Page 87 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade6_Flipbook

aCTIvITy 1.13
continued
In the beginning
plunge: to suddenly move downward
flutter: to move with a flapping or waving motion
my Notes
21 Daedalus melted down a candle and daubed his son’s shoulders with sticky wax. “Yes, I know it’s hot, but it will soon cool.” While the wax was still soft, he stuck two of the wings to Icarus’s shoulder blades.
22 “Now you must help me put on my wings, Son. When the wax sets hard, you and I will fly away from here, as free as birds!”
23 “I’m scared!” whispered Icarus as he stood on the narrow window ledge, his knees knocking and his huge wings drooping down behind. The lawns and courtyards of the palace lay far below. The royal guards looked as small as ants. “This won’t work!”
24 “Courage, Son!” said Daedalus. “Keep your arms out wide and fly close to me. Above all—are you listening, Icarus?”
25 “Y-y-yes, Father.”
26 “Above all, don’t fly too high! Don’t fly too close to the sun!”
27 “Don’t fly too close to the sun,” Icarus repeated, with his eyes tight shut.
Then he gave a cry as his father nudged him off the windowsill. He plunged downward. With a crack, the feathers behind him filled with wind, and Icarus found himself flying. Flying!
28 “I’m flying!” he crowed.
29 The guards looked up in astonishment, and wagged their swords, and pointed
and shouted, “Tell the king! Daedalus and Icarus are . . . are . . . flying away!”
30 By dipping first one wing, then the other, Icarus found that he could turn to the left and the right. The wind tugged at his hair. His legs trailed out behind him. He saw the fields and streams as he had never seen them before!
31 Then they were out over the sea. The sea gulls pecked at him angrily, so Icarus flew higher, where they could not reach him.
32 He copied their shrill cry and taunted them: “You can’t catch me!”
33 “Now remember, don’t fly too high!” called Daedalus, but his words were
drowned by the screaming of the gulls.
34 I’m the first boy ever to fly! I’m making history! I shall be famous! thought Icarus, as he flew up and up, higher and higher.
35 At last Icarus was looking the sun itself in the face. “Think you’re the highest thing in the sky, do you?” he jeered. “I can fly just as high as you! Higher, even!” He did not notice the drops of sweat on his forehead: He was so determined to outfly the sun.
36 Soon its vast heat beat on his face and on his back and on the great wings stuck on with wax. The wax softened. The wax trickled. The wax dripped. One feather came unstuck. Then a plume of feathers fluttered slowly down.
37 Icarus stopped flapping his wings. His father’s words came back to him clearly now: “Don’t fly too close to the sun!”
38 With a great sucking noise, the wax on his shoulders came unstuck. Icarus tried to catch hold of the wings, but they just folded up in his hands. He plunged down, his two fists full of feathers — down and down and down.
39 The clouds did not stop his fall.
40 The sea gulls did not catch him in their beaks.
60 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 6
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