How an author reshapes an older story

Grade 9 Reading Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   The Emperor's New Clothes, and The Blank Banner (pair: a retold fairy tale and a new story)

   Text A: The Emperor's New Clothes (our retelling of a tale by Hans Christian Andersen, 1837)

   [1] Long ago, an emperor who loved fine clothes more than anything else spent nearly all of his treasury on new robes. [2] One day two swindlers arrived at the palace, claiming that they could weave a cloth so marvelous that it could not be seen by anyone who was foolish or unfit for office. [3] The emperor paid them a fortune in gold and silk thread, and the two set up empty looms and pretended to work late into every night. [4] When the emperor sent his oldest minister to check the weaving, the minister saw nothing, but he praised the colors rather than admit that he might be unfit. [5] One official after another did the same, and at last the emperor himself stood before the empty looms and declared the cloth magnificent. [6] On the day of the great procession, the swindlers pretended to dress him in the new robes, and he walked through the city while the crowds cheered the clothes they could not see. [7] Then a small child in the crowd called out that the emperor had no new clothes on at all, and the words spread until the whole crowd was saying them. [8] The emperor suspected that the people were right, but he held his head even higher and marched on, while his chamberlains carried a train that was not there.

   Text B: The Blank Banner

   [9] When Westbrook High's student council chose a new spirit banner, the council president, Esme, picked the winning entry from a design contest, whose judges had called it a bold idea that not everyone would get. [10] The banner that arrived was almost entirely white, with one pale gray dot near a corner, and printing it had used up most of the council's art budget. [11] At the first meeting after it arrived, the council members stared at the white cloth, and one after another, each praised its boldness rather than be the one person who did not get it. [12] Esme, who had seen nothing but a dot, called it striking and asked the art club to hang it above the gym doors before the homecoming game. [13] On game night, the crowd filed in beneath it, and several parents nodded politely at the banner as if it made perfect sense. [14] Then Bo, a ninth grader holding a cup of popcorn, looked up and asked out loud why the school had hung up a blank sheet. [15] A few people laughed nervously, and within a minute half the bleachers were repeating the question. [16] Esme laughed too, climbed onto the stage at halftime, and admitted that the council had paid for a dot because nobody, not even the president, had wanted to say so first. [17] The next week the council invited students to paint a new banner together, and Bo's name went first on the list of painters. [18] The white banner still hangs in the council office, with a small card beneath it that reads, Ask the question.

2. 1.

   Does Text B keep, change or reverse Text A's point about why people praise what they cannot see? Noah needs the verdict and its proof from both texts.

   • Kept: both texts show that a leader who admits a mistake in public, as in [16], earns respect for it.
   • Kept: the officials in [4] and [5] and the members in [11] all praise nothing rather than look foolish.
   • Reversed: in Text B nobody pretends, because the members say at once, in [11], that the banner is blank.
   • Kept: in both texts people praise the new thing mainly because it cost a fortune, as [3] and [10] show.
3. 2.

   Text B has no swindlers who knowingly cheat; the design in [9] is a sincere contest entry. Why might the later author leave the swindlers out, and what does it do?

   • With no cheats to blame, the fault in Text B lies in the council's own silence, which Esme admits in [16].
   • Leaving out the swindlers puts the blame on outsiders, so the council in Text B learns nothing about its silence.
   • The swindlers stay: the contest judges in [9] trick the council into paying, just as the swindlers trick the emperor.
   • The later author left out the swindlers because the design contest in Text B had judges who check the entries.
4. 3.

   What happens in Text B's ending to Text A's point about a ruler's pride? Luz needs the verdict and its proof from both texts.

   • Kept: Esme in [16] covers the mistake just as the emperor does in [8], by carrying on as if nothing were wrong.
   • Reversed: Text B shows that a leader loses respect by listening to a younger student, as Bo's question in [14] clearly shows.
   • Reversed: in both texts the leader laughs at the truth and then fixes the mistake, as [16] and [17] show.
   • Reversed: the emperor in [8] marches on, head held even higher, but Esme in [16] climbs onstage and admits the mistake.
5. 4.

   Ren checks a second chart: three rows are correct and one is wrong. Kept: same thing. Changed: same job, a different way. Left out: nothing in Text B. Which row is wrong?

   • [3] the swindlers working at empty looms night after night → nothing in Text B: left out
   • [6] robes that do not exist → [10] a real banner, mostly white, with one dot: changed
   • [7] the words spread until the whole crowd is saying them → [15] half the bleachers repeat the question: kept
   • [4] a minister praises the colors rather than admit to being unfit → [11] members praise the banner's boldness: changed
6. 5.

   Text B leaves out the chamberlains who carry an empty train to the end in [8]. Why might the later author leave them out, and what does it do?

   • The later author left them out because a high school has no servants to carry anything, as [12] says.
   • Leaving them out makes Text B's ending more about pride, since the pretending goes on unchecked.
   • They keep up the pretense to the end, but in Text B the pretending ends by [16], so the scene would not fit.
   • They stay: the parents in [13] who nod politely carry on the pretense to the end, just as the chamberlains do.

