Mood from the Words
RL.3.7
Read the text, then answer the questions.
Conker
First stanza: Inside the green and spiny case, packed in a lining soft as silk, it waits all summer in the dark and grows the colour of stained milk. Second stanza: Then autumn cracks the case in two. It falls. It hits the path and shines so hard and bright and newly made you cannot walk past it. Nobody can. Third stanza: By Sunday it is dull and cracked and lighter than it was before — a small brown stone inside a pocket, and no one wants it any more.
- 1. What would an illustration of the second stanza show, and what mood would it create?
- 2. Where is the conker in the last stanza?
The Violin in the Loft
Nobody in our family plays anything. So the violin in the loft was a mystery for eleven years. Then Great-Aunt Sylvie came for Christmas and saw the case on the table. She went very quiet. "That was my brother's," she said. "He played in a café in Marseille before the war." She opened it. Three strings had gone, and the bridge lay loose in the bottom of the case. She did not play it. She held it under her chin for about ten seconds, put it back, and closed the lid. Then she asked for more potatoes and did not mention it again.
- 1. Why does it matter that this happens at Christmas?
- 2. What would an illustration of the key moment show, and what mood would it create?
LessonPrint · RL.3.7 · Set 2 · free to copy for classroom use