Children’s Literature Name______________________

What is Literature? Worksheet Article Number _____________

Grade____________________/40Questions to Answer in Groups:

Which of the ten characteristics of literature does your article fulfill? (10 points)

Is it for pleasure? Y/N Does it help us focus on essentials? Y/N

Does it help you gain understanding? Y/N Does it reveal the institutions of society? Y/N

Does it show human motives? Y/N Does it reveal nature as a force? Y/N

Does it provide form for experience? Y/N Does it provide a vicarious experience? Y/N

Does it reveal life’s fragmentation? Y/N Does it lead you into meeting a creator/writer? Y/N

If yes, please provide an example of each below: (five points)

Based on the ten characteristics, is your article “literature”? Why or why not? (five points)

Which of the unique class characteristics does your article fulfill? (seven points)Is it relatable? Y/N Does it provide experiences?

Y/NIs it informative? Y/N Can it be used as a self-reflection? Y/NIs it dramatic? Y/N Is it imaginative or creative?

Y/NIs it stylized or have unique writing? Y/N

If yes, please provide an example of each below: (five points)

Based on the seven class characteristics, is your article literature? Why or why not? (five points)

In your own words, what do you believe the definition of literature is? (three points)

Extra Credit: What type of print material do you think your article is? (ie magazine, news, story, encyclopedia entry, etc.) Why? (Five Points)

Article One In the winter of 1769, the British explorer Captain James Cook, early into his first voyage across the Pacific, received from a Polynesian priest named Tupaia an astonishing gift—a map, the first that any European had ever encountered showing all the major islands of the South Pacific. Some accounts say Tupaia sketched the map on paper; others that he described it in words. What’s certain is that this map instantly gave Cook a far more complete picture of the South Pacific than any other European possessed. It showed every major island group in an area some 3,000 miles across, from the Marquesas west to Fiji. It matched what Cook had already seen, and showed much he hadn’t. Cook had granted Tupaia a berth on the Endeavour in Tahiti. Soon after that, the Polynesian wowed the crew by navigating to an island unknown to Cook, some 300 miles south, without ever consulting compass, chart, clock, or sextant. In the weeks that followed, as he helped guide the Endeavour from one archipelago to another, Tupaia amazed the sailors by pointing on request, at any time, day or night, cloudy or clear, precisely toward Tahiti. Cook, uniquely among European explorers, understood what Tupaia’s feats meant. The islanders scattered across the South Pacific were one people, who long ago, probably before Britain was Britain, had explored, settled, and mapped this vast ocean without any of the navigational tools that Cook found essential—and had carried the map solely in their heads ever since. Two centuries later a global network of geneticists analyzing DNA bread-crumb trails of modern human migration would prove Cook right: Tupaia’s ancestors had colonized the Pacific 2,300 years before. Their improbable migration across the Pacific continued a long eastward march that had begun in Africa 70,000 to 50,000 years earlier. Cook’s journey, meanwhile, continued a westward movement started by his own ancestors, who had left Africa around the same time Tupaia’s ancestors had. In meeting each other, Cook and Tupaia closed the circle, completing a journey their forebears had begun together, so many millennia before. Cook died in a bloody skirmish with Hawaiians ten years later. (The Hawaiians snatched a boat; Cook lost his temper and fired upon them; although he killed one and his crew killed several others, the Hawaiians caught him in the surf and stabbed him to death.) His death, some say, brought to a close what Western historians call the age of exploration. Yet it hardly ended our exploring. We have remained obsessed with filling in the Earth’s maps; reaching its farthest poles, highest peaks, and deepest trenches; sailing to its every corner and then flying off the planet entirely. With the NASA rover Curiosity now stirring us all as it explores Mars, the United States, along with other countries and several private companies, is preparing to send humans to the red planet as well. Some visionaries even talk of sending a spacecraft to the nearest star… NASA’s Michael Barratt—a doctor, diver, and jet pilot; a sailor for 40 years;