7. The Ant and the Grasshopper, and The Garden Supper (pair: a retold fable and a new story)

   Text A: The Ant and the Grasshopper (our retelling of a fable told by Aesop)

   [1] All through one long summer, a grasshopper spent the warm days in a meadow, fiddling and singing from the top of a tall stalk of grass. [2] Below, an ant passed back and forth all day, hauling kernels of corn to its nest and stacking them in neat rows for the winter. [3] The grasshopper called down that there was plenty of food in the meadow and asked why the ant did not stop working and enjoy the sunshine. [4] The ant answered that winter was coming and advised the grasshopper to start saving food as well, but the grasshopper only laughed and played another tune. [5] When winter came, the meadow lay under snow, and the grasshopper, finding nothing to eat, knocked at the ant's door to beg for a few kernels of corn. [6] The ant asked what the grasshopper had done all summer, and the grasshopper answered that it had been busy making music. [7] Then dance all winter, the ant replied, and shut the door, leaving the hungry grasshopper outside in the cold. [8] The fable is usually told to teach that it is wise to work today and prepare for the days of need.

   Text B: The Garden Supper

   [9] Every summer, the Maple Avenue community garden grew vegetables for a free winter supper, and Tala spent each morning weeding, watering and packing crates for the freezer at the community center. [10] At the edge of the garden, Ren sat on an overturned bucket most afternoons, playing guitar and working out songs, while the volunteers worked nearby. [11] Tala, sweating over a row of beans, joked more than once that Ren must be growing a crop of songs, since nothing else was getting picked at that end of the garden. [12] Ren kept playing, and Tala noticed, without saying so, that the volunteers stayed later on the afternoons when the music drifted over the rows. [13] In December, the center held the supper, and on the morning of the event, the hired band called to cancel because its van had broken down. [14] Ren showed up at the kitchen door that afternoon, asking whether there was any way to help, since the garden work was long over. [15] Tala remembered the late afternoons in the bean rows, handed Ren a bowl of soup and a chair near the stage, and asked whether the summer songs were ready. [16] That evening Ren played for two hours while the guests ate, and several of them asked whether the musician would be back next year. [17] When the last dishes were stacked, Tala wrote a new line on the volunteer sign-up sheet for the coming summer: garden musician, one afternoon a week.

8. 6.

   What happens in Text B to Text A's judgment that the music-maker deserves nothing in winter? Bo needs the verdict and its proof from both texts.

   • Reversed: in both texts the worker welcomes the musician in winter and asks for music, as [15] and [16] show.
   • Reversed: Text B teaches that saving food for winter is a waste, since the supper in [13] needed music, not food.
   • Kept: Tala turns Ren away at the kitchen door in [14], just as the ant turns the grasshopper away in [7].
   • Reversed: the ant shuts the door in [7], but Tala hands Ren soup and a chair in [15] and asks for the songs.
9. 7.

   Text B leaves out the ant's warning in [4] that winter is coming. Why might the later author leave the warning out, and what does it do?

   • Leaving out the warning makes Ren look more careless than the grasshopper, since Ren ignores the crates with no excuse.
   • The warning stays: Tala's joke in [11] tells Ren that winter is coming and that food must be saved.
   • The later author left out the warning because Tala does not know that the supper is in winter, as [9] says.
   • With no warning to ignore, Ren is not shown as foolish, which fits [12], where the music keeps the volunteers working.
10. 8.

    Does Text B keep the part of Text A's lesson that says it is wise to work ahead for the days of need? Noah needs the verdict and its proof.

    • Reversed: Tala's summer work turns out to be wasted, since the supper in [16] is saved by music alone.
    • Kept: in both texts the worker warns the music-maker that winter is coming, as [4] shows.
    • Kept: the ant's corn in [2] and Tala's crates in [9] both feed the winter, and the guests in [16] still eat.
    • Kept: both texts say that the music-maker should have spent the summer packing food, as [11] shows.
11. 9.

    Pia checks a second chart: three rows are correct and one is wrong. Kept: same thing. Changed: same job, a different way. Left out: nothing in Text B. Which row is wrong?

    • [6] the worker asks what the music-maker did in the summer → [15] Tala asks whether the summer songs are ready: changed
    • [5] in winter the music-maker comes to the worker's door → [14] Ren shows up at the kitchen door: kept
    • [8] the stated lesson about working ahead → [17] a new line on the sign-up sheet: kept
    • [4] the worker's advice to start saving food → nothing in Text B: left out
12. 10.

    Text B leaves out the stated lesson in Text A's [8]. Why might the later author leave the lesson out, and what does it do?

    • Text B's view differs from the old lesson, so stating it would clash; [17] shows the new view, music among the garden jobs.
    • Leaving out the lesson makes Text B agree more strongly with the fable, since the reader fills in the old moral.
    • The lesson stays: the new line on the sign-up sheet in [17] repeats that it is wise to work today for the days of need.
    • The later author left the lesson out because readers of Text B already know the fable, so repeating it would bore them right away.