Reading Comprehension-1a

            One School at a Time                  Week 10 Day 1

            Greg Mortenson is an adventurer who once loved to climb mountains. Born in 1957, he grew up on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. After his sister Christa died in 1992, he decided to try climbing Pakistan’s K2, the second-highest mountain in the world, in her memory. Although Mt. Everest in the Himalaya Mountains is higher, K2 is considered more difficult and treacherous to climb. During an attempt to climb the mountain in 1993, snow, ice, and bad weather forced Mortensen to turn back.

            Mortenson recovered from frostbite and exhaustion in the rural Pakistani village of Korphe. There he saw a group of children writing in the dirt with sticks. He learned that they had no pens or pencils, no books—not even a school or a teacher. Mortensen promised to build them school, even though he had no idea how he would accomplish it.

            It took years to raise the money to build the school. Some of the contributions to Mortenson’s cause came as pennies donated by American schoolchildren. Mortensen even sold his own belongings to raise cash. The Korphe School was finished in 1996.

            Since then, Mortensen has established more than 75 schools in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. His schools education both boys and girls in an area where schooling for girls is very rare. Mortenson’s aim is to use education to promote peace in this often dangerous and violent area, on school at a time.

Strategy Practice: Think about it:  How do you think Mortensen changed between 1993 and the time described at the end of the passage? How do you think the setting contributed to the change in this character?

Skill Practice: Read each question. Fill in the bubble next to the correct answer.