Rutherford County Schools – Grade 8 ELA Individual Learning Module

Grade Course8 ELA

Unit FocusStudents will read “Can We Cultivate Our Own Happiness” to determine the central idea and evaluate the argument. Students will apply the information gained from the text to develop a deeper understanding of what makes them happy.

Standard(s)8.RI.KID.28.RI.KID.8

Resource(s)Texts:

“Can We Cultivate Our Own Happiness”https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/can-we-cultivate-our-own-happiness

Task(s)Day 1: Read “Can We Cultivate Our Own Happiness” & Text Dependent QuestionsDay 2: TED Talk with Analysis FormDay 3: NearPodDay 4: Goal Sheet, Happiness Quiz, and Action PlanDay 5: Independent Reading and Response

Expected OutcomesStudents will determine which category of happiness they identify with and develop an action plan on how to increase their happiness with consideration to that category.

Additional Instructional ResourcesI-Ready

All Rutherford County 6-8 grade students now have access to I-Ready ELA lessons. These lessons can be accessed via Clever. All available lessons have been assigned.

PBS Lessonshttps://www.tn.gov/education/pbsteaching.html

Rutherford County Schools – Grade 8 ELA Individual Learning Module

Day OneCan We Cultivate Our Own Happiness?

By ABC News 2002

Martin Seligman coined the term “positive psychology” to describe his exploration of how people can improve their own happiness. In this report from 2002, ABC News explains Seligman’s research and findings in the field of positive psychology. As you read, take notes on how Seligman defines happiness.

1 If you want to be happy, forget about winning the lottery, getting a nose job, or securing a raise.

2 In his new book, Authentic Happiness, psychologist Martin Seligman argues that overall lifetime happiness is not the result of good genes, money, or even luck.

3 Instead, he says we can boost our own happiness by capitalizing on the strengths and traits that we already have, including kindness, originality, humor, optimism, and generosity. He has christened the discipline “Positive Psychology,” arguing that we would be better off building on our own strengths rather than bemoaning, and, hence, trying to repair, our weaknesses.

4 By frequently calling upon their strengths, people can build up natural buffers against misfortune and negative emotions, he said.

An Epidemic of Depression?

5 Seligman is leading the charge in what might be called Happiness Revolution in psychology.

6 Since World War II, psychologists have focused on fixing what is broken — repairing psychosis, and neurosis. Research has piled up steadily when it comes to looking at patients who are neurotic or dysfunctional, while the happy or joyful people among us have received little scientific scrutiny.

7 When Seligman did a search to find academic articles about such “positive psychology” he found only 800 out of 70,000.

8 “Psychologists tend to be concerned with taking a negative 8 person, and helping him get to negative 2,” said Seligman, a University of Pennsylvania psychology professor. “My aim is to take a plus 2 person and boost him to a plus 6.”

9 In the last 50 years, statistics have shown that we are less happy as a people.

10 “While our quality of life has increased dramatically over that time, and we’ve become richer, we’re in an epidemic of depression,” Seligman said. “Depression is 10 times more common now, and life satisfaction rates are down as well.”

11 Seligman argues that the new science he writes about is shifting psychology’s paradigm away from its narrow-minded focus on pathology, victimology, and mental illness towards

Rutherford County Schools – Grade 8 ELA Individual Learning Module

positive emotion, virtue and strength, and positive institutions that increase people’s happiness quotient.

Three Roads to Happiness

12 Science has shown that there are three distinct roads to being a happy person — though happy might not mean what you think. Material goods — even simple ones like ice cream cones, and massages — are only stimuli, things that fleetingly give people a boost.

13 Research found that lottery winners are no happier years after their windfall than they had been before, and that paraplegics tended to be no less happy in the years after their misfortune than they were before.

14 “We used to think that a happy person was just someone who giggled a lot,” Seligman said. “But if you define it solely by how much you laugh, you confine yourself to one category.”

15 Here are the three happy people categories that Seligman has set forth in the book:

16 The Good Life: Some happy people are low on pleasure, but high on “absorption and immersion,” meaning they take great pleasure in the things that they do.

17 “Think of these people as hobbyists who become so immersed in their work that time ceases to exist,” Seligman said. “A person who enjoys gardening discovers that the day has gone by without notice, for example.”

18 The Pleasant Life: This is someone who laughs a lot, and thrives on pleasures, such as eating good food. These are people who seem surrounded with contentment, pleasure and hope.

