👨‍🏫 For the Teacher

Use this 12-minute reading activity to practice scanning for simple past facts with your class.

Have students read the text individually, answer the 8 questions, and check their answers using the evidence boxes.

🎓 For the Learner

First, read the short text about the Pony Express and check the vocabulary words below it.

Next, answer the 8 questions step by step and verify your answers using the Evidence section.

✉️

The Pony Express: Fast Mail in the Past

A brave young Pony Express rider riding a fast horse carrying a mail pouch across sunny western prairies in 1860, histor

The Pony Express was a mail service where riders on horses carried letters. The National Park Service says the Pony Express worked for 18 months, between April 1860 and October 1861. It says the service carried mail over 1,800 miles in 10 days, from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California. The National Park Service says riders changed horses every 10 to 15 miles and riders every 75 to 100 miles. The first ride began on 3 April 1860 with 49 letters and five telegrams in a mail pouch. The National Park Service says it ended on 26 October 1861 when telegraph connected San Francisco to New York City.

The US government body that looks after national parks and history sites.

A small bag used to carry letters and messages.

A short message sent quickly by electric wire.

A wire system that sends messages using electricity.

____ True ____ False

____ True ____ False

____ a. 500 miles ____ b. 1,000 miles ____ c. More than 1,800 miles ____ d. 5,000 miles

____ a. Bad weather stopped all horses ____ b. Telegraph connected San Francisco and New York City ____ c. Horses became too expensive to buy ____ d. Riders stopped working in October

____ (Write the start city and the end city)

____ (Type the name here...)