Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Region I
SCHOOLS DIVISION OFFICE 1 PANGASINAN
Bayoyong National High School
Bayoyong, Basista, Pangasinan

BRIGADA ESKWELA 2022

“Tugon sa Hamon ng Ligtas na Balik-Aral”

BRIGADA PAGBASA
Bawat Bata Bumabasa
 GRADE 7 READING MATERIAL
Dane’s Adventure
This passage tells what happened when someone got lost in the
jungle.

Dane had not eaten or drunk anything for two days and he felt
weak. Once again, he thought of his friends, Mat and Harry. Were they
safe? Perhaps they were still looking for him. The three of them had
come to the jungle for a hunting trip but had become separated while
running from a wild elephant. Dane had lost his equipment and food
supply, but he knew that he should not give up. He prayed for
strength to find a way out of the thick tropical jungle.

Dane was completely lost and was going round in circles.

Wherever he went he was plagued by mosquitos and other insects. As
if that was not enough, the leeches were draining his blood little by
little. He was too scared to eat leaves or berries for fear of upsetting
his stomach. He came across some animals’ footprints which led him
to a watering hole. There, he drank greedily until he was full. Then, to
keep off the biting insects, he rolled himself in the mud. He decided to
stay near the watering hole to wait for a search party.

Early in the morning of the fourth day, Dane was awakened by

something exploring his body. Shaking his fear, he realised that it was
an elephant’s trunk examining him, but as soon as he shouted, the
frightened elephant crashed away through the jungle. Dane was
thankful that he was safe, for the elephant might have stood on him
and crushed him. Another time, Dane woke up from a short sleep to
find a wild boar noisily licking him. Frightened, he leapt up and
screamed. Fortunately, the startled animal disappeared off into the
trees.

By the sixth day, Dane was feeling very thirsty and feverish. He
heard a plane flying overheard but was too weak to shout. He began to
despair.

Then, later in the day, Dane thought he heard voices calling him.
With the little strength he had remaining, he let out a feeble cry.

The rescuers stared in disbelief to see Dane covered in mud from

head to foot. He was quickly carried out of the jungle. A few hours
later, Dane was in the hospital, remembering his experience and
wondering how he had survived the terrible ordeal.

Answer the following questions based on the passage:

1. Where was Dane when the story begins? 

2. Why do you think Dane had lost his food and equipment? 
3. How do you think the mud would keep off the biting
insects?
4. From the last paragraph, find a word that means ‘a painful
or difficult experience’. 
 Grade 8 Reading Material

This passage is about a lioness named Elsa, and her human

companions.

The light plane that would take Joy Adamson south to re-
join her husband at the Game Reserve, taxied onto the tarmac
and took off. Joy leaned back as it gained height and
remembered their life with Elsa.

It didn’t seem possible that she was dying. They had seen
her only the Christmas before when she had brought in her three
cubs to visit their camp.

Her mind went back over the years. How Elsa had grown up
with them and had become their friend, until the day that
Kendall, the District Commissioner had told them it would be
impossible for them to keep her any longer, and that she would
have to go to the zoo.

Joy had not wanted to do that, and patiently they had tried
to return Elsa to the wild. Twice she had returned to them, too
weak and hardly able to walk. Joy smiled grimly now as she
remembered her answer when George had taunted her with the
charge of cruelty.

“She was born free and she has a right to live free.”

They had been successful at last. Elsa had got accustomed

to the wild, and given birth to three cubs. Each time they had
gone to that part of the reserve, Elsa and the cubs had visited
them, but as equals now, each showing the respect that was
called for with their different ways of life.

And now she was dying. Joy’s first thought was that she
had been shot or poisoned by poacher, for poachers were the only
enemies that George and the reserve had. As Senior Games
Warden for the province, it was his job to root them out, and they
had tried to strike at the Adamsons before through Elsa.

As the dawn came up, Joy waited anxiously for the little
plane to locate the camp and land.

George emerged wearily from his tent as he heard the sound

of the plane. He walked down to the improvised strip where he
knew it would land, and was waiting to come forward as Joy
opened her door and jumped down into his arms.

The look on his face told her what she wanted to know. Elsa
was already dead.

They went in silence to the camp, and only after George had
settled his wife in a chair and made her a cup of coffee, did he
speak, to say that she had died the evening before.