an astronaut for 12—is among those aching to go to Mars. Barratt consciously sees himself extending the journey Cook and Tupaia took in the Pacific. “We’re doing what they did,” he says. “It works this way at every point in human history. A society develops an enabling technology, whether it’s the ability to preserve and carry food or build a ship or launch a rocket. Then you find people passionate enough about getting out there and finding new stuff to strap a rocket to their butts.” Not all of us ache to ride a rocket or sail the infinite sea. Yet as a species we’re curious enough, and intrigued enough by the prospect, to help pay for the trip and cheer at the voyagers’ return. Yes, we explore to find a better place to live or acquire a larger territory or make a fortune. But we also explore simply to discover what’s there. “No other mammal moves around like we do,” says Svante Pääbo, a director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, where he uses genetics to study human origins. “We jump borders. We push into new territory even when we have resources where we are. Other animals don’t do this. Other humans either. Neanderthals were around hundreds of thousands of years, but they never spread around the world. In just 50,000 years we covered everything. There’s a kind of madness to it. Sailing out into the ocean, you have no idea what’s on the other side. And now we go to Mars. We never stop. Why?”

Why indeed? Pääbo and other scientists pondering this question are themselves explorers, walking new ground. They know that they might have to backtrack and regroup at any time. They know that any notion about why we explore might soon face revision as their young disciplines—anthropology, genetics, developmental neuropsychology—turn up new fundamentals. Yet for those trying to figure out what makes humans tick, our urge to explore is irresistible terrain. What gives rise to this “madness” to explore? What drove us out from Africa and on to the moon and beyond?... …But what of Tupaia? His genes and culture, it seems, took a more puzzling path to their meeting with their British counterparts. In fact the Polynesians’ spread across the Pacific represents one of the oddest of the movements that took modern Homo sapiens out of the African homeland and around the globe. It began as the first and one of the fastest, slowed to a halt, and then finished in a record sprint. Their journey began about 60,000 years ago, when one of the first migratory pulses shot from Africa across the Middle East and along Asia’s southern coast. They reached Australia and New Guinea—more accessible then because of low ocean levels—in only 10,000 years. For another 10,000 years these people spread through this island region, sometimes called Near Oceania, until they reached the curved chains of the Bismarck and Solomon Islands. There they stopped dead. A proper sailing craft like the ship the Polynesians developed makes a near-perfect metaphor for the larger powers we gain through culture. It gives our malleable genomes, imaginative minds, and clever hands the power to transform even the strongest forces in our environment—wind, water, current—from threat to opportunity. Let the wind rise to a howl and raise a great sea; we needn’t stay home or become flotsam, for we can change tack, trim sail, and become what amounts to a different vessel. To the Lapita looking out from the eastern tip of the Solomons, a vast ocean before them, such a boat would offer something like a new set of legs. Tiller in hand and new isles in their minds, they could press on in their

journey around the globe.

Article TwoHave you ever been forced to tell a dumb lie to get out of trouble and then

piled on even more insane falsehoods until you were crushed under a Jenga tower of your own deception? Well, no matter how screwed up your life is, know that you're well-adjusted compared to the one-man Coen brothers movie who was Donald Crowhurst.

Warning: His story is more Fargo, less Raising Arizona.

In 1968… The Sunday Times of London promised the then-princely sum of 5,000 pounds to whoever sailed solo and nonstop around the world the quickest. Crowhurst, a weekend sailor and down-on-his-luck inventor, saw the prize as an opportunity to get out of debt. It didn't matter that his experimental trimaran, the Teignmouth Electron, wasn't designed to sail the open ocean -- Crowhurst planned to invent safety devices that would keep his boat from capsizing. OK, so there wasn't time to finish building them before the race started, but that was no problem for Crowhurst -- he'd do it on the way. Well, at least he would have, if he hadn't left his tools and equipment on the docks. Also, if he failed to finish the race, his investors would claim his house and business as collateral. And did we mention that Crowhurst also hired a publicist to gin up his history-making voyage for the U.K. press? So after a few laborious weeks at sea, Crowhurst's boat had sustained serious damage, which he had no way of repairing without basic tools. Stuck between financial ruin and certain death, Crowhurst chose a third option -- he would drift around the Atlantic (off the coast of South America) for five months and then sneak back into the race after the other sailors had reached the final stretch. Crowhurst began reporting a completely fake journey, one in which he made record-breaking progress. When pressed for details, he sent out bizarre missives like "NOW EQUAL FOOTING MERMAIDS STOP." This charade took an enormous amount of upkeep. (He had the time, floating aimlessly in the Atlantic and

