2013 Summer Reading Assignment

English II Honors

o Novel: Fahrenheit: 451—Bradbury o Short Story: “Harrison Bergeron”—Kurt Vonneguto Short Story: “The Pedestrian”—Ray Bradbury

The English II Honors students will be reading a novel and two short stories, all of which are set in a

dystopian society and focused around the theme of dystopia. The students should expect to take a short answer

“identification” quiz on Fahrenheit 451 during the second week of school as well as the Accelerated Reader

quiz for the novel which will count towards the first six weeks AR grade. The novel will be used as a constant

reference as the honors classes continue on in the dystopian theme for the first unit of the year, so students

should make reading this novel a priority as it will strongly affect their grades for several weeks.

The questions and vocabulary grids for the short stories, as well as the grammar exercises are due on the first

day of school. The only exceptions will be for those students who recently moved to Zachary or transferred to

ZHS.

HARRISON BERGERON by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.

Some things about living still weren't quite right, though. April for instance, still drove people crazy by not being springtime. And it was in that clammy month that the H-G men took George and Hazel Bergeron's fourteen-year-old son, Harrison, away.

It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn't think about it very hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn't think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.

George and Hazel were watching television. There were tears on Hazel's cheeks, but she'd forgotten for the moment what they were about.

On the television screen were ballerinas.

A buzzer sounded in George's head. His thoughts fled in panic, like bandits from a burglar alarm.

"That was a real pretty dance, that dance they just did," said Hazel.

"Huh" said George.

"That dance-it was nice," said Hazel.

"Yup," said George. He tried to think a little about the ballerinas. They weren't really very good-no better than anybody else would have been, anyway. They were burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in. George was toying with the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn't be handicapped. But he didn't get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts.

George winced. So did two out of the eight ballerinas.

Hazel saw him wince. Having no mental handicap herself, she had to ask George what the latest sound had been.

"Sounded like somebody hitting a milk bottle with a ball peen hammer," said George.

"I'd think it would be real interesting, hearing all the different sounds," said Hazel a little envious. "All the things they think up."

"Um," said George.

"Only, if I was Handicapper General, you know what I would do?" said Hazel. Hazel, as a matter of fact, bore a strong resemblance to the Handicapper General, a woman named Diana Moon Glampers. "If I was Diana Moon Glampers," said Hazel, "I'd have chimes on Sunday-just chimes. Kind of in honor of religion."

"I could think, if it was just chimes," said George.

"Well-maybe make 'em real loud," said Hazel. "I think I'd make a good Handicapper General."

"Good as anybody else," said George.

"Who knows better then I do what normal is?" said Hazel.

"Right," said George. He began to think glimmeringly about his abnormal son who was now in jail, about Harrison, but a twenty-one-gun salute in his head stopped that.

"Boy!" said Hazel, "that was a doozy, wasn't it?"

It was such a doozy that George was white and trembling, and tears stood on the rims of his red eyes. Two of the eight ballerinas had collapsed to the studio floor, were holding their temples.

"All of a sudden you look so tired," said Hazel. "Why don't you stretch out on the sofa, so's you can rest your handicap bag on the pillows, honeybunch." She was referring to the forty-seven pounds of birdshot in a canvas bag, which was padlocked around George's neck. "Go on and rest the bag for a little while," she said. "I don't care if you're not equal to me for a while."

George weighed the bag with his hands. "I don't mind it," he said. "I don't notice it any more. It's just a part of me."

"You been so tired lately-kind of wore out," said Hazel. "If there was just some way we could make a little hole in the bottom of the bag, and just take out a few of them lead balls. Just a few."

"Two years in prison and two thousand dollars fine for every ball I took out," said George. "I don't call that a bargain."

"If you could just take a few out when you came home from work," said Hazel. "I mean-you don't compete with anybody around here. You just set around."

"If I tried to get away with it," said George, "then other people'd get away with it-and pretty soon we'd be right back to the dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else. You wouldn't like that, would you?"

