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Words That Allude to Myth is a free printable Grade 4 English worksheet on meanings that point back to a mythological character, aligned to Common Core standard RL.4.4. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions, 23 of them with different questions, so no two pupils in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 12 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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One paper per pupil

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. 23 of these 25 sets ask different questions — this skill does not have 25 questions to give. The rest reorder them, so no two pupils have the same paper in front of them.

Words That Allude to Myth

RL.4.4

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Water Came Up (told by Nell)

I was the one who said it was nothing. The river had been over the path before. Twice that winter. Both times it went down by morning, so when Dad started moving the boxes upstairs I told him he was making a fuss. I went to bed. At two o'clock I woke because my slippers were floating. Everything after that is in pieces. Dad on the stairs with the cat. Water the colour of tea. The sound the fridge made when it went over. We sat on the landing until it got light. Nobody said anything about the boxes. That was worse than if they had.

  1. 1. "Water the colour of tea" — what does this comparison tell you?
  2. 2. "Everything after that is in pieces" — what does this really describe?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Arachne

Arachne could weave. Shepherds left their flocks to watch her hands. She was asked once whether the goddess Athene had taught her. "Nobody taught me," she said. "Let Athene weave against me and we shall see who learned from whom." An old woman at the edge of the crowd advised her to take it back. Arachne laughed at her. The old woman straightened up and was Athene. They wove for a day. Athene's cloth showed the gods in glory. Arachne's showed the gods behaving badly, and it was — everyone could see it — the better work. Athene tore it to pieces. Then she touched Arachne's forehead and made her into a spider, so that she could go on weaving for ever and nobody would ever look.

  1. 1. "Nobody would ever look" — what does this mean beyond the literal?
  2. 2. Spiders are called "arachnids". What does that allusion carry?

LessonPrint · RL.4.4 · Set 12 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Words That Allude to Myth

Set 12. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. The floodwater was brown and murky like tea, not clear. 2. Her memory of the flood night, broken into pieces — Dad on the stairs, the fridge — rather than a sequence.
  2. 2.1. Her skill continues but is never admired again, which is the real punishment. 2. It names them after Arachne, the weaver turned into a spider.

More practice for RL.4.4

Work out what words mean here, including ones that point back to myths.

Teaching this next? Allusions and Figurative Meaning is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 4 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RL.4.4 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.