Combination Skills |
A Ghost Story - Mark Twain |
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Overview Mark
Twain is one of the most famous American writers in the history of the
Paragraph
1
I TOOK a large room, far up Broadway, in a huge old building
whose upper stories had been wholly unoccupied for years, until I came.
The place had long been given up to dust and cobwebs, to solitude and
silence. I seemed groping among the tombs and invading the privacy of
the dead, that first night I climbed up to my quarters. For the first
time in my life a superstitious dread came over me; and as I turned
a dark angle of the stairway and an invisible cobweb swung its lazy
wool in my face and clung there, I shuddered as one who had encountered
a phantom.
I was glad enough when I reached my room and locked out the mould
and the darkness. A cheery fire was burning in the grate, and I sat
down before it with a comforting sense of relief. For two hours I sat
there, thinking of bygone times; recalling old scenes, and summoning
half-forgotten faces out of the mists of the past; listening, in fancy,
to voices that long ago grew silent for all time, and to once familiar
songs that nobody sings now. And as my reverie softened down to a sadder
and sadder pathos, the shrieking of the winds outside softened to a
wail, the angry beating of the rain against the panes diminished to
a tranquil patter, and one by one the noises in the street subsided,
until the hurrying foot-steps of the last belated straggler died away
in the distance and left no sound behind. The fire had burned low. A sense of loneliness crept over me. I arose and undressed, moving on tiptoe about the room, doing stealthily what I had to do, as if I were environed by sleeping enemies whose slumbers it would be fatal to break. I covered up in bed, and lay listening to the rain and wind and the faint creaking of distant shutters, till they lulled me to sleep. Paragraph
4
I slept profoundly, but how long I do not know. All at once I
found myself awake, and filled with a shuddering expectancy. All was
still. All but my own heart -- I could hear it beat. Presently the bedclothes
began to slip away slowly toward the foot of the bed, as if some one
were pulling them! I could not stir; I could not speak. Still the blankets
slipped deliberately away, till my breast was uncovered. Then with a
great effort I seized them and drew them over my head. I waited, listened,
waited. Once more that steady pull began, and once more I lay torpid
a century of dragging seconds till my breast was naked again. At last
I roused my energies and snatched the covers back to their place and
held them with a strong grip. I waited. By and by I felt a faint tug,
and took a fresh grip. The tug strengthened to a steady strain -- it
grew stronger and stronger. My hold parted, and for the third time the
blankets slid away. I groaned. An answering groan came from the foot
of the bed! Beaded drops of sweat stood upon my forehead. I was more
dead than alive. Presently I heard a heavy footstep in my room -- the
step of an elephant, it seemed to me -- it was not like anything human.
But it was moving FROM me -- there was relief in that. I heard it approach
the door -- pass out without moving bolt or lock -- and wander away
among the dismal corridors, straining the floors and joists till they
creaked again as it passed -- and then silence reigned once more.
When my excitement had calmed, I said to myself, "This is
a dream -- simply a hideous dream." And so I lay thinking it over
until I convinced myself that it WAS a dream, and then a comforting
laugh relaxed my lips and I was happy again. I got up and struck a light;
and when I found that the locks and bolts were just as I had left them,
another soothing laugh welled in my heart and rippled from my lips.
I took my pipe and lit it, and was just sitting down before the fire,
when -- down went the pipe out of my nerveless fingers, the blood forsook
my cheeks, and my placid breathing was cut short with a gasp! In the
ashes on the hearth, side by side with my own bare footprint, was another,
so vast that in comparison mine was but an infant's'! Then I had HAD
a visitor, and the elephant tread was explained.
I put out the light and returned to bed, palsied with fear. I
lay a long time, peering into the darkness, and listening. Then I heard
a grating noise overhead, like the dragging of a heavy body across the
floor; then the throwing down of the body, and the shaking of my windows
in response to the concussion. In distant parts of the building I heard
the muffled slamming of doors. I heard, at intervals, stealthy footsteps
creeping in and out among the corridors, and up and down the stairs.
