The Silent Readers Part 10

5. What nations played the part of St. George? In what way did the governments of all but one of these nations differ from the "dragon" nation?

NONSENSE TEST

This is just a little nonsense test but don't be too sure that you can get everything in it exactly right. Carry out the following directions very carefully.

No matter whether Benjamin Franklin was the father of his country or not, draw a circle in the center of your paper. Now if December is the first month of the year put the largest of these four numbers in the circle. (17-6-11-21). But if not, put any one of the smaller numbers there. Then copy this example on your paper under the circle.

(7 + 5 = .) Write a wrong answer to it, mark it correct and sign your name at the bottom.

TURNING OUT THE INTRUDER

Arrange your paper with your name on the first line at the right, and your grade below it on the second line. Skip the third line, but on the next eight lines, in the margin, write the figures, 1 to 8.

Here is an exercise that will let you see not only how well you can follow printed directions, but also how well you can arrange words in cla.s.ses or groups. Read the first group of words at the bottom of the page. What kind of list does it seem to be? A list of several kinds of fruit, does it not? Or at least it would be a good list of fruit, if we could omit the word ROPE, which does not seem to belong to the list at all. After figure 1, on your paper, write the word ROPE.

In each of the other groups there is also a word that should be dropped out. You are going to write these words on your paper. Start with the next group, and when you find the word that should be omitted, write it after figure 2; and in the same way, finish the remaining groups in the exercise. When you finish wait quietly for the others to do so.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

apple lion mountain lumbering automobile peach tiger gulfs farming store rope elephant hills grazing bank grape tusks plain manufacturing station pear horse valley jumping hotel orange cow island fishing church

6. 7. 8.

flowers cup chair gra.s.s saucer table fence plate room tree pan sofa bush pitcher bench weeds bowl bookcase

ROOSEVELT'S FAVORITE STUDY

You should all begin to read this story at the same moment.

At the end of five minutes you will be asked to close your books and follow your teacher's directions.

Very often the things that a boy or girl likes to do as a child are signs of what he or she will like to do as a man or woman. This is true in the case of Theodore Roosevelt. One of the subjects in which he was all his life most interested was his favorite study as a boy.

It seems that he was not an unusually clever student in his early years. In Latin and Greek and mathematics he was poor; in science and history and geography he made better progress; but best of all he loved natural history--the study of animals.

His first experience in this study befell him when he was nine years old. He was walking past one of the city markets one day, when he saw a dead seal lying on a slab of wood. He had just been reading about seals, and it seemed a wonderful thing to see a real one. He became possessed with a longing to own the seal. Being unable to form any plan for satisfying that longing, he contented himself with visiting the market day by day to gaze upon the object which proved so interesting to him. He took the seal's measurements carefully with a folding pocket rule and had considerable difficulty when he came to measuring its girth. Somehow or other he got the animal's skull, and with it he and two of his cousins immediately founded what they called the "Roosevelt Museum of Natural History". At the same time his observations of the seal and the measurements which he had made of it were carefully set down in a blank book.

In another blank book were recorded further observations in natural history. This work was ent.i.tled, "Natural History on Insects, by Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.," and began in this fashion: "All these insects are native of North America. Most of the insects are not in other books. I will write about ants first."

The beginning of the treatise on ants is entertaining, if not deeply scientific. "Ants," he writes, "are di_fi_ded into three sorts for every species. These kinds are officer, soilder [soldier?] and worker.

There are about one officer to ten soilders and one soilder to two workers." The book then went on to describe other insects which he had observed, all of which he a.s.sured the reader "inhabit North America".

At the end of the volume on insects were a few notes on fishes. Among these was a description of the crayfish. "I need not describe the form of the crayfish to you," wrote the young author; "look at the lobster and you have its form." These observations, recorded at the age of nine years, are worth mentioning because they show a real interest in the creatures of which he was writing.

When Theodore was thirteen, his father sent him to a little shop to take lessons in taxidermy, the stuffing and mounting of animals. Then the boy wanted to secure his own specimens; so his father gave him a gun for that purpose. When he first tried to use this gun, he was puzzled to find that he could not see the objects at which his companions were shooting. One day some boys with him read aloud an advertis.e.m.e.nt written in huge letters on a billboard some distance away, and Theodore then realized, for the first time, that there must be something the matter with his eyes because he could not see the letters. His father soon got him a pair of spectacles, which, he says, opened up a new world to him.

When he was fourteen the family went to Europe, and, among other expeditions, took a trip up the Nile. Before they started on this trip. Theodore picked up in Cairo a book which contained some account of the birds of that region. Armed with this book and with the gun which his father had given him, he secured a number of specimens of birds in Egypt.

Unfortunately for the rest of the family, Theodore insisted on carrying his natural history specimens about with him from place to place. One day when the family was in Vienna, his brother Elliot inquired plaintively of their father whether it would be possible that he should now and then have a room to himself in the hotels, instead of being obliged always to share one with Theodore. Mr. Roosevelt was perfectly willing to comply, but inquired the reason for Elliot's request. Elliot said, "Come and see our room, and you will understand." When they reached the boys' room, they found bottles of taxidermist's supplies everywhere, and in the basin the remains of specimens which Theodore had lately captured. Theodore himself records the fact that he was "grubby". "I suppose," he says, "that all growing boys tend to be grubby; but the small boy with the taste for natural history is generally the very grubbiest of all."

--_Adapted from "The Life of Theodore Roosevelt,"

by William Draper Lewis.

Courtesy of The John C. Winston Co._

TOPICS

Your teacher will call on you to come to the front of your cla.s.s and tell about one of the following topics:

1. Roosevelt and the seal.

2. Roosevelt's eyesight.

3. His trip up the Nile.

4. That Roosevelt boy as a room-mate.

WHAT A CHIMNEY IS

Probably you think you can tell all about a chimney, but you may be able to learn something interesting from this selection.

You should all begin reading at the same time. Your teacher will give the signal when to close your books. She will then ask you to write answers to the questions at the end.

A hollow tree was the first chimney of our unlettered forefathers.

Accidentally set on fire, this tree ill.u.s.trated the principle upon which all chimneys have been constructed. It showed that warm air, being lighter than cold air, tends to rise. When this warm air is confined within an enclosure open at the top and bottom, a strong upward current fills the s.p.a.ce. As the warm air rises, the cold air rushes in through the opening at the bottom of the shaft, and in this way a draft is created which supplies the fire at the foot of the chimney with the oxygen it needs to support combustion.

Simple chimneys are constructed of logs and mortar, or of stones and mortar, such as those built for log cabins; of brick, also of cement and of iron pipes made for the purpose. Since a long column of hot air produces a stronger current than a short one, the tallest chimneys, other things being equal, produce the strongest draft. Tall chimneys are larger at the base than at the top. This is to make the structure stable and to increase the draft by contracting the flue at the top. At the bottom the chimney is usually connected with the fire by a flue. A fireplace, however, is practically an enlarged part of the chimney.

The size and height of a chimney depend upon the size of the furnace.

For larger furnaces there is greater danger of making the flue too small than too large. The stacks or chimneys of the largest steamships like the Mauritania and the Imperator are so large that two railway trains could run through them abreast, and they are about 175 feet in length. The difference between a chimney and a smokestack is in name only; chimneys constructed of tubing made from iron plates are usually called stacks.

--_From "The World Book".

Courtesy of W. F. Quarrie & Co._

QUESTIONS