The bell that would not ring: stretch · Grade 4

The passage and its 8 questions

Directions: Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions in full sentences.

• Every school morning for fifty years, the bell above Lakeview School had rung at exactly eight o'clock. Students joked that you could set a clock by it. So on the first Monday of spring, when eight o'clock came and went in total silence, everyone noticed.
• "Maybe the rope snapped," said Mr. Okafor, the caretaker, scratching his head. But when he tugged the rope, it seemed perfectly fine. It slid down smoothly, then stopped with a soft, springy bounce, as though something up in the tower were pushing back.
• Priya, who wanted to be a scientist, wrote everything in her notebook. Rope: not broken.
• Sound: none. Clue: the springy bounce. She also noticed bits of straw and dry grass scattered on the steps below the tower, and two small brown birds that kept swooping in and out of a narrow window near the top.
• At lunch, she raced to find Mr. Okafor. "I think I know what's wrong," she said, breathless. "The bell isn't broken. It's occupied!"
• Together they climbed the ladder, and Priya was right. A pair of sparrows had built a tidy nest inside the bell's curved mouth, stuffing it so full of grass that the clapper could not swing. Four speckled eggs lay inside.
• Mr. Okafor chuckled. "Well, we cannot evict a family," he said. For the next month, the school used a hand bell, and Priya's class kept a chart of the nest. When the young birds finally flew away, the big bell rang again, and everyone cheered.
• 1. For how long had the bell rung every school morning?
• 2. List three clues Priya noticed.
• 3. Why did the rope stop with a 'soft, springy bounce'?
• 4. What does 'occupied' mean in paragraph 4? How does the rest of the story help you?
• 5. What does Mr. Okafor mean when he says, 'we cannot evict a family'?
• 6. Copy the sentence that explains why the bell could not ring.
• 7. Find a word in the passage that was new or tricky for you. What do you think it means? Which words around it helped you?
• 8. Write a question you would ask the author.