Sometimes these noises approached my door, hesitated, and went away
again. I heard the clanking of chains faintly, in remote passages, and
listened while the clanking grew nearer -- while it wearily climbed
the stairways, marking each move by the loose surplus of chain that
fell with an accented rattle upon each succeeding step as the goblin
that bore it advanced. I heard muttered sentences; half-uttered screams
that seemed smothered violently; and the swish of invisible garments,
the rush of invisible wings. Then I became conscious that my chamber
was invaded -- that I was not alone. I heard sighs and breathings about
my bed, and mysterious whisperings. Three little spheres of soft phosphorescent
light appeared on the ceiling directly over my head, clung and glowed
there a moment, and then dropped -- two of them upon my face and one
upon the pillow. They spattered, liquidly, and felt warm. Intuition
told me they had turned to gouts of blood as they fell -- I needed no
light to satisfy myself of that. Then I saw pallid faces, dimly luminous,
and white uplifted hands, floating bodiless in the air -- floating a
moment and then disappearing. The whispering ceased, and the voices
and the sounds, and a solemn stillness followed. I waited and listened.
I felt that I must have light or die. I was weak with fear. I slowly
raised myself toward a sitting posture, and my face came in contact
with a clammy hand! All strength went from me apparently, and I fell
back like a stricken invalid. Then I heard the rustle of a garment --
it seemed to pass to the door and go out.
When everything was still once more, I crept out of bed, sick
and feeble, and lit the gas with a hand that trembled as if it were
aged with a hundred years. The light brought some little cheer to my
spirits. I sat down and fell into a dreamy contemplation of that great
footprint in the ashes. By and by its outlines began to waver and grow
dim. I glanced up and the broad gas flame was slowly wilting away. In
the same moment I heard that elephantine tread again. I noted its approach,
nearer and nearer, along the musty halls, and dimmer and dimmer the
light waned. The tread reached my very door and paused -- the light
had dwindled to a sickly blue, and all things about me lay in a spectral
twilight. The door did not open, and yet I felt a faint gust of air
fan my cheek, and presently was conscious of a huge, cloudy presence
before me. I watched it with fascinated eyes. A pale glow stole over
the Thing; gradually its cloudy folds took
shape -- an arm appeared, then legs, then a body, and last a great sad
face looked out of the vapor. Stripped of its filmy housings, naked,
muscular and comely, the majestic Cardiff Giant loomed above me!
All my misery vanished -- for a child might know that no harm
could come with that benignant countenance. My cheerful spirits returned
at once, and in sympathy with them the gas flamed up brightly again.
Never a lonely outcast was so glad to welcome company as I was to greet
the friendly giant. I said:
"Now what sort of a way is that to do? First you come lumbering
about the place bringing a legion of vagabond goblins along with you
to worry me to death, and then when I overlook an indelicacy of costume
which would not be tolerated anywhere by cultivated people except in
a respectable theater, and not even there if the nudity were of YOUR
sex, you repay me by wrecking all the furniture you can find to sit
down on. And why will you? You damage yourself as much as you do me.
You have broken off the end of your spinal column, and littered up the
floor with chips of your hams till the place looks like a marble yard.
You ought to be ashamed of yourself -- you are big enough to know better."
"Well, I will not break any more furniture. But what am
I to do? I have not had a chance to sit down for a century." And
the tears came into his eyes.
So he sat down on the floor, and lit a pipe which I gave him,
threw one of my red blankets over his shoulders, inverted my sitz-bath
on his head, helmet fashion, and made himself picturesque and comfortable.
Then he crossed his ankles, while I renewed the fire, and exposed the
flat, honey-combed bottoms of his prodigious feet to the grateful warmth.
We talked along for half an hour, and then I noticed that he
looked tired, and spoke of it. "Tired?" he said. "Well,
I should think so. And now I will tell you all about it, since you have
treated me so well. I am the spirit of the Petrified Man that lies across
the street there in the Museum. I am the ghost of the Cardiff Giant.
