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. How close to the daylight was he when he turned?
- 2. Why could Orpheus not hear Eurydice behind him?
- 3. Why did the king make that particular condition?
What We Kept
Stanza one: We kept the table, which was too big, and the clock, which had never gone, and a tin of buttons nobody wanted, and the habit of turning lights off. Stanza two: We gave away the good chairs. We gave away the china, all of it. We gave away the piano to a school because none of us could play. Stanza three: Ten years on, I would not know the chairs if I saw them in a window on a street. But I turn the hall light off behind me every single time, and think of her.
- 1. What does the speaker still do every time?
- 2. Why was the piano given to a school?
- 3. What three objects did the family keep?
LessonPrint · RL.5.1 · Set 21 · free to copy for classroom use