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STUDENT ANTHOLOGY Grade 7Volume A

ALPHA

Literature

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Program Chief Editor: Pam CareyProgram Consultant Editor: Julia LeeProgram Editors: Mary Harvey, Susanna Brougham, Cynthia Guidici, Ellen Whittier, Cecelia Munzenmaier

CoverCover Design: QBS Learning

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ii


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Contents

Unit 1Reaching for Our Dreams

Essential QuestionWhat can we do to make our dreams come true? ?

Muthoni Muchemi Kamau’s Finish SHORT STORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

COMPARING TEXTS

Michael Massimino A View of the Earth MEMOIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Randy Pausch, Getting to Zero G from The Last Lecture MEMOIR . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

with Jeffrey Zaslow

Trent Reedy from Words in the Dust NOVEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Laura Gallego García from The Legend of the Wandering King HISTORICAL FICTION . . . . . . . 44

COMPARING TEXTS

Marta Salinas The Scholarship Jacket SHORT STORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Langston Hughes Dreams POEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Performance Task Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Literary Terms and Genres Handbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi

Contents iii


Unit 2Moments of Truth

Essential QuestionWhat truths can we learn through life experiences? ?

Firoozeh Dumas Waterloo from Funny in Farsi MEMOIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

COMPARING TEXTS

Linda Sue Park from A Long Walk to Water NOVEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

John Deng Langbany One Day I Had to Run PERSONAL NARRATIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Avi What Do Fish Have to Do with Anything? SHORT STORY . . . . . . . . . 98

Alfred Noyes The Highwayman POEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Ben Johnson Highwaymen HISTORY ARTICLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

COMPARING TEXTS

Julia Alvarez My First Free Summer MEMOIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Shaun Tan from The Arrival GRAPHIC NOVEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132


Contents continued

iv Contents


Unit 3The Power of Words

Essential QuestionHow can we use words to make positive changes in the world??

Neil Gaiman from Reading and Obligation SPEECH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

COMPARING TEXTS

Nelson Mandela Nobel Peace Prize Lecture SPEECH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Preamble to the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT . . . . . . . . . . 170

Wangari Maathai Women and the Environment from Speak Truth to Power SPEECH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Naomi Shihab Nye Kindness POEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Mahmoud Darwish The Prison Cell POEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Muhammad al-Ghuzzi The Pen POEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

COMPARING TEXTS

Malala Yousafzai, from I Am Malala MEMOIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

with Patricia McCormick

Ji-li Jiang from Red Scarf Girl MEMOIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192


Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Index of Authors and Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Contents v


Alliteration: The repetition of beginning consonant sounds in words in the same or nearby lines or sentences: “The lazy lemur lolled in lush comfort among the leaves.”

Allusion: a reference to a famous event, person, place, work of art, or literary text.

Analogy: a comparison of two dissimilar things to explain an idea. The aim of an analogy is to get at a deeper understanding of one or both of the things being compared.

Atmosphere: the mood or feeling created by a literary work or passage.

Autobiography: a writer’s true account of his or her own life.

Biography: a true account of a person’s life that is written by another person.

Character: a person or animal in a literary work. Character traits are specific aspects of a character’s personality. Flat characters display one main trait. Round characters are more realistic and complex, displaying many traits. Static characters do not change, while

dynamic characters change and grow through the action.

Characterization: the process by which a writer creates and reveals characters. Direct characterization occurs when a writer tells the reader what the character is like; for example, “Lila could be shy.” Writers using indirect characterization show what a character is like through the character’s actions, words, and thoughts; for example, “Lila thought, ‘I’d rather be alone than be at this party.’”

Climax: the high point or turning point in a plot. It is the moment of extreme emotion or suspense after which the conflict begins to resolve.

Comedy: a humorous literary work that usually ends happily.

Conflict: the fight or struggle between characters or forces in a literary work. Characters experience internal conflict when they struggle against opposing forces within themselves. External conflict happens when characters struggle against other characters or an outside force, such as nature.

Literary Terms and Genres Handbook

I n this Alpha Literature anthology you will read a variety of different genres, or types, of literary and informational texts. The writers of those texts have skillfully used various literary elements—from basic diction or word choice to

sophisticated elements of writing such as analogies, allusions, and figures of speech— to make their writing engaging, powerful, and memorable. This Literary Terms and Genres Handbook, a quick reference guide, will help you to better understand and identify the various genres and literary techniques that you will encounter as you read and respond to the wide variety of literary and informational texts in this anthology.

vi Literary Terms and Genres Handbook

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Description: writing that depicts a person, place, or thing through the use of imagery, or language that appeals to the five senses.

Dialogue: the conversations between characters in a literary work. Dialogue is usually set off by quotation marks.

