PaginePaginepagineapp.comRead the story. Then answer using details from the text.
In the window of the antique shop sat a clockwork bird in a gilded cage. When wound, it sang a song no living bird had ever sung — a strange, mechanical warble that somehow made people stop on the sidewalk.
The shopkeeper refused every offer to buy it. "It’s not for sale," he said, again and again, until the town decided he was simply stubborn.
After he died, his granddaughter found his notebook. Fifty years earlier, his wife had been a singer who lost her voice to illness. He had spent three years building the bird from a recording of her last performance, adjusting every gear until it matched the tune she sang to him on their wedding night.
The granddaughter wound the bird once. Then she placed it back in the window, with a new sign: "Not for sale. Listen as long as you like."
Worksheets › Grade 12 English › Reading Literature › Reading Literature
Free Grade 12 English worksheet (Common Core RL.11-12.1): read "The Clockwork Bird" and answer questions about key details, characters and theme. Skill: Key ideas and details in literature. Level: Grade 12 — also suits Year 13 (UK).
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It is designed for Grade 12 (ages 17–18), but use it with any child who is ready.
Key ideas and details in literature.
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All 5 reading literature sheets → · Grade 12 English: all 10 skills → · All Common Core grades
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