Explicit and Inferred
RL.5.1
Read the text, then answer the questions.
Pandora
The gods made Pandora and gave her, between them, everything: beauty, skill, a voice, curiosity. They also gave her a jar, and told her not to open it. They did not say what was in it. She kept it for a long time. The story is usually told as though she opened it immediately. She did not. When she did lift the lid, out came sickness, hunger, grief and every trouble that has since been ordinary. She got the lid back on with one thing still inside. That thing was hope. And people have argued for three thousand years about whether keeping it in was a mercy or the cruellest part of all.
- 1. What was left inside the jar?
- 2. Were the gods explicit about what was inside?
- 3. What did the gods give Pandora?
The Bell
Stanza one: The church has gone. They took the stone for walls and gateposts, load by load. Where the aisle was there is a field. Where the door was there is a road. Stanza two: The bell they could not sell or break. It hung in a barn for eighty years, green with the damp, out of the way, mute as a stone among the gears. Stanza three: Last spring they hung it in the school. It rings at nine and rings at three. The children do not know its age and ring it anyway, and it is free. Stanza four: So the building went, and the faith went, and the road runs where the door was cut, and still the sound the masons heard goes out at nine, and comes back, and stops.
- 1. When does the bell ring now?
- 2. How long did the bell hang in a barn?
- 3. Why does the poem say the children "ring it anyway"?
LessonPrint · RL.5.1 · Set 6 · free to copy for classroom use