8th Grade Assessment – Unit 2 – RI.8.2, RI.8.4, RI.8.5, RI.8.8, L.8.4a
Read this article. Then answer questions 1 through 7.
A Bigfoot by Any Other Name…
by Kelly Milner Halls, Rick Spears, and Roxyanne Young
Bigfoot. Sasquatch. Yeti. Yeren. Yowie. The names and the details may differ from place to place,
but from North America to China to New Zealand, one thing is certain: Something is out there.
Chocolate brown or white as snow, these hair-covered, upright- standing creatures have been talked
about for more than six hundred years. And whether
5 we read about the ancient legends or the modern-day sightings, the stories make us wonder.
Bigfoot = Sasquatch
Bigfoot is a creature of many names. According to naturalist Dr. Robert Michael Pyle, Native American
legends call it by several exotic names, including Sasquatch, Sokqueatl,
or Sesquac (from a language spoken by several tribes of
Pacific Northwestern Native
10 Americans). No matter how it’s pronounced, the name means “wild man.”
That certainly describes the creature Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin claimed they saw wandering
along the rural Northern California timberline in October 1967. The creature was enormous—
at least seven feet tall—and walked upright like a man. But it wasn’t a man. In fact, it was
like nothing the outdoorsmen had seen before.
15 Patterson carefully reached into his saddlebag and pulled out his 16-millimeter
movie camera to capture the moment on film. And for decades, Bigfoot believers have been
thankful he did.
Was Sasquatch the last thing Patterson expected to see along Bluff Creek as he let his horse
rest and sip cool water? Not necessarily. He and Gimlin were known
20 Bigfoot/Sasquatch hunters and longed to prove the legends were true. The film they shot
became one of the most famous pieces of footage in Bigfoot history.
Even the experts can’t agree on the film’s authenticity. Some say it’s an elaborate hoax,
a fake Bigfoot, a prank. But others see the film as proof-positive that the elusive primate is
more than a North American myth.
Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum, Idaho State University Professor of Anatomy, Primatology, and Paleontology
25 Raised in the heart of Bigfoot country—the Pacific Northwest—
Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum grew up in the shadow of the legend. So it’s not surprising that he’d have an interest in the
hair-covered beast. What makes him different from most Bigfoot-enthusiasts is the careful
and scientific approach he’s taken to analyze dozens of Sasquatch tracks.
About Dr. Meldrum’s research, professor and Cambridge University Press
30 author/editor Walter Hartwig says, “[Meldrum] has executed the model approach.
He’s weeded out what he believes might be hoaxes or misidentifications. . . .
It’s beautiful and well-controlled, inductive science. You may think it’s far-out, but
methodologically speaking, he has toed the line very strictly.”
His conclusion? There is sound, scientific reason to believe North America has its own
35 giant ape. But, as he admits in the Denver Post, convincing the world and his
professional peers hasn’t been easy. Meldrum says, “If someone takes the time to visit the lab,
they are almost uniformly overwhelmed by the amount of data. Usually they have no
concept of the amount of evidence that’s been collected.”
Body of Evidence: The Skookum Cast
Using apples and melons as bait, members of the Bigfoot Field Researchers
40 Organization claim to have captured the first partial body cast of a Washington
State Sasquatch. Positioned at the center of a mud puddle in the Skookum Meadows of
Gifford Pinchot National Forest, not far from Mount Saint Helens, the tasty snack allegedly
convinced a full-grown creature to lie at the puddle’s edge and feast. Deep impressions of a
hair-covered hip, elbow, heel, wrist, and even buttocks were left in the mud. Mere hours
45 after the mystery creature left the scene, the team captured the impressions in a plaster cast.
Idaho professor Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum, the late Dr. Grover Krantz (a physical anthropologist
from the Washington State University), and journalist John Green carefully studied
the plaster cast to try to determine what kind of animal actually
visited the scene.
50 In a press release circulated by the Idaho State University, the men stated that
the impressions could not have been made by any “known” animals living in the region
and that an unknown primate was the most likely candidate.
Others have said an elk kneeling to gobble the fruit made the impressions in the mud,
not a mysterious cryptid. Dr. Meldrum disagrees.
55 “While not definitively proving the existence of a species of North American ape,”
Dr. Meldrum said in the release, “the cast constitutes significant and
compelling new evidence that will hopefully stimulate further serious
research and investigation.”
More than 200 pounds of plaster was used to make
60 the Skookum Cast,
which is 3½ feet wide
and 5 feet tall. Measurements
of the imprints indicated that
whatever creature made
65 this impression
was 40 to 50 percent
larger than a 6-foot-tall
When the cast was cleaned, hair samples were
70 extracted. All of them turned out to belong to deer, elk, coyote, and bear—all but one. One
hair had unique primate (ape) characteristics. Dr. Henner Fahrenback, a biomedical
research scientist from Beaverton, Oregon, has labeled it “Sasquatch.”
8th Grade Math – Post-test Assessment 2
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When the input to a function is -2, the output is 4. Which statement about this function must be true?CorrectIncorrect
Use the information provided to answer Part A and Part B for question 3.
Which statement describes a possible sequence of transformations that transforms figure 1 into figure 2?CorrectIncorrect
Figure 3 can also be created by transforming figure 1 with a sequence of two transformations.
Which statement describes a possible sequence of transformations that transforms figure 1 into figure 3?CorrectIncorrect
The graph of a non linear function is shown on the coordinate plane. In the graph, y is a function of x.
When the input of the function is -4, what is the output of the function?CorrectIncorrect
Which equations define y as a non linear function of x?
Select all that apply.CorrectIncorrect