South pole adventurer
FOR a few weeks in January 1912, Antarctica was full of explorers. Norwegian Roald Amundsen had reached the South Pole on 14 December and was speeding back to the coast. On 17 January, Robert Scott and the men of the British Antarctic expedition had arrived at the pole to find they had been beaten to it. Just then, a third man arrived; Japanese explorer Nobu Shirase. However, his part in one of the greatest adventure stories of the 20th century is hardly known outside his own country, even by fellow explorers. Yet as Scott was nearing the pole and with the rest of the world still unaware of Amundsen’s triumph, Shirase and his team sailed into Antarctica’s Bay of Whales in the smallest ship ever to try its luck in these dangerous waters.
Since boyhood Shirase had dreamed of becoming a polar explorer. Like Amundsen, he initially set his sights on the North Pole. But after the American Robert Peary claimed to have reached it in 1909, both men hastily altered their plans. Instead they would aim for the last big prize: the South Pole. In January 1910, Shirase put his plans before Japanese government officials, promising to raise the flag at the South Pole within three years. For many of them, the question wasn’t could he do it but why would it be worth doing? 15 years earlier the International Geographical Congress had said that as the last unknown continent the Antarctic offered the chance to add to knowledge in almost every branch of science. So, like the British, Shirase presented his expedition as a search for knowledge: he would bring back fossils, make meteorological measurements and explore unknown parts of the continent.
The response from the government was cool, however, and Shirase struggled to raise funds. Fortunately, a few months later, Japan’s former prime minister Shigenobu □kuma came to Shirase’s rescue. With □kuma’s backing, Shirase got together just enough money to buy and equip a small ship. He eventually acquired a scientist, too, called Terutaro Takeda. At the end of November 1910, his ship the Kainan Maru finally left Tokyo with 27 men and 28 Siberian dogs on board. Before leaving, Shirase confidently outlined his plans to the media. He would sail to New Zealand, then reach Antarctica in February, during the southern summer, and then proceed to the pole the following spring. This was not to be, however. Bad weather delayed the expedition and they didn’t reach New Zealand until 8 February; Amundsen and Scott had already been in Antarctica for a month, preparing for winter. In New Zealand local reporters were astonished: the ship was half the size of Amundsen’s ship. True, it was reinforced with iron plate and extra wood, but the ship had only the feeblest engine to help force its way through ice. Few doubted Shirase’s courage, but most reckoned the expedition to be ill- prepared as the Japanese had only lightweight sledges for transport across the ice, made of bamboo and wood.
But Shirase’s biggest challenge was time. Antarctica is only accessible by sea for a few weeks in summer and expeditions usually aimed to arrive in January or February. ‘Even with their determination and daring, our Japanese friends are running it rather fine,’ wrote local reporters. Nevertheless, on 11 February the Kainan Maru left New Zealand and sailed straight into the worst weather the captain had ever seen. Then, on 6 March, they approached the coastline of Antarctica’s Ross Sea, looking for a place to land. The ice began to close in, threatening to trap them for the winter, an experience no one was likely to survive. With a remarkable piece of seamanship, the captain steered the ship out of the ice and turned north. They would have to wait out the winter in a warmer climate.
A year later than planned, Shirase and six men finally reached Antarctica. Catching up with Scott or Amundsen was out of the question and he had said he would stick to science this time. Yet Shirase still felt the pull of the pole and eventually decided he would head southward to experience the thrills and hardships of polar exploration he had always dreamed of. With provisions for 20 days, he and four men would see how far they could get.
Shirase set off on 20 January 1912 with Takeda and two dog handlers, leaving two men at the edge of the ice shelf to make meteorological measurements. For a week they struggled through one blizzard after another, holing up in their tents during the worst of the weather. The temperature fell to -25°C, and frostbite claimed some of the dogs. On 26 January, Shirase estimated there were enough provisions to continue for two more days. Two days later, he announced it was time to turn back. Takeda calculated they had reached 80° 5 south and had travelled 250 kilometres. The men hoisted the Japanese flag.
On 3 February, all the men were heading home. The ship reached Tokyo in June 1912 – and Shirase was greeted like a hero despite the fact that he never reached the pole. Nor did he contribute much to science – but then nor did Amundsen, whose only interest was in being first to the pole. Yet Shirase’s expedition was heroic. They travelled beyond 80° south, one of only four teams to have gone so far south at the time. Furthermore, they did it all without the advantages of the other teams and with no previous experience.
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1 ?
In boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
1. Shirase’s trip to the South Pole is well-known to other explorers.
2. Since Shirase arrived in Antarctica, smaller ships have also made the journey.
3. Shirase’s original ambition was to travel to the North Pole.
4. Some Japanese officials thought Shirase’s intention to travel to the South Pole was pointless.
5. The British team announced their decision to carry out scientific research in Antarctica before Shirase.
6. Shirase found it easy to raise the money he needed for his trip to the South Pole.
7. A previous prime minister of Japan persuaded a scientist to go with Shirase.
8. The weather that slowed down Shirase’s progress to New Zealand was unusually bad for the season.
Choose the correct letter; A, B, C or D.
9. When reporters in New Zealand met Shirase, they were
A. concerned about the quality of his equipment.
B. impressed with the design of his ship.
C. certain he was unaware of the dangers ahead.
D. surprised by the bravery he demonstrated.
10. What are we told about the captain of the Kainan Maru in the fifth paragraph?
A. He had given Shirase some poor advice.
B. His skill at sailing saved the boat and crew.
C. He refused to listen to the warnings of others.
D. He was originally confident they could reach Antarctica.
11. After Shirase finally reached Antarctica he realised that
A. he was unsure of the direction he should follow.
B. he would have to give up on fulfilling his personal ambition.
C. he might not have enough food to get to the South Pole.
D. he still wanted to compete in the race against the other teams.
12. What is the writer doing in the seventh paragraph?
A. criticising a decision concerning scientific research.
B. explaining why a particular mistake had occurred.
C. describing the conditions that the expedition faced.
D. rejecting the idea that Shirase was poorly prepared.
13. What is the writer’s main point in the final paragraph?
A. Considering the problems Shirase had to deal with, his achievement was incredible.
B. In Japan, the reaction to Shirase’s adventure in Antarctica came as a surprise to him.
C. It was obvious that Amundsen would receive more attention as an explorer than Shirase.
D. Shirase had achieved more on the Antarctic expedition than even he had expected.
The rise of agribots
The next time you stand at the supermarket checkout, spare a thought for the farmers who helped fill your shopping basket as life is hard for them right now. This, in turn, inevitably means bigger grocery bills for consumers, and greater hardship for the millions in countries where food shortages are a matter of life and death. Worse, studies suggest that the world will need twice as much food by 2050. Yet while farmers must squeeze more out of the land, they must also address the necessity of reducing their impact on the soil, waterways and atmosphere. All this means rethinking how agriculture is practiced, and taking automation to a whole new level. On the new model farms of the future, precision will be key. Why dose a whole field with chemicals if you can spray only where they are needed? Each plant could get exactly the right amount of everything, no more or less, an approach that could slash chemical use and improve yields in one move. But this is easier said than done; the largest farms in Europe and the U.S. can cover thousands of acres. That’s why automation is key to precision farming. Specifically, say agricultural engineers, precision farming needs robot farmers.
One day, we might see fields with ‘agribots’ (agricultural robots) that can identify individual seedlings and encourage them along with drops of fertilizer. Other machines would distinguish problem weeds from crops and eliminate them with shots from high-power lasers or a microdot of pesticide. These machines will also be able to identify and harvest all kinds of vegetables. More than a century of mechanization has already turned farming into an industrial-scale activity in much of the world, with farms that grow cereals being the most heavily automated.
But a variety of other crops, including oranges and tomatoes destined to become processed foods, are also picked mechanically, albeit to a slightly lesser extent. Yet the next wave of autonomous farm machinery is already at work. You probably haven’t even noticed, for these robots are disguised as tractors. Many are self-steering, use GPS to cross a field, and can even ‘talk’ to their implements – a plough or sprayer, for example. And the implements can talk back, telling the tractor that it’s going too fast or needs to move to the left. This kind of communication is also being developed in other farm vehicles. A new system allows a combine harvester, say, to send a call over to a tractor- trailer so the driver can unload the grain as and when necessary.
However, when fully autonomous systems take to the field, they’ll look nothing like tractors. With their enormous size and weight, today’s farm machines have significant downsides: they compact the soil, reducing porosity and killing beneficial life, meaning crops don’t grow so well. Simon Blackmore, who researches agricultural technology at Harper Adams University College in England believes that fleets of lightweight autonomous robots have the potential to solve this problem and that replacing brute force with precision is key. ‘A seed only needs one cubic centimeter of soil to grow. If we cultivate just that we only put tiny amounts of energy in and the plants still grow nicely.’ There is another reason why automation may be the way forward according to Eldert van Henten, a robotics researcher at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. ‘While the population is growing and needs to be fed, a rapidly shrinking number of people are willing to work in agriculture,’ he points out. Other researchers such as Linda Calvin, an economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Philip Martin at the University of California, Davis, have studied trends in mechanization to predict how US farms might fare. Calvin and Martin have observed how rising employment costs have led to the adoption of labour-saving farm technology in the past, citing the raisin industry as an example. In 2000, a bumper harvest crashed prices and, with profits squeezed, farmers looked for a solution. With labour one of their biggest costs – 42 percent of production expenses on U.S. farms, on average – they started using a mechanical harvester adapted from a machine used by wine makers. By 2007, almost half of California’s raisins were mechanically harvested and a labour force once numbering 50,000 had shrunk to 30,000.
As well as having an impact on the job market, the widespread adoption of agribots might bring changes at the supermarket. Lewis Holloway, who studies agriculture at the University of Hull, UK, says that robotic milking is likely to influence the genetics of dairy herds as farmers opt for ‘robot-friendly’ cows, with udder shape, and even attitudes, suited to automated milking. Similarly, he says, it’s conceivable that agribots could influence what fruit or vegetable varieties get to the shops, since farmers may prefer to grow those with, say, leaf shapes that are easier for their robots to discriminate from weeds. Almost inevitably, these machines will eventually alter the landscape, too. The real tipping point for robot agriculture will come when farms are being designed with agribots in mind, says Salah Sukkarieh, a robotics researcher at the Australian Center for Field Robotics, Sydney. This could mean a return to smaller fields, with crops planted in grids rather than rows and fruit trees pruned into two-dimensional shapes to make harvesting easier. This alien terrain tended by robots is still a while away, he says ‘but it will happen.’
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 2? In boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
14. Governments should do more to ensure that food is generally affordable.
15. Farmers need to reduce the harm they do to the environment.
16. In the future, farmers are likely to increase their dependency on chemicals.
17. Farms in Europe and the US may find it hard to adapt to precision farming.
Complete the sentences below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
18. In the future, agribots will provide………………………….to young plants.
19. Some machines will use chemicals or……………………………..to get rid of unwanted plants.
20. It is the production of………………………………which currently uses most machinery on farms.
21. ……………………………….between machines such as tractors is making farming more efficient.
Look at the following researchers (Questions 22-26) and the list of statements below. Match each researcher with the correct statement, A-H.
22. Simon Blackmore
23. Eldert van Henten
24. Linda Calvin and Philip Martin
25. Lewis Holloway
26. Salah Sukkarieh
List of Findings
A. The use of automation might impact on the development of particular animal and plant species.
B. We need to consider the effect on employment that increased automation will have.
C. We need machines of the future to be exact, not more powerful.
D. As farming becomes more automated the appearance of farmland will change.
E. New machinery may require more investment than certain farmers can afford.
F. There is a shortage of employees in the farming industry.
G. There are limits to the environmental benefits of automation.
H. Economic factors are often the driving force behind the development of machinery.
Homer’s Literary Legacy
A Until the last tick of history’s clock, cultural transmission meant oral transmission and poetry, passed from mouth to ear, was the principal medium of moving information across space and from one generation to the next. Oral poetry was not simply a way of telling lovely or important stories, or of flexing the imagination. It was, argues the classicist Eric Havelock, a “massive repository of useful knowledge, a sort of encyclopedia of ethics, politics, history and technology which the effective citizen was required to learn as the core of his educational equipment”. The great oral works transmitted a shared cultural heritage, held in common not on bookshelves, but in brains. In India, an entire class of priests was charged with memorizing the Vedas with perfect fidelity. In pre-lslamic Arabia, people known as Rawis were often attached to poets as official memorizers.The Buddha’s teachings were passed down in an unbroken chain of oral tradition for four centuries until they were committed to writing in Sri Lanka in the first century B.C.
B The most famous of the Western tradition’s oral works, and the first to have been systematically studied, were Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad. These two poems – possibly the first to have been written down in the Greek alphabet – had long been held up as literary archetypes. However, even as they were celebrated as the models to which all literature should aspire, Homer’s masterworks had also long been the source of scholarly unease. The earliest modern critics sensed that they were somehow qualitatively different from everything that came after – even a little strange. For one thing, both poems were oddly repetitive in the way they referred to characters. Odysseus was always “clever Odysseus”. Dawn was always “rosy-fingered”. Why would someone write that? Sometimes the epithets seemed completely off-key. Why call the murderer of Agamemnon “blameless Aegisthos”? Why refer to “swift-footed Achilles” even when he was sitting down? Or to “laughing Aphrodite” even when she was in tears? In terms of both structure and theme, the Odyssey and Iliad were also oddly formulaic, to the point of predictability. The same narrative units – gathering armies, heroic shields, challenges between rivals – pop up again and again, only with different characters and different circumstances. In the context of such finely spun, deliberate masterpieces, these quirks* seemed hard to explain.
C At the heart of the unease about these earliest works of literature were two fundamental questions: first, how could Greek literature have been born ex nihilo* with two masterpieces? Surely a few less perfect stories must have come before, and yet these two were among the first on record. And second, who exactly was their author? Or was it authors? There were no historical records of Homer, and no trustworthy biography of the man exists beyond a few self-referential hints embedded in the texts themselves.
D Jean-Jacques Rousseau was one of the first modern critics to suggest that Homer might not have been an author in the contemporary sense of a single person who sat down and wrote a story and then published it for others to read. In his 1781 Essay on the Origin of Languages, the Swiss philosopher suggested that the Odyssey and Iliad might have been “written only in men’s memories. Somewhat later they were laboriously collected in writing”- though that was about as far as his enquiry into the matter went.
E In 1795, the German philologist Friedrich August Wolf argued for the first time that not only were Homer’s works not written down by Homer, but they weren’t even by Homer. They were, rather, a loose collection of songs transmitted by generations of Greek bards*, and only redacted* in their present form at some later date. In 1920, an eighteen-year-old scholar named Milman Parry took up the question of Homeric authorship as his Master’s thesis at the University of California, Berkeley. He suggested that the reason Homer’s epics seemed unlike other literature was because they were unlike other literature. Parry had discovered what Wood and Wolf had missed: the evidence that the poems had been transmitted orally was right there in the text itself. All those stylistic quirks, including the formulaic and recurring plot elements and the bizarrely repetitive epithets -“clever Odysseus”and “gray-eyed Athena”- that had always perplexed readers were actually like thumbprints left by a potter: material evidence of how the poems had been crafted. They were mnemonic* aids that helped the bard(s) fit the meter and pattern of the line, and remember the essence of the poems.
F The greatest author of antiquity was actually, Parry argued, just “one of a long tradition of oral poets that… composed wholly without the aid of writing”. Parry realised that if you were setting out to create memorable poems, the Odyssey and the Iliad were exactly the kind of poems you’d create. It’s said that cliches* are the worst sin a writer can commit, but to an oral bard, they were essential. The very reason that cliches so easily seep into our speech and writing – their insidious memorability – is exactly why they played such an important role in oral storytelling.The principles that the oral bards discovered as they sharpened their stories through telling and retelling were the same mnemonic principles that psychologists rediscovered when they began conducting their first scientific experiments on memory around the turn of the twentieth century. Words that rhyme are much more memorable than words that don’t, and concrete nouns are easier to remember than abstract ones. Finding patterns and structure in information is how our brains extract meaning from the world, and putting words to music and rhyme is a way of adding extra levels of pattern and structure to language.
Reading Passage 3 has six paragraphs, A-F.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
27. the claim that the Odyssey and Iliad were not poems in their original form.
28. a theory involving the reinterpretation of the term ‘author’
29. references to the fact that little is known about Homer’s life
30. a comparison between the construction of Homer’s poems and another art form
31. examples of the kinds of people employed to recall language
32. doubts regarding Homer’s apparently inappropriate descriptions
Questions 33 and 34
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Which TWO of these points are made by the writer of the text about the Odyssey and the Iliad?
A. They are sometimes historically inaccurate.
B. It is uncertain which century they were written in.
C. Their content is very similar.
D. Later writers referred to them as ideal examples of writing.
E. There are stylistic differences between them.
Questions 35 and 36
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Which TWO of the following theories does the writer of the text refer to?
A. Homer wrote his work during a period of captivity.
B. Neither the Odyssey nor the Iliad were written by Homer.
C. Homer created the Odyssey and Iliad without writing them down.
D. Homer may have suffered from a failing memory in later life.
E. The oral and written versions of Homer’s work may not be identical.
Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
The importance of the spoken word and how words are remembered
Spoken poetry was once the means by which each (37)……………………………….. of a particular culture or community could pass on its knowledge. Indeed, it has been suggested that it was the duty of a (38)………………………… to know poetry so they would be informed about subjects such as politics and history.
Psychologists now know that when people are trying to remember information, they may find it difficult to remember words that express (39)……………………………… ideas. It is easier to remember words which sound similar or go together with (40)………………………………


All of these are written as group strategies, but may be adapted for individual work.
Challenging Vocabulary Challenge!
A Great Game after a test or at the end of a grading period.
Object: To win points for your team by creating definitions for little known words and fooling the other team into believing your definition is the correct one.
Materials: Vocabulary Strips, blank strips
- Prepare individual vocabulary strips of little known words and their definitions from the dictionary appropriate for the grade level. I.e. loquacious - full of excessive talk : WORDY’ There will need to be enough words for 3 complete rounds or 6 words per # of teams
- Cut 20 blank paper strips the same size as the one with the word on it.
- Fold all strips in half keeping the vocabulary strips separate from the blank ones.
- Create teams of 4-5 and have them select a team spokesperson. (Teams may select names or just be Team 1, Team 2, etc. )Two teams will play against each other each round. The team that wins plays the new team.
- Determine which team will go first by some method such as ‘Pick a number between 1 & 20 and the closest goes first.”
- Each round will consist of 6+ word definitions.((your discretion but needs to be an even number)
- The winner of each word definition will receive 10 points. The winning team of Each round plays the new team. Scoring begins at ‘0’ with each round.
- For each round:
- To the team presenting the word definition, hand out the folded strips- one with a word definition and the others are blank.
- Announce the word to the whole group.
- Give the presenting team members 1 minute to come up with their ‘dummy definitions’.
- When told to begin, the presenting team members will each present their definition of the word.
- The opposing team members will be given 30 seconds to decide on which definition is the correct one.
- The team’s spokesperson will announce the group’s choice.
- If it is the correct one, the team receives the 10 points. If it is incorrect, the presenting team receives the 10 points.
- Play now goes to the other team
- The winning team plays the new team.
***** If there is enough time, play can continue until all the teams have played each other.
Strategy #2: Vocabulary Drawn from Literature/Quotes/Content
Using the example below, create an activity or strategy in which challenging or enriched vocabulary is drawn from literature or other written material. As a group, demonstrate/share with the class the strategy you have created and the intended grade level for the strategy.
“The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny, and they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably (in-EX-trick-uh-blee) tied to our freedom. This offense we share, mounted to storm the battlements of injustice, must be carried forth by a biracial army. We cannot walk alone.”
Literature Lessons for Self-Discipline
Classic Literature Resources - a variety of books, websites with audio and lesson plans, activities, etc.
Strategy #3: Word Wall
Your group will work together to create an example/prototype of a word wall which includes enriched vocabulary. You will describe/show what your word wall would look like, and the process by which it is built (how the words are chosen and the procedure by which they end up on the wall):
1. Please include the sources from which your vocabulary may be drawn.
2. Please describe what your word wall may look like.
3. Please explain the procedure by which the words are learned & placed on the wall.
4. Please inform the class the intended grade level for your word wall.
Be prepared for your group to demonstrate/share with the class the strategy you have created and the intended grade level for the strategy.
Resource: Great Expectations Word Wall - multiple ideas and strategies
Strategy #4: Use of Correct Terminology
As you facilitate learning, it is important to avoid diluting the words you use in your dialogue with students. Here are some examples:
|Today we will begin a study of plants.||Today we will begin a study of horticulture.|
Strategy #5: Word Day
Celebrate words with a “WORD DAY”. Everyone selects and dresses up to symbolize the meaning of a word they have selected. Approval by teacher is required.
- Have paper and yarn/string for making Word - definition cards for everyone to wear.
- When possible, include all staff i.e. cafeteria workers, maintenance, etc.
- Have the students write the Word, syllabication, and pronunciation along with definitions on the card. Add synonyms, antonyms, etc. if desired.
- Tie in with curriculum requiring the words to be from what the specific area of study - science, math, etc.
- Have them classify themselves into groups such as the ones listed below. In a class have them stand if they meet the criteria. Let other students check and decide if the criteria is met. Encourage the students to create other groups.
- parts of speech
- words with at least one long vowel or short vowel, etc.
- words that can be more than one part of speech i.e. rain, jump, level, etc.
- words that can have a suffix or prefix added
- words that have ____# of syllables
- words that contain other smaller words.
- For lower grade levels, have the students get in a line and put themselves in alphabetical order. (without talking)
- Students can have their words cards turned so no one can see the word. Others may ask yes/no questions to try to guess what the word is based on the dress of the student.
- Variation: Have each student carry around a blank sheet and pencil. While doing a mill-to-music, students walk around and ask yes/no questions to each other trying to figure out the word represented. At a signal they write their guess for the word on that student’s paper along with their name and then go to another person. After a period of time stop to see if anyone has correctly guessed any of the words.
- Lead a discussion of what types of questions can be asked to gain the most information. See Question Resources below:
- Socratic Questioning Resource - Includes:
- An explanation of Socratic questioning
- A printable sheet of Socratic Question stems
- A Mini booklet of questions stems
- A foldable paper cube with Socratic question stems
- Instructions for 4 Classroom Learning Strategies.
- Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy Question Resources - Includes:
- A printable sheet of Bloom’s Questions stems
- A foldable mini booklet with Bloom’s Question stems
- Directions on how to make the booklet
- A foldable cube with Bloom’s Question stems
- Instructions for 4 classroom learning strategies using these Bloom’s tools.
- Six Question Learning Strategies
- Six Question Cube - Question Cube with the six basic questions, Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How
- Six Questions Stems Sheet
- Sign Language for Question Stems - Add a nonverbal component using official sign language
- Six Questions Stems Mini Booklet
- Mini Booklet Directions - How-to instructions for making the booklet
- Music Videos for Practice 5 and Question Stems Songs - Includes some songs in Spanish
- Sign Language for 6 Question Stems - Add a nonverbal component using official sign language
- Music Videos for Practice 5 and Question Stems Songs - Includes some songs in Spanish
- Socratic Questioning Resource - Includes:
- MIss Alaineus by Debra Frasier - 11:12 min. video and Lesson Plan: Learning to Learn with Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster ...Debra Frasier website about MIss Alaineus
- HOST A VOCABULARY PARADE! - Debra Frasier - Complete plans for a vocabulary parade
Strategy #6: Word Games
Word games can be interesting and fun way to build vocabulary. Some traditional word games include Hangman, Boggle, Scrabble, Pictionary, Match Game, and crossword puzzles, just to name a few. These games can be structured and/or modified to be used with various content areas, such as learning academic vocabulary terms.
Your group will describe/demonstrate a word game that you propose can be used to build vocabulary. Games may be designed for any grade level. Please explain how it might be used across curriculum areas. (How would you use that activity in science? Math? Etc. ) Please tell us the intended grade level for your strategy.
- Alphabet Math Game - a great vocabulary game that encourages creating your own word puzzles and practicing math skills at the same time.
- Mind Games - Resource for a wide variety of online word games
- Word Puzzles - 4 Online Resources with hundreds of puzzles
- Stories with Holes by Nathan Levy - The famous logic stories that make kids and adults think! Each book contains new stories for children ages 7-77. Stimulate pupil critical and creative thinking skills.
- STORIES WITH HOLES - A sampling of stories with holes - There are other similar resources online.
Strategy #7: Morphological Connection
A morpheme is defined as a meaningful language unit consisting of a word, such as man, or a word element, such as –ed in walked, that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts. Morphology, the study of the patterns of word formation and combination of morphemes, is highly beneficial to students in their development of an enriched vocabulary. Making morphological connections is something that can be done within the structure of any given content lesson. It can be viewed as a “mini lesson” within a lesson, or a “teachable moment.”
The following is an example of making morphological connections using the vocabulary word torture, drawn from a piece of literature:
Literature used—“The Story of Thesues: Part One.” from:
Classics to Read Aloud to Your Children: Selections from Shakespeare, Twain, Dickens, O.Henry… by William F. Russell - A perennially popular collection of short stories, poems, legends, and myths from great works of literature that are especially appropriate for parents to read aloud to their children aged five to twelve.
Sample teacher dialogue—
“We can see in the word torture, the Latin word tortus, which meant “to twist or bend,” reminding us of the earliest methods of torturing human being. But the idea of “twisting” is also apparent in many other common words as well. A blackmailer might try to extort (ex-meaning “from”) money by twisting it from his victim; faces or figures may be distorted (dis-meaning “away”) or contorted (con- meaning “with”) when they are twisted out of their normal shape; a clever retort (re- meaning “back”) twists a remark back upon the opponent. Even the tortoise, which we saw as a man-eater in this myth, bears the tort root in its name because of the “twisted” appearance of its feet.
Create two examples of the use of morphology or morphological connection. Be prepared for your group to demonstrate/share with the class the strategy you have created and the intended grade level for the strategy. You have ____ minutes in which to create your strategy.”
Strategy #8: Journaling
Using reflective learning journals (Journaling Tips) to improve individual and team comprehension brings connections across the curriculum. Writing about a subject requires a high level of understanding. Writing in a reflective form offers students a chance to think about their thinking, or metacognition. This process can solidify concepts and define misconceptions. How could you use journaling to develop better neurological pathways and to develop vocabulary?
Create a procedure that includes the use of a learning journal in a classroom setting.
i.e. At the end of a math lesson learners will write in their math journal what they learned that day.
Be able to answer these questions:
- What is the objective of the exercise?
- What do you hope to accomplish?
- How will it happen?
Resource: Self-reflection Strategies - includes reflection writing stems, poster, a One-Minute Feedback strategy, etc.
Strategy #9: Realization of the Power of the Spoken Word
The objective of your group is to explain/demonstrate how using more robust words in place of common words has the potential of expanding students’ vocabulary. The particular structure you will use is “synonym brainstorming. You have 5 minutes in which to practice your structure.
Step 1—Decide who will be your group leader. The leader of your group will say a commonly used simple word, such as big or pretty.
Step 2—After the leader states the commonly used simple word, the others in your group will each list on paper all of the synonyms for that word that they can produce in 30 seconds.
Step 3—The leader will ask each person to share the words they wrote on their list. What unique words were produced? Common words?
Step 4—Your group will collaboratively decide upon a “common” word to use with the Class. Your group leader will facilitate this structure with the class.
Step 5—Your group leader will facilitate the “synonym brainstorming” structure with the Class. Your leader will instruct the participants in the class to each list on paper all of the synonyms he/she can produce in 30 seconds. Have participants share their words. See Personal Pocket Thesaurus as one way to keep a lexicon of the synonyms for these common words.
Step 6—Share with the class that “The objective of this structure is to explain/demonstrate how using more robust words in place of common words has the potential of expanding students’ vocabulary.”
We often call them $100 Words!
Strategy #7 Option: “TIRED WORDS”
Learners create an ongoing Word Wall with synonyms for overused words.
1. Brainstorm commonly overused words such as good, bad, said, happy, pretty, saw, big, nice, little, etc.
2. Make a display with pockets for each word. Have learners find and write synonyms on slips provided that may be put in the appropriate pocket. This is ongoing and words may be added throughout the year.
3. Direct learners to use the Word Wall to find synonyms that fit into their writing or speaking.
4. Option: Create Personal Pocket Thesaurus – learner creates an individual thesaurus for these words. Click on link for printable documents. This creates a booklet that learners create as a resource.
Strategy #10: Word of the Day/Week
Your group will describe/demonstrate how you will integrate the use of the word of the day into your daily vocabulary.
- Determine its part of speech - noun, adjective, etc. and how it might be used in a sentence.
- Write 2-3 sentences using the word.
- Describe situations when using the word would be appropriate.
- You should include how you will use the word of the day in a valuable way. (How it will be connected in to your daily living?)
- You should include how you will determine (or select) what the word of the day will be. What is your process or criteria for selecting the word of the day?
You have ____ minutes in which to create your strategy.
Strategy # 11: ‘Hand’y Curriculum Connections
** Digital Download available
This strategy integrates the Eight Expectations, Life Principles and five literary elements in the analyzation of any piece of literature or video story.
Strategy #12: Novel Study
Your group will demonstrate/create a strategy for developing enriched vocabulary using novels, stories, basals, poems, or other writings. This strategy can be used whether or not you are required to utilize a reading series prescribed by your district. The basic idea behind this strategy is that you enrich whatever reading material you decide to use by expanding upon vocabulary pulled from the material (or vocabulary you attach to the material).
Your group has been provided a copy of Aesop’s Fables. Aesop Fable Collection
- Quickly select one of the fables you wish to use. (Or, select another story of your choice.)
- From this fable your group will identify the enriched vocabulary terms.
- Collaborate on how you would expand or build on the enriched vocabulary, and prepare how you will share this information to the whole group.
Be prepared for your group to demonstrate/share with the class the strategy you have created and the intended grade level for the strategy. You have 5 minutes in which to create/prepare your strategy.
Strategy #13: Lexicon
A lexicon is a personal dictionary, often used to include enriched vocabulary.
The steps that a teacher decides to include in a class lexicon may be determined by the particular needs of the class. There are 5 factors to consider when deciding to utilize a class lexicon structure:
- What steps will be included in the class lexicon? There may be specific skills your students need to work on (from various content areas). With this in mind, specific steps can be created to include in the lexicon that will help students develop those skills.
- What will be the lexicon procedure? It is best for the teacher to lead the students through the steps, especially in the beginning.
- How often will a lexicon page be completed?
- What will be the preferred methods of binding the lexicon pages? 3 ring binder, index cards, spiral notebook, etc.
- How will the students utilize their lexicon? In order for the students to internalize the words they have included in their lexicon, they should refer back to it from time to time as they work in class. It should be integrated into their daily work.
- What words will be included in the lexicon? How will you determine which words will be used?
- Select a group spokesperson (the person who will share your lexicon to the class and who will share the groups answers to the questions listed below)
- Select a scribe (the person who will be writing your lexicon illustration as dictated by the group)
- Your group will create the steps of a classroom lexicon and your scribe will illustrate those steps using a vocabulary word, such as the word lexicon.
- Your group will collaborate on your answer to these questions:
- What will be your preferred method of binding the lexicon pages?
- How will the students’ use of their lexicon be integrated into the curriculum?
- How will you determine/select which words to include in the lexicon?
Your group has ____ minutes total:
--to create your lexicon steps
--for your scribe to illustrate those steps using a vocabulary word
--to answer the three questions, which will be shared by the spokesperson
Resource for making books:
- Mini Booklet Directions - How-to instructions for making the booklet
- Making Books - Free Projects - 9 different books - directions are also given in Spanish
- Videos on how to make books: https://www.youtube.com/user/skgaylord
Strategy #14: Posters
Visuals or peripherals are a valuable teaching strategy. Eric Jensen, in his book, Brain Compatible Strategies, suggests that visuals are “Brain Activators. He also suggests that up to 90% of learning comes from peripheral input as opposed to direct instruction. The planting of visuals in various areas of the room or providing cooperative learning structures develops the brain to a greater degree and aids in recall of information from a greater number of pathways. Your group will create guidelines for incorporating visual/peripheral teaching into a lesson. How will you use this strategy, how will you include students in the development of this strategy in enriching vocabulary that is being studied?
Online Resources for Creating Word Posters:
These free online sites allow the creation of posters with your own vocabulary words offering wide choices of colors, patterns, etc.
- Poster Example created with WORD ART
- Poster Example created
with Word Clouds
Strategy #15: Flash Cards/Dictionary Drill
Accessing resources is not only a tested objective; it is a foundational skill across the curriculum. Your group will create/demonstrate the use of flash cards/dictionary drill. An example of one use is as follows:
Using 3x5 cards, have all students create a set of words to be studied. Place the word, phonetic spelling, and syllabication on one side of the card. Place the definition, synonyms, antonyms, and part of speech on the reverse side.
As a sponge activity (an activity used to bridge a transition such as class changes, after lunch, when students need a change of pace during the day),
- Arrange students in pairs or groups.(3-4).
- One student will be captain. The captain’s job is to present the flash cards to the group, one student at a time.
- The captain can choose the response from the student from the following:
- Spell the word,
- Count the syllables, 3.
- Define the word,
- Give a synonym or antonym.
- This is repeated for a designated period of time, usually 2 or 3 minutes. Then, the role of captain is passed to another student.
- The entire group is responsible for maintaining the correctness of the answers, and giving support if the student requires help. “We will not let you fail” is the attitude developed.


Guide Prepared by Michael J. Cummings...©
is an epic about the adventures and character development of a young king
endowed with superhuman powers. It is similar to later epics such as Homer's
and Odyssey in several ways.
For example, Gilgamesh and the
Iliad each center on a hero
with extraordinary physical prowess. (In the Iliad, the superman
is Achilles). Moreover, in Gilgamesh and the Odyssey, each
main character fights monsters, crosses seas, and visits mysterious lands.
In all three epics, mythological gods play a major role, but the settings
are in real lands—Gilgamesh in Mesopotamia (in present-day Iraq),
the Iliad in and just outside the walled city of Troy (in present-day
Turkey), and the Odyssey in countries and islands in the Mediterranean
unlike the Iliad and the Odyssey—as well as many other epics—Gilgamesh
does not begin with an invocation
of goddesses called Muses. Instead, it begins with a prologue that
briefly provides background information and introduces Gilgamesh as a powerful
ruler. Also, unlike literary epics such as Dante's
Comedy and Milton's Paradise
Lost, Gilgamesh is not the product of a single author who relied
primarily on his imagination and poetic skills to create his narration.
indicates that Gilgamesh was a real-life king of Uruk, a city-state in
Mesopotamia, in about 2700 BC. (For geographical information about Uruk
and Mesopotamia, see Setting, above.) After his
death, unidentified authors and storytellers presented accounts of his
life that grew into legends that greatly exaggerated his powers—so much
so that he was described as two-thirds divine and one-third human. Over
the centuries, these accounts remained highly popular. Between 2100 BC
and 1600 BC, scribes etched the accounts into clay tablets in wedge-shaped
characters that made up a writing system called cuneiform,
used to record information in various languages in Mesopotamia. Most of
the information about Gilgamesh was in verse stories in the Akkadian language
(which derives its name from Akkad, a region in southern Mesopotamia).
Additional information appeared in five poems in the Sumerian language
(which derives its name from Sumer, also in southern Mesopotamia).
1400 and 1200 BC, an author of the priestly caste read the tablets about
Gilgamesh and compiled the stories about him, taken mostly from the Akkadian
accounts, into a single work. His name was Sin-leqi-unninni. Although he
retained much of the wording on the clay tablets, he made some revisions
and introduced original wording of his own. Sin-leqi-unninni's account
disappeared from later history but resurfaced in the 1840s, when British-led
archeolgical excavations near the present-day city of Mosul, Iraq, turned
up the ruins of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh, as well as the library
maintained there by one of Assyria's greatest rulers, Ashurbanipal, who
ruled Assyria (in northern Mesopotamia) from 668 to 627 BC. (Mosul is about
225 miles northwest of Baghdad.) In the ruins of the library on this site
were the Gilgamesh tablets—which had been damaged—along with thousands
of other tablets on subjects unrelated to Gilgamesh. These tablets were
sent to the British Museum in London.
the second half of the nineteenth century, scholars deciphered the cuneiform
symbols on these tablets, symbols that represented syllables or entire
words. Through further research and detective work, they linked the cuneiform
symbols on the Nineveh tablets to two major languages, Sumerian and Akkadian,
as well as to dialects of these languages. In the 1870s, Sin-leqi-unninni's
account of the Gilgamesh story began to emerge. Because of the damaged
cuneiform tablets that Sin-leqi-unninni used for his Akkadian account of
the deeds of Gilgamesh, gaps existed in the story. But there was enough
information in his account to form the basis of The Gilgamesh Epic
that we know today. Since the nineteenth century, writers and scholars
have used Sin-leqi-unninni's account, along with new research and additional
Gilgamesh tablets found at various archeological sites, to piece together
their own versions of the Gilgamesh story.
time is circa 2700 BC in Mesopotamia, a region between the Mediterranean
Sea and the Persian Gulf incorporating much of present-day Iraq and portions
of southeastern Turkey, eastern Syria, and southwestern Iran. The action
takes place in the Mesopotamian city-state of Uruk, just east of the Euphrates
River and north of the Persian Gulf; in forests and plains; on waterways;
and in the domain of mythological gods. The modern town of Tall
al-Warka', about 155 miles southeast of Baghdad, is on the site of
ancient Uruk. In the Bible, Uruk is referred to as Erech (Genesis 10:10).
For detailed information on Mesopotamia,
king of ancient Uruq (in present-day Iraq) in 2700 BC. Over the centuries,
legends grew about this king (probably a real historical figure) that attributed
to him superhuman powers. He was said to be two-thirds divine and one-third
human. However, he was regarded as a man and thus was told he had to suffer
the ultimate fate of all men, death. The young Gilgamesh of the epic is
a headstrong ruler who takes advantage of his subjects and itches for challenges
and adventures to prove his prowess and enhance his reputation. In this
respect, he may be compared with military leaders of later centuries who
sought glory on the battlefield, such as Alexander the Great, Napoleon
Bonaparte, and General George Patton. He may also be compared with present-day
presidents, prime ministers, and dictators who recklessly wage war to demonstrate
their resolve and win popular approval. Eventually, Gilgamesh tames his
wilder instincts and achieves a measure of wisdom after undergoing deep
depression and suffering prompted by the death of his friend, Enkindu,
another hero with superhuman powers.
Powerful hero created by the gods to offset the unbridled power of Gligamesh.
He first lives in the wilds grazing among the animals, for he has no knowledge
of man and his ways. After a prostitute named Shamhat from the temple of
the goddess of love seduces him, he begins to learn the ways of man with
the help of Shamhat, and the animals reject him. Believing himself superior
to Gilgamesh, he travels to Uruk to confront him. The two clash in a raging
struggle but end up becoming inseparable friends. After Gilgamesh and Enkindu
kill the monstrous guardian of the cedar forests, Humbaba, and slay the
Bull of Heaven, the angry gods decree that one of the men must die--Enkidu.
Anu: Father of the
gods. He is the personification of heaven.
Aruru: Goddess of
creation. She fashions Enkidu from clay.
Ninsun: Goddess and
mother of Gilgamesh.
king of Uruk and father of Gilgamesh.
Ishtar: Goddess of
love. Gilgamesh refuses her proposal that they marry.
Enlil: God of the
winds and earth. It was he who made Humbaba guardian of the cedar forest.
Tammuz: God of fertility
and vegetation. He is one of the many lovers of Ishtar whom she punished
Ninurta: God of war.
Trapper: Man who
traps animals in the wilds occupied by Enkidu.
in Ishtar's temple who seduces Enkidu.
that guards the cedar forest.
Shamash: Sun god.
He approves Gilgamesh's plan to enter the cedar forest and kill Humbaba.
Scorpion Man: A half-man
and half-scorpion. He guards the cedar forest.
Scorpion Man's Mate
Utnapishtim the Faraway:
Survivor of the Great Flood upon whom the gods conferred immortality. Gilgamesh
hopes to learn from him the secret to eternal life.
Wife of Utnapishtim:
She also received the gift of immortality after surviving the Great Flood.
She pities Gilgamesh and implores her husband to tell him about a secret
plant that immortalizes those who eat of it.
of the gods. She lives in a beautiful garden near the sea. Although she
advises Gilgamesh that his quest for eternal life will fail, she provides
him directions to the abode of Utnapishtim, the one man who may be able
to provide Gilgamesh the answers he is seeking.
who ferries Gilgamesh to Utnapishtim's abode.
Ea: God of wisdom
Gilgamesh Epic opens with a short introduction (or prologue) in first-person
point of view that attests to the great deeds of Gilgamesh. The main story
is in omniscient third-person point of view. The narrator remains impartial
during the main story, although he praises Gilgamesh in the introduction.
main story is a flashback that presents the details of the story outlined
in the introduction.
Michael J. Cummings..©
the gods created Gilgamesh, they made him two-thirds divine and one-third
human and endowed him with extraordinary size, strength, and good looks.
Like his father before him, Lugulbanda, he became king of Uruk, a city-state
between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (in present-day Iraq). Thirsty
for adventure, he crossed seas and roamed many lands. When he returned
to Uruk, he carved into stone the story of his adventures.
was renowned as a the greatest of kings and as the builder of Uruk's temples
and the city's gigantic walls. Here is his story.
the young king of Uruk, Gilgamesh is the protector of his people. But in
time he takes advantage of his powers, oppressing the people and freely
using any woman to satisfy his desires. His subjects complain to the heavens.
In response, the mother goddess Aruru makes a new creature, Enkidu, who
rivals Gilgamesh in size and good looks. Ninurta, the god of war, gives
him the gift of great strength. With no knowledge of earth and its creatures,
Enkidu grazes with gazelles and other wild animals and drinks with them
at water holes. He protects the beasts, freeing them from snares set by
a trapper. His enormous size terrifies the trapper.
trapper’s father advises his son to go to Uruk to seek the help of Gilgamesh.
In particular, he tells his son to ask Gilgamesh for a sultry harlot from
the temple of Ishtar, the goddess of love, to tempt
the wild man away from the animals. The trapper will then be able to resume
his livelihood. After he goes to Uruk and states his request, Gilgamesh
provides him a woman called Shamhat..
the trapper returns to the wilds with her, she displays herself to Enkidu.
So enchanted is he that he spends a week at her side before he can tear
himself away and return to the animals. But the animals reject him now,
for they realize he is not really one of them. He is a human. When he returns
to the woman, she invites him to go with her to Uruk to meet Gilgamesh,
the mightiest of men. Enkidu agrees to the proposal, for he wants to make
the acquaintance of someone like himself, a comrade. And he wants to prove
that he is superior to Gilgamesh.
Uruk, Gilgamesh has a dream that alerts him to the coming of Enkidu. His
mother, the goddess Ninsun, interprets the dream for him, describing Enkidu
and telling Gilgamesh that he and Enkidu will become inseparable companions.
on their way to Uruk, the harlot takes Enkidu to shepherds, who provide
him bread and wine. He lives with them for a time and improves their lot
by killing lions and wolves that prey on their herds.
Enkidu arrives in Uruk, the people gather around to admire him, remarking
that he is certainly the equal of Gilgamesh. At this time, Gilgamesh is
planning to invade the bed of a new bride even before her husband has a
chance to be with her for the first time. At night, as she waits for her
husband, Gilgamesh approaches the house. However, Enkidu sees him in the
street and, eager to prove himself, blocks his access to the gate of the
house. They fight like to raging animals. The posts of doors break as they
struggle for advantage. Walls shake. Finally, Gilgamesh throws Enkidu to
the ground. But rather than continuing to fight, Enkidu compliments Gilgamesh
on his strength, saying there is no other like him on earth. They embrace
and become the best of friends.
time, Enkidu languishes for lack of activity to maintain his strength.
So Gilgamesh proposes that they go into the vast cedar forest and kill
Humbaba, the giant whom the god of the winds and earth, Enlil, had made
protector of the trees. But Enkidu tells Gilgamesh that he is wary of the
scheme. Having lived in the wilds, he well knows that Humbaba has incredible
strength. Even the breath he exhales is a windstorm. But Gilgamesh says
they must live life to the fullest, not letting fear stand in the way of
their exploits. Even if Humbaba kills him, Gilgamesh says, his name will
live on in history for having had the courage to fight the monster.
petitions the sun god, Shamash, for permission to undertake his and Enkidu’s
adventure, promising to erect in the forest a monument to the gods. If
he returns safely, he says, he will offer gifts to Shamash and glorify
his name. Shamash grants the request. In addition, he orders great winds
to assist the two friends in their struggle. Then Gilgamesh directs armorers
to fashion huge axes, bows and arrows, and swords for them.
counselors of Uruk warn him against fighting the terrible Humbaba, Gilgamesh
ignores their advice. The counselors then give him their blessing and implore
Shamash to protect the adventurers.
just a few days, Gilgamesh and Enkidu walk a distance that would take ordinary
men six weeks to traverse. After entering the forest of Humbaba, Gilgamesh
cuts down one of the tall cedars. Far off in the forest, Humbaba—who never
sleeps—hears the tree strike the ground. Enkidu is afraid and wants to
turn back, but Gilgamesh heartens him with brave words. When Humbaba approaches,
Gilgamesh calls upon Shamash for assistance, and the sun god sends the
winds—eight of them in all, some blazing hot, some icy cold. They close
in on Humbaba from different directions and prevent him from moving. Humbaba
pleads for his life. Gilgamesh feels pity for him and is ready to release
him, but Enkidu goads him on. Gilgamesh then drives his sword into Humbaba’s
neck, and Enkidu strikes a second blow. After they finish him, Enlil curses
Gilgamesh and Enkidu return in glory, the goddess of love, Ishtar, proposes
marriage to Gilgamesh. If he consents, she will shower him with many gifts,
including a wondrous golden chariot studded with lapus lazuli, and will
cause the mightiest rulers to kneel at his feet and pay him homage. But
Gilgamesh refuses the proposal, telling her that he could not abide the
infidelity for which she is famous. He recites for her a list of the lovers
she enticed and then rejected. She turned one of them into a mole, another
into a wolf. Deeply insulted, she petitions her father, the god Anu, to
loose the great Bull of Heaven against Gilgamesh. Though Anu is well aware
of his daughter’s wanton ways, he gives in to her request after she threatens
to break into hell and release the dead to work havoc among the living.
Anu sends down the Bull of Heaven, Ishtar leads it to Uruk. When it snorts,
it opens a gaping fissure in the earth into which a hundred men fall. When
it snorts again, it opens another fissure. Two hundred men fall into it.
With a third snort, it knocks down Enkidu, but he recovers and mounts it,
grasping it by its horns. Gilgamesh then drives his sword into it and kills
it. The two comrades remove its heart as a gift for Shamash, and they take
its horns as a trophy. In the palace of Gilgamesh, they celebrate their
victory with a great feast.
the night, Enkidu dreams that the gods convene and, against the protest
of Shamash, decide to avenge the deaths of Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven.
One of the heroes must die—Enkidu. After telling Gilgamesh of his dream,
Enkidu falls ill and suffers for many days as the sickness drains his strength
and, finally, stops his heart.
sorrow for the loss of his beloved companion overwhelms Gilgamesh. Moreover,
Enkidu’s death awakens a fear of death in Gilgamesh. His terrible sorrow
and his new fear linger on and on; he can find no relief from them. At
length, he decides to set out for the land of Utnapishtim the Faraway,
who survived the Great Flood with his wife. (Although some researchers
conjecture that this was the same flood that prompted the bibilical Noah
to build his ark, evidence is lacking to prove this theory or to make a
claim that the biblical account was a retelling of the Gilgamesh
account.) They were the only mortals to whom the gods granted immortality.
Surely, Utnapishtim will know the secret to eternal life, Gilgamesh believes.
travels through the wild and across waters and vast plains. At night while
sleeping, he awakens to find lions closing in. With his axe and sword,
he kills several and drives the rest off. He sets out again and eventually
arrives at the foot of a great mountain, Mashu, with two peaks. The sun
rises on one side and sets on the other. Between the two peaks is a vast
plain of darkness leading to Utnapishtim’s abode. At a gate opening into
the plain are a scorpion man and his mate. The scorpion man can kill with
the mere glare of his eyes. He greets Gilgamesh and asks him why he has
come to this place. Gilgamesh, who is able to withstand the deadly gaze,
tells the gatekeeper about Enkidu's death and explains why he wishes to
speak with Utnapishtim. The gatekeeper lets him pass.
travels through twelve leagues (about thirty-six miles) of total darkness
until light returns and he enters a wondrous garden in which the plants
bear pearls, carnelian, lapis lazuli, and other precious gems. It is the
garden of the gods. In a vineyard near the sea is a veiled woman, Siduri,
who makes the wine of the gods. After Gilgamesh tells her his story, she
warns him that he cannot find eternal life on earth. Immortality is reserved
for the gods alone. She advises him to go back and make the most of his
limited life with feasting and merriment and with a wife and children.
When Gilgamesh tells her he is determined to press on, she directs him
to a ferryman, Urshanabi, who takes Gilgamesh across a sea and the waters
of death to the abode of Utnapishtim.
Gilgamesh recounts his tale of woe. Utnapishtim then tells him that houses
are not made to stand forever. Nor is man. The gods have decreed that man
is mortal, but the day of his death they keep secret. Then why is it, asks
Gilgamesh, that Utnapishtim—himself a man—will live forever?
ago, Utnapishtim says, the world abounded with human life. As men went
about their activities, they made a great noise that rose to the heavens
and disturbed the sleep of the gods. At the instigation of Enlil, they
approved a plan to annihilate humankind. However, the god Ea warned Utnapishtim
of the impending doom, telling him to construct a gigantic boat that would
carry him through a great flood. Marshaling his family, relatives, and
shipbuilders, Utnapishtim built the vessel and took aboard all of his loved
ones and the workers. In addition, as instructed by Ea, he took with him
a variety of animals, wild and tame. After the waters came and swept over
civilization, Utnapishtim’s boat road the waters safely until coming to
rest on the mountain of Nisir. There it remained grounded for seven days.
Then Utnapishtim released a dove. If it did not return, he would know that
it had found land. But it returned. He next released a swallow. It too
returned. Finally, he released a raven. It did not return. Heartened, Utnapishtim
made sacrifices to the gods. In turn, they recanted their condemnation
of humankind and spared the boat and its cargo. Utnapishtim and his wife
then tells Gilgamesh that he must undergo a trial to prove himself worthy
of eternal life: Through seven nights, he must remain fully awake. But
Gilgamesh fails the test. At the prompting of Utnapishtim's wife, who pities
Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim gives the king a second chance, telling him about
a prickly underwater plant that confers youthfulness on its bearer. Gilgamesh
dives into the sea and finds it in the depths. But he does not eat of it
immediately. Instead, he decides to take it back to Uruk to let an elder
of Uruk eat of it first. (It is not clear here whether he wants to protect
himself against possible ill effects or whether he wants to share his good
fortune with his people.) Unfortunately, after stopping to bathe on his
way back to Uruk, he sets the plant aside and a snake slithers off with
it, eats of it, molts, and becomes young again.
thus returns to Uruk without having gained eternal life. But he is wiser
now by far than when he left the city. He accepts the inevitability of
death and takes comfort in the fact that the city he built and his other
great achievements will immortalize his name. And, as the information in
the prologue pointed out at the beginning of the epic, he became a great
king to his people.
The plot summary was compiled
from a version of The Gilgamesh Epic provided
online by the Assyrian International News Agency.
he is a demigod with extraordinary strength and good looks, King Gilgamesh
lacks maturity when the story begins. He abuses his people. He is boastful
and reckless. With Enkidu, he kills the guardian of the cedar forest, Humbaba,
simply because he craves adventure and seeks to enhance his reputation.
However, the death of Enkidu profoundly changes him. It makes him realize
that he, like the common lot that he rules, is vulnerable to suffering
and eventually death. After his quest for immortality fails, he returns
to Uruk and, as the prologue has already told us, becomes the benefactor
and protector of his people—a man who accepts his mortality but takes comfort
in the fact that the walls of Uruk and his other mighty works will live
on after him.
and Enkidu become inseparable friends. The friendship teaches Gilgamesh
that he is not an island unto himself but needs others to complement his
life. Whether he and Enkidu succumb to a deviant sexual relationship is
debatable. Passages in the text leave open this possibility.
welcomes adventure and derring-do—partly for the pleasure of it, partly
for the glory he will reap. His desire to strike out—to cross seas, to
enter forbidden lands, to fight battles—are in keeping with the ideals
of ancient civilization. He goes wrong, however, when he becomes unduly
proud and rash.
boasts of his heroic deeds and recklessly challenges Humbaba to enhance
his reputation. As in later Greek tragedies, he pays a price for his pride:
the death of Enkidu, as decreed by the angry gods.
Desire for Immortality
yearns for immortality. Through his heroic deeds, his construction of the
wall of Uruk, and other works, he does achieve everlasting fame. But the
one thing he most desires, eternal life on earth, he cannot have. In this
respect, he is like all of us human beings. We want to live forever on
earth, and we go to great lengths to prolong our mortal life as long as
possible. In the end, though, only the record of our achievements survives.
Respect for Nature
Gilgamesh Epic, respect for nature seems to be part of the Mesopotamian
worldview. Note, for example, that Humbaba keeps watch over the great cedar
trees in a forest forbidden to men and that a scorpion man and his mate
stand guard at the gate to the twin-peaked mountain, Mashu, that protects
the rising and setting sun. Siduri, the winemaker of the gods, keeps a
close watch on her vineyards and bolts a door against Gilgamesh when he
first approaches her..
experiences both external and internal conflicts. The external ones include
conflicts with the gods, Humbaba, and the Bull of Heaven. The internal
ones include his difficulty coping with the loss of Enkidu and overcoming
the fear of death.
climax of the epic occurs when Enkidu dies. His death is a turning point
in the life of Gilgamesh; it sends him on a quest that educates and matures
writing in The Gilgamesh Epic is succinct, plain, and fast-paced,
English translations of Sin-leqi-unninni's version (see Sources
and Authorship, above) of the epic indicate. Concrete similes
and metaphors abound, comparing Gilgamesh
to a bull, for example, and Enkidu to a star. But the predominant figure
of speech, certainly, is hyperbole. The
entire story is a gross exaggeration of the deeds of an idealized king,
but it is a magnificent exaggeration. Oddly, though, the writing does not
sensationalize or titillate. To be sure, it candidly tells of the encounter
between Enkidu and the temple prostitute, but it omits lurid details. Passages
describing violence are suspenseful, but gore and carnage are not part
of them. Another important writing device in this epic is repetition. Many
key narrations and descriptions are repeated word for word, suggesting
that the Gilgamesh story had an oral tradition before it was committed
to clay tablets. The following is an example of a passage that contains
repetition (which is highlighted in blue).
"Why should you
[Enkidu] roam the wilderness and live like an animal? Let
me take you to great-walled Uruk, to the temple of Ishtar, to the palace
of Gilgamesh the mighty king, who in his arrogance oppresses
the people, trampling upon them like a wild bull." She finished, and Enkidu
nodded his head. Deep in his heart he felt something stir, a longing he
had never known before, the longing for a true friend. Enkidu said, "I
will go, Shamhat. Take me with you to great-walled
Uruk, to the temple of Ishtar, to the palace of Gilgamesh the mighty king.
I will challenge him." (Mitchell)Repetition helped listeners
to absorb the details of the story. After all, they had no books from which
they could reread passages; they had only ears to hear the story told and
another noticeable writing device is the use of the epithet, such as great-walled
Uruk in the above passage or the term Utnapishtim the Faraway
to refer to the survivor of the Great Flood.
Mitchell, Stephen. Gilgamesh:
a New English Version. New York: Free Press, 2004. Page 80.
Study Questions and Essay
an essay that compares and contrasts Gilgamesh and Enkidu.
quality of Gilgamesh does the story emphasize more, physical strength or
was the attitude of the Mesopotamians toward nature and its resources?
an essay that compares and contrasts Gilgamesh with the hero of another
epic, such as the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid,
did the Mesopotamians, as well as people of other ancient cultures, believe
in so many gods?