The below passages are the intellectual property of Rebecca Kulik.

G9 Informational Passage:

Strausborg, Germany, 1518. A woman named Frau Troffea steps into the town square and, for no reason, starts to dance. She does not stop for six days. By the time she finally leaves the square, there are dozens of other dancers. A few weeks later, hundreds of people are dancing uncontrollably in the town square. They do not stop to eat, drink, or rest. Some only dance for a few hours, but others dance for days or weeks. Some pass out from exhaustion, then go back to dancing when they wake up. Many dancers even die.

This was the dancing plague of 1518. People at the time called it “choreomania” or “St. Vitus’ dance.” They thought it was a kind of illness. The dancing plague had appeared in several other towns during that time period, but Strausborg had the largest outbreak.

At first, the town leaders thought that the illness was caused by the dancer’s blood. In those days, people believed that blood could sometimes become be “overheated,” and needed to be cooled down. The best way to cool the blood would be for the dancers to keep moving, using up all the heat! So, all the town had to do was wait until the choreomania passed. The authorities even put a covering over the square and hired a band! But the number of dancers kept growing, and people kept dancing, kept collapsing, and kept dying. 

Finally, the authorities decided the dancers must be possessed by demons. A mad scene ensued, as the dancers were corralled into a church. A special ceremony was performed, and finally the “disease” was cured—the dancers stopped, returning to their homes. Choreomania, everyone agreed, had obviously been caused by evil spirits.

You probably won’t be surprised to learn that people today do not think demons or hot blood caused the dancing plague! But there were hundreds of dancers, and most were normal people before they danced. When they stopped dancing, they went back to their normal lives. They cannot all have had the same mental illness, and it does not make sense that they were all pretending.

So, what happened to them? Today, people still disagree about the real cause of the choreomania. Some researchers think the dancers had ergot poisoning, which happens when people eat diseased food. Ergot poisoning makes people have hallucinations and imagine crazy things. But ergot only affects rye, and rye does not grow in all the areas where the dancing plague broke out.

Most researchers today think that the dancing plague happened because of extreme stress. A lot of modern studies have proved that people can believe very strange things when they are very scared and stressed. Living in Strausborg in 1518 meant living in constant fear of famine, plague, and war. When the Strausborg citizens were dancing, they weren’t worrying about whether they would have enough food to survive the winter, or if soldiers would attack. It is possible that the dancers had even heard stories about choreomania, and somehow convinced themselves that they were “infected.” The dancing might have been a way to escape their difficult lives. It is an interesting theory, but the truth is we’ll probably never know the cause of the dancing plague.

G4 Literary Passage

Jamal wiped his sweaty hands on his trousers and tried to pay attention. The teacher was holding up a set of reins, showing everyone the long cords. She explained to the group that it was just like a rope, and all they had to do was pull to get the horse to move.

Jamal leaned back against the wall of the barn, trying to hide behind the other kids. Everything smelled like horse in this place! He never asked to come here. Why had his mother insisted? How would learning to ride a horse help him feel braver?

And then suddenly, everyone was moving. The teacher had a list of names and was calling them one by one. When a student’s name was called, a helper met them and led them to the stall their horse was waiting in.

“Jamal!”

Jamal stepped forward slowly. He shoved his hands deep in his pockets. He tried not to think about how fast his heart was beating as he followed the helper.

“You’re going to be riding Bucky today,” the girl said.

Jamal snorted, surprising himself. “That’s a funny name!”

The girl smiled. “He’s a funny horse.”

Jamal swallowed hard. What did she mean?

The girl pushed open the stall door. Inside, Jamal saw a small room with a tub of water in the corner. There was a horse standing in the stall, looking at them.

Jamal held very still. He didn’t step back, but he wanted to.

Then the horse moved forward, towards the helper. He was staring at her very, very closely…

Jamal almost screamed when Bucky bumped his head into the girl.

The girl laughed, and reached her hands up to Bucky’s face. She started scratching his chin.

“He’ll do anything for a good scratch,” she said, rubbing her hands hard on the horse’s face. “Come over and say hello!”

Jamal took a deep breath. He stood up straight.

Finally, he slowly stepped forward and scratched Bucky’s chin.

The horse leaned into him. Bucky was acting exactly like Jamal’s dog!

Jamal felt himself start smiling.

The helper offered him the reins. “Are you ready?” she asked.

Still scratching Bucky’s chin, Jamal took the reins in his other hand. “Definitely!”

G6 Literary Passage

Batu jumped out of her family’s camper van, then paused to tighten the belt of her long deel wrap.

“I’m heading out, Dad!” she called, and her father ambled over from the other side of their camper van.

He smiled at her proudly. “Your group competes at 3 o’clock, yes?” he asked, and Batu nodded. “I’ll be there! Good luck!”

Batu grinned at him and and headed off, hurrying between vans and tents toward the festival. If she didn’t hurry, she’d be late for her round of judging! Some people complained that competitors had to take turns checking other groups’ shots, but she’d always liked it.

The goal of a Mongolian archery competition was to hit as many hasaa (small leather cylinders)as possible, with some being harder to hit than others. Someone had to count the number of hits, and running around the field always kept Batu from getting nervous about her own competition! Even in the blistering heat of the Mongolian summer, she couldn’t wait to get started.

“Arban!” she shouted as she neared the archery ground. Arban turned and waved, only to have her big traditional hat fall over her face. Batu laughed as she walked up to the other girl, then helped her move the hat back.

“My mother got this for me,” complained Arban as they walked together. “She said I’ll grow into it. If it messes up my shots…”

“It’ll be fine,” soothed Batu. “At least they got you a deel that fits, so you won’t trip over your skirt!”

“I don’t understand why we have to wear the traditional costumes,” muttered Arban.

Batu smiled at her as they reached the archery field. “That’s part of the fun—anyway, our ancestors wore this chasing down sheep and hunting wolves, we’ll survive a few hours!”

Arban sighed and nodded, and she and Batu took up their spots to judge the younger archers.

As soon as the bows went silent and the referee gave the all clear, Batu and the other members of her age group scattered across the field, each running for a patch of prickly hasaa. Batu beamed when she found the first arrow sticking out of a sneaky little red hasaa: she turned, raised her hands, and shouted “Uukhai!” The crowd went wild, and the archer’s friends slapped his back in congratulations.

Before long, it was time for Batu’s and Arban’s round. Batu took up her position in the line of archers and ran her hand over her bow. As she had expected on a hot day like this, the wood bent easily in her hands. She notched an arrow and pulled the string back, feeling the wind and moving her body in response.

She set her eyes on a distant red speck. And for a moment, everything fell away—her friends beside her, her parents in the stands, the sounds of the festival. She could have been one of her ancestors, looking out over the endless green hills, standing tall and taking aim.