Diction: a writer’s choice of words

Drama: a story intended to be performed by actors and revealed only through the actors’ words and actions. The script includes the actors’ dialogue. Stage directions in the script tell the actors how to speak, move, or look. Stage directions often appear in italics and are usually set off by brackets. The main parts of a drama are called acts, which are often subdivided into scenes.

Epic: a long, often ancient, narrative poem that describes the deeds or quests of a legendary hero who symbolizes the values of the society, country, or nation in which the tale originated.

Essay: a short piece of nonfiction writing about a topic. A narrative essay tells a real-life story. An expository essay explains an idea or topic. A persuasive essay seeks to convince the reader to believe or accept the writer’s opinion on a topic.

Exposition: the beginning part of a story’s plot, in which the characters, setting, and situation or conflict are introduced.

Expository Text: writing that explains a topic or informs the reader.

Fable: a brief story or poem, often with animal

characters, that teaches a lesson or moral about life.

Fantasy: a genre of fiction that creates an imaginary world featuring characters, settings, and events not seen or possible in the real world.

Fiction: prose literature that describes imaginary people and events. Although fiction is imagined by the writer, it may be based on facts. The genre includes short stories and novels.

Figurative Language: words or phrases that have an implied meaning that is different from the literal meaning. Figures of speech are specific types of figurative language, such as metaphor or simile.

Flashback: in prose writing, a jump backward in time to events that took place earlier.

Folk Tale: a story passed down through spoken retellings that reflects a society’s values and understandings of the world.

Foreshadowing: hints or clues about what will happen later in a story.

Free Verse: poetry that does not follow a regular pattern of rhyme, meter, or line length.

Genre: a category of literature, such as prose, poetry, biography, drama, and so on. Within genres, there are further subdivisions of genres. For example, science fiction and historical fiction are genres within the larger genre of fiction; odes, ballads, and haiku are genres within the larger genre of poetry.

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Essential QuestionWhat can we do to make our dreams come true? ?

1

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BACKGROUND Author Muthoni Muchemi has said that she hopes

“Kamau’s Finish” is a reminder to children everywhere not to give up,

because “life is a journey, not a destination.” This short story takes place in

Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, where Muchemi is from. She was inspired to

write the story because, when she was a child, her father had always wanted

her to become a runner. She never did and felt she had disappointed him.

When she explained the story’s origin to her father, he said, “See. I inspire

you to write.”

As you read, pay attention to passages where the

author uses setting and events to shape the main character, Kamau.

CLOSE READING FOCUS

2 Unit 1: Reaching for Our Dreams


W ooyay, please with sugarcane juice,” I silently pray. “Let me be one of the lucky ones today.” Although Kenyatta Primary

Academy in Nairobi has almost four hundred students, not many parents have showed up for Sports Day. I don’t care about other parents so long as Baba is there for me.

While the headmistress screeches something or other on the squeaky microphone, I scan the group standing on the other side of the track. Baba is not among them. He’s tall and big like Tiger Power, the strongman who pulls cars with his teeth.

My team is the Red House, and we’re squashed between the Yellow

“

Kamau’s Finish

by M u t h o n i M u c h e m i

3


and Blue House teams. Immediately across is the three-step winner’s podium. I cross my eyes three times in its direction, shooting lucky uganga1 rays. But Chris and Daudi pull my T-shirt and break my concentration.

I bat their hands away and crouch down. We’re sitting on the ground right in front of the track. Mr. Juma, our sports master, let us sit here because we helped him mark the track into lanes with white chalk. Murram2 dust will fly in our face during the races, but we’ll still have the best view.

Suddenly, I see a tall figure approaching from a distance and shoot up again. But Baba is half bald, and this man has tight clumps that look like sleeping safari ants scattered about his head.

“Down, Kamau!” barks Mr. Juma.My race will start in a few minutes. I close my eyes and slowly mouth

the secret word. Ndigidigimazlpaxkarumbeta! Please let Baba be here by the end of this blink. But I open my eyes too soon, way too soon. Still, I will not lose faith.

Just this morning, I pressed my thumb into the fleshy pad of Baba’s thumb to will him to come and see me run. He didn’t pull away.

“I have an important business meeting, Kamau, so we’ll just have to see.” His dark brown eyes seemed full of heavy thoughts.

I pushed my thumb in harder to drill my way into focus. “Please, Baba . . .”

Mami butted in, “Stop pestering your father. Only thinking about yourself. How selfish can you be?” She is hugely pregnant and can scold until your head vibrates. “Your father has to work. Do you think the money we use to educate you is donated by foreign aid?3 Maybe you think we can feed on saliva like bacteria, or live on yesterday’s skin like

podium (POH-dee-uhm) n.: a raised platform for speakers or people receiving awards

CLOSE READING How can you tell that Kamau is desperate for his father to be at the race? Cite evidence from the text to support your response.

