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Beyond the Bones: What the Narrator Suggests worksheet preview

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Beyond the Bones: What the Narrator Suggests

Analyze connotations in an original dinosaur audio-guide script and revise wording to distinguish evidence from judgment.

Grade 7ELAInteractive · Printable

Aligned toL.7.5.c

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What’s included

  • Single worksheet
  • Auto-graded online
  • 1 Common Core standard
  • Printable answer key
  • 13 questions
  • Classroom-ready

Details

Format
Interactive · Printable
Grade
Grade 7
Subject
ELA
Question types
Multiple choice, Matching, Circle the answer, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

  • Students distinguish the connotations of words with similar dictionary meanings.
  • Students explain how word choices shape impressions in a dinosaur audio-guide script.
  • Students revise descriptions to convey an intended attitude without adding unsupported judgments.

How to use

Read the script silently or aloud as an audio guide. Have students complete the word-choice decisions, then compare their final revisions with a partner.

Curriculum

Common Core standard covered

L.7.5.c

Tell apart the connotations of words with similar dictionary meanings, such as polite, tactful, and stiff.

Preview

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Name Date

Beyond the Bones: What the Narrator Suggests

Examine how an audio guide’s word choices shape visitors’ impressions.

Read and Listen Closely

Read this original museum audio-guide script. Distinguish what the exhibit shows from the feelings its language creates.

A Voice Beside the Skeletons

1Welcome to the dinosaur gallery. I’m your narrator, Tamsin. Before you examine the first skeleton, notice the space around it. The exhibit designers have left the floor beneath its long neck open, allowing you to look upward without another case blocking your view. The mount includes casts as well as fossil bones. Its pose is a reconstruction based on evidence, not a frozen moment recovered intact from the past.

2Now stop beneath the looming skeleton. A low rumble and a sudden shadow are timed to make this entrance feel threatening. The sound is an exhibit effect, not a recording of the dinosaur. The animal’s long neck reaches above the walkway. Farther ahead, brighter light lets you study the same mount from another angle.

3At the next case, look at the delicate bones of a smaller dinosaur. Thin structures require careful support in a display, but delicate should not lead us to imagine an animal unable to survive. Some dinosaurs were small; size alone does not tell us how successfully an animal lived. Nearby, a massive thigh bone invites a different response. Its dimensions are impressive, though a large bone by itself cannot tell us whether its owner moved gracefully or awkwardly.

4Continue to the model of a meat-eating dinosaur. Its sharp teeth can look fearsome from this close. Teeth provide evidence about feeding, but they do not reveal whether an animal was cruel. Calling this dinosaur vicious would turn a description of feeding equipment into something closer to a judgment of character. The model’s skin color is one possible reconstruction; where direct evidence is missing, the artist must make choices.

5At the final station, compare two reconstructions made from different interpretations of the same incomplete evidence. One has an unusual outline that may surprise you. An unfamiliar shape is not necessarily a ridiculous one. Researchers can revise reconstructions when additional evidence becomes available. As you leave, listen to the words you use for these animals: a description can quietly become a verdict before you notice the change.

1.
In paragraph 2, both towering and looming could describe the skeleton’s appearance above visitors. What does looming add that towering does not necessarily suggest?
  • A. A sense that the skeleton is difficult to examine closely
  • B. A sense of a tall structure admired for its elegant shape
  • C. A sense of an imposing presence that may feel threatening
  • D. A sense that the skeleton is unusually complete
2.
In paragraph 2, underline the sentence showing that the entrance effects deliberately encourage the uneasy impression discussed in question 1.

Now stop beneath the looming skeleton.A low rumble and a sudden shadow are timed to make this entrance feel threatening.The sound is an exhibit effect, not a recording of the dinosaur.The animal’s long neck reaches above the walkway.Farther ahead, brighter light lets you study the same mount from another angle.

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