"I'd hate it," said Hazel.

"There you are," said George. The minute people start cheating on laws, what do you think happens to society?"

If Hazel hadn't been able to come up with an answer to this question, George couldn't have supplied one. A siren was going off in his head.

"Reckon it'd fall all apart," said Hazel.

"What would?" said George blankly.

"Society," said Hazel uncertainly. "Wasn't that what you just said?

"Who knows?" said George.

The television program was suddenly interrupted for a news bulletin. It wasn't clear at first as to what the bulletin was about, since the announcer, like all announcers, had a serious speech impediment. For about half a minute, and in a state of high excitement, the announcer tried to say, "Ladies and Gentlemen."

He finally gave up, handed the bulletin to a ballerina to read.

"That's all right-" Hazel said of the announcer, "he tried. That's the big thing. He tried to do the best he could with what God gave him. He should get a nice raise for trying so hard."

"Ladies and Gentlemen," said the ballerina, reading the bulletin. She must have been extraordinarily beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous. And it was easy to see that she was the strongest and most graceful of all the dancers, for her handicap bags were as big as those worn by two-hundred pound men.

And she had to apologize at once for her voice, which was a very unfair voice for a woman to use. Her voice was a warm, luminous, timeless melody. "Excuse me-" she said, and she began again, making her voice absolutely uncompetitive.

"Harrison Bergeron, age fourteen," she said in a grackle squawk, "has just escaped from jail, where he was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government. He is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous."

A police photograph of Harrison Bergeron was flashed on the screen-upside down, then sideways, upside down again, then right side up. The picture showed the full length of Harrison against a background calibrated in feet and inches. He was exactly seven feet tall.

The rest of Harrison's appearance was Halloween and hardware. Nobody had ever born heavier handicaps. He had outgrown hindrances faster than the H-G men could think them up. Instead of a little ear radio for a mental handicap, he wore a tremendous pair of earphones, and spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make him not only half blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.

Scrap metal was hung all over him. Ordinarily, there was a certain symmetry, a military neatness to the handicaps issued to strong people, but Harrison looked like a walking junkyard. In the race of life, Harrison carried three hundred pounds.

And to offset his good looks, the H-G men required that he wear at all times a red rubber ball for a nose, keep his eyebrows shaved off, and cover his even white teeth with black caps at snaggle-tooth random.

"If you see this boy," said the ballerina, "do not - I repeat, do not - try to reason with him."

There was the shriek of a door being torn from its hinges.

Screams and barking cries of consternation came from the television set. The photograph of Harrison Bergeron on the screen jumped again and again, as though dancing to the tune of an earthquake.

George Bergeron correctly identified the earthquake, and well he might have - for many was the time his own home had danced to the same crashing tune. "My God-" said George, "that must be Harrison!"

The realization was blasted from his mind instantly by the sound of an automobile collision in his head.

When George could open his eyes again, the photograph of Harrison was gone. A living, breathing Harrison filled the screen.

Clanking, clownish, and huge, Harrison stood - in the center of the studio. The knob of the uprooted studio door was still in his hand. Ballerinas, technicians, musicians, and announcers cowered on their knees before him, expecting to die.

"I am the Emperor!" cried Harrison. "Do you hear? I am the Emperor! Everybody must do what I say at once!" He stamped his foot and the studio shook.

"Even as I stand here" he bellowed, "crippled, hobbled, sickened - I am a greater ruler than any man who ever lived! Now watch me become what I can become!"

Harrison tore the straps of his handicap harness like wet tissue paper, tore straps guaranteed to support five thousand pounds.

Harrison's scrap-iron handicaps crashed to the floor.

Harrison thrust his thumbs under the bar of the padlock that secured his head harness. The bar snapped like celery. Harrison smashed his headphones and spectacles against the wall.

He flung away his rubber-ball nose, revealed a man that would have awed Thor, the god of thunder.