1

1 uganga (yoo-GAWNG-uh) n.: (Swahili) magic2 murram (MUR-um) n.: reddish clay-like material used to make roads in

parts of Africa3 foreign aid money or resources given to a country in need by another country



fleas? You have no idea about the financial problems—”Baba coughed. Mami stopped talking, and for a moment they stared

at each other. Mami lashed at me again. “What’s that mashing thumbs uganga anyway?”

My eight-year-old sister, Wanja, laughed, giving us all a good long look at the mushy stuff in her mouth. Neither of my parents said anything about her bad manners. She had just shown them her report card and, as vomit usual, she was first in her class. Of course, they then asked for mine, and I had to dig it out of the bottom of my bag.

“Kamau needs to concentrate. He is easily distracted . . .” Mami had waved the report at Baba. “Didn’t I tell you that all this boy does night and day is dream? If they tested a subject called dreaming, Kamau’s grades would burst through the ceiling and pierce the cover of the sky!”

Baba had nodded his head in Mami’s direction. Did he agree with Mami?

“Kamau’s head is full of nonsense!” Mami prodded my head. I let it bob up and down like a rubber ball on a string. “He needs to knuckle down. I want him to succeed. Achievement is what matters. Maybe he dreams he’ll be the next president of this country. President Kamau?

financial (fy-NAN-shuhl) adj.: relating to money

distracted (dih-STRAK-tihd) adj.: unable to pay attention

CRITICAL VIEWINGWhat does this illustration show you about the importance Kamau's parents place on his education?

1

Kamau’s Finish 5


Heh! Kamau, get serious, even future kings need to work.”It was no use telling her I try.My friend Chris once told me his mother said babies in the belly kick. So

I squinted and sent mega-uganga rays to the baby in Mami’s belly to make its legs stronger. She stopped talking and placed a hand over her side.

Maybe my uganga rays were too strong.I held my breath in awe of my powers, but nothing else happened.Then Njau, my four-year-old brother, had piped up in his high voice,

“Baba said effort is what matters.”Baba rumbled, “And problems help us grow.”Mami had scrunched her face as though a mountain of firewood was

pressing on her head, and waddled off to pack my special energy lunch—sweet potato slices, maziwa lala,4 boiled egg, two carrots, and an orange.

I bite into the pad of my thumb. It’s tingling. Ndigidigimazlpaxkarumbeta!

“Sit down, Kamau, how many times do I have to tell you?” Mr. Juma’s voice rises up and whips me back down.

I glance over at the Yellows. When my eyes lock with Kip’s, I silently chant, “Yellow, yellow, dirty fellow.”

He points his index finger and cocks his thumb at me. I duck the imaginary bullet, but he’s laughing, trading high-fives with his mates, and doesn’t notice.

Kip is ten, a year younger than most of my class, and usually the fastest. But twice, during practice runs this term, I beat him. He spat at me and sulked off. Everyone else clapped me on the back, even Mr. Juma.

CLOSE READING How do Mami’s ideas about what is most important compare to Baba’s ideas about what is most important?

2

4 maziwa lala (mah-ZEE-wah lah-lah) n.: thick milk similar to yogurt

I glance over at the Yellows. When my

He points his index finger and cocks his thumb at me. I duck the imaginary bullet, but he’s laughing, trading high-fives

Kip is ten, a year younger than most of my class, and usually the fastest. But twice, during practice runs this term, I beat him. He spat at me and sulked off. Everyone else clapped me on the back, even Mr. Juma.



When I told Baba, he said, “Well done, son,” and “Good for you.”Now if only Baba would get here, I’d show him how I did it. I’d

prove to him that I’m not just a hopeless dreamer. Our eight hundred-meter race is announced over the screechy microphone. I stare desperately at the parents’ side of the track as we file to the starting block. He isn’t there.

Three runners from each team stand at attention. Mr. Juma calls for silence.

“Good luck,” says Chris in a hoarse voice.“Same to you,” I whisper as we crouch

down in starting position.“On your marks!”Daudi is in the farthest lane. His lips are moving in silent prayer. Kip

calls him mkiba, the last carriage of a train. Of course, Kip sees himself as the engine, the one that always gets to its destination first.

I look past Daudi. No sign of Baba, only other parents jostling to get a better view of their sons at the starting line.

Mami said I was selfish to need Baba here today, but I so want to prove to him and Mami that I can be a winner. If he comes just this once, I’ll never ask him again.

“Get set!”I look down at my hands splayed on the ground and feel such a

sharp tingling in my thumb that I glance up. And there he is! My thumb never lies. There is Baba, pushing his way through the throng of parents along the track. There is no mistaking that huge shining head floating above the rest, hurrying in my direction.

