At first Kate thought the Romanian girl could not speak and understand English. Nadia would not reply to anything Kate said. Kate was in charge of showing Nadia around on her first day at Buck Minister Grade School. Kate could not figure out why the school had put Nadia in a class where she could not understand what people were saying. 

"Why did they do this?" Kate wondered aloud. "I mean, you can't learn if you can't understand the teacher." 

Nadia's voice was a whisper (speaking in a very low voice). "I understand English. I will learn." Nadia's English was perfect. 

Kate was _ . She couldn't understand why Nadia did not like to speak. Then she realized that moving to a new country probably wasn't the easiest thing to do. There were hundreds of unfamiliar and unusual things to learn - all at the same time. 

"There're a lot of new things to learn, huh?" said Kate. 

Nadia nodded rapidly. In a quiet voice she replied, "Many things people say, I do not understand. I have been speaking English and Romanian all my life, but I do not know what some children are saying. For example, yesterday a boy asked if I could help him find the USB port on a thin black box he was carrying. Isn't a port a place for ships? It made no sense to me." 

"Don't worry." said Kate. "You'll figure everything out in time. You see, that thin black box was a computer. A USB port is a place where you can connect other machines to a computer." 

Nadia and Kate were quiet after that. They took notes while the teacher gave a maths lesson. To Kate's surprise, Nadia put up her hand and offered to answer the questions at the blackboard. 

Nadia handled every question the teacher gave her. Some of the questions were really difficult, and no one understood what was going on except Nadia and the teacher. When the teacher said that Nadia answered everything correctly, the whole class clapped their hands. 

Nadia was smiling when she sat back down next to Kate. "Some things," she said in a normal voice, "are the same all over the world." QUESTIONS:

Q1:
1. What was Kate's original opinion of the Romanian girl?
2. What did Kate think about Nadia at first?
3. How did Kate first judge Nadia?
Q2:
1. What was the name of the Romanian girl?
2. Who was the new Romanian student?
3. What was the Romanian girl called?
Q3:
1. What about Nadia could Kate not figure out?
2. What was Kate having trouble understanding about Nadia?
3. What about Nadia was hard to figure out for Kate?
Q4:
1. What did Kate realize about changing countries?
2. What realization did Kate come to regarding moving to a new country?
3. What did Kate realize must happen when one moves to a new country?
Q5:
1. What did Kate and Nadia do during the math lesson?
2. As the teacher taught math, what were Kate and Nadia doing?
3. What were Kate and Nadia up to as the teacher was giving the math lesson?
Q6:
1. What did Nadia do that surprised Kate?
2. Which of Nadia's actions came as a surprise to Kate?
3. What was Kate taken aback that Nadia did?
Q7:
1. Did Nadia give correct answers to the teacher?
2. Were Nadia's answers to the math problems correct?
3. Did Nadia have the right answer for the math problems?
Q8:
1. Did the class show appreciation for Nadia's answers?
2. Was the class impressed that Nadia knew all the answers?
3. Did the class demonstrate their admiration for Nadia's intelligence?
Q9:
1. What purpose did Nadia believe that a port served?
2. What did Nadia think ports did?
3. What was the function of a port in Nadia's mind?
Q10:
1. Which two languages had Nadia spent her entire life speaking?
2. What two languages had Nadia always spoken?
3. What were the two languages that Nadia had always been fluent in?
Q11:
1. Did Nadia feel that some things didn't change no matter your location?
2. For Nadia, did some things remain the same all over the world?
3. Was it Nadia's belief that some stuff was the same everywhere?
