Explicit and Inferred
RL.5.1
Read the text, then answer the questions.
Orpheus Looks Back
Orpheus played so well that rivers changed course to listen. When his wife Eurydice died, he went down to argue with the dead. He played to the ferryman, who took him free. He played to the three-headed dog, which lay down. He played to the king of the underworld, who wept, and who had never wept. The king gave one condition. Eurydice would follow him up, and he must not look back until both of them stood in the light. He climbed for a day. He could not hear her footsteps — the dead make none — and he had only the king's word. Ten paces from the daylight, he turned round. She was there. That was the last he saw of her.
- 1. What was the king's condition?
- 2. Why could Orpheus not hear Eurydice behind him?
- 3. Why did the king make that particular condition?
The Mill: Ivy Sallow's Account
We knew by the thread. You cannot work a loom for twenty-two years and not notice when the good cotton stops coming. From about the March, it was the cheap stuff, and it broke. So we knew something. What we did not know was how long we had, and that is the part I mind. I could have been looking. My sister found work in Derby that spring and asked me twice. I said the mill would see me out. He stood on a crate on the Friday and told us. Somebody asked how long he had known. He said he would rather not say. That was the answer, really.
- 1. Why does Ivy say "I could have been looking"?
- 2. How long had Ivy worked a loom?
- 3. What told the workers something was wrong?
LessonPrint · RL.5.1 · Set 10 · free to copy for classroom use