GL YR 8 - Amber Louise Trotman | Library

 
Jacob the Great

Jacob the Great Jacob hated finishing things almost as much as he loved starting them. As a result, he had gotten into a million hobbies and activities, but he never stuck with any of them long enough to get any good. He begged his mother for months for a guitar so that he could play Black Eyed Peas songs to Angie, a girl he liked, but after he finally got one for Christmas, he found out that guitars don’t play themselves. He took a few lessons, but strumming the strings hurt his fingers and he didn’t like holding the pick, so now the five-hundred dollar guitar lives under his bed. After reading an ad in the back of one of his comic books, Jacob decided that he wanted a WonderSweeper 5000 metal detector, so that he could find buried pirate treasure. So he mowed lawns all summer and didn’t spend his money on ice-cream like his younger brother, Alex. He saved it all in a shoe box in his closet. Then he shoveled driveways all winter, and he didn’t spend his money on candy and chips like his classmates. By the time spring came he had saved $200, and he purchased the Wonder-Sweeper 5000 metal detector. He beeped it around the park for a while, be he soon found out that no pirates had ever set sail in his neighborhood, and if they had they didn’t leave any treasure. Even though he found a key ring, forty-seven cents, and all the bottle caps he could throw, he buried the metal detector in his closest. Given Jacob’s history with hobbies, it was no surprise that Jacob’s father was reluctant to buy him a magician’s kit for his birthday. “Geez, Jacob… You sure you wouldn’t rather I got you more guitar lessons?” He suggested. Jacob was insistent. “Dad, you’ve got to get me the magician’s kit. This time I’ll stick with it for real. I promise! Come on, Dad,” Jacob begged. Jacob’s father sighed and then replied, “Oh, I don’t know, Jacob. Things are awfully tight right now.” But Jacob’s father was reminded of his own youth long ago, when he quit football and started karate practice before hardly getting his equipment dirty. So when Jacob’s birthday came around, Jacob was both surprised and pleased to find the magician’s kit that he had desired so badly with a big bright bow on it. Jacob opened up the box and unwrapped the many parts in the kit. As he did so, he imagined sawing his pet cat in half and putting it back together to the amazement of his friends and family. He took the many fake coins, trick cards, and rope pieces of varying length on the kitchen table and imagined pulling rabbits out of his hat and turning them into pigeons with a mysterious puff of smoke. As Jacob continued pulling plastic thumbs, foam balls, and giant playing cards out of the magic kit, a commercial on the TV caught his attention. “Hey kids! Have you ever wanted to go to space? Experience what it’s like to be an astronaut? Do you want to explore the universe? Well, now you can.” As the commercial continued playing, Jacob walked away from the magic kit on the kitchen table and stared at the TV screen longingly. “For only $195 you can go to space camp and live life like an astronaut for a whole weekend. Enroll now for a once in a life time experience.” Jacob’s cry rang throughout the house as he yelled, “MOM!” He now knew what his true purpose in life was.

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According to the text, why does Jacob stop playing the guitar?

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To whom did Jacob want to play Black Eyed Peas songs?

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According to the passage, why does Jacob decide that he wants a metal detector?

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How does Jacob get the Wonder Sweeper 5000 that he wants in the story?

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When did Jacob buy the metal detector?

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True or False: The metal detector was a good investment for Jacob.

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Why doesn’t Jacob’s father want to get him the magician’s kit for his birthday?

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Why does Jacob’s father buy Jacob the magician’s kit?

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Which word is closest in meaning to the italicized word in the following sentence from paragraph four: “It was no surprise that Jacob’s father was reluctant to buy him a magician’s kit for his birthday”?

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What distracts Jacob from the magician’s kit?

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Which character trait best describes Jacob in regards to his hobbies?

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In what genre is this story?

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Which poetic technique is used in the following line: “He beeped it around the park for a while”?

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Which technique is used in the following line: “He had gotten into a million hobbies and activities”

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Which technique is used in the following line: “The five-hundred dollar guitar lives under his bed.”

  Tigers 

Who would win in a fight, a   lion or a tiger? Well, if size has anything to do with the matter, the tiger   would win. That’s because tigers are the largest of all cat species. They   grow up to eleven feet long and weigh as much as 670 lbs. This makes tigers   the third largest land carnivore. The only larger land carnivores are polar   bears and brown bears. Tigers are not only large, they are also fast. They   can sprint as fast as 40 miles per hour for short distances and leap as far   as 30 feet horizontally. This makes   for an extremely dangerous pounce. You might not think that such large, fast,   and ferocious creatures need help to survive, but they do. The tiger is an   endangered species. 
 