Boom! The gun goes off.I want to burst with happiness. But a blur of bodies has already bolted

forward. They have a head start. I have to concentrate on the race instead of thinking about the miracle of Baba being here. I glue my eyes on the

jostling (JOS-uh-lihng) v.: pushing against other people in a crowd to move forward

CLOSE READING What conflicts does Kamau encounter before the race even begins?

3

I’d prove to him that I’m not

just a hopeless dreamer.

Kamau’s Finish 7


5 Ananse (ah-NAN-see) n.: a mischievous character who appears in African folktales

nearest runner, a blue T-shirt. I concentrate on catching up with him.I run like Ananse5 the hungry hare on his way to Mr. Elephant’s feast.

I overtake him.Concentration, concentration, concentration now begins. To that

beat, I run faster. I run in long hard strides that bounce off the ground and pull on the backs of my thighs. My legs feel strong. I set my sights on a yellow back. A surge of warmth floods my body as I overtake him.

I can tell it’s Daudi directly in front of me because he runs with his head facing the sky. He’s already slowing. I pound past him with my eyes locked on Kip’s yellow shirt.

CRITICAL VIEWINGIf you had to choose one or two sentences from the story as a caption for this illustration, which sentences would you choose, and why?

2



He’s in a cluster but I know Kip always goes for the flashy sprint finish. I have to catch up with him now if I’m to have a chance. Concentration, concentration, concentration now begins.

Amid all the crowd noises, I think I hear Baba yell, “Run, son!”A new energy tingles from my feet, up along my legs, loosens my

hips, and expands my chest. I tear past Chris, who is panting like a horse. Uganga magic is with me!

The cluster is breaking up. Kip is racing ahead. My heart hammers in my ribs. I open my mouth wider to take in more air. I’m catching up. I’m in the dispersing cluster. I overtake one, two, three boys.

I’m flying, my feet almost slapping my bottom, half a step behind Kip. When I win this race, Mami will never scold me again. When I win

this race, Wanja will swallow her snickering. Best of all, Baba will look in my eyes to congratulate me. Baba will finally see me.

Everything feels slow motion. The noise, the people, and the track float away into the great uganga-land of dreams. I hear only distant echoes, “… win, win, win!”

I’m neck and neck with Kip, matching him stride for stride. He leans toward me as though to draw strength from me. The finish line ribbon flutters red maybe 50 meters ahead.

I’m going to win! I’m going to win! My teammates will carry me on their shoulders, shouting, “Hero! Hero!” When I climb the winner’s podium to collect my medal, I won’t even punch the air or do a show-off dance. Baba will already know I’m a hero. Baba will …

An unexpected shove jolts me out of my dream and back to the moment. Then I’m wobbling, fighting for control. I fall.

Unbelievable!I swallow the grit on my tongue and shake my head to clear the ringing

in my ears. I feel confused. Not quite on this earth. My hands are grazed with white track chalk mixed with brown soil and smudges of blood. I shape them into fists and press hard to force the pain away. A blue shirt

snickering (SNIH-kuhr-ihng) n.: laughter that is meant to be disrespectful

CLOSE READING What does Kamau mean when he says, “Baba will finally see me”?

4

Kamau’s Finish 9


whizzes by, kicking dust in my face.While I was in my dream, Kip must have pushed me with

his elbow. I think Mami would be proud of a son like Kip who knows winning is what matters.

Legs zoom past me in a whir of hot air and dust. I glance toward the side of the track. The crowd probably thinks Kip and I touched accidentally.

A cheer goes up and I realize Kip must have crossed the red ribbon. Kip has won my race. No. Kip has stolen my race. I want to call to Baba that I should have won. Will he believe that Kip tripped me?

Most of the runners are finishing. Daudi rushes past me, his tongue lolling out of his mouth, probably elated not to be the mkiha for once. I look back and see Baba’s shiny face. He is running alongside the track, gesturing wildly—up, up, up—pointing to the finish line. But how will getting up help me? I’ll pretend my leg is broken. I’ll give a dramatic cry for help. I’ll …

I become aware of the noise, the cheering. They’re chanting my name. “Ka-ma-uu! Ka-ma-uu! Ka-ma-uu … !” They’re shouting for me to finish. I feel like shouting back, “Whatever for? All I’m good for is dreaming.”

Then I notice their eyes are not on me, but on my lumbering Baba, who has crossed onto the track behind me. He is wearing a black suit and shiny lizard shoes he bought donkey years ago that usually make me cringe.

My ears buzz, but I think I hear him shout, “Run, son! Get up and run!”

Uncertain, I scramble up and gape at Baba. Sweat streams down his

CLOSE READING Which words and phrases reveal that Kamau does not want to finish the race?

