Practice 3

Read the following text!

A Boy Who Was Traded for a Horse
(Sutarsyah, C. 2011. Understanding English Texts. Lampung University Press)

Carver was born in a rude slave cabin on a farm near Diamond Grove, Missouri.
When he was six months old, night raiders carried away the baby and his mother.
The raiders took no care of the child; he developed whooping cough and was
dying when he was traded back to his owner for a broken down race horse.
The Carvers, the owner of the sickly child, wanted their slave to have an
education, but offered him no money. Without a cent, he set out for school eight
miles away. Alone among strangers, he slept at first in an old horse barn. Soon he
picked up odd jobs and entered the school.
When he completed the high school course, he entered Simpson College at
Indianola, Iowa. When he had paid his entrance fee he had ten cent left, and he
had to live nearly a week on corn meal and sweet potato. For three years he
worked his way; then he enrolled at Iowa State College. Four years later he took
his degree in agriculture, having earned every penny of his expenses. His work
so impressed the authorities that they appointed him to the college faculty.
Then he was invited to come to Tuskegee Institute. In accepting the job, he saw a
great opportunity to help the Negro people in the south. Dr. Carver began to
write bulletins and make speeches encouraging Southern farmers to grow sweet
potatoes and peanuts. After a time southern farmers increased their peanut and
sweet potato acreage. And then suddenly and sadly, Doctor Carver realized what
he had done. He had increased the supply without increasing the demand. The
peanut and sweet potatoes were rotting; the farmers who had planted them were
loosing money.
Almost as fiercely the Negro scientist went to work, spending days and nights in
his laboratory, seeking new uses for the peanut and the sweet potatos.
From the peanut he has made 300 useful products, including cheese, candies,
instant coffee, pickles, oils, shaving lotions, dyes, flour breakfast foodsm soap,
face powder, shampoo, printers ink, and even axle grease.
From the potato he has made more than 100 products, among them starch,
vinegar, shoe blacking, ink, dyes, molasses.
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Experts say Dr. Carver has done more than any other man to rehabilitate
agriculture in the south. When you do the common things of life in an
uncommon way Dr. Carver once said to his students, you will command the
attention of the world. There lies the secrete of his own achievement.
(Baradja, 1977)
Exercise
I. To test your comprehension of the main points of this passage, answer the
following questions briefly!
1. What made Carver a great man?
2. How did Carver accomplish to become a scientist?
3. Except for giving information what other significances are there in the title
of his passage?
4. How does Carver explain his success?
II. Answer the following questions as briefly as necessary!
1. What was Carver traded back to his owner when he was a baby?
2. What does the first sentence tell you about the babys social surroundings?
3. Find another evidence in the first paragraph to support your answers.
4. Who encouraged Carver to go to school?
5. How did he get through his school?
6. What field of study did he seem to be interested in?
7. Why was Carver invited to join the teaching staff after his graduation?
8. Why did he accept the appointment to teach at Tuskegee Institute?
9. What did he first do to help the Negro Farmers in the South?
10. Who was to blame for the rotting peanuts and potatos? Give your reason for
your answer
11. Why was Carver fiercely trying to search for new uses for the peanuts and
potatos? Give at least two reasons.
III. Check the best meaning for the following words or phrases as used in the
passage.
1. broken down
a. tired
b. unfit for work
c. old
2. odd jobs

a. not regular jobs

b. part time jobs
c. strange jobs

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3. enrolled

a. enlisted
b. studied
c. graduated

4. impressed

a. persuaded
b. had a good effect on
c. shocked

3. The sentence in the passage which conveys the meaning of worked his way
is:
a. pick up odd jobs
b. had to live on corn meal and sweet potatos
c. earned every penny of his expenses

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