Wangari Maathai: a Life in Science

Questions

1. Sequence Which of these happened first?

   Maathai started the Green Belt Movement to plant trees Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize Maathai helped equip ambulances with X-ray machines to treat soldiers in World War I Maathai became the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate
2. Details In what year did this happen? "Maathai started the Green Belt Movement to plant trees."

   2004 1977 1971 1987
3. Timeline math How many years passed between these two events? First: "Maathai started the Green Belt Movement to plant trees." Later: "She became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize."

   28 37 64 27
4. Vocabulary In the passage, what does "erosion" mean?

   a substance the body needs to use sugar for energy the wearing away of soil or rock by wind or water carefully watching something to learn about it a room or building for experiments and research
5. Character traits Which word best describes Wangari Maathai?

   unkind courageous forgetful careless
6. Evidence Which detail from the passage shows that Maathai was courageous?

   She believed a calculating machine could one day work with music and pictures, not just numbers. She finished high school at 14 and college at 18. As a child she dreamed of flying and went on to study aerospace engineering. She kept protecting forests even when powerful people tried to stop her.
7. Main idea What is this passage mostly about?

   the life and work of Alexander Graham Bell the life and work of Ada Lovelace the life and work of George Washington Carver the life and work of Wangari Maathai
8. Text structure How does the author organize the middle of the passage?

   in time order, from earlier events to later ones as a list of steps to follow by comparing two people as a problem and its solution

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