whatnot.) He falsified star charts, weather reports, and sailing observations, all while bobbing hidden and out of radio contact, the endless ocean and a copy of Albert Einstein's Relativity: The Special and the General Theory slowly eroding his sanity… Incredibly, Crowhurst's gamble almost worked. The other contestants dropped out of the race, save fellow sailors Nigel Tetley and Robin Knox-Johnston (who had successfully circumnavigated the globe, but at a time that was expected to be slower than Crowhurst's and Tetley's). All Crowhurst needed to do was come in a less-than-sensational third place to keep race officials from thumbing through his baloney-laced logs. And he would've gotten away with it, too, if his hype-happy publicist hadn't spooked Tetley into thinking that the slowly-going-mad Crowhurst was at his tail. A nervous Tetley pushed his damaged boat for max speed, and proceeded to sink off the Azores. Upon learning of this, Crowhurst, in a last-ditch attempt, tried to alter the space-time continuum. Seriously. His logbook turned increasingly mystical, with Crowhurst penning 25,000 words on time travel, the Kraken, and Einstein, all in a desperate maneuver to construct a philosophy in which human intellect could overcome external reality. When evolving superpowers failed, he wrote, "IT IS THE MERCY," tore his chronometer off the wall, and disappeared into the ocean. In the end, Knox-Johnston donated his winnings to Crowhurst's family. Tetley was rescued, given a 1,000-pound consolation prize…And in 1986, the Soviet Union respectfully turned Crowhurst's story into a propaganda film about the evils of capitalism. We're unsure what the moral of this insanely depressing story is exactly, but "If you only go sailing on Saturdays, it is extremely inadvisable to show up Ferdinand Magellan" is probably something we can all agree on.

Article Three

Steven Spielberg attended 'TINTIN: The Secret Of The Unicorn' premiere at Le Grand Rex in 2011 in Paris, France.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Spielberg had planned to make the film adaptation of the novel Robopocalypse

Drew Goddard, who penned "Cabin in the Woods" with Joss Whedon, had drafted a script for the story

Anne Hathaway had been set to star.

-- The Mayans were wrong about the end of the world, and it looks like robot Armageddon is on hold, too.

Steven Spielberg had planned to make the film adaptation of the novel Robopocalypse with Anne Hathaway this summer, with a date already set for April 24, 2014. But it looks like that's not going to happen.

The project has been placed on indefinite hold. Drew Goddard, who wrote Cloverfield and penned "Cabin in the Woods" with Joss Whedon, had drafted a script for the story, in which a high-functioning artificial intelligence turns against mankind and wages all-out war to wipe us off the planet.

In addition to Hathaway, who would have played an unspecified role, "The Avengers" star Chris Hemsworth was also in talks to co-star. As recently as this morning, Hathaway's reps had said the project was a go.

But Spielberg has indicated boredom with action films in some recent interviews, and though no explanation was offered for the delay, aside from a statement from Spielberg's rep that it wasn't ready and was too expensive to move forward without a polished script, the "Lincoln" filmmaker may simply not be as enamored with the brutal extinction story as he once was.

DreamWorks purchased the rights to Daniel H. Wilson's novel well before it was published in June 2011.

It was originally set to be ready for this July, but last may 20th Century Fox (which is co-financing the film with DreamWorks, and Disney's Touchstone distributing) announced it would be pushed to April 2014.

Now ...? It's a question of when the robot revolution will take place, but if.

For sci-fi fans, that's not a good thing.

Article FourPineapple

The Pineapple (Ananas comosus), named for its resemblance to the pine cone,[1] is a tropical plant with edible multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries,[2] and the most economically significant plant in the Bromeliaceae family.[3] Pineapples may be cultivated from a crown cutting of the fruit,[4] possibly flowering in 20–24 months and fruiting in the following six months.[4][5] Pineapple does not ripen significantly post-harvest.[6]Pineapples are consumed both fresh and cooked, canned, or juiced, and are found in a wide array of cuisines including dessert, fruit salad, jam, yogurt, ice cream and candy—and as a complement to meat dishes. In addition to consumption, in the Philippines the pineapple's leaves are used to produce the textile fiber piña- employed as a component of wall paper and furnishings, amongst other uses.[7]

Etymology The word "pineapple" in English was first recorded in 1398, when it was originally used to describe the reproductive organs of conifer trees (now termed pine cones). The term "pine cone" for the reproductive organ of conifer trees was first recorded in 1694. When European explorers discovered this tropical fruit in the Americas, they called them "pineapples" (first so referenced in 1664 due to resemblance to what is now known as the pine cone).[8]

