MOUNT EVEREST

At an elevation of 29,028 feet (8848 meters) above sea level, Mount Everest is the
world’s tallest mountain. Mount Everest is relatively young, having been formed only 60
million years ago, and it is still growing a few millimeters every year!
Mount Everest is in the mountain range called the Himalayas. The summit ridge of
Mount Everest separates Nepal and Tibet. Each place has a special name for this
giant mountain. The Nepalese name is Sagarmatha, which means “goddess of the sky”.
The Tibetan name is Chomolungma, which means “mother goddess of the universe”. In
English, Mount Everest is named after Sir George Everest, the first person to record
the height and location of the mountain.
A climb to the summit was attempted by George Mallory in 1922, who famously gave
his reason for wanting to climb Everest as “because it’s there.” He attempted to reach the
summit again in the company of Andrew Irvine in 1924, but on this trip both climbers
disappeared.
The first successful ascent (and descent) of Mount Everest was accomplished
th
by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on May 29 , 1953. The first ascent by a
th
woman was on May 16 , 1975, by Junko Tabei from Japan.
Between 1921 and 2007, over two thousand people have climbed Mount Everest,
some more than once. Since the first ascent in 1953, more than 600 climbers from 20
different countries have reached the summit. However, over two hundred climbers have
died attempting to climb Mount Everest, most commonly from avalanches, but also from
falls in crevasses, cold, or high-altitude sicknesses.

ANSWER THE QUESTIONS ABOUT MOUNT EVEREST

1. How high is Mount Everest?
a) 8848 feet
b) 29,028 meters
c) 29,028 feet
d) 8848 meters
2. In what way does Mount Everest change annually?
a) It is shrinking a very small amount.
b) It is getting a little wider.
c) It is shifting slightly to the north.
d) It is growing a very small amount taller.
3. Mount Everest is in the mountain range called the .
a) Rocky Mountains
b) Andes
c) Himalayas
d) Alps
4. Who wanted to climb Mount Everest “because it’s there”?
a) George Mallory
b) Edmund Hillary
c) Tenzing Norgay
d) Junko Tabei
5. The first team to successfully reach the summit was .
a) George Mallory and Andrew Irvine
b) Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
c) George Mallory and Edmund Hillary
d) Tenzing Norgay and Andrew Irvine
6. Since 1953, how many people have reached the summit?
a) about 20
b) fewer than 600
c) exactly 600
d) more than 600
 Treasure

Trogmire Troll was dealing with a crisis. The new girl in class really liked him a lot.
Trogmire was not happy about it.
Trogmire’s good friend, Tremor Troll, tried to comfort him. “What’s the big deal? I
think Treasure Troll is kind of cute. And she seems to be nice enough.”
Trogmire swallowed his last bite of poison sumac salad and glared at Tremor. “Then
why don’t you ask her to be your girlfriend? There she is, sitting all by herself at the other end
of the cafeteria. March over there and ask her to be your sweetie-poo!”
“She’s crazy about you, not me,” Tremor replied.
“Well, I don’t want any girlfriend, especially not a weird pesky one like her!” Trogmire
growled.
Tremor wouldn’t give up. “The only thing pesky about her is that she keeps writing
you those notes and she stares -”
“Yucky love notes!” Trogmire interrupted. He took another sip of mole milk. “Did you
notice those strange brown eyes? Why aren’t they normal red or pink?”
Tremor took another look at Treasure. “I think her face is a lovely shade of green.
And her dark green curly hair is quite pretty. Besides, she’s very sweet and that’s what really
matters.”
Trogmire stuck out his tongue. “I think I’m going to be sick! I’d better save my dessert
for later.” He crammed a small bag of Maggot Munchies into his even smaller shirt pocket.
“The fact is, I have a problem. That girl is getting on my nerves!”
Tremor followed Trogmire's example and decided to save his dessert for later.
However, he carefully placed the bag into his lunch box. “Do you have any ideas about how to
solve your problem?” Tremor asked.
“I’m going to be mean and rude to her,” Trogmire announced. “I’ll call her names and
make ugly faces at her.”
“That’s how you treat everyone,” Tremor reminded his friend.
Trogmire nodded. “It’s time that Treasure got to know the real Trogmire Troll!”

1. How did Treasure Troll feel about Trogmire Troll?

a. She didn’t like him because he was rude.
b. She was annoyed by his strange appearance.
c. She didn’t have any strong feelings about him.
d. She liked him a lot.

2. How did Trogmire feel about Treasure?

a. He felt annoyed.
b. He enjoyed the attention.
c. He wasn’t aware that she existed.
d. He was crazy about her.

