Bronx Leadership Academy Summer School Date:
English/ Ms. Harris Student:
1. The New York Times report on trachoma is titled “Preventable Disease Blinds Poor in Third World.” Identify the three main points of this title.
A.
B.
C.
Record SIX brief quotations that connect directly and explicitly with EACH main point.
(A) (B) (C)
1.2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
2. Besides the physical signs and symptoms, how was Mare Alehegn’s life affected by trachoma? List THREE effects along with their classification (i.e. social, economic or psychological).
a) ______
b) ______
c) ______
3. Why does the report describe trachoma as a “generational scourge” (paragraph 7)?
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4. In your opinion, what is one reason why women are “among the most vulnerable of the poor” (paragraph 7)? Be sure to explain why this [characteristic/situation/condition] makes them vulnerable.
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5. What is the common idea in each of the following pairs? (Refer also to the article on lymphatic filariasis.)
a. In poor countries like Haiti and Guyana, the disease [lymphatic filariasis] hangs on” (10).
b. “Trachoma . . . remains endemic in much of Africa and parts of Latin America and Asia, its last, stubborn redoubts” (8)
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c. “Still [lymphatic filariasis] is one of a handful of diseases world health experts hope to eliminate within a generation, because its spread can be prevented with deworming drugs that can even be distributed in household salt . . .” (6)
d. “As prevalent as trachoma remains, the W.H.O. has made the blinding late stage of the disease a target for eradication within a generation because, in theory at least, everything needed to vanquish it is available.” (10)
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e. “For many women, the pain and eventual blindness [of trachoma] ensure a life of deepening destitution and dependency.” (7)
f. “[Lymphatic filariasis] does not kill, but it crushes people's spirits and often leaves poor farmers unable to work, which can mean starvation.” (10)
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g. "‘Some guys just go off in the bush and cut it open . . . They can't live with [lymphatic filariasis] anymore. But then they often die of bleeding or infection.’" (11)
h. “For years, each blink felt like thorns raking her eyeballs. [Mare Alehegn] had plucked the hairs with crude tweezers, but the stubble grew back sharper still.” (1)
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i. "‘[Lymphatic Filariasis is] tied in with grinding poverty — where you find it maps almost perfectly with the poorest of the poor,’ said the Rev. Thomas G. Streit.” (8)
j. “This is late-stage trachoma, a neglected disease of neglected people, and a preventable one, but for a lack of the modest resources that could defeat it.” (2)
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