Making It Up as We Go

How is this article organized?

• In time sequence, beginning with prehistoric times

• By geographic area, moving from Europe to Iraq

• In categories, discussing cave paintings

• By comparing and contrasting ancient ways

What is the purpose of the words

STONE-AGE STORYTELLERS; PASS IT ON, PASS IT DOWN; and PREHISTORIC BLOGGERS?

• Each serves as a heading to introduce the section that follows its.

• They present ideas that people disagree about for readers to consider.

• Each sums up the ideas in the text that comes before it.

• They represent the most important ideas that readers will learn from the article.

Which idea from the article is not supported by factual evidence?

• The chamber was filled with animal paintings.

• The Sumerians wrote by pressing marks into moist clay tablets with a sharp reed.

• Gradually, the pictures became more like abstract symbols and less like illustrations of what they represented.

• Imagine a Cro-Magnon storyteller standing in the Altamira cave, lighting up pictures to show parts of a story.

Which sentence from the article supports the idea that storytelling has always been important to humans?

• The artwork shows such animals as mammoths, reindeer, and horses.

• Even today, hundreds of languages with no written form are being used all over the world.

• Before developing writing, the Sumerians kept stories alive in the way most groups have throughout time.

• They kept detailed business and government records.

How does the graphic on page 76 help readers?

• It provides readers with an ancient story to compare to modern stories.

• It illustrates author's point about how writing gradually changed.

• It shows the ideas that were most important to the Sumerians.

• It supports the author's statement that stories change each time they are told.

Which of the following best summarizes the article?

• Maria Sanz de Sautuola made a remarkable discovery that led to the study of cave paintings all over Europe.

• Storytelling dates back to prehistoric people, while writing down stories is a more recent development. Storytelling traditions continue today.

• Storytellers of today owe much to the Sumerians, who first developed writing and who gave us a great work of literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh.

• A story is never told the same way twice. People today tell stories and share their opinions in the same way that prehistoric people did long ago.

The author mainly write this article to -

• teacher readers about prehistoric paintings

• explain that Cro-Magnons lived in caves

• show how Sumerian writing changed gradually over time

• suggest that the tradition of storytelling goes back to prehistoric times.