5

gape (GAYP) v.: to look at someone with your mouth open because you are surprised



Kamau’s Finish 11


face, and he holds a hand over his chest. Is he having a heart attack?He can’t be. His eyes are shining. I can see every tooth in his mouth.Baba is beaming!So I wipe my nose with my wrist and laugh through the tears. It

sounds like I am crying. But Baba is beaming.I keep my eyes on him and trot sheepishly alongside to the finish.

So much noise, so many people crowding the finish area. Mr. Juma is probably shouting for order.

But I only have ears for Baba. 8

sheepishly (SHEE-pihsh-lee) adv.: with embarassment

What valuable lesson do you think Kamau learns from

the race? How does this lesson relate to the idea of reaching for

your dreams? Discuss your responses in a small group.

Discuss



Critical Reading

1. COMPARE How does Kamau’s behavior as a student differ from his behavior as a runner? Use words and phrases from the story to support your comparison.

2. INFER (a) What does Kamau want to prove to Mami and Baba by winning the race? (b) Which parent is he most trying to prove himself to? Explain your answer using evidence from the text.

3. DESCRIBE Describe the character of Kip, citing evidence from the text to support your answer.

4. SUPPORT As you were reading the story, did you predict that Kamau would win or lose the race? What specific details in the text led you to make that prediction?

5. DRAW CONCLUSIONS Why is it important to Baba that Kamau finish the race? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.

6. ANALYZE Theme is a central message or insight about life. What is one possible theme of the story? Explain.

7. EVALUATE (a) Do you think “Kamau’s Finish” is a good title for this story? Why or why not? (b) Think of another possible title for the story. Explain why your idea is a good title.

Kamau’s Finish 13


BACKGROUND In 1990, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration

(NASA) launched the world’s first space telescope into a permanent orbit

around Earth. From its position more than 300 miles (483 kilometers) above the

planet, the Hubble telescope has taken amazingly accurate and clear pictures of

objects in space and has logged billions of miles of travel. NASA has sent crews

of astronauts to fix technical problems on the Hubble four times. In 2009, after

years of preparation, astronaut Michael Massimino flew with his crewmates in the

space shuttle Atlantis on a mission to complete the final repairs on the Hubble.

Viewing Earth from space changed Massimino’s life.

As you read, notice what Michael Massimino learned

from his experience in space. Later, you will be asked to compare his experiences

with those of another author.

CLOSE READING FOCUS


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I n 1984 I was a senior in college, and I went to see the movie The Right Stuff.1 And a couple of things really struck me

in that movie. The first was the view out the window of John Glenn’s2 spaceship—the view of the Earth, how beautiful it was on the big screen. I wanted to see that view. And secondly, the camaraderie between the original seven astronauts depicted in that movie—how they were good friends, how they stuck up for each other, how they would never let each other down. I wanted to be part of an organization like that.

camaraderie (kah-muh-RAH-duh-ree) n.: a feeling of deep friendship within a group

A View of the Earthby M i c h a e l M a s s i m i n o

1 The Right Stuff: a 1983 film about the beginning of the U.S. space program, including the first manned orbit in space

2 John Glenn: the first American astronaut to orbit Earth, on February 20, 1962

Permission is pending from the rights holder for this selection. 15


And it rekindled a boyhood dream that had gone dormant over the years. That dream was to grow up to be an astronaut. And I just could not ignore this dream. I had to pursue it. So I decided I wanted to go to graduate school, and I was lucky enough to get accepted to MIT.3

While I was at MIT, I started applying to NASA to become an astronaut. I filled out my application, and I received a letter that said they weren’t quite interested. So I waited a couple years, and I sent in another application. They sent me back pretty much the same letter. So I applied a third time, and this time I got an interview, so they got to know who I was. And then they told me no.

So I applied a fourth time. And on April 22, 1996, I knew the call was coming, good or bad. I picked up the phone, and it was Dave Leestma, the head of flight crew operations at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

He said, “Hey, Mike. This is Dave Leestma. How you doing this morning?”

And I said, “I really don’t know, Dave. You’re gonna4 have to tell me.”And he said, “Well, I think you’re gonna be pretty good after this

phone call, “cause we wanna make you an astronaut.”Thirteen years after that, it’s May 17, 2009, and I’m on space shuttle

Atlantis, about to go out and do a spacewalk on the Hubble Space Telescope. And our task that day was to repair an instrument that had failed. This instrument was used by scientists to detect the atmospheres of far-off planets. Planets in other solar systems could be analyzed using this spectrograph5 to see if we might find a planet that was Earth-like, or a planet that could support life. And just when they got good at doing this, the power supply on this instrument failed. It blew. So the instrument could no longer be used.

dormant (DOR-muhnt) adj.: not active now but able to be active later

CLOSE READINGDescribe the author, based on specific details from the four opening paragraphs you have just read.