"I shall now select my Empress!" he said, looking down on the cowering people. "Let the first woman who dares rise to her feet claim her mate and her throne!"

A moment passed, and then a ballerina arose, swaying like a willow.

Harrison plucked the mental handicap from her ear, snapped off her physical handicaps with marvelous delicacy. Last of all he removed her mask.

She was blindingly beautiful.

"Now-" said Harrison, taking her hand, "shall we show the people the meaning of the word dance? Music!" he commanded.

The musicians scrambled back into their chairs, and Harrison stripped them of their handicaps, too. "Play your best," he told them, "and I'll make you barons and dukes and earls."

The music began. It was normal at first-cheap, silly, false. But Harrison snatched two musicians from their chairs, waved them like batons as he sang the music as he wanted it played. He slammed them back into their chairs.

The music began again and was much improved.

Harrison and his Empress merely listened to the music for a while-listened gravely, as though synchronizing their heartbeats with it.

They shifted their weights to their toes.

Harrison placed his big hands on the girls tiny waist, letting her sense the weightlessness that would soon be hers.

And then, in an explosion of joy and grace, into the air they sprang!

Not only were the laws of the land abandoned, but the law of gravity and the laws of motion as well.

They reeled, whirled, swiveled, flounced, capered, gamboled, and spun.

They leaped like deer on the moon.

The studio ceiling was thirty feet high, but each leap brought the dancers nearer to it.

It became their obvious intention to kiss the ceiling. They kissed it.

And then, neutraling gravity with love and pure will, they remained suspended in air inches below the ceiling, and they kissed each other for a long, long time.

It was then that Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, came into the studio with a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun. She fired twice, and the Emperor and the Empress were dead before they hit the floor.

Diana Moon Glampers loaded the gun again. She aimed it at the musicians and told them they had ten seconds to get their handicaps back on.

It was then that the Bergerons' television tube burned out.

Hazel turned to comment about the blackout to George. But George had gone out into the kitchen for a can of beer.

George came back in with the beer, paused while a handicap signal shook him up. And then he sat down again. "You been crying" he said to Hazel.

"Yup," she said.

"What about?" he said.

"I forget," she said. "Something real sad on television."

"What was it?" he said.

"It's all kind of mixed up in my mind," said Hazel.

"Forget sad things," said George.

"I always do," said Hazel.

"That's my girl," said George. He winced. There was the sound of a rivetting gun in his head.

"Gee - I could tell that one was a doozy," said Hazel.

"You can say that again," said George.

"Gee-" said Hazel, "I could tell that one was a doozy."

Name:______________ Hour:_______________ Date:_______________

Summer Reading Assignment for “Harrison Bergeron”

I. VOCABULARY: Define the following words using context clues from the story.

oppression____________________________________________________________________

calibrated______________________________________________________________________

consternation___________________________________________________________________

cower_________________________________________________________________________

hindrance______________________________________________________________________

luminous______________________________________________________________________

synchronizing__________________________________________________________________

vigilance______________________________________________________________________

wince_________________________________________________________________________

II. LITERARY TERMS: Define each term and give an example of each from the story.

Setting________________________________________________________________________

What is the setting of the story?______________________________________________

Characterization________________________________________________________________

Describe George and Hazel._________________________________________________

Theme________________________________________________________________________

What is the theme of the story?______________________________________________

III. QUESTIONS: Answer the following questions. Be specific.

1. What has guaranteed equality in the story?

2. How old is Harrison?

3. What happened to Harrison at the beginning of the story and why?

4. How has the government made George and Hazel equal? What does George have to wear? And what does this do?

5. What does Hazel say she would do if she were Handicap General?

6. What is the name of the Handicap General?

7. What is the consequence for taking lessening the weight of the handicap bag?

8. What reason does George give for not trying to cheat?

Because of this reason, what can we infer about George’s opinion of the current laws?

