Name
Date
“An Episode of War” by Stephen Crane
“Willie Has Gone to War” by George Cooper and Stephen Foster
Reading Warm-up A
Read the following passage. Pay special attention to the underlined words. Then, read it again,
and complete the activities. Use a separate sheet of paper for your written answers.
Almost everyone knows “Taps,” the haunting melody
played by a military bugler at military and memorial services. This tune has twenty-four solemn notes, one for
each hour of the day, and all the notes are part of a single
chord.
“Taps” had its beginnings in Europe. It is a revision of a
French bugle tune played in the evening. A lieutenant or
another officer in charge of a regiment in the infantry—
soldiers on foot—would order the tune played to notify
everyone it was time to return to their barracks. “Taps”
thus functioned as a kind of curfew call. It warned late
stragglers that they had only a short time to return to
base. Troops who were roaming at liberty needed to report
to their officers, or they would be disciplined.
One evening during the Civil War, General Daniel
Butterfield, a Union officer, fondly and sympathetically
recalled the French tune. Somehow “Taps” had crossed
the ocean. Butterfield made a speech to his comrades,
asking those in the group that the melody be played each
evening at sundown instead of a bugle call named “Extinguish the Lights.” The tune soon spread to the Confederate army, and it was even played at the funeral of
Confederate General Stonewall Jackson.
These days, “Taps” no longer symbolizes a curfew call.
Instead, it functions as a solemn farewell. When its
twenty-four notes ring out at a state occasion, mellow and
true, they often bring tears to the eyes of the spectators in
attendance.
1. Underline the words in this
sentence that give a clue to
bugler. Use the word bugler
in a sentence.
2. Circle the words in this sentence that give a clue to the
meaning of lieutenant. Use
lieutenant in a sentence of
your own.
3. Circle the phrase that means
nearly the same as infantry. In
an army, where does the
infantry fight?
4. Underline the word in this
sentence that gives a clue to
the meaning of stragglers.
Where would the stragglers
be in a marathon?
5. Circle the words in this sentence that give a clue to the
meaning of roaming. What is
a synonym for roaming?
6. Circle the word that is a clue
to the meaning of the word
sympathetically. Name a
noun, verb, and adjective
related to sympathetically.
7. Underline the words that
mean nearly the same as
comrades. Write a sentence
using comrades.
8. Underline the words that give
a clue to the meaning of
spectators. What is a synonym
for spectators?
Unit 4 Resources: Division, Reconciliation, and Expansion
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