Reading a Grade 4 Story
RL.4.10
Read the text, then answer the questions.
The Clock That Was Wrong
The church clock in our village had been four minutes fast for thirty years. Everybody knew. The bus timetable was written around it. Weddings started on it. My grandmother set her oven by it, four minutes back. Then the council paid a specialist to come and correct it. He was there two days. When he left, the clock was exact. Within a month, three people had missed the bus, the choir arrived late twice, and my grandmother burned a cake she had made two hundred times. The vicar wrote to the council. In March they set it four minutes fast again.
- 1. Who was paid to correct it?
- 2. What happened in March?
- 3. What does the vicar's letter tell you about the village's view?
- 4. Determine a theme of this story and support it from the text.
The Quarry, Filled
Stanza one: They took the hill away in carts for ninety years, and then they stopped. The hole they left filled up with rain until the rain had reached the top. Stanza two: Now people swim where men once cut. The water hides the ledge, the crane, the drill-marks in the standing rock, the tracks, the shed, the loading lane. Stanza three: The children diving off the edge have never heard the word for it. They call it "the lake". They are not wrong. A thing becomes what people make of it.
- 1. What filled the hole?
- 2. Determine a theme of this poem and support it from the text.
- 3. How long did they take the hill away?
- 4. What do the children call it?
LessonPrint · RL.4.10 · Set 7 · free to copy for classroom use