READING WORKSHOP 2walls lived. The nursery fl oor was woven to resemble a crisp, Practice the Skills
cereal meadow. Over this ran aluminum roaches and iron
crickets, and in the hot still air butterfl ies of delicate red
tissue wavered among the sharp aromas of animal spoors!
There was the sound like a great matted yellow hive of bees
within a dark bellows, the lazy bumble of a purring lion. And
there was the patter of okapi^8 feet and the murmur of a fresh
jungle rain, like other hoofs, falling upon the summer-
starched grass. Now the walls dissolved into distances of
parched weed, mile on mile, and warm endless sky. The
animals drew away into thorn brakes and water holes.
It was the children’s hour.
Five o’clock. The bath fi lled with clear hot water.
Six, seven, eight o’clock. The dinner dishes manipulated^9 likemagic tricks, and in the study a click. In the metal stand opposite
the hearth where a fi re now blazed up warmly, a cigar popped
out, half an inch of soft gray ash on it, smoking, waiting.
Nine o’clock. The beds warmed their hidden circuits, fornights were cool here. 6
Nine-fi ve. A voice spoke from the study ceiling:
“Mrs. McClellan, which poem would you like this evening?”
The house was silent.
The voice said at last, “Since you express no preference, Ishall select a poem at random.” Quiet music rose to back the
voice. “Sara Teasdale.^10 As I recall, your favorite.... 7
There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white;^11
Robins will wear their feathery fi re,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;7 Key Reading Skill
Using Text Features A voice
has just spoken, but its words
are not in italics. Is this a second
mechanical voice? Also, so far
only the voice-clock’s words have
been in italics, but now a block
of text is italicized and indented.
Why do you think that was done?- In this paragraph, the walls and fl oor seem to come to life for the children’s entertainment. The
animals are running and playing (cavorting) in a sort of moving wallpaper. The fl oor becomes
a grassy (cereal) fi e l d. Spoors are droppings. The African okapi (oh KAW pee) is like a giraffe
but small and short-necked. - Here, manipulated means “moved around.”
- Teasdale, an American poet, often wrote about the beauty in nature.
- The plum trees, full of white blossoms, are shaking (in tremulous white).
Vocabulary
whims (wimz) n. sudden urges, desires, or ideas6
Progress in home design made
life easy and comfortable for
the owners. Progress in warfare
killed them. For this world that
Bradbury imagines, answer this
question: Is progress always
bad? Put your answer on a note
card in Foldable 5.572 UNIT 5 Is Progress Always Good?