9. Why wasn’t the news bulletin clear at first to the George and Hazel and other viewers?

10. Why did the ballerina apologize about her voice?

11. What is the news bulletin?

12. Describe Harrison Bergeron with all of his handicaps?

13. What does Harrison declare on television?

14. What happens to Harrison? Be specific.

15. How does the story end? What is implied by this ending?

The PedestrianBy Ray Bradbury

To enter out into that silence that was the city at eight o'clock of a misty evening in November, to put your feet upon that buckling concrete walk, to step over grassy seams and make your way, hands in pockets, through the silences, that was what Mr Leonard Mead most dearly loved to do. He would stand upon the corner of an intersection and peer down long moonlit avenues of sidewalk in four directions, deciding which way to go, but it really made no difference; he was alone in this world of 2053 A.D., or as good as alone, and with a final decision made, a path selected, he would stride off, sending patterns of frosty air before him like the smoke of a cigar.

Sometimes he would walk for hours and miles and return only at midnight to his house. And on his way he would see the cottages and homes with their dark windows, and it was not unequal to walking through a graveyard where only the faintest glimmers of firefly light appeared in flickers behind the windows. Sudden gray phantoms seemed to manifest upon inner room walls where a curtain was still undrawn against the night, or there were whisperings and murmurs where a window in a tomb-like building was still open.

Mr. Leonard Mead would pause, cock his head, listen, look, and march on, his feet making no noise on the lumpy walk. For long ago he had wisely changed to sneakers when strolling at night, because the dogs in intermittent squads would parallel his journey with barkings if he wore hard heels, and lights might click on and faces appear and an entire street be startled by the passing of a lone figure, himself, in the early November evening.

On this particular evening he began his journey in a westerly direction, toward the hidden sea. There was a good crystal frost in the air; it cut the nose and made the lungs blaze like a Christmas tree inside; you could feel the cold light going on and off, all the branches filled with invisible snow. He listened to the faint push of his soft shoes through autumn leaves with satisfaction, and whistled a cold quiet whistle between his teeth, occasionally picking up a leaf as he passed, examining its skeletal pattern in the infrequent lamplights as he went on, smelling its rusty smell.

'Hello, in there,' he whispered to every house on every side as he moved. 'What's up tonight on Channel 4, Channel 7, Channel 9? Where are the cowboys rushing, and do I see the United States Cavalry over the next hill to the rescue?'

The street was silent and long and empty, with only his shadow moving like the shadow of a hawk in mid-country. If he closed his eyes and stood very still, frozen, he could imagine himself upon the center of a plain, a wintry, windless Arizona desert with no house in a thousand miles, and only dry river beds, the street, for company.

'What is it now?' he asked the houses, noticing his wrist watch. Eight-thirty P.M.? Time for a dozen assorted murders? A quiz? A revue? A comedian falling off the stage?'

Was that a murmur of laughter from within a moon-white house? He hesitated, but went on when nothing more happened. He stumbled over a particularly uneven section of sidewalk. The cement was vanishing under flowers and grass. In ten years of walking by night or day, for thousands of miles, he had never met another person walking, not one in all that time.

He came to a cloverleaf intersection which stood silent where two main highways crossed the town. During the day it was a thunderous surge of cars, the gas stations open, a great insect rustling and a ceaseless jockeying for position as the scarab-beetles, a faint incense puttering from their exhausts, skimmed homeward to the far

directions. But now these highways, too, were like streams in a dry season, all stone and bed and moon radiance.He turned back on a side street, circling around toward his home. He was within a block of his destination when the lone car turned a corner quite suddenly and flashed a fierce white cone of light upon him. He stood entranced, not unlike a night moth, stunned by the illumination, and then drawn toward it.

A metallic voice called to him:'Stand still. Stay where you are! Don't move!'He halted.'Put up your hands!''But-' he said.'Your hands up! Or we'll shoot!'