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3 MIT: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a leading U.S. institution of higher learning focused on science and technology

4 gonna (GUH-nuh) v.: informal way to say “going to”; likewise, wanna means “want to” and kinda means “kind of”

5 spectrograph (SPEHK-truh-graf ) n.: a scientific device that uses mirrors to break rays of light into different wavelengths



And there was no way really to replace this unit or to repair the instrument, because when they launched this thing, and they got it ready for space flight, they really buttoned it up.6 They didn’t want anybody to mess with this thing. It was buttoned up with an access panel that blocked the power supply that had failed. This access panel had 117 small screws with washers,7 and just to play it safe, they put glue on the screw threads so they would never come apart. You know, it could withstand a space launch, and there was no way we could get in to fix this thing.

But we really wanted the Hubble’s capability back, so we started working. And for five years, we designed a spacewalk. We designed over one hundred new space tools to be used—at great taxpayers’ expense, millions of dollars, thousands of people worked on this. And my buddy Mike Good (who we call Bueno)—he and I were gonna go out to do this spacewalk. I was gonna be the guy actually doing the repair.

And inside was Drew Feustel, one of my best friends. He was gonna read me the checklist. And we had practiced for years and years for this. They built us our own practice instrument and gave us our own set of

The Hubble telescope has traveled more than 3 billion miles orbiting around Earth.

Mike Massimino practicing a repair on Earth

6 buttoned it up: slang for “securely fastened it”7 washers: flat metal rings set under the heads of bolts or screws to form a seal

CLOSE READING How difficult is the mission to repair the Hubble? How do you know?

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CRITICAL VIEWINGHow do these photos help you understand the text better?

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A View of the Earth 17


tools so we could practice in our office, in our free time, during lunch, after work, on the weekends.

We became like one mind. He would say it, I would do it. We had our own language. And now was the day to go out and do this task.

The thing I was most worried about when leaving the airlock8 that day was my path to get to the telescope, because it was along the side of the space shuttle. And if you look over the edge of the shuttle, it’s like looking over a cliff, with 350 miles to go down to the planet. And there are no good handrails.

When we’re spacewalking, we like to grab on to things with our space gloves and be nice and steady. But I got to this one area along the side of the shuttle, and there was nothing good to grab. I had to grab a wire or a hose or a knob or a screw. And I’m kind of a big goon.9 And when there’s no gravity, you can get a lot of momentum built up, and I could go spinning off into space. I knew I had a safety tether that would probably hold, but I also had a heart that I wasn’t so sure about. I knew they would get me back, I just wasn’t sure what they would get back on the end of the tether when they reeled me in. So I was really concerned about this. I took my time, and I got through the treacherous path and out to the telescope.

The first thing I had to do was to remove a handrail from the telescope that was blocking the access panel. There were two screws on the top, and they came off easily. And there was one screw on the bottom right and that came out easily. The fourth screw is not moving. My tool is moving, but the screw is not. I look close and it’s stripped. And I realize that that handrail’s not coming off, which means I can’t get to the access panel with these 117 screws that I’ve been worrying about for five years, which means I can’t get to the power supply that failed, which means we’re not gonna be able to fix this instrument 8 airlock: a tightly sealed room in a space shuttle, used to prepare astronauts as they

go out into and return from missions in outer space 9 goon: a big, foolish person

CLOSE READINGTone is the author's attitude toward his or her subject and audience. Which words and phrases on this page create a casual, friendly tone?

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today, which means all these smart scientists can’t find life on other planets.

And I’m to blame for this.And I could see what they would be saying in the science books

of the future. This was gonna be my legacy. My children and my grandchildren would read in their classrooms:

We would know if there was life on other planets . . . but Gabby and Daniel’s dad . . . My children would suffer from this.

Gabby and Daniel’s dad broke the Hubble Space Telescope, and we’ll never know.

And through this nightmare that had just begun, I looked at my buddy Bueno, next to me in his space suit, and he was there to assist in the repair but could not take over my role. He had his own

legacy (LEH-guh-see) n.: anything that is passed down from someone who has died

Astronauts Michael Good (L) and Mike Massimino, mission specialists, on a spacewalk to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. May 17, 2009.

CLOSE READINGWhat effect does the stripped screw have on the mission to repair the Hubble?

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responsibilities, and I was the one trained to do the now broken part of the repair.

It was my job to fix this thing. I turned and looked into the cabin where my five crewmates were, and I realized nobody in there had a space suit on. They couldn’t come out here and help me. And then I actually looked at the Earth; I looked at our planet, and I thought, There are billions of people down there, but there’s no way I’m gonna get a house call on this one. No one can help me.

