EXERSICE 26.

PASSAGE ONE (Questions 1-4)

The most conservative sect of the Mennonite Church is the Old Order Amish, with 33,000
members living mainly today in the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. Their lifestyle
reflects their belief in the doctrines of separation from the world and simplicity of life. The Amish
have steadfastly rejected the societal changes that have occurred in the previous three hundred
years, preferring instead to remain securely rooted in a seventeenth-century lifestyle. They live on
farms without radios, televisions, telephones, electric lights, and cars; they dress in plainly styled
and colored old-fashioned clothes; and they farm their lands with horses and tools rather than
modern farm equipment. They have a highly communal form of living, with barn raisings and
quilting bees as commonplace activities.

PASSAGE ONE (Questions 5-8)

Various other Native American tribes also lived on the Great Plains. The Sioux, a group of
seven Native American tribes, are best known for the fiercely combative posture against
encroaching White civilization in the 1800s. Although they are popularly referred to as Sioux,
these Native American tribes did not call themselves Sioux; the name was given to them by an
enemy tribe. The seven Sioux tribes called themselves by some variation of the word Dakota,
which means “allies” in their language. Four tribes of the eastern Sioux community living in
Minnesota were known by the name Dakota. The Nakota included two tribes that left the eastern
woodlands and moved out onto the plains. The Teton Sioux, or Lakota, moved even farther west
to the plains of the present-day states of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

PASSAGE THREE (Questions 9-12)

The extinction of many species of birds has undoubtedly been hastened by modern man;
since 1600 it has been estimated that approximately 100 bird species have become extinct over
the world. In North America, the first species known to be annihilated was the great auk, a
flightless bird that served as an easy source of food and bait for Atlantic fishermen through the
beginning of the nineteenth century.
Shortly after the great auk’s extinction, two other North American species, the Carolina
parakeet and the passenger pigeon, began dwindling noticeably in numbers. The last Carolina
parakeet and the last passenger pigeon in captivity both died in September 1914. In addition to
these extinct species, several others such as the bald eagle, the peregrine falcon, and the
California condor are today recognized as endangered; steps are being taken to prevent their
extinction.