19 The Meaningful Life: Those who apply their highest strengths and virtues for the greater good, as through charities and volunteer work, religion or politics.

20 There are vast benefits to leading a happier life, Seligman said. A study of cloistered nuns found that those scoring high on happiness tests at age 20 lived the longest. (Cloistered nuns make for good research subjects, since variables such as environment and financial status are the same for all.)

21 To cultivate happiness, you must first identify which of the aforementioned happiness categories you fall into, then ascertain your individual strengths and virtues. Next, apply the qualities in such a way as to enhance your happiness-generating category.

22 For example a student of Seligman’s who fell into the “good life” category was a grocery bagger and did not like it. Further testing identified that one of his key strengths was excelling in social interaction. So Seligman advised the student to try to make the check-out process the social highlight of each of his customers’ day.

Rutherford County Schools – Grade 8 ELA Individual Learning Module

Text-Dependent Questions

Directions: For the following questions, choose the best answer or respond in complete sentences.

1. PART A: Which of the following statements best summarizes Seligman’s ideas about happiness?

A. It’s easier to achieve happiness by breaking down what keeps you from being happy, such as stress or mental illness.

B. Seligman’s research has found that an increased quality of life has negatively impacted people’s level of happiness.

C. Happiness can be achieved if you focus on and develop the characteristics that you value about yourself.

D. People who are able to appreciate the small joys of life tend to be happier overall.

2. PART B: Which detail from the text best supports the answer to Part A?

A. “By frequently calling upon their strengths, people can build up natural buffers against misfortune and negative emotions” (Paragraph 4)

B. “‘Psychologists tend to be concerned with taking a negative 8 person, and helping him get to negative 2’” (Paragraph 8)

C. “‘While our quality of life has increased dramatically over that time, and we've become richer, we're in an epidemic of depression’” (Paragraph 10)

D. “‘Think of these people as hobbyists who become so immersed in their work that time ceases to exist’” (Paragraph 17)

3. Which quote from the text is the least relevant piece of evidence used to support Seligman’s ideas about how people become happy?

A. “Instead, he says we can boost our own happiness by capitalizing on the strengths and traits that we already have, including kindness, originality, humor, optimism, and generosity.” (Paragraph 3)

B. “Material goods — even simple ones like ice cream cones, and massages — are only stimuli, things that fleetingly give people a boost.” (Paragraph 12)

C. “A study of cloistered nuns found that those scoring high on happiness tests at age 20 lived the longest.” (Paragraph 20)

Rutherford County Schools – Grade 8 ELA Individual Learning Module

D. “To cultivate happiness, you must first identify which of the aforementioned happiness categories you fall into, then ascertain your individual strengths and virtues.” (Paragraph 21)

4. How does the text describe most previous scientific research in the field of psychology?

A. It prioritized determining why happy people are happy.

B. It focused on improving the lives of very depressed people.

C. It neglected to study the happiness of people with neurosis.

D. It was centered on improving the moods of already happy people.

5. How do paragraphs 16-19 contribute to the main idea of the text? [RI.5]

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Day 2 Ted Talk and Analysis

Please watch the TED talk by following the link below and then complete the analysis on the provided worksheet. If you are unable to watch the TED talk for any reason the transcript will be

provided.

Video: https://www.ted.com/talks/ingrid_fetell_lee_where_joy_hides_and_how_to_find_it?language=en

Transcript:

It's 2008, and I'm just finishing my first year of design school. And I'm at my first year-end review, which is a form of ritual torture for design students, where they make you take everything you made over the course of the year and lay it out on a table and stand next to it while a bunch of professors, most of whom you've never seen before, give you their unfiltered opinions of it. So it's my turn and I'm standing next to my table, everything neatly lined up, and I'm just hoping that my professors can see how much effort I've put into making my designs practical and ergonomic and sustainable. And I'm starting to get really nervous, because for a

Rutherford County Schools – Grade 8 ELA Individual Learning Module

long time, no one says anything. It's just completely silent. And then one of the professors starts to speak, and he says, "Your work gives me a feeling of joy."

Joy? I wanted to be a designer because I wanted to solve real problems. Joy is nice, I guess, but it's kind of light -- not substantial. But I was also kind of intrigued, because joy is this intangible feeling, and how does that come from the stuff on the table next to me? I asked the professors, "How do things make us feel joy? How do tangible things make us feel intangible joy?" They hemmed and hawed and gestured a lot with their hands. "They just do," they said.

