= Partner SitePassages
On September 12, 1962, President John F. Kennedy delivered a speech at Rice University in Houston, Texas. His remarks are a continuation of a promise he made in 1961 to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. The promise was kept when on July 20,…
L. Frank Baum wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900. It tells of the adventures of Dorothy, a Kansas farm girl. She is swept up by a cyclone to the magical land of Oz. In order to go home, the Wizard of Oz has told her she must kill…
This passage is a speech from Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth. The title character Macbeth is a Scottish general who receives a prophecy that he would one day be King of Scotland. He becomes ambitious and eager to make the prophecy come true. He is encouraged by his wife, Lady Macbeth. He…
In this version of a Greek myth, Daedalus is a great builder employed by King Minos. He became famous for designing and building the Labyrinth of Crete which held the Minotaur, a great monster. —————————————– Daedalus was guilty of a deed which angered the king very greatly; and had not…
On May, 1, 1815, English sculptor Anne Seymour Damer stood in a room at the Palais Elysée in Paris. His Imperial Majesty Napoleon I had commanded her presence. Her appointment was at 10 a.m. She had been waiting two hours. Finally, a servant approached her. “Madam, please follow me.” The…
For six years, Sebastian slept in his own room at the top of the stairs. It was a big room with slanted ceilings. The whole room was painted a cheerful shade of yellow, and it was a wonderful place to play, read and snuggle into blankets on a winter night.…
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is the story of a little girl who goes to a strange world after following a rabbit down a hole. In this passage, Alice meets the Cheshire Cat, a disappearing cat with a huge smile. —————————————– The Cat only grinned when it saw…
Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in New York around 1797. Her birth name was Isabella Baumfree. She changed it to Sojourner Truth in 1843. She suffered under several owners before she finally escaped to freedom in 1825. She became a widely admired abolitionist and feminist. Below is a passage…
In the book Peter Pan, Peter lives in the magical land of Neverland with his friends, the Lost Boys. Peter brings his new friends, Wendy, John, and Michael, to Neverland. Once she is in Neverland, Wendy becomes a “pretend” mother to all the boys. The group has many adventures, including…
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun Coral is far more red than her lips’ red If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damask’d, red and white, …