The police, of course, but what a rare, incredible thing; in a city of three million, there was only one police car left, wasn't that correct? Ever since a year ago, 2052, the election year, the force had been cut down from three cars to one. Crime was ebbing; there was no need now for the police, save for this one lone car wandering and wandering the empty streets.

'Your name?' said the police car in a metallic whisper. He couldn't see the men in it for the bright light in his eyes.

'Leonard Mead,' he said.'Speak up!''Leonard Mead!'Business or profession?’'I guess you'd call me a writer.'

No profession,' said the police car, as if talking to itself. The light held him fixed, like a museum specimen, needle thrust through chest.

'You might say that,' said Mr. Mead.

He hadn't written in years. Magazines and books didn't sell anymore. Everything went on in the tomb-like houses at night now, he thought, continuing his fancy. The tombs, ill-lit by television light, where the people sat like the dead, the gray or multi-colored lights touching their faces, but never really touching them.

'No profession,' said the phonograph voice, hissing. 'What are you doing out?''Walking,' said Leonard Mead. 'Walking!' 'Just walking,' he said simply, but his face felt cold. 'Walking, just walking, walking?' 'Yes, sir.' 'Walking where? For what?' 'Walking for air. Walking to see.' 'Your address!''Eleven South Saint James Street.' 'And there is air in your house, you have an air conditioner, Mr. Mead?' Yes.' 'And you have a viewing screen in your house to see with?' 'No. 'No?' There was a crackling quiet that in itself was an accusation. 'Are you married, Mr. Mead?'

'No.''Not married,' said the police voice behind the fiery beam. The moon was high and dear among the stars and the houses were gray and silent.

'Nobody wanted me,' said Leonard Mead with a smile. 'Don't speak unless you're spoken to!' Leonard Mead waited in the cold night.'Just walking; Mr. Mead?' 'Yes.'But you haven't explained for what purpose.''I explained; for air, and to see, and just to walk.''Have you done this often?'‘Every night for years.'The police car sat in the center of the street with its radio throat faintly humming.'Well, Mr. Mead', it said.''s that all?' he asked politely.

'Yes,' said the voice. 'Here.' There was a sigh, a pop. The back door of the police car sprang wide. 'Get in.''Wait a minute, 1 haven't done anything!''Get in.''I protest!''Mr. Mead.'

He walked like a man suddenly drunk. As he passed the front window of the car he looked in. As he had expected, there was no one in the front seat, no one in the car at all.

'Get in.'

He put his hand to the door and peered into the back seat, which was a little cell, a little black jail with bars. It smelled of riveted steel. It smelled of harsh antiseptic; it smelled too clean and hard and metallic. There was nothing soft there.

'Now if you had a wife to give you an alibi,' said the iron voice. 'But-'

“Where are you taking me?'

The car hesitated, or rather gave a faint whirring click, as if information, somewhere, was dropping card by punch- slotted card under electric eyes. 'To the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies.'

He got in. The door shut with a soft thud. The police car rolled through the night avenues, flashing its dim lights ahead.

They passed one house on one street a moment later, one house in an entire city of houses that were dark, but this one particular house had all of its electric lights brightly lit, every window a loud yellow illumination, square and warm in the cool darkness.

'That's my house,' said Leonard Mead.

No one answered him.The car moved down the empty riverbed streets and off away, leaving the empty streets with the empty sidewalks, and no sound and no motion all the rest of the chill November night.