In the scientific binomial Ananas comosus, ananas, the original name of the fruit, comes from the Tupi word nanas, meaning "excellent fruit",[9] as recorded by André Thevet in 1555, and comosus, "tufted", refers to the stem of the fruit. Other members of the Ananas genus are often called "pine", as well, by laymen. Many languages use the Tupian term ananas. In Spanish, pineapples are called piña "pine cone" in Spain and most Hispanic American countries, or ananá (ananás in Argentina) (see the piña colada drink). They have varying names in the languages of India: ananas (अननस)[10] in Marathi, anaasa (అనాస) in Telugu, Sapuri-PaNasa (ସପୁରି ପଣସ) in Oriya language, annachi pazham (Tamil), anarosh (আনারস) (Bengali), and in Malayalam, kaitha chakka. In Malay, pineapples are known as nanas or nenas. In the Maldivian language of Dhivehi, pineapples are known as alanaasi. A large, sweet pineapple grown especially in Brazil is called abacaxi [abaka ˈʃ i] . Along the Swahili-speaking coast of East Africa, the fruit is known as nanasi.Botany The pineapple is a herbaceous perennial which grows to 1.0 to 1.5 meters (3.3 to 4.9 ft) tall, although sometimes it can be taller. In appearance, the plant itself has a short, stocky stem with tough, waxy leaves. When creating its fruit, it usually produces up to 200 flowers, although some large-fruited cultivars can exceed this. Once it flowers, the individual fruits of the flowers join together to create what is commonly referred to as a pineapple. After the first fruit is produced, side shoots (called 'suckers' by commercial growers) are produced in the leaf axils of the main stem. These may be removed for propagation, or left to produce additional fruits on the original plant.[4] Commercially, suckers that appear around the base are cultivated. It has 30 or more long, narrow, fleshy, trough-shaped leaves with sharp spines along the margins that are 30 to 100 centimeters (1.0 to 3.3 ft) long, surrounding a thick stem. In the first year of growth, the axis lengthens and thickens, bearing numerous leaves in close spirals. After 12 to 20 months, the stem grows into a spike-like inflorescence up to 15 cm (6 in) long with over 100 spirally arranged, trimerous flowers, each subtended by a bract. Flower

colors vary, depending on variety, from lavender, through light purple to red. The ovaries develop into berries which coalesce into a large, compact, multiple accessory fruit. The fruit of a pineapple is arranged in two interlocking helices, eight in one direction, thirteen in the other, each being a Fibonacci number.[11]

Pineapple carries out CAM photosynthesis, fixing carbon dioxide at night and storing it as the acid malate and then releasing it during the day, aiding photosynthesis.History The plant is indigenous to South America and is said to originate from the area between Southern Brazil and Paraguay; however, it is important to note that little is known about the origin of the domesticated pineapple (Pickersgill, 1976). M.S. Bertoni (1919)[14] considered the Paraná–Paraguay River drainages to be the place of origin of A. comosus.[15] The natives of southern Brazil and Paraguay spread the pineapple throughout South America, and it eventually reached the Caribbean. Columbus discovered it in 1493 in the Indies and brought it back with him to Europe[16] thus making the pineapple the first bromeliad to leave the New World.[17] The Spanish introduced it into the Philippines, Hawaii (introduced in the early 19th century, first commercial plantation 1886), Zimbabwe and Guam. Many say the fruit was first introduced in Hawaii when a Spanish ship brought them there in the 1500s.[18] The fruit was cultivated successfully in European hothouses, and pineapple pits, beginning in 1720. Ethical and environmental concerns Three-quarters of pineapples sold in Europe are grown in Costa Rica, where pineapple production is highly industrialised. Growers typically use 20 kg of pesticides per hectare in each growing cycle,[23] a process that may affect soil quality and biodiversity. The pesticides – organophosphates, organochlorines and hormone disruptors – have the potential to affect workers' health and can contaminate local drinking water supplies.[23] Many of these chemicals have potential to be carcinogens, and may be related to birth defects.[23]

Because of commercial pressures, many pineapple workers – 60% of whom are Nicaraguan – in Costa Rica are paid low wages.[quantify] European supermarkets' price-reduction policies have lowered growers' incomes.[23] One major pineapple producer refutes these claims.[24]

