Revision Task 3: Reading

Revision Task 3: Reading

Primary 5 English

Instructions:

​Read and understand the passage then answer the questions that follow.

FRIENDSHIP, SPELLED D-O-G​

by Barb Rosenstock​ (2018)

Helen Keller (1880-1968) was a famous deaf-blind author, speaker, and advocate, or someone who acts or speaks to try and help others. People who are deaf-blind are unable to fully hear or see. In the text “Friendship, Spelled D-O-G,” Rosenstock explains the important relationships Helen Keller had with dogs.

​Friendship, spelled D-O-G

​Six-year-old Helen Keller sat on the floor, hugging her dog, Belle. An illness at age one had made Helen blind and deaf. Trapped by her dark, silent world, she threw tantrums.1 Being unable to communicate2 “made me so angry at times that I kicked and screamed until I was exhausted,”3 she later wrote.

​

But dogs made her feel better. She buried her nose in their fur and felt the gentle wag of their tails. Dogs were comforting — patient and accepting.

​Teacher’s Game

​To help Helen, the Kellers hired teacher Annie Sullivan. Annie made finger movements in Helen’s hand to stand for words, but Helen couldn’t grasp what they meant. She tried making the motions on Belle’s paw. Maybe Belle would understand this game.

​

For weeks, Annie “talked” into Helen’s hands. Then one day, it all made sense! The movements in her hand stood for things around her. Water. Teacher. Dog!

​

​Excited to understand, Helen wanted to learn more. She soon mastered finger spelling, then braille,4 reading, typing, and writing. And, without hearing speech, she learned to talk.

​Teacher’s Game

Excited to understand, Helen wanted to learn more. She soon mastered finger spelling, then braille,4 reading, typing, and writing. And, without hearing speech, she learned to talk.

​

​During Helen’s childhood in the late 1800s, many people believed that a person who was deaf and blind could not live a useful life. Helen disagreed. She hiked, swam, and rode horses, with her dogs tagging along. And she was determined to go to college. So with Annie by her side, she left her family and dogs behind to attend Radcliffe.

​Without a Dog, Until...

​College was difficult. Books and conversation5 had to be spelled into her hand, letter by letter. Few people communicated with her. She felt lonely.

Then her classmates bought her a surprise—a Boston bull terrier! Helen nicknamed him Phiz because he had “the drollest6 ‘phiz’ [face] in dogdom.” A faithful companion, he is said to have gone with her to classes.

Helen graduated with honors and wrote an autobiography,7 the first of her several books. She and Annie shared a house with many dogs, including mastiffs, collies, spaniels, terriers, setters, and a dachshund.8 Helen wrote, lectured,9 and worked for the rights of people with disabilities and for peace and justice.

​

Around the world, people read about Helen and admired her.

​Sorrow and Comfort

​After Annie died, Helen went overseas on a speaking trip with another companion. But she dearly missed “Teacher.”

​

Once again, a dog helped. In Japan, Helen admired Akitas, a local dog breed. The Japanese made arrangements to give one to her! She returned home with “Kami,” the first Akita in America. Of this “angel in fur,” she wrote, “If I cried from loneliness for my beloved teacher, he would put his big paw on my knee and press his cool nose against my cheek and lick away the tears.”

​

“Dogs have travelled all over the world with me. They have always been my companions.”

​

When Kami died, Helen felt that “another joy has gone out of my life.” Hearing of her loss, the Japanese sent Kami’s brother, “Go-Go,” to her as a new friend.

​Friends All Around

​Helen lived with up to eight dogs at once, writing, “I love their affectionate10 ways and the eloquent11 wag of their tails.” She wrote that if she could see for just three days, during that time she would “like to look into the loyal, trusting eyes of my dogs . . . whose warm, tender, and playful friendships are so comforting to me.”

Fill in the Blanks

What was Helen's condition?

Multiple Choice

What is the main idea of the text?

• Annie Sullivan had an important job.

• Dogs help people understand each other.

• Helen Keller learned how to read while at Radcliffe.

• Dogs were important to Helen Keller throughout her life.

Multiple Choice

Which detail from the text best shows that Helen Keller was brave?

• “She buried her nose in their fur and felt the gentle wag of their tails.”

• “She hiked, swam, and rode horses, with her dogs tagging along.”

• “Books and conversation had to be spelled into her hand, letter by letter.”

• “She returned home with ‘Kami,’ the first Akita in America”

Fill in the Blanks

How does the text describe the dogs from Helen's perspective?

Multiple Choice

Which WORD is related to the line "Annie “talked” into Helen’s hands."

• Exhausted

• Braille

• Dachschund

• Drollest

Multiple Choice

Which word from the passage mean "good at speaking or expressing oneself well through words?"

• Conversational

• Mastiff

• Eloquent

• Affectionate

Open Ended

Why were dogs important to Helen Keller?