban were afraid, however, that the island’s young people wouldn’t be interested in the stories anymore. No one listened much to the stories, and some of them had already been forgotten.
10 I did create a play using the Namdrik stories. When Jia and Iban saw it, they said they hoped people would enjoy the stories as much as they had when they first heard them. They also hoped the play would help keep the stories alive. They told me that I’m like Letao, spreading laughter over the world.
Footnote:
Custom: a way of behaving that is usual and traditional among the people in a particular group or place.
Ukulele: a musical instrument similar to a small guitar with four strings.