Storage and Transport Some buyers prefer green fruit, others ripened or off-green. A plant growth regulator, Ethephon, is typically sprayed onto the fruit one week before harvest, developing ethylene, which turns the fruit golden yellow. After cleaning and slicing, they are typically canned in sugar syrup with added preservative.[citation needed]

A pineapple will never become any riper than it was when harvested,[32] though a fully ripe pineapple can bruise and rot quickly. The fruit itself is quite perishable and storage of it should be taken seriously. If it is stored at room temperature, it should be used within two days; however, if it is refrigerated, the time span is extended to five to seven days.[33]

Article Five

The Lion and the MouseOnce when a Lion was asleep a little Mouse began running up and down

upon him; this soon wakened the Lion, who placed his huge paw upon him, and opened his big jaws to swallow him. “Pardon, O King,” cried the little Mouse: “forgive me this time, I shallnever forget it: who knows but what I may be able to do you a turn some of these days?” The Lion was so tickled at the idea of the Mouse being able to help him, that he lifted up his paw and let him go. Sometime after the Lion was caught in a trap, and the hunters who desired to carry him alive to the King, tied him to a tree while they went in search of a wagon to carry him on. Just then the little Mouse happened to pass by, and seeing the sad plight in which the Lion was, went up to him and soon gnawed away the ropes that bound the King of the Beasts. “Was I not right?” said the little Mouse. Little friends may prove great friends.

The Fox and the Grapes One hot summer’s day a Fox was strolling through an orchard till he came to a bunch of Grapes just ripening on a vine which had been trained over a lofty branch. “Just the thing to quench my thirst,” quoth he. Drawing back a few paces, he took a run and a jump, and just missed the bunch. Turning round again with a One, Two, Three, he jumped up, but with no greater success. Again and again he tried after the tempting morsel, but at last had to give it up, and walked away with his nose in the air, saying: “I am sure they are sour.” It is easy to despise what you cannot get.

The Four Oxen and the Lion A Lion used to prowl about a field in which Four Oxen used to dwell. Many a time he tried to attack them; but whenever he came near they turned their tails to one another, so that whichever way he approached them he was met by the horns of one of them. Atlast, however, they fell a-quarrelling among themselves, and each went off to pasture alone in a separate corner of the field. Then the Lion attacked them one by one and soon made an end of all four. United we stand, divided we fall.

The Bald Man and the Fly A FLY bit the bare head of a Bald Man who, endeavoring to destroy it, gave himself a heavy slap. Escaping, the Fly said mockingly, “You who have wished to revenge, even with death, the Prick of a tiny insect, see what you have done to yourself to add insult to injury?’ The Bald Man replied, “I can easily make peace with myself, because I know there was no intention to hurt. But you, an ill-favored and contemptible insect who delights in sucking human blood, I wish that I could have killed you even if I had incurred a heavier penalty.” Revenge will hurt the avenger.

The Dancing Monkeys A PRINCE had some Monkeys trained to dance. Being naturally great mimics of men’s actions, they showed themselves most apt pupils, and when

arrayed in their rich clothes and masks, they danced as well as any of the courtiers. The spectacle was often repeated with great applause, till on one occasion a courtier, bent on mischief, took from his pocket a handful of nuts and threw them upon the stage. The Monkeys at the sight of the nuts forgot their dancing and became (as indeed they were) Monkeys instead of actors. Pulling off their masks and tearing their robes, they fought with one another for the nuts. The dancing spectacle thus came to an end amidst the laughter and ridicule of the audience. Not everything you see is what it appears to be.

The Eagle, the Cat, and the Wild Sow AN EAGLE made her nest at the top of a lofty oak; a Cat, having found a convenient hole, moved into the middle of the trunk; and a Wild Sow, with her young, took shelter in a hollow at its foot. The Cat cunningly resolved to destroy this chance-made colony. To carry out her design, she climbed to the nest of the Eagle, and said, “Destruction is preparing for you, and for me too, unfortunately. The Wild Sow, whom you see daily digging up the earth, wishes to uproot the oak, so she may on its fall seize our families as food for her young.” Having thus frightened the Eagle out of her senses, she crept down to the cave of the Sow, and said, “Your children are in great danger; for as soon as you go out with your litter to find food, the Eagle is prepared to pounce upon one of your little pigs.” Having instilled these fears into the Sow, she went and pretended to hide herself in the hollow of the tree. When night came she went forth with silent foot and obtained food for herself and her kittens, but feigning to be afraid, she kept a lookout all through the day. Meanwhile, the Eagle, full of fear of the Sow, sat still on the branches, and the Sow, terrified by the Eagle, did not dare to go out from her cave. And thus they both, along with their families, perished from hunger, and afforded ample provision for the Cat and her kittens. Gossips are to be seen and not heard.

