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CELPIP Practice Reading: Reading for Information ID: #63157 Easy Laura Secord: the 1813 warning and the arguments about it

Read the following passage.

A. Laura Secord was born Laura Ingersoll in 1775, and in 1795 her father moved the family to Upper Canada. About 1797 she married James Secord, a young merchant of Queenston. Early in the War of 1812, James was wounded at the Battle of Queenston Heights, and she rescued him from the battlefield. On June 21, 1813, she heard that the Americans planned a surprise attack on the British outpost at Beaver Dams. She probably learned this by listening to American officers who were dining at her house.

B. Because James was disabled, she decided to carry the warning herself. Early the next morning she set out to find Lieutenant James FitzGibbon. Fearing that she would meet American guards on the direct road, she chose a roundabout route through fields and woods. That evening she came upon a camp of warriors, and their chief took her to FitzGibbon. Two days later, on June 24, about 400 warriors ambushed the American force near Beaver Dams, and its commander surrendered to FitzGibbon. The official reports of the victory did not mention Secord.

C. The years that followed were hard. FitzGibbon wrote certificates to support the family's petitions to the government, and in the one from 1827 he said that she had come to him on June 22, 1813, and that because of her information he had placed the warriors to meet the Americans. Even so, her requests for a pension failed, and when James died in 1841 he left her without money. In 1860, when she was 85, the visiting Prince of Wales learned of her walk. She prepared a written account of her war service for him, and he later sent her a reward of 100 pounds.

D. After 1860 the story grew, and parts of it were invented. In an 1864 book, William F. Coffin had her take a cow along as cover and milk it in front of American guards, although she never mentioned a cow. Another tale had her walking barefoot at night, but she herself said, 'I left early in the morning.' In the next century, doubts ran the other way. In 1932 the historian W. Stewart Wallace concluded that she had carried a message, probably on June 23, but had arrived too late for it to be of value. FitzGibbon's certificate of 1827, which came to light only later, gives an earlier date for her arrival.

E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.

Decide which paragraph, A to D, has the information given in each statement below. Select E if the information is not given in any of the paragraphs.

- 1.
A writer in the 1930s decided her news reached the officer too late to matter.

- 2.
The officer she alerted later put in writing that her news shaped how he set up his forces.

- 3.
Her name was left out of the formal reports on the battle.

- 4.
A young relative walked with her for the first part of the trip.

- 5.
She brought her husband to safety after he was hurt in a battle.

- 6.
The prince heard about her walk from FitzGibbon himself.

- 7.
A royal visitor sent her money after she wrote down her story for him.

- 8.
She most likely found out about the attack from enemy officers eating at her home.

- 9.
One writer claimed she took a farm animal along to fool the enemy.

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