The Emperor's New Clothes- Cold Read

The Emperor's New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen

Many, many years ago there was an emperor who was so terribly fond of beautiful new clothes that he spent all his money on his attire. He did not care about his soldiers, or attending the theatre, or even going for a drive in the park, unless it was to show off his new clothes. He had an outfit for every hour of the day. And just as we say, "The king is in his council chamber," his subjects used to say, "The emperor is in his clothes closet."

In the large town where the emperor's palace was, life was gay and happy; and every day

new visitors arrived. One day two swindlers came. They told everybody that they were weavers and that they could weave the most marvelous cloth. Not only were the colors and the patterns of their material extraordinarily beautiful, but the cloth had the strange quality of being invisible to anyone who was unfit for his office or unforgivably stupid.

"This is truly marvelous," thought the emperor. "Now if I had robes cut from that material, I should know which of my councilors was unfit for his office, and I would be able to pick out my clever subjects myself. They must weave some material for me!" And he gave the swindlers a lot of money so they could start working at once. They set up a loom and acted as if they were weaving, but the loom was empty. The fine silk and gold threads they demanded from the emperor they never used, but hid them in

their own knapsacks. Late into the night they would sit before their empty loom, pretending to weave.

"I would like to know how far they've come," thought the emperor; but his heart beat strangely when he remembered that those who were stupid or unfit for their office would not be able to see the material. Not that he was really worried that this would happen to him. Still, it might be better to send someone else the first time and see how he fared. Everybody in town had heard about the cloth's magic quality and most of them could hardly wait to find out how stupid or unworthy their neighbors were.

"I shall send my faithful prime minister to see the weaver," thought the emperor. "He will know how to judge the material, for he is both clever and fit for his office, if any man is."

The good-natured old man stepped into the room where the weavers were working and saw the empty loom. He closed his eyes, and opened them again. "God preserve me!" he thought. "I cannot see a thing!" But he didn't say it out loud. The swindlers asked him to step a little closer so that he could admire the intricate patterns and marvelous colors of the material they were weaving. They both pointed to the empty loom, and the poor old prime minister opened his eyes as wide as he could; but it didn't help, he still couldn't see anything.

"Am I stupid?" he thought. "I can't believe it, but if it is so, it is best no one finds out about it. But maybe I am not fit for my office. No, that is worse, I'd better not admit that I can't see what they are weaving."

"Tell us what you think of it," demanded one of the swindlers.

"It is beautiful. It is very lovely," mumbled the old prime minister, adjusting his glasses.

"What patterns! What colors! I shall tell the emperor that I am greatly pleased."

"And that pleases us," the weavers said; and now they described the patterns and told which shades of color they had used. The prime minister listened attentively, so that he could repeat their words to the emperor, and that is exactly what he did.

The two swindlers demanded more money, and more silk and gold thread. They said they had to use it for their weaving, but their loom remained as empty as ever. Soon the emperor sent another of his trusted councilors to see how the work was progressing. He looked and looked just as the prime minister had, but since there was nothing to be seen, he didn't see anything.

"Isn't it a marvelous piece of material?" asked one of the swindlers; and they both began to describe the beauty of their cloth again.

"I am not stupid," thought the emperor's councilor. "I must be unfit for my office. That is strange; but I'd better not admit it to anyone." And he started to praise the material, which he could not see, for the loveliness of its patterns and colors.

"I think it is the most charming piece of material I have ever seen," declared the councilor to the emperor.

Everyone in town was talking about the marvelous cloth that the swindlers were weaving.

At last the emperor himself decided to see it before it was removed from the loom. Attended by the most important people in the empire, among them the prime minister and the councilor who had been there before, the emperor entered the room where the weavers were weaving furiously on their empty loom.

"Isn't it magnifique?" asked the prime minister.

"Your Majesty, look at the colors and patterns," said the councilor. And the two old gentlemen pointed to the empty loom, believing that all the rest of the company could see the cloth.