Article Six

Once upon a time there lived a boy named Bill, who always dreamed of flying to the moon.

One summer evening when Bill was trying to go to sleep, he was bothered by his big brother Ron. Ron was playing his new boom box too loud. The only way Bill could go to sleep was to put on some headphones and play a tape. His favorite tape had the sound of the ocean waves splashing up on shore.

As he lay there in bed with his eyes closed pretending he was lying on the beach under a full moon, he began to daydream about flying to the moon in a rocket ship.

The rocket ship was not very big--just big enough for two astronauts.  He and his brother Ron were co-astronauts.

Bill called out to Ron, "Navigator ready?" Ron called back in the headset, "Yes, navigator ready."

"Mission control ready?" Bill asked into the headset.  "Mission control ready. We will begin countdown in T minus ten seconds, nine seconds, eight seconds" . .  . Bill's heart began to race . . .  "two seconds, one . .  . BLAST OFF!"

Bill and Ron were thrown back into their seats.  They could feel the skin on their faces being stretched back towards their ears.  Then they felt like they weighed 100 pounds apiece.  Their rocket ship zoomed up into the sky so fast everything out the window was just a blur. It seemed like just a couple of minutes had gone by when everything got really smooth and quiet.  They were now in outer space!

Bill was sitting in the front seat and Ron was in the back.  Bill asked Ron,  "What does it look like out the back?" "It looks like earth is just a blue and white ball. You can see the clouds and oceans, but you cannot see any cities or trees."

Ron asked Bill, "Can you see the moon coming up?" "Yes, I see it,"  Bill said.  "I think we will be there in about 30 minutes if my calculations are correct.  We're going 25,000 miles per hour and it is about 50,000 miles to the moon." "Cool," said Ron.   "I think I will play my GameBoy and listen to some music on my boom box." "You brought your boom box?" Bill was obviously annoyed.  "You know I don't go anywhere without my boom box," said Ron.  He turned on the music and the boys listened. The time quickly passed.

"Mission control to Bill," came over the headsets.  "Bill here." "You will need to prepare for landing in two minutes," said the voice. "Roger, we'll be ready," said Bill.  "Here we go.  Hold on, it looks like it might be a rough landing." The rocket ship came in very rough. So rough that both Bill and Ron's airbags deployed.  Finally, they came to rest. "Bill, are you O.K.?" asked Ron. "Yes, I'm O.K., but that airbag hit me in the face like a rock-hard pillow.  I think my nose would be bleeding if I didn't have on this helmet.  Let's take a look around and see if the rocket ship is O.K." "Good idea," said Ron.

They put on their moon walk suits.  The moon walk suits were big and heavy.  They had built in air conditioners to cool them when the sun was on them and a heater to warm them up when they were in the shade. Since they were in outer space, it would go way below freezing in the shade and get so hot you could get burned in

the sun.  When they stepped outside, they felt like they were floating on air. They only weighed about six pounds each. So when they walked, it was as if they bounced.  They bounced up about ten feet with each step. They quickly gathered up some moon rocks as souvenirs. Then they began to inspect the rocket to make sure it was flyable for the return trip.  Things did not look good. The portion of the ship that housed the rocket starter was heavily damaged. The batteries that turned the starter were completely destroyed. They began to fear that they might be trapped on the moon.  "What are we going to do?" asked Ron. He looked scared.  "I don't know," Bill answered.  "Let's call Mission Control and see if they have any suggestions."

They went back inside and tossed the moon rocks aside.  They called Mission Control. "We will get back to you" was the answer.  They needed time to think.  "We only have enough food and water for one more day," Ron reminded Bill.  "Yeah, we will really need to conserve it." They nervously sat in their seats and waited for Mission Control. No reply. After a while, Bill jumped up and said, "I've got it! Give me your boom box." Ron said, "What? Are you crazy?" "No just give it to me," said Bill. Ron surrendered his boom box.  Bill took it and turned it on real loud and smiled. Ron looked sad.  He just knew that Bill was losing his mind.