I felt this deep loneliness. And it wasn’t just a “Saturday afternoon with a book” alone. I felt . . . detached from the Earth. I felt that I was by myself, and everything that I knew and loved and that made me feel comfortable was far away. And then it started getting dark and cold.

Because we travel 17,500 miles an hour, ninety minutes is one lap around the Earth. So it’s forty-five minutes of sunlight and forty-five minutes of darkness. And when you enter the darkness, it is not just darkness. It’s the darkest black I have ever experienced. It’s the complete absence of light. It gets cold, and I could feel that coldness, and I could sense the darkness coming. And it just added to my loneliness.

For the next hour or so, we tried all kinds of things. I was going up and down the space shuttle, trying to figure out where I needed to go to get the next tool to try to fix this problem, and nothing was working.

CLOSE READING What effect do the cold and the darkness have on the author at this point during the mission?

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And then they called up, after about an hour and fifteen minutes of this, and said they wanted me to go to the front of the shuttle to a toolbox and get vise grips10 and tape. I thought to myself, We are running out of ideas. I didn’t even know we had tape on board. I’m gonna be the first astronaut to use tape in space during a spacewalk.

But I followed directions. I got to the front of the space shuttle, and I opened up the toolbox and there was the tape. At that point I was very close to the front of the orbiter, right by the cabin window, and I knew that my best pal was in there, trying to help me out. And I could not even stand to think of looking at him, because I felt so bad about the way this day was going, with all the work he and I had put in.

10 vise grips: tools used for grabbing and turning small objects in tight spaces

The author works with the Hubble Space Telescope in the cargo bay of the Earth-orbiting space shuttle Atlantis.

CLOSE READING Compare the author's feelings and his actions. What is he feeling? What is he doing?

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But through the corner of my eye, through my helmet, you know, just the side there, I can kinda see that he’s trying to get my attention. And I look up at him, and he’s just cracking up, smiling and giving me the okay sign. And I’m like, Is there another spacewalk going on out here?

I really can’t talk to him, because if I say anything, the ground will hear. You know, Houston. The control center. So I’m kinda like playing charades with him. I’m like, What are you, nuts? And I didn’t wanna

charades (shuh-RAYDZ) n.: a game in which an unspoken word or phrase is acted out so that others can guess it

Mike Massimino (floating) spent nearly 16 hours in space repairing the Hubble.

CRITICAL VIEWINGDo you think this photograph was taken during the events Massimino describes? Why or why not?

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look before, because I thought he was gonna give me a look because he’s gonna go down in the history books with me. But he’s saying, No, we’re okay. You just hang in there a little bit longer. We’re gonna make it through this. We’re in this together. You’re doing great. Just hang in there.

And if there was ever a time in my life that I needed a friend, it was at that moment. And there was my buddy, just like I saw in that movie, the camaraderie of those guys sticking together. I didn’t believe him at all. I figured that we were outta luck. But I thought, At least if I’m going down, I’m going down with my best pal.

And as I turned to make my way back over the treacherous path one more time, Houston called up and told us what they had in mind. They wanted me to use that tape to tape the bottom of the handrail and then see if I could yank it off the telescope. They said it was gonna take about sixty pounds of force for me to do that.

And Drew answers the call, and he goes, “Sixty pounds of force?”He goes, “Mass, I think you got that in you. What do you think?”And I’m like, “You bet, Drew. Let’s go get this thing.”I get back to the telescope, and I put my hand on that handrail,

and the ground calls again, and they go, “Well, Drew, you know, you guys are okay to do this, but right now we don’t have any downlink11 from Mike’s helmet camera.” I’ve got these cameras mounted on my helmet, so they can see everything I’m doing. It’s kinda like your mom looking over your shoulder when you’re doing your homework, you know?

And they go, “We don’t have any downlink for another three minutes, but we know we’re running late on time here, so if you have to . . .” And I’m thinking, Let’s do it now while they can’t watch! Because the reason I’m taping this thing is if any debris gets loose, they’re gonna get all worried, and it’s gonna be another hour, and we’ll never fix this thing. We’ve been through enough already.

debris (duh-BREE) n.: pieces of something that has been destroyed or broken

11 downlink: the ability to transmit signals from a satellite to Earth

CLOSE READING What does the author mean when he says, “At least if I’m going down, I’m going down with my best pal”?

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CRITICAL VIEWINGBocca tesequi ut landunt omnimendit doluptatures estetur?Pudit fugias eostio magnis quodit, quaecust enditionse

The author as seen through a window in the Space Shuttle Atlantis

So I’m like, Let’s do it now, while Mom and Dad aren’t home. Let’s have the party.

