Is It Table Tennis or Ping Pong?

Is It Table Tennis or Ping Pong?

Is It Table Tennis or Ping Pong?
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 6 to 8
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	7.07

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		covering, forefinger, goode, untold, dubbed, substitute, govern, cork, whiff, coordination, championship, term, general, advantage, participate, boundary
	content words:		Parker Brothers, James Gibb, United States, John Jacques, Table Tennis Association, World War II, Olympic Games

Print Is It Table Tennis or Ping Pong?
edHelper.com subscriber options:

	Print Is It Table Tennis or Ping Pong? (font options, pick words for additional puzzles, and more)
	Quickly print reading comprehension
	Print a proofreading activity

Feedback on Is It Table Tennis or Ping Pong?

Leave your feedback on Is It Table Tennis or Ping Pong? (use this link if you found an error in the story)

Is It Table Tennis or Ping Pong?
By Jane Runyon

¹     People are always searching for a sport that will fit their needs. They also have to look at their surroundings. For instance, if people like running, they need to find some way to continue their running when the weather makes it hard to be outdoors. People who liked to play tennis, also needed to come up with an alternate plan for foul weather. Also, some people are not able to exert as much energy as is needed to participate in a sport calling for a lot of physical movement.

²     About 1880, British soldiers stationed in India decided that they needed some sort of diversion. When they were in uniform, it would be very difficult to have a rousing game of lawn tennis. They came up with a gentler substitute. They cut the lids from cigar boxes and fashioned them into paddles. They took the corks from wine bottles and rounded them off. They set up a row of books across the center of a table to form a boundary. Using this make-shift equipment, they batted the cork back and forth across the books. They dubbed their new game "table tennis".

³     The soldiers brought their new game back home to England with them. By 1890, several versions of the game had been created. Two of these versions were known as "whiff whaff" and "gossima." A game company, Parker Brothers, even put out a kit containing the equipment needed to set up a quick game anywhere the player was. This kit contained a net that could be attached to a table, a small ball covered with netting, and small paddles.

Paragraphs 4 to 8:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable

Copyright © 2008 edHelper