Despite all of the tiger’s   strengths, the future of the species is uncertain. Tigers face a very high   risk of extinction. It is estimated that at the start of the 20th   century, there were over 100,000 tigers living in the wild. By the turn of   the century, the number of tigers outside of captivity dwindled to just over   3,000. Interestingly, the most serious threats that tigers face come from a   much smaller species, one with an average weight of around 140 lbs. That   species is Homo sapiens, better known as humans. Humans threaten tigers in primarily   two ways: hunting and destroying habitat. 
 
Tigers are hunted for many   reasons. People have long valued the famous striped skins. Though trading   tiger skins is now illegal in most parts of the world, tiger pelts are worth   around $10,000 on the black-market. Though the fur would be incentive enough for   most poachers, other parts of the tiger can also fetch a pretty penny. Some people in China and other Asian cultures believe   that various tiger parts have healing properties. Traditional Chinese   medicine calls for the use of tiger bones, amongst other parts, in some   prescriptions. 
Tigers have also been   hunted as game. In other words people hunted tigers solely for the thrill and   achievement of killing them. Such killings took place in large scale during   the 19th and early 20th centuries, when a single maharaja or English hunter might   claim to kill over a hundred tigers in their hunting career. Though this   practice is much less popular today than it was in the past, it has not ceased   entirely. 

📷
 
Humans have done   considerable damage to the world’s tiger population through hunting, but   perhaps more damage has been caused through the destruction of habitat.   Tigers once ranged widely across Asia, all the way from Turkey to the eastern coast of Russia. But over the past 100 years, tigers   have lost 93% of their historic range. Instead of spanning all the way across   Asia, the tiger population is now isolated in small pockets in south and   southeastern Asia. This is   because humans have drastically changed the environments. Humans have built   towns and cities. Road and transit systems were created to connect these   towns and cities. To feed the people living in these areas, forests and   fields have been cleared to create farmland. Large tracts of land have been   strip-mined to yield metals and other materials used in manufacturing. All of   these activities have consumed habitats that at one time supported tigers. 
 
A major obstacle to   preserving tigers is the enormous amount of territory that each tiger requires.   Each wild tiger demands between 200 and 300 square miles. Tigers are also   both territorial and solitary animals. This means that they are protective of   the areas that they claim and they generally do not share with other tigers.   Because tigers need so much territory, it is difficult for conservationists   to acquire land enough to support a large population of tigers. Even when   such these considerable spaces are allocated, it is even more difficult to   patrol such large areas to prevent poaching. There is no easy way to preserve   the wild tiger population without making large sacrifices. 
 
Though tiger population faces   many threats and obstacles to recovery, there have been some successes in   conservation and preservation efforts. For example, Save China’s Tigers, an   organization working to restore the wild tiger population, successfully   rewilded a small number of South China tigers. These tigers were born into   concrete cages from parents who were also captive and unable to sustain in   the wild.

This organization brought   these tigers to South Africa   and helped them learn the necessary skills for a predator to survive in the   wild. Current evidence indicates that the project was been successful. While   this is just a small step, it shows that restoring the world’s tiger   population is possible.

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Which of the following is not a reason in the article explaining why tigers are hunted?

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Which animal does not grow larger than the tiger?

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Which number is closest to the estimation of the wild Tiger population in 2003?

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Which of the following best describes the author's main purpose in writing this article?

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Which best explains why tigers have lost so much of their habitat according to the text?

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Based on information in the text, which best explains why tigers are poached?

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Which best explains why it is so difficult to preserve the wild tiger population?

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Which of the following is an opinion?

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Based on context, which best defines the term "rewilded" as used in the last paragraph

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What does this idiom mean: "other parts of the tiger can also fetch a pretty penny"?

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I ..... tennis every Sunday morning.

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Don't make so much noise. Noriko ..... to study for her ESL test!

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I think I ..... a new calculator. This one does not work properly any more.

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What time .....

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I ..... for my pen. Have you seen it?

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Find the correct spelling :

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Find the correct spelling :

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Find the correct spelling :

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Which sentence is correct?

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Which sentence is correct?

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Which sentence is correct?

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Which sentence is correct?

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Find the correctly spelt word.

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Find the correctly spelt word.

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