So I say, “Drew, I think we should do it now.”And Drew’s like, “Go!” And bam! That thing comes right off. I pull

out my power tool, and now I’ve got that access panel with those 117 little bitty screws with their washers and glue, and I’m ready to get each one of them.

And I pull the trigger on my power tool and nothing happens, and I look, and I see that the battery is dead. And I turn my head to look at Bueno, who’s in his space suit, again looking at me like, What else can happen today?

And I said, “Drew, the battery’s dead in this thing. I’m gonna go back to the airlock, and we’re gonna swap out the battery, and I’m gonna recharge my oxygen tank.” Because I was getting low on oxygen; I needed to get a refill.

And he said, “Go.” And I was going back over that shuttle, and I noticed two things. One was that that treacherous path that I was so scaredy-cat-sissy-pants about going over—it wasn’t scary anymore. That in the course of those couple hours of fighting this problem, I had gone up and down that thing about twenty times, and my fear had gone away, because there was no time to be a scaredy-cat, it was time to get the job done. And what we were doing was more important than me being worried, and it was actually kinda fun going across that little jungle gym, back and forth over the shuttle.

The other thing I noticed was that I could feel the warmth of the sun. We were about to come into a day pass.

And the light in space, when you’re in the sunlight, is the brightest, whitest, purest light I have ever experienced, and it brings with it warmth. I could feel that coming, and I actually started feeling optimistic.

Sure enough, the rest of the spacewalk went well. We got all those screws out, a new power supply in, buttoned it up. They tried it;

CLOSE READING How has the author’s tone changed? What words reveal that he has regained his sense of humor?

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turned it on from the ground. The power supply was working. The instrument had come back to life.

And at the end of that spacewalk, after about eight hours, I’m inside the airlock getting things ready for Bueno and me to come back inside, but my commander says, “Hey, Mass, you know, you’ve got about fifteen minutes before Bueno’s gonna be ready to come in. Why don’t you go outside of the airlock and enjoy the view?”

So I go outside, and I take my tether, and I clip it on a handrail, and I let go, and I just look. And the Earth—from our altitude at Hubble, we’re 350 miles up. We can see the curvature. We can see the roundness of our home, our home planet. And it’s the most magnificent thing I’ve ever seen. It’s like looking into heaven. It’s paradise.

And I thought to myself, This is the view that I imagined in that movie theater all those years ago.

And as I looked at the Earth, I also noticed that I could turn my head, and I could see the moon and the stars and the Milky Way galaxy. I could see our universe. And I could turn back, and I could see our beautiful planet.

And that moment changed my relationship with the Earth. Because for me the Earth had always been a kind of a safe haven, you know, where I could go to work or be in my home or take my kids to school. But I realized it really wasn’t that. It really is its own spaceship. And

CLOSE READING Compare the author’s state of mind as he floats in space with his state of mind earlier in the mission.

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haven (HAY-vuhn) n.: a safe place or shelter

The author as seen through a window in the space shuttle Atlantis



I had always been a space traveler. All of us here today, even tonight, we’re on this spaceship Earth, amongst all the chaos of the universe, whipping around the sun and around the Milky Way galaxy.

A few days later, we get back. Our families come to meet us at the airfield. And I’m driving home to my house with my wife, my kids in the backseat. And she starts telling me about what she was going through that Sunday that I was spacewalking, and how she could tell, listening, watching the NASA television channel, how sad I was. That she detected a sadness in my voice that she had never heard from me before, and it worried her.

I wish I would’ve known that when I was up there, ’cause this loneliness that I felt—really, Carol was thinking about me the whole time.

And we turned the corner to come down our block, and I could see my neighbors were outside. They had decorated my house, and there were American flags everywhere.

And I got out of the car, and they were all hugging me. I was still in my blue flight suit, and they were saying how happy they were to have me back and how great everything turned out. I realized my friends, man, they were thinking about me the whole time. They were with me too.

The next day we had our return ceremony; we made speeches. The engineers who had worked all these years with us, our trainers, the people that worked in the control center, they started telling me how they were running around like crazy while I was up there in my little nightmare, all alone. How they got the solution from the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, and how the team that was working on that Sunday figured out what to do, and they checked it out, and they radioed it up to us.

I realized that at the time when I felt so lonely, when I felt detached from everyone else—literally, like I was away from the planet—that

CLOSE READING What realization does the author have after returning home from space?

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really I never was alone, that my family and my friends and the people I worked with, the people that I loved and the people that cared about me, they were with me every step of the way. 8

The author tells of having worked for years toward a goal

and almost having everything go wrong. How well did he cope

with the unexpected errors on his mission? How would you have

reacted in his place? Meet with a small group to discuss what

happens when our dreams don’t turn out as we expect.

Discuss

A view of space from the Hubble

CRITICAL VIEWINGHow does this photograph help you understand why some people are drawn to explore space?

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