I packed up my things for the summer, but I couldn't stop thinking about this question ... and this launched a journey -- one that I didn't know at the time would take me 10 years -- to understand the relationship between the physical world and the mysterious, quixotic emotion we call "joy." And what I discovered is that not only are they linked, but that the physical world can be a powerful resource to us in creating happier, healthier lives.

After my review, I thought, "I know what joy feels like, but what is it, exactly?" And I found that even scientists don't always agree, and they sometimes use the words "joy" and "happiness" and "positivity" more or less interchangeably. But broadly speaking, when psychologists use the word joy, what they mean is an intense, momentary experience of positive emotion -- one that makes us smile and laugh and feel like we want to jump up and down. And this is actually a technical thing. That feeling of wanting to jump up and down is one of the ways that scientists measure joy. It's different than happiness, which measures how good we feel over time. Joy is about feeling good in the moment, right now. And this was interesting to me because as a culture, we are obsessed with the pursuit of happiness, and yet in the process, we kind of overlook joy.

So this got me thinking: Where does joy come from? I started asking everyone I knew, and even people I just met on the street, about the things that brought them joy. On the subway, in a café, on an airplane, it was, "Hi, nice to meet you. What brings you joy?" I felt like a detective. I was like, "When did you last see it? Who were you with? What color was it? Did anyone else see it?" I was the Nancy Drew of joy.

And after a few months of this, I noticed that there were certain things that started to come up again and again and again. They were things like cherry blossoms and bubbles ... swimming pools and tree houses ... hot air balloons and googly eyes -- and ice cream cones, especially the ones with the sprinkles. These things seemed to cut across lines of age and gender and ethnicity. I mean, if you think about it, we all stop and turn our heads to the sky when the multicolored arc of a rainbow streaks across it. And fireworks -- we don't even need to know what they're for, and we feel like we're celebrating, too. These things aren't joyful for just a few people; they're joyful for nearly everyone. They're universally joyful. And seeing them all together, it gave me this indescribably hopeful feeling. The sharply divided, politically polarized world we live in sometimes has the effect of making our differences feel so vast as to be insurmountable. And yet underneath it all, there's a part of each of us that finds joy in the

Rutherford County Schools – Grade 8 ELA Individual Learning Module

same things. And though we're often told that these are just passing pleasures, in fact, they're really important, because they remind us of the shared humanity we find in our common experience of the physical world.

But I still needed to know: What is it about these things that makes them so joyful? I had pictures of them up on my studio wall, and every day, I would come in and try to make sense of it. And then one day, something just clicked. I saw all these patterns: round things ... pops of bright color ... symmetrical shapes ... a sense of abundance and multiplicity ... a feeling of lightness or elevation. When I saw it this way, I realized that though the feeling of joy is mysterious and elusive, we can access it through tangible, physical attributes, or what designers call aesthetics, a word that comes from the same root as the Greek word "aísthomai," which means, "I feel," "I sense," "I perceive." And since these patterns were telling me that joy begins with the senses, I began calling them "Aesthetics of Joy"; the sensations of joy. And in the wake of this discovery, I noticed something that as I walked around, I began spotting little moments of joy everywhere I went -- a vintage yellow car or a clever piece of street art. It was like I had a pair of rose-colored glasses, and now that I knew what to look for, I was seeing it everywhere. It was like these little moments of joy were hidden in plain sight.

And at the same time, I had another realization, that if these are the things that bring us joy, then why does so much of the world look like this? Why do we go to work here? Why do we send our kids to schools that look like this? Why do our cities look like this? And this is most acute for the places that house the people that are most vulnerable among us: nursing homes, hospitals, homeless shelters, housing projects. How did we end up in a world that looks like this?

We all start out joyful, but as we get older, being colorful or exuberant opens us up to judgment. Adults who exhibit genuine joy are often dismissed as childish or too feminine or unserious or self-indulgent, and so we hold ourselves back from joy, and we end up in a world that looks like this.

But if the aesthetics of joy can be used to help us find more joy in the world around us, then couldn't they also be used to create more joy? I spent that last two years scouring the planet, looking for different ways that people have answered this question. And this led me to the work of the artist Arakawa and the poet Madeline Gins, who believed that these kinds of environments are literally killing us. And so they set out the create an apartment building that they believed would reverse aging. And this is it. It's a real place, just outside Tokyo. I spent a night there, and it's a lot.