Then Bill turned off the music and flipped the boom box upside down.  He opened the battery compartment and took out the eight large batteries.  "I think we can tape these together and make one big battery that will start the rocket," said Bill.  "Hand me that duct tape from the tool kit." "Sounds like a good idea to me," said Ron. Bill lined up the batteries in two rows of four and taped them together in a bundle. He took a piece of tape and connected a wire to the batteries on each end.  He hooked one up to the starter. He took the other wire and ran it back up to his seat in the front.  Bill told Ron to get in his seat. "If I touch the wire to the metal on the dashboard, the starter should work and we can blast-off." Ron hoped that he was right.  "Are you ready?" Bill asked Ron without waiting for an answer. "Here goes!" As he touched the wire to the dashboard, they could hear the roar of the rocket.  Before they knew it, they were zooming back through space towards earth. "Yippee!" how they both yelled.

Just then, Bill's mom pulled the headphones off of his head and told him to go on to sleep. It was easy for Bill to get back to sleep, because he hoped he could pick up his rocket ship dream right where he left off.

The end

Article Seven

Once upon a time there was a troll that lived up under The Creek Bridge down at Low Hollow creek. He was a short ugly fellow, but very strong. His hair was straight, red, and stuck out like a mop. His skin was really wrinkly and felt like sandpaper. His clothes were always smelly. His name was Snidely.

One day, Snidely was sleeping and something woke him up.

Someone was coming! It was a young boy and girl in a carriage.

Every time someone tried to cross the bridge, Snidely would jump out in front, cross his arms and demand one dollar. "You cannot cross my bridge without giving me a dollar first," said Snidely, with a scowl on his face. If you didn't pay, he would throw you over the side.

 The boy and girl in the carriage were so scared they could hardly speak. "Ok, we will pay," said the boy to Snidely.

 "We have to get home before the storm," he said to the girl.

 Snidely let them through and waved as they got to the other side and rode out of sight. He really wasn't mean, he just wanted to see if people would really pay.

 Back under the bridge again, Snidely began to hear some wind and it began to rain. It rained harder and harder. Snidely began to worry as the water started to rise in the creek. He was a strong bully, but he could not swim.

Higher and higher it rose. Snidely began to sweat.

 Snidely had to do something quickly or he would be washed down the river.

 He got out from under the bridge and went over to the tall fir tree next to the creek. He figured he would climb up high enough that he would not have to worry about the water.

 Just as he began to climb, he heard, "Stop, you can't climb this tree without paying me five dollars."

 It was Chunky the gorilla. Chunky was a nice gorilla, but he was very tired of seeing Snidely causing so much trouble with the people crossing the bridge.

"I only have four dollars," said Snidely.

 "I guess you'll have to swim for it then," said Chunky to Snidely.

 "I don't know how to swim," said Snidely. "I will surely drown!

 "That's a bummer, you should have saved your money" said Chunky.

 "I tell you what I'll do" said Chunky. "If you will agree not to charge people for crossing the bridge anymore, I will not only let you climb my tree, but you  can

come into my house and have dinner with me, as I was just getting ready to sit down and eat."

"It's a deal," said Snidely.

They sat down, ate dinner, and became very good friends.

 From that day forward, Snidely became known as the nice troll that lived under the bridge. Whenever someone came down in the hollow to cross The Creek Bridge, Snidely would walk and talk with the them as they went across.  Sometimes he would even sell them drinks and food from the little store he started next to the bridge.

 Now people come to The Creek Bridge, whenever they can, to see Snidely. He is actually a real fun guy!

The End.

Article Eight

Nicole Kidman appears on the Ellen DeGeneres Show Credit: The Ellen DeGeneres Show

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's daughters don't sound like most little girls.

Appearing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Jan. 11, the Grace of Monaco actress opened up about daughters Sunday Rose, 4, and Faith Margaret, 2. "They were both born in Nashville, and we live in Tennessee now," the Academy Award winner said. "They have a mix of Australian and Southern [accents], which is really cute, but my mama always says, 'I can't understand her,' because . . .she says, 'Hey, y'all!' to her grandparents."

Though Sunday is a chatterbox, Faith Margaret still speaks in "baby garble," Kidman, 45, explained. "But I understand everything she says." (Kidman is also mom to daughter Isabella, 20, and son Connor, 17, with ex-husband Tom Cruise, 50.)

New American Idol judge Urban, 45, is a "divine" father, Kidman added. "The great thing about being married to a musician . . . is you have music in the house all the time. There is something very joyful about having music. Because Keith can play pretty much any instrument, he'll just play piano at 7 a.m. in the morning."

