Lessons+16+-+18

=Lesson 16 - __A Short Walk Around the Pyramids and Through the World of Art__= toc At Giza, a few miles north of Saqqara, sits three great pyramids, each names for the king - or Pharaoh - during whose reign it was built. No other buildings are so well known, yet the first sight of them sitting in their field is breathtaking. When you walk among them, you walk in a place made for giants. They seem too large to have been made by human beings, too perfect to have been formed by nature, and when the sun is overhead, not solid enough to be attached to the sand. n the minutes before sunrise, they are the color of faded roses, and when the last rays of the desert sun touch them, they turn to amber. But whatever the light, their broad proportion, the beauty for the limestone, and the care with which it is fitted into place create three unforgettable works of art.

What do we learn about art when we look at the pyramids?

First, when all of the things that go into a work - its components - complement one another, they create an object that has a certain spirit, and we can call that spirit harmony. The pyramids are harmonious because limestone, a warm, quiet logical, pleasing shape. In fact, the stone and the shape are so comfortable with each other that the pyramids seem inevitable - as though they were bound to have the form, color, and texture that they do have.

bound companion complement component cordial harmony inevitable logical proportion texture
 * Word List**

Vocabulary Review





=Lesson 17 -__The Phantom Tollbooth__=

Milo acknowledged the introduction, and as Tock growled softly, the minister explained.

"We are the king's advisers, or, in more formal terms, his cabinet."

"Cabinet," recited the duke. "1, a small room or closet, case with drawers, etc., for keeping valuables or displaying curiosities; 2. council room for chief ministers of state, 3. a body of official advisers to the chief executive of a nation."

"You see," continued the minister, bowing thankfully to the duke. "Dictionolopolis is the place where all the words in the world come from. They're grown right here in our orchards."

"I didn't know that words grew on trees," said Milo timidly.

"Where did you think they grew?" shouted the earl irritably. A small crowd began to gather to see the little boy who didn't know that letters grew on trees.

"I din't know they grew at all," admitted Milo even more timidly. Several people shook their heads sadly.

"Well, money doesn't grow on trees, does it?" demanded the count.

"I've heard not," said Milo.

"Then something must. Why not words?" exclaimed the undersecretary triumphantly. The crowd cheered his display of logic and continued about its business.

"To continue," continued the minister impatiently. "Once a week by Royal Proclamation the word market is held here in the great square and people come form everywhere to buy the words they need or trade in the words they haven't used."

"Our job," said the count, "is to see that all of the words sold are proper ones, for it wouldn't do to sell someone a word that had no meaning or didn't exist at all. For instance, if you bought a word like ghlbtsk, where would you use it?"

"It would be difficult," thought Milo -- but there were so many words that were difficult, and he knew hardly any of them.

"But we never choose which ones to use," explained the earl as they walked toward the market stalls, "for as long as they mean what they mean to mean we don't care if they make sense or nonsense."

"Innocence or magnificence," added the count.

"Reticence or common sense, " said the undersecretary.

"That seems simple enough, " said Milo, trying to be polite.

"Easy as falling off a log," cried the earl. falling off a log with a loud thump.

"Must you be so clumsy?" shouted the duke.

"All I said was . . " began the earl, rubbing his head.

"We heard you." said the minister angrily. "and you'll have to find an expression that's less dangerous."

The earl dusted himself off as the others snickered audibly.

"You see," cautioned the count, "you must pick your words very carefully and be sure to say just what you intend to say. And now we must leave to make preparations for the Royal Banquet."

acknowledge adviser audible caution executive expression formal intend official recite
 * Word List **

Vocabulary Review





=Lesson 18 - __Black Boy (American Hunger)__=

My first glimpse of the flat black stretches of Chicago depressed and dismayed me, mocked all my fantasies. Chicago seemed an unreal city whose mythical houses were built of slabs of black coal wreathed in palls of gray smoke, houses whose foundations were sinking slowly into the dank prairie. Flashes of steam showed intermittently on the wide horizon, gleaming translucently in the winter sun. The din of the city entered my consciousness, entered to remain for years to come. The year was 1927.

What would happen to me here? Would I survive? My expectations were modest. I wanted only a job. Hunger had long been my daily companion. Diversion and recreation, with the exception of reading, were unknown. In all my life—though surrounded by many people—I had not had a single satisfying, sustained relationship with another human being and, not having had any, I did not miss it. I made no demands whatever upon others.

The train rolled into the depot. Aunt Maggie and I got off and walked slowly through the crowds into the station. I looked about to see if there were signs saying: FOR WHITE—FOR COLORED. I saw none. Black people and white people moved about, each seemingly intent upon his private mission. There was no racial fear. Indeed, each person acted as though no one existed but himself. It was strange to pause before a crowded newsstand and buy a newspaper without having to wait until a white man was served. And yet, because everything was so new, I began to grow tense again,although it was a different sort of tension than I had known before. I knew that this machine-city was governed by strange laws and I wondered if I would ever learn them.

din dismay diversion exception govern mock modest mythical sustain tension
 * Word List **

Vocabulary Review



Read the full passage along with sample test questions here!



=Unit Test Lessons 16 - 18=