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

One paper per pupil

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

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. "Everything after that is in pieces" — what does this really describe?
2. "Water the colour of tea" — what does this comparison tell you?

2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

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. "The boats go dumb" — what does this mean?
2. "Like birds that have stopped landing" — what is being compared?
3. "The sea walks out" — what kind of figurative language is this, and what does it mean?

LessonPrint · RL.4.4 · Set 17 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Words That Allude to Myth

Set 17. Prints on its own sheet.

1.1. Her memory of the flood night, broken into pieces — Dad on the stairs, the fridge — rather than a sequence. 2. The floodwater was brown and murky like tea, not clear.
2.1. They stop making the noises they made aground, because they are afloat again. 2. The grounded boats are compared to birds caught mid-landing, sitting on the mud. 3. The sea is described as a person walking away, meaning the tide goes out.

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.