Unit 4 week 3 & 4 test Wonders test

Read the passage “Way to Go, Grandma” before

answering Numbers 1 through 10.

Way to Go, Grandma

“Jamal, how do you think your sister Kellyn is doing in

college?” Grandma asked me. “And how about your brother

Michael’s new baby, little Jayden, way out there in Oklahoma?

I hope he’s over his cold by now.”

“Grandma,” I said, “let me show you how to send e-mails

so you won’t have to guess how they’re doing. If Kellyn got an

e-mail from you, she’d be so amazed that she’d reply to you in

seconds. Besides, I think Michael’s wife would love to e-mail

you every time Jayden coughs!”

Grandma smiled at the thought and then said, “You’ve

been offering to teach me how to use that computer for a long

time, Jamal. And I do appreciate it.” Sighing, she shook her

head in confusion and bewilderment. “Unfortunately, I think

technology has passed me by. However, it does take so long

for them to answer my letters.”

“Why don’t I send Kellyn an e-mail now,” I suggested,

“and you can tell me what to say?”

Grandma’s face lit up, her hesitation and doubts were gone.

She knew she could do this. She was ready now! She pulled me

over to the computer and pushed me down in the chair. “If you

insist,” she said eagerly.

I opened my e-mail account and typed

the first letters of Kellyn’s address. The whole

address immediately appeared in the “to” box.

My grandmother was amazed. “How did the

computer know we were going to write to

Kellyn?” she asked.

Grinning, I said, “It’s magic, I guess.”

Grandma rolled her eyes and started telling me what she

wanted to say to Kellyn. As I typed, I purposely made mistakes.

Soon Grandma was so frustrated with me that she said, “Oh, get

up and let me sit down. I can type better than that!”

“Well, okay,” I said, trying to hide my cleverness. My quick

thinking even surprised me. It wasn’t often that I outwitted

Grandma! I gave her my seat, and with no help or assistance from

me, she typed a long e-mail to Kellyn. When she was finished,

I pointed out the send button, and she clicked on it.

Smiling from ear to ear, Grandma asked, “Do you think

Kellyn will be surprised when she gets my e-mail?”

“I think she will probably faint,” I replied honestly.

Then Grandma looked longingly at the computer and asked,

“Do you think we can find out how little Jayden is doing today?

Sending an e-mail to Jayden’s mom would really be the icing on

the cake.” Without waiting for my answer, Grandma positioned

her fingers over the keyboard. “Just tell me the first letters of

Michael’s e-mail, and the computer will do the rest!”

So I told her, and she started typing. I left to find the book

I had been reading, but a few minutes later, Grandma called me

back to the computer.

“The computer was dinging,” she said with a frown. “Did

I do something wrong?”

I glanced at the screen. “You got a reply from Kellyn. I

guess she didn’t faint for long!”

Grandma poked me in the ribs with her elbow and demanded,

“Show me how to get to her e-mail, young man, and hurry!”

Read the passage “The Good Old Days” before answering

Numbers 11 through 20.

The Good Old Days

“So, Grandma,” Jamal asked with a grin, “how do you like

sending emails?”

Smiling proudly, his grandmother told him, “Emailing is a

piece of cake!”

Jamal nodded and said, “Would you like to learn some

abbreviations to make the words shorter? Then you can type faster.

Or maybe you could get a new phone and use it for your emails.”

Shaking her head, Grandma said, “Emailing is already fast

enough for me, Jamal. I still don’t know how to take a photo with

my phone. I realize these new phones do amazing and remarkable

things, but it’s just a treat for me to be able to call someone from

wherever I am.”

“You couldn’t always do that?” Jamal frowned. “You had to

be in a certain place to call people when you were growing up?”

Grandma patted his hand and said, “You have no idea, Jamal.

Not only did you have to be next to the phone, but the phone could

not be moved. Plus, there was only one phone in our house. It was

in the living room. We had our own phone, but we shared the

phone line with five other families! It was called a party line. But it

wasn’t much of a party because Sheila, who lived across the street,

hogged the phone every night!”

Jamal was momentarily speechless. How could five families

share one phone line? He’d never get to call his friends! “Since the

phone was in the living room, what if people were watching TV?

Did you have to ask them to turn down the sound all the time?”

Grandma smiled again. “Well, at first the TV was only on a

few hours each day. Everyone wanted to watch it during those

hours, so the sound wasn’t a problem.

amal admitted, “I’m only allowed to watch TV a few hours

a day, too.”

She shook her head and explained, “No, the TV only showed

programs for a few hours each day. My parents bought our first TV

when I was about six. We were the first on our street to have one.

The neighbors came to our house to watch TV, even though the

screen was only about five inches square. The most exciting show

on TV was about a cowboy and his horse. It was black and white

and there were absolutely no special effects. That show would look

quaint and unusual now.”

Jamal had another question. “I guess you didn’t have any

computers back then, so how did you do your homework?”

“We did it the hard way, with paper and pencils,” Grandma

answered. “If you were really lucky, you had a typewriter.”

“What’s a typewriter?” Jamal wanted to know.

Grandma pointed at the computer. “A typewriter is like this

keyboard, but the first ones had no electricity. You pressed a key,

and it popped up and printed a letter on the paper. If you made a

mistake, you had to erase it and type the word again. If the paper

then looked too messy, you had to start typing all over again on a

clean sheet of paper.”

Jamal thought about that for a minute. “Grandma, were those

‘the good old days’?”

Laughing, she said, “I think any day that you enjoy life is a

good old day!”