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interpret the Text Using Close Reading
Learning Targets
• Draw and support inferences from a close reading of the text. PI.8.6.b
• Learn the meanings of unfamiliar words from the text. PI.8.6c
• Apply understanding of word connotations and the effects they have on the reader. PI.8.8
• Read closely and annotate the text to apply understanding of how short stories are structured. PII.8.1
Read and Annotate
Read “Harrison Bergeron” and annotate the text as you read.
■ Use the My Notes area to write questions or ideas you have about the story.
■ Underline words and phrases that have strong connotations and figurative language that help you visualize the characters, setting, and events.
■ Put exclamation marks next to events that are humorous and horrifying at the same time.
■ Circle unknown words and phrases.
Harrison Bergeron
by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
1 THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.
2 Some things about living still weren’t quite right, though. April for instance, still drove people crazy by not being springtime. And it was in that clammy month that the H-G men took George and Hazel Bergeron’s fourteen-year-old son, Harrison, away.
3 It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn’t think about it very hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn’t think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.
4 George and Hazel were watching television. There were tears on Hazel’s cheeks, but she’d forgotten for the moment what they were about, as the ballerinas came to the end of a dance.
5 A buzzer sounded in George’s head. His thoughts fled in panic, like bandits from a burglar alarm.
aCTiViTY 1.3
My Notes
Short Story
How can everyone be as smart and good-looking as everyone else?
Unit 2 • The Challenge of Utopia • Part 1: Harrison Bergeron 51
unceasing: relentless; persistent; continuous
vigilance: watchfulness; alertness
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