I can have no rest, no peace, till they have given that poor body burial
again. Now what was the most natural thing for me to do, to make men
satisfy this wish? Terrify them into it! -- haunt the place where the
body lay! So I haunted the museum night after night. I even got other
spirits to help me. But it did no good, for nobody ever came to the
museum at
I lit off my perch in a burst of excitement, and exclaimed:
Paragraphs 24 - 28 Confound it, don't you know your own remains?" "Well -- I NEVER felt so absurd before.
The Petrified Man has sold everybody else, and now the mean fraud has
ended by selling its own ghost! My son, if there is any charity left
in your heart for a poor friendless phantom like me, don't let this
get out. Think how YOU would feel if you had made such an ass of yourself." |
Questions from "The Ghost"
by Mark Twain. Directions: Scroll to the beginning
of this story and read. You may not
understand all the words yet. When
you have finished reading, answer the questions that follow. You must answer
the questions on a separate sheet of paper. Do not
try to type in your answers on line. There
are many places throughout the question list where you can check your answers.
Just click where indicated.
Phonics: Consonants
Paragraph 1: The sounds of g. What
is the sound of g in bold for the
following words found in paragraph 1?
1. large
2. huge
3. groping
4. angle
Paragraph 2: The sounds of c. What is the sound of c in the following words found in paragraph
2?
5. comforting
6. recalling
7. faces
8. fancy
9. voices
10. once
11. distance
Paragraph
3: The sounds of d. What is the sound of d in the following words found in paragraph
3?
12. had
13. undressed
14. doing
15. bed
16. distant
Click here for
answers 1 to 16.
Paragraph 4: Sounds of s. What
is the sound of s found in the
following words from paragraph 4?
17. myself
18. was
19. presently
20. as
21. some
22. seized
23. seconds
24. covers
25. pass
26. silence
Click here for
answers 17 to 24.
27. Paragraphs
1 and 2: L-Blends. Identify the l-blends located in the first two paragraphs of the story.
Click here for
answers to 27.
28. Paragraphs
1, 2, and 3: R-Blends. Identify the r-blends located in the first three paragraphs of the story.
Click here for
answers to 28.
29. Paragraph
4: S-Blends. Identify the s-blends located in the fourth
paragraph of the story.
Click here for
answers to 29.
30. Paragraph
4: Middle or End-Blends. Identify
the middle or end blends located in the fourth paragraph of the story.
Click here for
answers to 30.
Directions: Read the following sentence
or passage from "The Ghost Story".
Identify the sound of q(u)
in the word in bold.
31. "...the shrieking of the winds outside
softened to a wail, the angry beating of the rain against the panes diminished
to a tranquil patter, and one by
one the noises of the street subsided...
32. "They spattered, liquidly, and felt warm."
33. "...(I) threw one of my red blankets
over his shoulders, inverted my sitz-bath on his head, helmet fashion, and
made himself picturesque and comfortable.
34. "I never saw such an eloquent look of shame, of pitiable humiliation,
overspread a countenance before."
Click here for
answers 31 to 34
Directions: Read the following sentence
or passage from "The Ghost Story". Identify the sound of x in the underlined word.
35. "When my excitement had calmed, I said to myself, 'This is a dream--simply
a hideous dream.'"
36. "...then a comforting laugh relaxed my lips and I was happy again...
37. "Footnote
by Twain: A fact. The original
fraud was ingeniously and fraudfully duplicated, and exhibited in
Click
here for answers 35 to 37.
Directions: Read the following sentence
or passage from "The Ghost Story".
Identify the consonant digraphs
found in each passage.
38. "Then I heard a grating noise overhead,
like the dragging of a heavy body across the floor; then the throwing down
of the body and the shaking of my windows in response to the concussion."
39. "Then I became conscious that my chamber
was invaded--that I was not alone."
