Phrasing is how you use your voice to group words together. Use this passage to practice reading with proper phrasing. Print a copy of this passage from InsideNG.com to help you monitor your progress.
Getting to the victims in arctic Aniak is far more challenging than in an average city. The Dragon Slayers can’t just drive an ambulance to the scene of an emergency. Most of the people they help are Yupik Eskimos and Athabascan Indians, like the Dragon Slayers. Aniak is a landlocked village of 600 people. It is surrounded by rivers. The nearest major city is Anchorage. It is 350 miles west. The team uses frozen waterways as roads through early May. They travel in snowmobiles and four-wheelers. They have to rely on boats when the ice melts. “And here, members of the team almost always know the person who’s injured or sick. So it’s very personal. There’s an emotional aspect to knowing the victim your whole life that you don’t have in a larger city,” Hess says.
Marteney has had to deal with her share of difficult and emotional calls. “After we have a really hard call, we all meet at the fire station. We talk about the person we may have lost, what happened on the call, what we did right,” says Marteney. “Then we do a group hug and go for a walk. It really helps.”