3. Who did Trogmire want for a girlfriend?

a. No one
b. Tremor’s sister
c. Treasure Troll
d. A weird girl from another class

4. Which statement is true?

a. Trogmire pretended to be rude in order to make Treasure stop liking him.
b. Tremor thought that looks were more important than personality.
c. Tremor thought that Treasure was cute.
d. Trogmire offered his dessert to Treasure to make her sick.
 Feathers and Gas

The BBC is reporting that Harry Potter is responsible for the dwindling number of wild
owls in India. One of the reasons that owls are being trapped and sold as pets is that parents’
are buying them as gifts for their kids who are fans of the fictional wizard. As you may already
know, Harry has his own pet owl, Hedwig.

1. What does “dwindling” mean?

a. having feathers
b. becoming less
c. flying
d. appearing in movies

2. Many children in India want owls _______.

a. as pets
b. to become extinct
c. as a special food item
d. to use their feathers in hats

3. From the above selection, we can see that _______.

a. Everyone loves Harry Potter movies
b. Owls don’t taste as good as chickens
c. People want to wipe out owls
d. being popular can be harmful

Volvo is building a car that will use gasoline without burning it. CNet Car Tech reports that
Volvo will use a fuel cell that converts the hydrogen in gasoline into electricity to run the
vehicle’s electric motor when the battery is low. The plug-in hybrid will go farther on the same
amount of fuel because regular gasoline engines waste much of the fuel’s energy as heat.

4. To fill this car with fuel, _______.

a. you’ll have to find a station that sells hydrogen
b. you’ll be able to go to any regular gas station
c. you must plug it in overnight
d. you only need to add water

5. What does “converts” mean?

a. frightens
b. burns
c. loses
d. Changes
 Drawing Conclusions

1. Emir rarely rides to school each morning. He could take the school bus but prefers to walk
the two miles from his home to school. He believes that the walk wakes him up and
improves his learning throughout the day.

a. Emir always rides the bus home at the end of the school day.
b. Emir never rides the bus to school.
c. Emir values learning.
d. Emir is usually late for school.

2. “Remember, Maria,” Mrs. Russo said, “you’re very allergic to chocolate. Please don’t eat
any chocolate candy at the Halloween party!”

Three hours later, Maria was home from the party with a terrible stomach ache. “I promise
you, Mom,” Maria groaned, “I’ll always do what you say from now on.”

a. Maria got into a fight at the party.

b. Maria ate chocolate at the party.
c. Maria ate no chocolate at the party.
d. Maria embarrassed herself by singing at the party.

3. In another week, we’ll be turning our clocks back one hour. Then it will be almost dark by
the time most of us get home from school. It will seem as if we suddenly have less daylight
each day. Of course, people aren’t actually changing the behavior of the sun or the earth
by messing with their clocks.

a. Our planet has to spin faster when we reset our clocks.

b. It’s clear that turning our clocks back will help prevent global warming.
c. If according to our clocks, the sun sets an hour earlier, it will also rise an hour earlier.
d. The earth will actually rotate at a slower rate when we turn back the clocks.

4. Every time I give my cat a plate of tuna, he ignores it. Every time I give him a plate of
salmon, he quickly eats it all. When I feed him beef, he eats a little bit of it, but doesn’t
seem to love it.

a. Cats prefer salmon over tuna.

b. I give my cat more than one kind of food.
c. My cat likes tuna better than beef.
d. My cat won’t eat fish.
 A Lucky Coin

Read the article first without stopping to find the missing words. Then read it again
and choose the correct missing word from the numbered choices below the article.

When does one penny equal 170 million pennies? In Time for Kids, Suzanne Zimbler __1__
that a 1943 U.S. penny that was made at the Denver Mint has sold for $ 1.7 million. That
single coin is thought to be the __2__ copper coin made in Denver that year. Only a handful
of copper pennies were made at the other mints that same year.

Pennies were made of steel in 1943 because copper was in short supply for use in equipment
to help wage World War ii. That was the only year that Lincoln pennies were not made of
__3__.

A wealthy coin collector was eager to pay the huge sum for the coin because it was one of a
kind and that collector already had a 1943 copper penny from each of the other two U.S.
Mints in Philadelphia and San Francisco.

You might be surprised to learn what some of your own coins are worth. The more scarce any
collectible item is, the higher the __4__ tends to be. It's not likely, but it is possible that you
might have a small __5__ sitting in your pocket right now!

1)
a. pleads
b. asks
c. allows
d. reports

2)
a. biggest
b. only
c. cheapest
d. chubby

3)
a. copper
b. gold
c. plastic
d. silver

4)
a. building
b. stack
c. ladder
d. price

5)
a. spider
b. fortune
c. tooth
d. dollar