Name:______________ Hour:_______________ Date:_______________

Summer Reading Assignment for “The Pedestrian”

I. VOCABULARY: Define the following words using context clues from the short story.

revue______________________________________________________________________

halt________________________________________________________________________

ebb________________________________________________________________________

murmur____________________________________________________________________

antiseptic___________________________________________________________________

regressive tendencies__________________________________________________________

II. LITERARY TERMS: Define each term and give an example of each from the story.

Simile________________________________________________________________________

example:________________________________________________________________

Metaphor______________________________________________________________________

example:________________________________________________________________

Setting________________________________________________________________________

What is the setting of the story?______________________________________________

Protagonist____________________________________________________________________

Who is the protagonist of this story?__________________________________________

Imagery_______________________________________________________________________

3 examples of imagery: _________________, __________________, _______________,

Theme________________________________________________________________________

What is the theme of the story?______________________________________________

III. QUESTIONS: Answer the following questions.1. What did Mr. Leonard Mead most love to do?

2. What year is the story set?

3. Why did Mr. Leonard Mead change to sneakers?

4. How do people react when they see Mr. Leonard Mead walking?

5. Who does Leonard Mead ask, “What’s up on channel 4, channel 7, channel 9?”

6. What is Mr. Leonard Mead’s attitude toward the shows on television? Provide support for your answer.

7. How many years has Leonard Mead been walking has he does?

8. How many people live in the city? How many police cars are there?

10. Where was Mead on his way to when he was stopped by the police car?

11. What is Mead’s profession?

12. Why does the voice from the police car respond “No profession”?

13. What does Mead’s profession reveal about his character and his place in society?

14. What is significant about the following simile? How does it add to the mood and/or theme?The light held him fixed, like a museum specimen, needle thrust through chest.

15. What does Mead realize about the car?

16. Where is Mr. Mead going to be brought?

17. What crime did Mr. Mead commit?

18. What commentary does Bradbury make about technology’s role in society through this story?

English II Grammar AssignmentI. For each pair of sentences, choose the one that is correct. Circle the letter of the correct sentence.

a. Although I need the money, I can't take on any more projects right now. b. Although I need the money I can't take on any more projects right now.

a. I wanted to exercise this morning, however, it was raining. b. I wanted to exercise this morning; however, it was raining.

a. Tameka wants to go to the movie and to the party. b. Tameka wants to go to the movie, and to the party.

a. I saw three giraffes, five monkeys, two gazelle, and a partridge at the zoo. b. I saw three giraffes; five monkeys, two gazelle and a partridge at the zoo.

a. The man saw the ghost, he screamed. b. The man saw the ghost; he screamed.

a. I'll go to the library tonight, or I'll wait until tomorrow. b. I'll go to the library tonight; or I'll wait until tomorrow.

a. Martin said, "don't go to the mall without me." b. Martin said, "Don't go to the mall without me."

a. I bought the items on my list: oranges, apples, tomatoes, and beets. b. I bought the items on my list; oranges, apples, tomatoes, and beets.

II. Choose the correct word to complete each sentence. Circle the correct choice and write it in the blank.

1. There (is, are) many ways to help a friend. 2. They have (gone, went) many places together. 3. Jane and Diane, who (argue, argues) constantly, are working on the project. 4. Neither the doctor nor the nurses (was, were) aware of the mistake. 5. Neither of my brothers (have, has) a date for prom. 6. I have (written, wrote) my comparison-contrast essay. 7. He (set, sat) the vase on the table. 8. (Its, It's) a rare day that we get out of class early.

III. Choose the correct word to complete each sentence.

1. I would like (to, too) see the exhibit (to, too).

2. (Your, You’re) sure that (your, you’re) arm isn't broken?

3. The winners of the contest were Jack and (he, him).

4. Mother bought candy for Teresa and (I, me).

5. (Who, Whom) will win the prize?

6. My brother is shorter than (I, me).

7. (Who, Whom) shall you marry?

8. The man (who, whom) won the award is my brother.

9. The dog (laid, lay) by his master.

Sentence 1: The old truck chugged slowly along the highway.

1. Name the adjective.

2. Name the adverb.

3. Name the preposition.

4. Name the subject.

5. Name the object of the preposition

6. What word does slowly modify?

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 Sentence 2: She gave Dan a nice gift yesterday.

7. Name the direct object.

8. Name the adverb.

9. Name the verb.

10. Name the pronoun.

11. Name the indirect object.

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