The Great Hill
Before time was time, there was a Great Hill.
And on the Great Hill there lived the Yolks.
The Yolks spent their entire lives climbing
the Great Hill, trying to
reach the top.
Some Yolks climbed fast.
Some Yolks climbed slowly.
One Yolk in particular was a very slow climber. He was different than
the rest of the Yolks.
When he climbed, all the other Yolks passed him.
It was hard for him to watch them pass by.
He felt like the worst climber in the world.
Some Yolks made fun of him as
they passed.
Others didn’t.
Some Yolks wanted to help him climb but he didn’t let them.
It was hard for him to climb. It was even harder when it rained because
the ground got slippery.
Sometimes it seemed like it was only raining
on him.
But it wasn’t.
There were
times when he felt like he wasn’t moving at all.
But he was.
Then one day he met another Yolk who climbed even slower than he did.
He helped the slower Yolk
climb.
“Thank You,” said the slower Yolk.
“You’re Welcome,” said the slow Yolk, “I can’t be of much help to
anyone else since I climb so slowly.”
“Slowly?” asked the slower Yolk.
“Well yes. I watch other Yolks pass me all the time.”
“I do not know if you are slow or fast, but I do know that you helped
me, and that you are still climbing.”
The slow Yolk said goodbye to the slower Yolk, and kept climbing.
“Still climbing,” he thought to himself.
“That is true.”
And he smiled.
So the Yolk kept climbing. He climbed when it was nice out, he climbed
when it rained, and he even climbed when it snowed.
As he kept climbing he got better and
better.
Sometimes he would pass other Yolks and sometimes they would pass him.
He had stopped paying attention.
He also noticed that some Yolks were no longer climbing.
When a yolk stops climbing it stays where it is.
Some Yolks stop climbing because they are happy with how far they have
gone.
Others stop climbing because they don’t want to climb anymore.
The Yolks that had stopped climbing did not like to be passed, and they
made it harder to get by.
But the Yolk kept climbing, right over them!
There were still times when the Yolk thought he was climbing an impossible hill,
but he kept climbing.
Always, always, climbing.
Do you think he made the top?
Hill.
THE END
Story courtesy of Bedtime Stories.
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Post-Reading Task
1. Vocabulary
For each bolded
word from in the story, write down its Part of Speech
(noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction) and its meaning
in the following table. An example is shown.
|
Word
|
Part of Speech
|
Meaning
|
|
climb (climbing)
|
|
|
|
make fun of (made
fun of)
|
phrasal verb
|
To laugh at
someone. |
|
slippery
|
|
|
|
impossible
|
|
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2. Questions about the story
1) Near the beginning of the
story it says "Some Yolks made fun of
him as they passed."
Has anyone ever made fun of you?
What did they do? What did you do?
2) Later in the story it says "He helped
the slower Yolk climb."
Did you ever help a classmate or
friend that had some difficulty doing something? What did you do?
3) Later on in the story it says "As he kept climbing he got better and better."
What is something you have done
more and more and have gotten better at?
4) At the very end of the story
it says "Do you think he made it to the top?"
Did he? Does it matter?