“Was it poachers?”

“No, some kind of infection. But it is strange. I haven’t seen

her mate. One of the scouts reported that a large male lion was
killed near here. It could have been him.”

“And the cubs?”

“They’ve disappeared too.”

“George, they are too young to fend for themselves. We have

to find them.”
Answer the following questions based on the passage:

1. What news had brought Joy Adamson to the Game Reserve?

2. Give two phrases from the text that shows that the lioness
Elsa had an emotional bond towards Joy Adamson and her
husband.

3. Why did Joy Adamson refuse to give Elsa to the zoo?

4. In your own words, describe Joy Adamson’s character.

 Grade 9 Reading Material

Hot Air Balloons

Rising before the alarm clock (set at an unfriendly 5.00 am)

was activated, we washed and dressed, listening in silent
anticipation to the awakening forest. Our torch beams probed the
darkness as we walked from our tent to the balloon launch site.
Extreme caution was required on the short journey because the
path we were following was often used by hippos returning from a
night’s foraging and the odd Cape Buffalo out for a nocturnal
stroll.

Finally we emerged into a huge, mist shrouded clearing and

there before us lay three gigantic balloons. Dawn brushed the
treetops with the first light of day and our sense of expectation
and excitement climbed with the morning sun.

Suddenly the clatter of petrol engines obliterated the early

hush. The engines were necessary to power the huge fans used to
force large amounts of air into the balloon’s envelopes. This was
just the first stage in the balloon-inflation process and while the
fans were running, the ground crew and pilots meticulously
checked all the lines and rigging – a reassuring sight for us
prospective passengers!

After about 10 minutes of inflation, the balloons began to

take shape. The welcome silence following the fans being shut
down was suddenly filled by a whoosh of gas. Then came a
glorious burst of flame as the gas was ignited.

Adrenaline shot through my body. I had chosen to position

myself inside one of the balloons’ envelopes in order to capture
on film the dramatic colors of the burner’s incoming flame.
 After a few quick shots, I indicated to the pilot my desire not
to be barbecued and made a quick exit. By this time, the balloon
was approaching its classical vertical position.

At last! The moment we’d all been waiting for! The pilot
instructed the excited passengers – congregated here from every
corner of the globe – to climb into the balloon’s wicker basket.

Part of a group of ten passengers, we listened intently to our

pilot’s briefing. There were no seat belt and no-smoking signs to
observe, and the operation of mobile phones and CD players
would not affect the technology of this particular aircraft.
Landing was to be the big thing. We were instructed, quite
sternly, that as the balloon descended, we must crouch down
facing backwards – and HAND ON. We were obliged to actually
practice this procedure so that those who understood little or no
English would be left in no doubt as to what was required. At
that stage, none of us could foresee just how exciting our landing
would be.

A few final bursts of colorful flame brought the balloon –

and us – to the point of lift-off. Our hearts thumped with
excitement at the spectacular sight of the other balloons rising –
and then it was our turn. The wicker basket scuffed along the
ground until suddenly we were drawn upward towards the
waiting heavens.

There are no words to describe the feeling of those first few

moments of flight. As we rose into the warmth of the sun, we
were gently gathered up by the wind and carried towards the
romance of the vast African Plains.

Only an intermittent burst of flame interrupted the

profound silence as the pilot adjusted the temperature of the air
inside the balloon. The basics of balloon are easy – hotter air to
climb, cooler air to descend. It takes great skill and practice,
however, to anticipate what is required. Wind alone was our
propulsion, and we were fortunate to be wafting along with a
gentle current that allowed us time to absorb all the magnificence
around us. The Serengeti and Masai Masai ecological systems are
fascinating enough to behold from a car, but from a balloon’s
vantage point, they are truly awe-inspiring.
 Exclamations erupted as animals were spotted. All the
passengers have become bonded by our shared enthusiasm for
this very special occasion. Our Japanese companion was
especially overwhelmed. It was extraordinary how, for one short
hour, every land-locked barrier of language and culture just
evaporated in the face of this larger unifying reality.

Answer the following questions based on the passage:

From paragraph 1 and 2

1. What dangers were there on the way to the balloon site? 

2. Write down two words that show that the travellers were
looking forward to their day. 

From paragraph 3 and 4

3. Why do you think the passengers needed to be ‘reassured’? 

4. Why did they light the gas? 
From paragraphs 5 and 6

5. How do we know that the writer was interested in

photography? 
6. Explain what the writer means by ‘after a few quick shots’. 