The floors undulate, so you don't end up walking around so much as kind of bouncing around the apartment, and there are bright colors in every direction. I'm not sure I left any younger, but it's as if, by trying to create an apartment that would make us feel youthful, they ended up creating one that was joyful. And yes, this is a bit much for everyday life, but it made me wonder: What about the rest of us? How do we bring these ideas back into the real world?

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So I started finding people who were doing just that. For example, this hospital, designed by the Danish artist Poul Gernes. Or these schools, transformed by the non-profit Publicolor. What's interesting is that Publicolor has heard from school administrators who say that attendance improves, graffiti disappears and kids actually say they feel safer in these painted schools. And this aligns with research conducted in four countries, which shows that people working in more colorful offices are actually more alert, more confident and friendlier than those working in drab spaces.

Why would this be the case? Well, as I started to trace back our love of color, I found that some researchers see a connection to our evolution. Color, in a very primal way, is a sign of life, a sign of energy. And the same is true of abundance. We evolved in a world where scarcity is dangerous, and abundance meant survival. So, one confetto -- which happens to be the singular of confetti, in case you were wondering -- isn't very joyful, but multiply it, and you have a handful of one of the most joyful substances on the planet. The architect Emmanuelle Moureaux uses this idea in her work a lot. This is a nursing home she designed, where she uses these multicolored spheres to create a feeling of abundance. And what about all those round things I noticed? Well, it turns out neuroscientists have studied this, too. They put people into fMRI machines, and they showed them pictures of angular objects and round ones. And what they found is that the amygdala, a part of the brain associated in part with fear and anxiety, lit up when people looked at angular objects, but not when they looked at the round ones. They speculate that because angles in nature are often associated with objects that might be dangerous to us, that we evolved an unconscious sense of caution around these shapes, whereas curves set us at ease.

You can see this in action in the new Sandy Hook Elementary School. After the mass shooting there in 2012, the architects Svigals + Partners knew that they needed to create a building that was secure, but they wanted to create one that was joyful, and so they filled it with curves. There are waves running along the side of the building, and these squiggly canopies over the entryway, and the whole building bends toward the entrance in a welcoming gesture.

Each moment of joy is small, but over time, they add up to more than the sum of their parts. And so maybe instead of chasing after happiness, what we should be doing is embracing joy and finding ways to put ourselves in the path of it more often. Deep within us, we all have this impulse to seek out joy in our surroundings. And we have it for a reason. Joy isn't some superfluous extra. It's directly connected to our fundamental instinct for survival. On the most basic level, the drive toward joy is the drive toward life.

Thank you.

Rutherford County Schools – Grade 8 ELA Individual Learning Module

Day 3 Go to https://nearpod.com/student/ and use the code SGXUC to join the Nearpod. Complete the Nearpod to review online source reliability. If you do not have access to a computer, look at the activities from Nearpod below.

Rutherford County Schools – Grade 8 ELA Individual Learning Module

1. What is the definition you came up with for HAPPINESS?

2. Why would happiness be so important for your health?

3. What is stress? What are some things in your life that cause it?

4. Draw one thing you could do to help relieve stress in your life.

5. Which of the following is NOT related to emotional vitality or happiness?a. a sense of enthusiasmb. hopefulnessc. feard. engagement in life

6. Which of these is an effect that stress can have on your body?a. headachesb. problems sleepingc. chest paind. all of the above

7. Stress causes an increased risk for heart attack.a. True b. False

8. Which is NOT a way to combat stress?a. Find a simple, routine task to do at homeb. Take a warm showerc. Fight with your momd. Meditate

Day 4 There are three activities for today.

Rutherford County Schools – Grade 8 ELA Individual Learning Module

First, please go to this website https://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/science-of-happiness/happiness-quiz/ and take the happiness quiz. After you have taken the quiz please write a paragraph about your results. Did you learn anything new about yourself? Do you agree or disagree with your results?

Then, please fill out the goal setting worksheet below.

Finally, after you have completed the goal worksheet, please fill out the action plan sheet. Use this template to set realistic and reasonable checkpoints along the way to your goal.