40. "...presently, I heard a heavy footstep
in my room--the step of an elephant, it seemed to me--it was not like anything
human... Then...(t)hree little spheres
of soft phosphorescent light appeared on the ceiling directly over my head..."
41. "I watched it with fascinated eyes.
A pale glow stole over the THING; gradually its cloudy folds took shape--an
arm appeared, then legs, then a body, and last a great sad face looked out
of the vapor."
Click here for
answers 38 to 41
Directions: Read the following sentence
or passage from "The Ghost Story".
Identify the silent consonants.
42. "I took a large room, far up Broadway,
in a huge old building whose upper stories had been wholly unoccupied for
years, until I came."
43. "I seemed groping among the tombs and
invading the privacy of the dead, that first night I climbed up to my quarters."
44. "For two hours I sat there, thinking
of bygone times; recalling old scenes, and summoning half-forgotten faces
out of the mists of the past; listening, in fancy, to voices that long ago
grew silent for all time..."
Click here for
answers 42 to 44
Vowels
Paragraph 6, Short and Long
Vowels. Directions: Read the following words. Identify
whether the vowel in bold is long or short. Write down your answers.
45. distant
46. creeping
47. up
48. sometimes
49. swish
50. became
51. went
Click here for
answers 45 to 51
Paragraphs 5 and 6, Long Vowel
Rules. Directions: What is the vowel rule that makes the underlined vowel long? Don't remember the rules? Click here.
52. excitement
53. dream
54. lay
55. myself
56. side
57. so
58. floating
59. die
60. alone
Click here for
answers 52 to 60
Paragraph
6, V + R. Directions:
Reading the following pairs of words. Identify
the word that is an example of V+R.
61. directly/dropper
62. warm/weak
63. stricken/spheres
64. dragging/darkness
65. remote/surplus
Click
here for answers 61 to 65
Vocabulary in
Context
Paragraphs 8-18. Directions:
Read the
following sentence/s from paragraphs 8 through 18. Use context clues to help
define the words in bold. First, identify
the context clue (example, synonym, antonym, or general sense). Then write down a definition for the word.
Write your answers on paper and click on check answers below when you
are finished.
"When
everything was still once more, I crept out of bed, sick and feeble, and lit the gas with a hand that
trembled as if it were aged with a hundred years."
66. Context clue for the word feeble:
Definition for the word feeble:
"By
and by its outlines began to waver and grow dim. I glanced up and the broad gas flame was slowly
wilting away.
67. Context clue for the word wilting:
Definition for the word wilting:
"All
my misery vanished--for a child
might know that no harm could come with that benignant countenance. My cheerful spirits returned at once..........."
68. Context clue for the word misery:
Definition of the word misery:
"Why,
is it nobody but you? Do you know,
I have been scared to death for
the last two or three hours? I am most
honestly glad to see you. I wish I
had a chair--........"
69. Context clue for the idiom scared to death:
Definition of the idiom scared to death:
"Now
what sort of a way is that to do? First
you come lumbering about the place bringing a legion of vagabond goblins along
with you to worry me to death, and then when I overlook an indelicacy of costume which would not be tolerated anywhere by cultivated
people except in a respectable theater, and not even there if the nudity were
of YOUR sex, you repay me by wrecking all the furniture you can find to sit
down on."
70. Context clue for the phrase indelicacy of costume:
Definition of the phrase indelicacy of costume:
"You
ought to be ashamed of yourself--you
are big enough to know better."
71. Context clue for the phrase ashamed of yourself:
Definition of the phrase ashamed of yourself:
Click here to
check answers 66 to 71.
Reading Paragraphs:
Topic, Main Idea, Topic Sentence, Supporting Details
Paragraph 21. Directions: Read paragraph 21. Identify the topic, main idea, and topic sentence
of this paragraph. Write down your
answers on a separate sheet of paper. Click
below to check your answers.
72. Topic:
73. Main Idea:
74. Topic Sentence:
Click here to
check answers 72 to 74.