From paragraph 7 and 8

7. Which phrase tells us that the passengers were an

international group? 
8. What is the balloon contrasted with? 
From paragraph 11 and 12

9. Explain in your own words ‘only an intermittent burst of flame

interrupted the profound silence’ paying special attention to the
words in italics. 
10. How do we know the passengers could not decide which
direction they went? 
 Grade 10 Reading Material
Palmyra

The Syrian Desert is a rugged, hostile expanse of sharp rock,

thorns, and scrub grass. There, baked by a merciless sun and chilled
beneath the gaze of a poetry-inspiring moon, lies an oasis, Palmyra.
She stirs her feet in fine clouds of dust that hand wistfully in the wake
of eddying gusts or the passage of herded flocks. She is the bride of
the desert.

The bus from the Syrian capital, Damascus, takes roughly four
hours to grind eastward through arid landscape to Palmyra. It is still a
relatively short journey, considering that camel caravans, which still
make the trek today, count time in plodding days rather than
mechanical minutes.

Palmyra is an essential halfway-house for desert travelers. Here

subterranean veins of water rise to bless the land with life: fertile
pastures, drinking holes for fauna and groves of palm trees (from
which the town takes its name) which offer shade. For countless
centuries, from ancient Greece to the present day, Palmyra’s liquid
asset, combined with her strategic location in the center of the Middle
East, has made it a critical staging post for trading routes between
Persia, Africa and Europe. The civilization all this trading activity
brought with it made Palmyra, if only briefly, the envy of nations.

Records of settled human habitation at Palmyra begin at around

1000 BC when the oasis was established as an Assyrian caravan town
of some size. Two hundred years of laid-back Greek rule followed,
leaving as its most enduring inheritance, the Acropolis-style Bel
Temple. It was not until 106 AD, however, when annexed by the
Roman Empire, that Palmyra’s commercial potential was optimized.
For more than two centuries, Palmyra flourished as a cosmopolitan
trading and transit center of phenomenal wealth. Many of the town’s
most exquisite remains, like its almost perfectly preserved
amphitheater, were constructed during this period.

But of all the historical figures to leave an imprint in the sands

of Palmyra, it was a woman – the fiery half Greek, half Arabian Queen
Zenobia – who left the most enduring mark. During the latter half of
Rome’s rule, Zenobia’s husband, Odenathus, was ruler of the oasis. In
266 AD Odenathus died in suspicious circumstances, some say
perhaps even on the orders of Zenobia herself. Claiming to be a
descendant of Cleopatra, the resourceful and ambitious Amazon took
control of the city. Her short but turbulent reign saw both the best of
times and the worst of times for the oasis.

Under Zenobia’s influence Palmyra entered a Golden Age of

riches and fame. The great temples were filled with gold, ornamental
and adoring statues; huge civic monuments and grand avenues of
marble columns were constructed. The city took on an impressive
form, the greatness of which can still easily be imagined on viewing
the ruins today. However, Zenobia allowed her mind to be filled with
expansionist ambitions, perhaps forgetting in her excitement, the
humble trading business her civilization was founded on. Encouraged
by news of a distracted and weakened Rome in 271 AD, Zenobia
gathered her forces and headed west, beginning an ill-fated military
campaign against the still mighty empire.

Zenobia’s troops were no match for the battle-hardened legions

of the Roman Emperor Aurelian who took two years to reach Palmyra.
He then put the city to the torch and its inhabitants to death. The
oasis thus fell into a lengthy period of decline. Muslims took it over in
634 AD and it remained in a state of relative peace and obscurity until
a massive earthquake in 1089 practically levelled it.

Answer the following questions based on the passage:

From paragraph 2

1. What does the word ‘grind’ tell you about the journey from
Damascus?

From paragraph 3

2. What is Palmyra’s ‘liquid asset’?

From paragraph 4-5

3. What kind of things are Palmyra’s ‘exquisite remains’?

4. Explain in your own words ‘to leave an imprint in the sands of
Palmyra’.

From paragraph 6

5. State two reasons why Palmyra might have started a war.