Directions: There are 20 blanks in the fllowing passage, and for each blank there are 4 choicesmarked A, B, c, and D at the end of the passage. You should choose ONE answer that best fits intothe passage. Then blacken the corresponding Letter on the Answer Sheet

Walking through the woods alone can be a frightening prospect for a kid, but not for7-year-old Matthew of Portland, Oregon. He doesn't have a backyard to_ in. so the woods behindhis house serve the same 57. He spends hours out there swinging on a swing, 58 across thevalley to a friend's house, and 59 garden knives to cut a path. He lays 60 sticks to form a bridgeacross the small steam. And he does all of this alone.

Mattew's mom, Laura Randall, wants her son to gain skills and confidence that only 61with doing things alone. But she isn't just 62 her 7-year-old outside the door with garden toolsone day. They worked up to it gradually with what Randall calls experiments in independence

.Just those moments, increasingly longer moments, where he can choose to be 63 his ownRandall explains. Randall knows this isn't the 64 for today's parenting style. Gone are the days 65kids ride their bikes alone until the streetlights come on.

Randall has met people who think she's a 66 parent. Once, an off- duty policeofficer startedyelling at her when she left Matthew alone in the car 67 a few minutes while she ran into a shop

Randall knows that parents in several states have been arrested for 68 their kids walk to thepark alone, or even 69 them to walk to school. And so she was a bit 70 about what this man mightdo. ,

Anyway, they talked it out, and the man walked 71 Randall felt confident about 72 herparenting, partly 73 she had connected with a group 74 Free Range Kids. This group 74childhood independence, and gives families the information they need. to push back against a

culture of overprotection