Maya Lin was born in Athens, Ohio, on October 5, 1959. In 1949, her parents fled Communism in China and came to the United States. In 1958 they moved to Athens, home of Ohio University, where they were professors. Her mother wrote poetry and taught literature; her father was a ceramic artist and became Dean of the College of Fine Arts.
As a child, Maya Lin liked to hike, read, watch birds, work in her father's ceramics studio, and build miniature towns. She loved to think and solve problems. In high school, she was an excellent math student who took college level courses and worked at McDonalds. She thought she was kind of nerdy because she never dated or wore make-up.
Maya went to Yale University to study architecture. While she was 21 and still a student, she entered a blind contest to submit a design for the new Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C. According to contest rules, the memorial had to fit in with the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument, include the names of all the dead and missing from the war, and refrain from making political statements. Maya’s simple but elegant design featured a pair of two hundred foot long, polished black granite walls. The monument was V-shaped, with one side pointing to the Lincoln Memorial and the other to the Washington Monument. The wall had the carved names of 58,195 men and women who were killed or missing in the war listed according to the dates they were reported killed or missing, instead of in alphabetical order. Her design was chosen over 1,441 others. Maya believed her design would not have been chosen if the judges had known she was Chinese-American. Some people harassed her after her family background and age became known.
Today, Maya Lin continues to work on sculpture and architecture. Some of her other projects include the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama; Wave Field at the University of Michigan; and the Confluence Project along the Columbia and Snake rivers in Washington and Oregon. She has also written several books and is interested in sustainable energy use. In 2009, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama.
1. Which of the following best describes Maya Lin in high school?
2. Maya went to Yale University to study ......
3. Maya Lin was born in ......
4. Which of the following is NOT true about Maya Lin.
5. Maya Lin believed ......
6. Which of the following is not answered in the third paragraph?
7. Which question is answered in the second paragraph?
8. If the entire passage only included the final paragraph, what would be an appropriate title?
9. Maya Lin's design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was...
10. Based on your understanding of the passage, what is a "blind" contest?
