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ESL Worksheets
PERSEUS
Geraldine McCaughrean
Greek Myths, Heinemann New Windmills (1992)
Before Reading
Fortune Telling
- Make a Fortune Telling Machine by following the teacher’s instructions. Write your own predictions ("You will …" ) inside the flaps of the machine.
- Tell your partner’s fortune as follows:
- Ask him/her to choose a question from the four flaps. Open and close the machine once for each year of their age, once for each letter of their name and so on.
- Do the same again with one more question.
- Ask your partner to choose a colour from the open section of the machine. Open the flap of this colour and tell your partner his/her fortune!
Thinking like a Greek hero
Think of as many uses as possible for the following items. (An example is given for you.)
You could use them to swim at top speed across a lake or river.
- A mirror
- A hat that makes you invisible
Vocabulary
What is the odd word out in each of the following groups? Why? (An example has been done for you.)
- handsome, pretty, ugly, attractive
("ugly" is negative, the others are positive)
- Box, chest, trunk, basket
- Battered, bruised, fit, injured
- Shack, cabin, palace, hut
- Humble, proud, vain, conceited
- Gloves, helmet, hat, cap
- Sandals, slippers, boots, socks
- Stare, glimpse, glance at, notice
- Gruesome, delightful, revolting, hideous
- Quarrel, argue, agree, disagree
After Reading
For the following questions you will work in two groups: Group A and Group B.
Both groups (P.36 to P.38 – Perseus fell right into the king’s trap.)
- a) Who was Acrisius’s grandson?
b) Who was Danae’s father?
- Why did Acrisius want to get rid of Perseus?
- Who resued Perseus and his mother?
- What was so difficult about King Polydectes’s dare?
Group A (P.38 – "Bravo!" cheered the courtiers - to P.42 – "… burrowed into the sand.)
1. How did the following gods help Perseus?
2. What was the Grey Sisters’ greatest weakness?
3. Perseus was afraid to look at Medusa, so how did he know that he had really found her?
4. What trick did Perseus use so that he could look at Medusa without being turned to stone?
5. How did Perseus kill Medusa?
6. Why did he have to be careful as he put her head into his sack?
Group B (P.42 – "As he flew homewards …" – to the end of the story.)
- Why did Phineas refuse to help Andromeda?
- What did Perseus lose when he attacked the sea serpent?
- Why did Andromeda feel that Phineas did not deserve to marry her?
- How did Perseus defeat the fifty warriors who intended to kill him?
- Can you see a possible mistake in the story? (Compare your answers to No. 2 and No. 4.)
- "He left the magic weapons out under the evening sky and next day they were gone." (P.46) Who do you think took the weapons?
- Why did Danae tell Perseus "Don’t blame yourself"?
Think about it
What is your fate? Are there any stories in your culture about Fate?
Frankie Meehan