"What!" thought the emperor. "I can't see a thing! Why, this is a disaster! Am I stupid? Am I unfit to be emperor? Oh, it is too horrible!" Aloud he said, "It is very lovely. It has my approval," while he nodded his head and looked at the empty loom. All the councilors, ministers, and men of great importance who had come with him stared and stared; but they saw no more than the emperor had seen, and they said the same thing that he had said, "It is lovely." And they advised him to have clothes cut and

sewn, so that he could wear them in the procession at the next great celebration.

"It is magnificent! Beautiful! Excellent!" All of their mouths agreed, though none of their eyes had seen anything. The two swindlers were decorated and given the title "Royal Knight of the Loom."

The night before the procession, the two swindlers didn't sleep at all. They had sixteen candles lighting up the room where they worked. Everyone could see how busy they were, getting the emperor's new clothes finished. They pretended to take cloth from the loom; they cut the air with their big scissors, and sewed with needles without thread. At last they announced: "The emperor's new clothes are ready!"

Together with his courtiers, the emperor came. The swindlers lifted their arms as if they were holding something in their hands, and said, "These are the trousers. This is the robe, and here is the train. They are all as light as if they were made of spider webs! It will be as if Your Majesty had almost nothing on, but that is their special virtue."

"Oh yes," breathed all the courtiers; but they saw nothing, for there was nothing to be seen.

"Will Your Imperial Majesty be so gracious as to take off your clothes?" asked the swindlers. "Over there by the big mirror, we shall help you put your new ones on."

The emperor did as he was told; and the swindlers acted as if they were dressing him in the clothes they should have made. Finally they tied around his waist the long train which two of his most noble courtiers were to carry.

The emperor stood in front of the mirror admiring the clothes he couldn't see.

"Oh, how they suit you! A perfect fit!" everyone exclaimed. "What colors! What patterns! The new clothes are magnificent!"

"The crimson canopy, under which Your Imperial Majesty is to walk, is waiting outside," said the imperial master of court ceremony.

"Well, I am dressed. Aren't my clothes becoming?" The emperor turned around once more in front of the mirror, pretending to study his finery.

The two gentlemen of the imperial bedchamber fumbled on the floor trying to find the train, which they were supposed to carry. They didn't dare admit that they didn't see anything, so they pretended to pick up the train and held their hands as if they were carrying it.

The emperor walked in the procession under his crimson canopy. And all the people of the town, who had lined the streets or were looking down from the windows, said that the emperor's new clothes were beautiful. "What a magnificent robe! And the train! How well the emperor's clothes suit him!"

None of them were willing to admit that they hadn't seen a thing; for if anyone did, then he was either stupid or unfit for the job he held. Never before had the emperor's clothes been such a success.

"But he doesn't have anything on!" cried a little child.

"Listen to the innocent one," said the proud father. And the people whispered among each other and repeated what the child had said.

"He doesn't have anything on. There's a little child who says that he has nothing on."

"He has nothing on!" shouted all the people at last.

The emperor shivered, for he was certain that they were right; but he thought, "I must bear it until the procession is over." And he walked even more proudly, and the two gentlemen of the imperial bedchamber went on carrying the train that wasn't there.

1.     What is the best meaning for the word attire in paragraph1?

a.     Dress

b.     Clothing

c.     Pants

d.     Fabric

2.     Which 2 words are synonyms for decorated as used on page 2?

a.     Honored

b.     Renovated

c.     Painted

d.     Rewarded

e.     Punished

3.     Which word could be used to replace the word light as used on page 2?

a.     Heavy

b.     Bright

c.     Beam

d.     Weightless

4.     Which word is a synonym for suit as used on page 2?

a.     Fit

b.     Group

c.     Outfit

d.     Please

e.     Litigation

5.     The word suit is used as what part of speech on page 2?

a.     Noun

b.     Verb

c.     Adjective

d.     Pronoun

e.     Personification

Charles -Cold Read

CHARLES by Shirley Jackson

      The day my son Laurie started kindergarten he renounced corduroy overalls with

bibs and began wearing blue jeans with a belt; I watched him go off the first morning with the older girl next door, seeing clearly that an era of my life was ended, my sweet-voiced nursery-school tot replaced by a long-trousered, swaggering character who forgot to stop at the corner and wave good-bye to me.

      He came running home the same way, the front door slamming open, his cap on the floor, and the voice suddenly become raucous shouting, “Isn’t anybody here?”

      At lunch he spoke insolently to his father, spilled his baby sister’s milk, and remarked that his teacher said we were not to take the name of the Lord in vain.

      “How was school today?” I asked, elaborately casual.

      “All right,” he said.

      “Did you learn anything?” his father asked.

      Laurie regarded his father coldly. “I didn’t learn nothing,” he said.

      “Anything,” I said. “Didn’t learn anything.”

      “The teacher spanked a boy, though,” Laurie said, addressing his bread and butter.

“For being fresh,” he added, with his mouth full.

      “What did he do?” I asked. “Who was it?”

      Laurie thought. “It was Charles,” he said. “He was fresh. The teacher spanked him and made him stand in the corner. He was awfully fresh.”

      “What did he do?” I asked again, but Laurie slid off his chair, took a cookie, and left, while his father was still saying, “See here, young man.”

      The next day Laurie remarked at lunch, as soon as he sat down, “Well, Charles was bad again today.” He grinned enormously and said, “Today Charles hit the teacher.”

      “Good heavens,” I said, mindful of the Lord’s name, “I suppose he got spanked again?”

      “He sure did,” Laurie said. “Look up,” he said to his father.

      “What?” his father said, looking up.

      “Look down,” Laurie said. “Look at my thumb. Gee, you’re dumb.” He began

to laugh insanely.

      “Why did Charles hit the teacher?” I asked quickly.

      “Because she tried to make him color with red crayons,” Laurie said. “Charles wanted to color with green crayons so he hit the teacher and she spanked him and said nobody play with Charles but everybody did.”

      The third day—it was a Wednesday of the first week—Charles bounced a see-saw on to the head of a little girl and made her bleed, and the teacher made him stay inside all during recess. Thursday Charles had to stand in a corner during story-time because he kept pounding his feet on the floor. Friday Charles was deprived of black-board privileges because he threw chalk.

      On Saturday I remarked to my husband, “Do you think kindergarten is too unsettling for Laurie? All this toughness and bad grammar, and this Charles boy sounds like such a bad influence.”

      “It’ll be alright,” my husband said reassuringly. “Bound to be people like Charles in the world. Might as well meet them now as later.”

      On Monday Laurie came home late, full of news. “Charles,” he shouted as he came up the hill; I was waiting anxiously on the front steps. “Charles,” Laurie yelled all the way up the hill, “Charles was bad again.”

      “Come right in,” I said, as soon as he came close enough. “Lunch is waiting.”

      “You know what Charles did?” he demanded following me through the door.

      “Charles yelled so in school they sent a boy in from first grade to tell the teacher she had to make Charles keep quiet, and so Charles had to stay after school. And so all the children stayed to watch him.

      “What did he do?” I asked.

      “He just sat there,” Laurie said, climbing into his chair at the table. “Hi, Pop, y’old dust mop.”

      “Charles had to stay after school today,” I told my husband. “Everyone stayed with him.”

      “What does this Charles look like?” my husband asked Laurie. “What’s his other name?”

      “He’s bigger than me,” Laurie said. “And he doesn’t have any ¹rubbers and he doesn’t wear a jacket.”

      Monday night was the first Parent-Teachers meeting, and only the fact that the baby had a cold kept me from going; I wanted passionately to meet Charles’s mother. On Tuesday Laurie remarked suddenly, “Our teacher had a friend come to see her in school today.”

      “Charles’s mother?” my husband and I asked simultaneously.

      “Naaah,” Laurie said scornfully. “It was a man who came and made us do exercises, we had to touch our toes. Look.” He climbed down from his chair and squatted down and touched his toes. “Like this,” he said. He got solemnly back into his chair and said, picking up his fork, “Charles didn’t even do exercises.”

      “That’s fine,” I said heartily. “Didn’t Charles want to do exercises?”

      “Naaah,” Laurie said. “Charles was so fresh to the teacher’s friend he wasn’t let do exercises.”

      “Fresh again?” I said.

      “He kicked the teacher’s friend,” Laurie said. “The teacher’s friend just told Charles to touch his toes like I just did and Charles kicked him.

      “What are they going to do about Charles, do you suppose?” Laurie’s father asked him.

      Laurie shrugged elaborately. “Throw him out of school, I guess,” he said.

      Wednesday and Thursday were routine; Charles yelled during story hour and hit a boy in the stomach and made him cry. On Friday Charles stayed after school again and so did all the other children.

      With the third week of kindergarten Charles was an institution in our family; the baby was being a Charles when she cried all afternoon; Laurie did a Charles when he filled his wagon full of mud and pulled it through the kitchen; even my husband, when he caught his elbow in the telephone cord and pulled the telephone and a bowl of flowers off the table, said, after the first minute, “Looks like Charles.”

      During the third and fourth weeks it looked like a reformation in Charles; Laurie reported grimly at lunch on Thursday of the third week, “Charles was so good today the teacher gave him an apple.”

      “What?” I said, and my husband added warily, “You mean Charles?”

      “Charles,” Laurie said. “He gave the crayons around and he picked up the books afterward and the teacher said he was her helper.”

      “What happened?” I asked incredulously.

      “He was her helper, that’s all,” Laurie said, and shrugged.

      “Can this be true about Charles?” I asked my husband that night. “Can something like this happen?”

      “Wait and see,” my husband said cynically. “When you’ve got a Charles to deal with, this may mean he’s only plotting.” He seemed to be wrong. For over a week Charles was the teacher’s helper; each day he handed things out and he picked things up; no one had to stay after school.

      “The PTA meeting’s next week again,” I told my husband one evening. “I’m going to find Charles’s mother there.”

      “Ask her what happened to Charles,” my husband said. “I’d like to know.”

      “I’d like to know myself,” I said.

      On Friday of that week things were back to normal. “You know what Charles did today?” Laurie demanded at the lunch table, in a voice slightly awed. “He told a little girl to say a word and she said it and the teacher washed her mouth out with soap and Charles laughed.”

      “What word?” his father asked unwisely, and Laurie said, “I’ll have to whisper it to you, it’s so bad.” He got down off his chair and went around to his father. His father bent his head down and Laurie whispered joyfully. His father’s eyes widened.

      “Did Charles tell the little girl to say that?” he asked respectfully.

      “She said it twice,” Laurie said. “Charles told her to say it twice.”

      “What happened to Charles?” my husband asked.

      “Nothing,” Laurie said. “He was passing out the crayons.”

      Monday morning Charles abandoned the little girl and said the evil word himself three or four times, getting his mouth washed out with soap each time. He also threw chalk.

      My husband came to the door with me that evening as I set out for the PTA meeting. “Invite her over for a cup of tea after the meeting,” he said. “I want to get a look at her.”

      “If only she’s there.” I said prayerfully.

      “She’ll be there,” my husband said. “I don’t see how they could hold a PTA meeting without Charles’s mother.”

      At the meeting I sat restlessly, scanning each comfortable matronly face, trying to determine which one hid the secret of Charles. None of them looked to me haggard enough. No one stood up in the meeting and apologized for the way her son had been acting. No one mentioned Charles.

      After the meeting I identified and sought out Laurie’s kindergarten teacher. She had a plate with a cup of tea and a piece of chocolate cake; I had a plate with a cup of tea and a piece of marshmallow cake. We maneuvered up to one another cautiously, and smiled.

      “I’ve been so anxious to meet you,” I said. “I’m Laurie’s mother.”

      “We’re all so interested in Laurie,” she said.

      “Well, he certainly likes kindergarten,” I said. “He talks about it all the time.”

      “We had a little trouble adjusting, the first week or so,” she said primly, “but now he’s a fine helper. With occasional lapses, of course.”

      “Laurie usually adjusts very quickly,” I said. “I suppose this time it’s Charles’s influence.”

      “Charles?”

      “Yes,” I said, laughing, “you must have your hands full in that kindergarten, with

Charles.”

      “Charles?” she said. “We don’t have any Charles in the kindergarten.”

 

1.     Which two words are synonyms of renounced as it is used in paragraph 1?

        a. accepted

              b. maintained

              c. surrendered

              d. embraced

              e. assert

              f.  refused

              g. claim

              h. rejected

2.     What does the root word “cred” mean in the word incredulously?

a.     Not

b.     Again

c.     Back

d.     Believe

3.     Select the words that use the prefix  “in-“ in the same way that it is used in the word insolently.

a.     Innocently

b.     Incredulously

c.     Insufficient

d.     Inappropriate

4.     In this paragraph, which words or phrases help define the word matronly?

“At the meeting I sat restlessly, scanning each comfortable matronly face, trying to determine which one hid the secret of Charles. None of them looked to me haggard enough. No one stood up in the meeting and apologized for the way her son had been acting. No one mentioned Charles.”

a.     I sat restlessly

b.     Her son

c.     Face

d.     Haggard

5.     What is the meaning of deprived as it is used in this sentence?

a.     denied

b.     completely

c.     given

d.     allowed

6.     Select the sentences that use the word fresh in the same way as it is used in these sentences.

Laurie thought. “It was Charles,” he said. “He was fresh. The teacher spanked him and made him stand in the corner. He was awfully fresh.”

a.     “Naaah,” Laurie said. “Charles was so fresh to the teacher’s friend he wasn’t let do exercises.”

b.     She purchased a pack of gum for fresh breath.

c.     The boy was happy with the comments on his new shoes; the students said they were “fresh.”

d.     I need to eat more fresh vegetables for my diet.

e.     The girl got her mouth washed out with soap because she had a fresh mouth.

7.     What is the main conflict in this passage?

a.     Laurie is lying about his behavior in school.

b.     Charles’ parents cannot control their misbehaving son.

c.     Laurie’s parents are judgemental of Charles.

d.     Charles kicked the teacher’s friend.

8.     How does the author show that Laurie’s parent views Charlie as a “problem child”?

a.     “All this toughness and bad grammar, and this Charles boy sounds like such a bad influence.”

b.     “Monday morning Charles abandoned the little girl and said the evil word himself three or four times…”

c.     “He told a little girl to say a word and she said it and the teacher washed her mouth out with soap and Charles laughed.”

d.     “After the meeting I identified and sought out Laurie’s kindergarten teacher.”

9.     Which sentences show that Laurie is not a “perfect” child?

a.     “What did he do?” I asked again, but Laurie slid off his chair, took a cookie, and left, while his father was still saying, “See here, young man.”

b.     “Monday morning Charles abandoned the little girl and said the evil word himself three or four times,”

c.     “He just sat there,” Laurie said, climbing into his chair at the table. “Hi, Pop, y’old dust mop.”

d.     “After the meeting I identified and sought out Laurie’s kindergarten teacher.”

10.  Select the phrases/skills the author uses to create a sense of humor in the passage?

a.     “He just sat there,” Laurie said, climbing into his chair at the table. “Hi, Pop, y’old dust mop.”

b.     “Look down,” Laurie said. “Look at my thumb. Gee, you’re dumb.” He began to laugh insanely.

c.     Personification

d.     Irony

11.  Why does the main character say, “…and so Charles had to stay after school. And so all the children stayed to watch him”?

a.     To explain why the others are coming home late from school.

b.     To keep his parents from finding out he has been misbehaving

c.     To tell what happened to Charles.

d.     To tell what happened to the little girl.

12.  In the metaphor in this story, which two items are being compared?

“…the baby was being a Charles when she cried all afternoon;”

a.     The teacher and the baby

b.     Charles and the baby

c.     Laurie’s father and the baby

d.     Laurie’s mother and the baby

13.  The purpose of the metaphor …”the baby was being a Charles when she cried all afternoon;” is to emphasize

a.     How the family joked about how poorly behaved Charles was

b.     To make fun of Laurie

c.     To make fun of the mom

d.     To tease the father

SRI LInk

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