"Breakfast around the piano is very much a part of our life," Kidman shared.

During the interview, Kidman also revealed how she met her husband on the set of G'Day LA in 2005. "We have different perspectives on it. I'm like, 'You didn't love

me at first sight. You didn't notice me!' And he's like, 'Yes, I did, but I just didn't let on.' But we kind of met and then about four months later he called me."

"That's a long time," Kidman laughed. "He said he had other things he had to take care of. Guys, right?"

Article Nine

My fellow countrymen, on this occasion, the oath I have taken before you and before God is not mine alone, but ours together. We are one

   1

nation and one people. Our fate as a nation and our future as a people rest not upon one citizen, but upon all citizens.  This is the majesty and the meaning of this moment. 2  For every generation, there is a destiny. For some, history decides. For this generation, the choice must be our own.

3

  Even now, a rocket moves toward Mars. It reminds us that the world will not be the same for our children, or even for ourselves in a short span of years. The next man to stand here will look out on a scene different from our own, because ours is a time of change—rapid and fantastic change bearing the secrets of nature, multiplying the nations, placing in uncertain hands new weapons for mastery and destruction, shaking old values, and uprooting old ways.

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  Our destiny in the midst of change will rest on the unchanged character of our people, and on their faith.

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THE AMERICAN COVENANT

  They came here—the exile and the stranger, brave but frightened—to find a place where a man could be his own man. They made a covenant with this land. Conceived in justice, written in liberty, bound in union, it was meant one day to inspire the hopes of all mankind; and it binds us still. If we keep its terms, we shall flourish.

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JUSTICE AND CHANGE

  First, justice was the promise that all who made the journey would share in the fruits of the land.

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  In a land of great wealth, families must not live in hopeless poverty. In a land rich in harvest, children just must not go hungry. In a land of healing miracles, neighbors must not suffer and die unattended. In a great land of learning and scholars, young people must be taught to read and write.

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  For the more than 30 years that I have served this Nation, I have believed that this injustice to our people, this waste of our resources, was our real enemy. For 30 years or more, with the resources I have had, I have vigilantly fought against it. I have learned, and I know, that it will not surrender easily.

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  But change has given us new weapons. Before this generation of Americans is finished, this enemy will not only retreat—it will be conquered.

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  Justice requires us to remember that when any citizen denies his fellow, saying, "His color is not mine," or "His beliefs are strange and different," in that moment he betrays America, though his forebears created this Nation.

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THE AMERICAN BELIEF

  Under this covenant of justice, liberty, and union we have become a nation—prosperous, great, and mighty. And we have kept our freedom. But we have no promise from God that our greatness will endure. We have been allowed by Him to seek greatness with the sweat of our hands and the strength of our spirit.

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  I do not believe that the Great Society is the ordered, changeless, and sterile battalion of the ants. It is the excitement of becoming—always becoming, trying, probing, falling, resting, and trying again—but always trying and always gaining.

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  In each generation, with toil and tears, we have had to earn our heritage again. 26  If we fail now, we shall have forgotten in abundance what we learned in hardship: that democracy rests on faith, that freedom asks more than it gives, and that the judgment of God is harshest on those who are most favored.

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  If we succeed, it will not be because of what we have, but it will be because of what we are; not because of what we own, but, rather because of what we believe.

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  For we are a nation of believers. Underneath the clamor of building and the rush of our day's pursuits, we are believers in justice and liberty and union, and in our own Union. We believe that every man must someday be free. And we believe in ourselves.

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  Our enemies have always made the same mistake. In my lifetime—in depression and in war—they have awaited our defeat. Each time, from the secret places of the American heart, came forth the faith they could not see or that they could not even imagine. It brought us victory. And it will again.

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  For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest sleeping in the unplowed ground. Is our world gone? We say "Farewell." Is a new world coming? We welcome it—and we will bend it to the hopes of man.

31

  To these trusted public servants and to my family and those close friends of mine who have followed me down a long, winding road, and to all the people of this Union and the world, I will repeat today what I said on that sorrowful day in November 1963: "I will lead and I will do the best I can."

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  But you must look within your own hearts to the old promises and to the old dream. They will lead you best of all.

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  For myself, I ask only, in the words of an ancient leader: "Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people: for who can judge this thy people, that is so great?"