Reading comprehension

Boris Dobrev XIA №4

Find Meaning

1. (a) At the beginning of “The Fun They Had,” what does Margie write in her
diary? (b)Why does she choose to write this?
Margie writes the first sentence of a story that tells of her day. “Today Tommy
found a real book!” The date is also important because the scene is set in a distant
future where books do not exist. The girl was taken aback by the event. Therefore,
she decided to write about it in her diary. As we read further, we realize that this is
not the only different thing in the future.
2. How is the book Tommy found different from the books that Margie is used
to?
The book Tommy found ist very old. It is made out of paper. For both kids, it is
surprising to see that the words do not move like on television. Another
extraordinary thing about the old book is that it does not change. The words and
the sentences are always the same which the children find boring.
3. (a) What is the book about? (b) How is the school described in the book
different from the kind of school Margie is used to?
The book is about school but not the school of the future. It tells about the school
centuries ago. It is astonishing for the children to find out that a man was teaching
the children. In their “school” a big computer at their houses plays the role of a
teacher, who checks their homework and teaches them new things. They are also
amazed that the kids went to school together and had been taught the same thing
the same way.

Make judgments

4. (a) What does the county inspector do to Margie’s teacher? (b) How is her
“mechanical teacher” similar to a desktop computer of today?
The problem was Geography. The girl had been failing her tests when her mother
sent her with the big screen to the county inspector. The inspector disassembles the
“teacher” to fix him because he taught too complicated for a little girl. Now the
computer is exactly at her level. I would say that this “teacher” resembles the
computer which we use every day. It represents a big screen with a slot where all
the tests and homework are being turned in. We do pretty much the same thing in
our distance learning.
5. (a) What does Margie hate the most about her teacher? (b) What does
Margie like about the school described in the book?
Margie hates the fact that she has to write her homework and do her tests with a
specific punch code. Therefore, it takes her a lot of time to do it but it is extremely
easy for the teacher to assess it. Margie likes that in the schools in the past, all the
students went to school together. They could help each other with homework. She
also adores the fact that the teachers are men. It seems like a really funny
experience for her.

Compare Literature

1. Using the details you recorded, compare and contrast the settings of these
stories.
Both stories took place in a school. Both stories had a girl for the main character.
Both stories took place in the future. While at “The Fun They Had” the story is set
on a sporadic future version of the Earth on 17 May 2187, the action in the second
story takes place on the planet Venus. The first story focuses on the fact that
teaching is performed by robots, whereas the one by Ray Bradbury also includes
school but the children are taught by a real human. The emphasis is on the rain,
which on Venus lasts for seven years. Humans who have immigrated to Venus get
sun every 7 years.
2. How does each author reveal the setting using literary elements such as
figures of speech, sensory details, and dialogue?
Asimov uses the dialogue between the two kids to present the features of the future
world. The little girl’s memories add more details to the story. Through the found
book Isaac reveals the weirdness of the future world. Ray Bradbury describes the
landscape of the rainy planet to set the scene. The details are revealed through the
strong use of figures of speech. The dialogue between the children and the teacher
is also very important for the whole scene.
3. How do the details the authors use to reveal the setting in these stories affect
the mood or atmosphere?
In the story, The Fun They Had, there is a change in the mood through the story.
At first, the two kids are excited because of the found book about the school in the
past. The dialogue impresses the reader with the details about the future. When
Margie returns at home for her lessons, though, it makes the reader get worried
about the rapid changes in technology that don’t make the life funnier. In
Bradbury’s story, All Summer in a Day, the atmosphere is very sad and depressed.
The figures of speech that describe the rainy landscape on the planet express the
sadness and boredom that the characters go through. Moreover, even when the sun
rises for two hours the readers can feel the emotion of the children. The short story
shows that we belong to the Earth and no other planet can substitute our home
planet. That is why Margot is nostalgic for her home, which makes the reader feel
more attached to his planet.