Rutherford County Schools – Grade 8 ELA Individual Learning Module

Day 5Spend 20 minutes reading something of your choice! Option 2 and 3 will be listed below. Once you have finished reading please answer the question below in complete sentences. Be sure to provide evidentiary support from the text you chose.

Option 1 – Read a book, newspaper, magazine, an online article, etc. that you have at home. Anything counts!

Option 2 – Nonfiction Option – Five reasons why being kind makes you feel

good — according to science by Jo Cutler, Robin Banerjee

Option 3 – Fiction Option – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Question: What is something that causes stress in a character's life (from your text)? What could they do to reduce stress in their life?

Five reasons why being kind makes you feel good- according to science

By Jo Cutler, Robin Banerjee

Rutherford County Schools – Grade 8 ELA Individual Learning Module

Everybody can appreciate acts of kindness. But when it comes to explaining why we do them, people often take one of two extreme positions. Some think kindness is something completely selfless that we do out of love and care, while others believe it is just a tool that we cunningly1 use to become more popular and reap the benefits.

But research shows that being kind to others can actually make us genuinely happy in a number of different ways. We know that deciding to be generous or cooperating with others activates an area of the brain called the striatum. Interestingly, this area responds to things we find rewarding, such as nice food and even addictive drugs. The feel-good emotion from helping has been termed “warm glow” and the activity we see in the striatum is the likely biological basis of that feeling.

Of course, you don’t have to scan brains to see that kindness has this kind of benefit. Research in psychology shows a link between kindness and well-being throughout life, starting at a very young age. In fact, even just reflecting on having been kind in the past may be enough to improve teenagers’ mood. Research has also shown that spending extra money on other people may be more powerful in increasing happiness than spending it on yourself.

But why and how does kindness make us so happy? There are a number of different mechanisms involved, and how powerful they are in making us feel good may depend on our personalities.

1. Contagious Smiling

Being kind is likely to make someone smile and if you see that smile for yourself, it might be catchy. A key theory about how we understand other people in neuroscience suggests that seeing someone else show an emotion automatically activates the same areas of the brain as if we experienced that emotion for ourselves.

You may have been in a situation where you find yourself laughing just because someone else is — why not set off that chain of good feelings with a nice surprise for someone?

2. Righting a Wrong

The same mechanism also makes us empathize2 with others when they are feeling negative, which could make us feel down. This is particularly true for close friends and family, as our representations of them in the brain physically overlap with our representations of ourselves. Doing a kind act to make someone who is sad feel better can also make us feel good — partly because we feel the same relief they do and partly because we are putting something right. Although this effect is especially powerful for people we are close to, it can even apply to humanitarian problems such as poverty or climate change. Getting engaged with charities that tackle these issues provide a way to have a positive impact, which in turn improves mood.

3. Making connections

Rutherford County Schools – Grade 8 ELA Individual Learning Module

Being kind opens up many different possibilities to start or develop a social connection with someone. Kind acts such as a buying someone a thoughtful present or even just a coffee strengthens friendships, and that in itself is linked to improved mood.

Similarly, charities offer the opportunity to connect with someone on the other side of the world through donating to improve their life. Volunteering also opens up new circles of people to connect with, both other volunteers and those you are helping.

4. A kind identity

Most people would like to think of themselves as a kind person, so acts of kindness help us to demonstrate that positive identity and make us feel proud of ourselves. In one recent study, even children in their first year of secondary school recognized how being kind can make you feel “better as a person … more complete,” leading to feelings of happiness. This effect is even more powerful when the kind act links with other aspects of our personality, perhaps creating a more purposeful feeling. For example, an animal-lover could rescue a bird, an art-lover could donate to a gallery or a retired teacher could volunteer at an after-school group. Research suggests that the more someone identifies with the organization they volunteer for, the more satisfied they are.

5. Kindness comes back around

Work on the psychology of kindness shows that one out of several possible motivations is reciprocity, the returning of a favor. This can happen directly or indirectly. Someone might remember that you helped them out last time and therefore be more likely to help you in the future. It could also be that one person being kind makes others in the group more kind, which lifts everyone’s spirits. Imagine that you bake cakes for the office and it catches on so someone does it each month. That is a lot more days that you’re getting cakes than providing them.

The story doesn’t end there. Being kind may boost your mood, but research has also shown that being in a good mood can make you more kind. This makes it a wonderful two-way relationship which just keeps giving.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

1. Down the Rabbit-Hole

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, "and what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?"

