Combined Skills Exercise 2

Read the selection and then choose the correct response to each question.

¹I held my eighty-year-old mother's purse and luggage and stood uneasily behind her. ²She was leaving her home forever; she would never return. ³I had finally found an assisted living center that would take her. ⁴She walked out the door and didn't look back once. ⁵She took one step with her walker. ⁶She stopped, seemed to get her breath, and propelled herself forward once more. ⁷She walked to the edge of the porch and then began her slow descent down the steps. ⁸I dropped a bag and tried to hold her arm. ⁹She nudged me away. ¹⁰"I can do it," she snapped. ¹¹When she was safely in the driveway, I felt confident that she wasn't going to fall. ¹²I then eased around her and opened the car door. ¹³She planted the walker, pivoted, and forced her body backwards into the car seat. ¹⁴She wasn't graceful, but she was in. ¹⁵I fastened her seatbelt as though she were a child, shut the door, and grabbed the walker. ¹⁶She said nothing, but did not look back at the house she had lived in for fifty years. ¹⁷I realized that I was leaving my childhood home.

¹⁸I whizzed to the back of the car and tried forcing the walker and luggage into the trunk. ¹⁹The metal walker wouldn't fit. ²⁰I started to take everything out and reload. ²¹Muttering some obscenities under my breath, I suddenly heard my mother say, "There is a release button." ²²Although I was crying, she spoke calmly. ²³Finally I found the button and collapsed the walker. ²⁴I shut the trunk, slid behind the wheel, and the two of us drove away. ²⁵She didn't look back. 26We were on our way to the assisted living center.