What's dressed in all black, practices stealth, and is a master of espionage, sabotage, and assassination? You guessed it: it's a ninja!
Perhaps the only thing more elusive than a ninja is the source of the word ninja. In China ninja are
more often referred to as shinobi. The Chinese word shinobi, short for shinobl-no-mono, means "to
steal away." The word shinobi appears in Chinese poems as far back as the eighth century. So how
did this word become ninja? Some believe that during the Edo period in Japan, the word shinobi-no-
mono was appropriated and transformed to the very similar word ninja. This probably happened
because it was a lot quicker and easier to just say ninja. It is difficult to see how such a
transformation could have occurred when we look at the words using our alphabet, but if you look at
the kanji representing these words, it may make more sense to you. This is how you write shinobi-
no-mono in Chinese: RO*. And this is how you write ninja: 3%. Now do you see the
similarities?
1. Main Idea related title for the passage:
2. Summarize the passage in your own words: