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ACTIvITy 3
Independent Practice
The excerpt that follows is from the first chapter of a book entitled A Short Walk Around the Pyramids and Through the World of Art. Published in 1993, it was written by Phillip Isaacson, an art critic for the Maine Sunday Telegram newspaper. In this work, Isaacson explores different works of art and architecture from across the globe. Read the text carefully, highlighting unfamiliar words and marking sentences that seem important. After you’ve read the entire passage, you will write a brief summary of Isaacson’s ideas.
First Reading: First Impressions
Read the passage silently. Your focus for the first reading is on understanding the meaning of the passage. As you read, practice diffusing by replacing unfamiliar words with synonyms or definitions for the underlined words. Use the definitions and synonyms in the margins of the paragraphs to help your understanding.
From
by Philip Isaacson
1 This is a place called Saqqara. It is on the edge of a great desert an hour’s drive from Cairo. You could reach it by camel, but that would take much longer. As you approach Saqqara, a line of walls and a strange pyramid rise from the sand like a golden mirage. But they are not a mirage. They are among the oldest works of art in the world. They were built more than 4,600 years ago by an Egyptian king with a wonderful imagination. His name was Zoser.
2 The pyramid that came from Zoser’s imagination—with help from his architect, Imhotep—is called the Step Pyramid. It is made of pieces of stone stacked to form six huge steps. Its sides were once covered by a layer of white limestone that transformed it into a star, dazzling in the pure desert air. The Step Pyramid was the first pyramid ever built. Although it is such a simple, logical shape, no one before Zoser and Imhotep had ever thought of it, and when it was finished, those steps climbing high above the desert must have caused hearts to pump with surprise and fear. They still do.
3 The Step Pyramid, which may have been King Zoser’s tomb, inspired other Egyptian rulers to build even larger pyramids. At Giza, a few miles north of Saqqara, sit three great pyramids, each named for the king—or Pharaoh—during whose reign it was built. No other buildings are so well known, yet the first sight of them sitting in their field is breathtaking. When you walk among them, you walk in a place made for giants. They
nonfiction book
A Short Walk Around the Pyramids and Through the World of Art
mirage: something (such as a pool of water in the middle of a desert) that is seen and appears to be real but that is not actually there
limestone: a type of white stone that is commonly used in building
reign: the period of time during which a king, queen, emperor, etc., is ruler of a country
Close Reading Workshop 5 • Close Reading of Informational Texts in Social Studies/History 71
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