So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid) whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

Rutherford County Schools – Grade 8 ELA Individual Learning Module

There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!" (when[2] she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.

In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.

The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well.

Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she[3] tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked at the sides of the well and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves: here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed; it was labelled "ORANGE MARMALADE," but to her disappointment it was empty; she did not like to drop the jar for fear of killing somebody[4] underneath, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.

"Well!" thought Alice to herself. "After such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!" (Which was very likely true.)

Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end? "I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?" she said aloud. "I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down. I think—" (for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a very good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) "—yes, that's about the right distance—but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I've got to?" (Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.)[5]

Presently she began again. "I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downwards! The Antipathies, I think—" (she was rather glad there was no one listening, this time, as it didn't sound at all the right word) "—but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand or Australia?" (and she tried to curtsey as she spoke—fancy curtseying as you're falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) "And what an ignorant little girl she'll think me! No, it'll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere."

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Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking again. "Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I should think!" (Dinah was the cat.) "I hope they'll remember her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah, my dear, I wish you were down here with me! There are no mice in the air, I'm afraid, but you might catch a bat, and that's very like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?" And here Alice[6] began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, "Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?" and sometimes, "Do bats eat cats?" for, you see, as she couldn't answer either question, it didn't much matter which way she put it. She felt that she was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with Dinah, and saying to her very earnestly, "Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat?" when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.

Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a moment: she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her was another long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost: away went Alice like the wind, and was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner, "Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!" She was close behind it when she turned the corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen: she found herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from the roof.

There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked; and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again.

Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of solid glass; there was nothing on it but a tiny golden key, and Alice's first idea was that this might belong to one of the doors of the hall; but, alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was too small, but at any rate it would not open any of them. However, on the second time round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high: she tried the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted!

Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but[8] she could not even get her head through the doorway; Mollie even if my head would go through," thought poor Alice, "it would be of very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only knew how to begin." For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.

There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so she went back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on it, or at any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like telescopes: this time she found a little bottle on it ("which certainly was not here before," said Alice,) and tied round the neck of the bottle was a paper label, with the words "DRINK ME" beautifully printed on it in large letters.

Rutherford County Schools – Grade 8 ELA Individual Learning Module

It was all very well to say "Drink me," but the wise little Alice was not going to do that in a hurry. "No, I'll look first," she said, "and see whether it's marked 'poison' or not;" for she had read several nice little stories about children who had got burnt,[9] and eaten up by wild beasts, and other unpleasant things, all because they would not remember the simple rules their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-hot poker will burn you if you hold it too long; and that, if you cut your finger very deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked "poison," it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.

However, this bottle was not marked "poison," so Alice ventured to taste it, and finding it very nice (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, coffee, and hot buttered toast,) she very soon finished it off.

"What a curious feeling!" said Alice. "I must be shutting up like a telescope."

And so it was indeed: she was now only ten inches high, and her face brightened up at the thought that she was now the right size for going through that little door into that lovely garden. First, however, she[10] waited for a few minutes to see if she was going to shrink any further: she felt a little nervous about this: "for it might end, you know," said Alice to herself, "in my going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder what I should be like then?" And she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle looks like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember ever having seen such a thing.

After a while, finding that nothing more happened, she decided on going into the garden at once; but, alas for poor Alice! when she got to the door, she found she had forgotten the little golden key, and when she went back to the table for it, she found she could not possibly reach it: she could see it quite plainly through the glass, and she tried her best to climb up one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery; and when she had tired herself out with trying, the poor little thing sat down and cried.

"Come, there's no use in crying like that!" said Alice to herself, rather sharply. "I advise you to leave off this minute!" She generally gave herself very good advice (though she very seldom followed it), and sometimes she[11] scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into her eyes; and once she remembered trying to box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself, for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people. "But it's no use now," thought poor Alice, "to pretend to be two people! Why there's hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!"

Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table: she opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on which the words "EAT ME" were beautifully marked in currants. "Well, I'll eat it," said Alice, "and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door; so either way I'll get into the garden, and I don't care which happens!"

She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself, "Which way? Which way?" holding her hand on the top of her head to feel which way it was growing, and she was quite surprised to find

Rutherford County Schools – Grade 8 ELA Individual Learning Module

that she remained the same size; to be sure, this is what generally happens[12] when one eats cake, but Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way.

So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake.