📖 Reading Literature: Translation (Grade 10)

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Read the story. Then answer using details from the text.

Translation

My grandmother has a word in her language for the smell of rain on dry earth. My English teacher says there’s a word for it in English too — petrichor — but nobody I know has ever said it out loud.

Grandma’s word, she tells me, also means "the moment you know you are home." When she says it, she closes her eyes.

I am trying to write a poem about her for class. Every English word I choose is the wrong size: too small, or shaped like something else. Love is too big and too worn out. Home is a building. Rain is just weather.

In the end I turn in a poem that is only one line long. It is her word, untranslated, followed by my name. My teacher writes in the margin: "I don’t know what this means. I think that’s the point."

1. What does the grandmother’s word mean?

2. Why does the narrator struggle to write the poem?

3. What does the narrator turn in?

4. What does the teacher’s comment suggest?

Theme: State the theme and explain how it develops over the text.

Answer key: 1) the smell of rain on dry earth; also the moment you know you are home · 2) English words don’t capture the exact meaning or feeling · 3) a one-line poem: her grandmother’s untranslated word and her own name · 4) some meanings can’t be translated and the poem shows that · Theme: Language carries culture and feeling that cannot always be translated.

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Worksheets › Grade 10 English › Reading Literature › Reading Literature

Grade 10 (ages 15–16)Reading comprehensionFree printable PDF

About this grade 10 worksheet

Free Grade 10 English worksheet (Common Core RL.9-10.1): read "Translation" and answer questions about key details, characters and theme. Skill: Key ideas and details in literature. Level: Grade 10 — also suits Year 11 (UK).

For teachers: skills & standards

CCSS RL.9-10.1: Key ideas and details in literature
CCSS RL.9-10.2: Key ideas and details in literature
CCSS RL.9-10.3: Key ideas and details in literature
Works as a morning-work page, a centre/station activity, homework or an early-finisher task.

Frequently asked questions

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What age is it for?

It is designed for Grade 10 (ages 15–16), but use it with any child who is ready.

What skills does it build?

Key ideas and details in literature.

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More “Reading Literature” printables (rl.9-10.1–3: key ideas and details in literature)

Reading Literature: The Road Not Taken (Grade 10) · Reading Literature: The Fixer (Grade 10) · Reading Literature: Afterglow (Grade 10) · Reading Literature: The Archivist (Grade 10)

All 5 reading literature sheets → · Grade 10 English: all 10 skills → · All Common Core grades

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