Name
Date
A Sound of Thunder
Copy Master
Assessment Practice
SHORT ANSWER
Directions: The following questions help you practice skills that you will be tested on
in assessments. Use the questions below to take notes on the selections. Then write your
response to each short answer question on your own sheet of paper.
Literary Text: “A Sound of Thunder”
What theme, or message, is Bradbury conveying through “A Sound of Thunder”? Support your
answer with evidence from the story.
1. What message is Bradbury sending readers?
A Sound of Thunder
2. Cite evidence from the text in the form of a direct quotation, a paraphrase, or a specific
synopsis that supports your response above.
Copyright © Holt McDougal, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Nonfiction Text: “From Here to There: The Physics of Time Travel”
What is the purpose of “From Here to There: The Physics of Time Travel”? Support your
answer with evidence from the selection.
3. What is the author of “From Here to There” comparing and contrasting?
4. What is the author’s purpose? What evidence indicates that?
Comparing Literary and Nonfiction Texts
Suppose “A Sound of Thunder” were a true story. Whose theories in the magazine article
would its plot contradict? Support your answer with evidence from both selections.
5. According to “From Here to There,” whose theories would the plot of “A Sound of
Thunder” contradict?
6. Cite evidence from the texts in the form of a direct quotation, a paraphrase, or a specific
synopsis that supports your response above.
Resource Manager
Unit 1
Grade 9
33