Where the Versions Meet
RL.4.7
Read the text, then answer the questions.
Daedalus and Icarus
Daedalus was the finest craftsman in the world, and King Minos kept him prisoner because of it. He and his son Icarus were shut in a tower above the sea. Daedalus watched the gulls for a summer. Then he gathered feathers, laid them in rows from short to long, and bound them with wax and thread into two pairs of wings. "Fly in the middle," he told Icarus. "Too low and the sea spray soaks the feathers. Too high and the sun softens the wax." They rose from the tower together. For a while Icarus followed exactly. Then the boy found that he could climb. He forgot the tower, the sea, the warning. He went up, and up, until the wax ran and the feathers came away one at a time and the sky let go of him. Daedalus flew on alone. He never made anything again.
- 1. Which sentence tells you Icarus stopped thinking about the warning?
- 2. Quote the detail that shows how carefully Daedalus prepared.
- 3. If a film showed this myth, which line of the text would the climax have to match?
Low Water
Stanza one: Twice a day the sea walks out and leaves the harbour standing, the boats set down on their own keels like birds that have stopped landing. Stanza two: The mud shines. Old anchors show, a bicycle, a broken chain, the whole forgotten underneath made briefly plain. Stanza three: Then, without a sound at all, it turns and starts to come. The bicycle goes under first. The harbour lifts. The boats go dumb.
- 1. Which line tells you the tide turns silently?
- 2. Quote the words that describe how the boats sit at low tide.
- 3. What would a picture of the second stanza show?
LessonPrint · RL.4.7 · Set 10 · free to copy for classroom use