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The Greek Gear Box Pulled from a Shipwreck

8th grade nonfiction passage about the Antikythera mechanism: 272 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

8th grade nonfiction the Antikythera mechanism 272 words

The Greek Gear Box Pulled from a Shipwreck

In 1901, sponge divers sheltering from a storm near the small Greek island of Antikythera found an ancient shipwreck resting on the seafloor. They brought up marble statues, pottery, and coins. Among the finds was a crusted lump of corroded bronze that seemed unimportant at first. It sat in a museum in Athens for a while before anyone looked closely.

When the lump cracked, people saw the teeth of gears. For a piece of machinery that was about two thousand years old, that was astonishing. Scholars had not expected the ancient world to produce anything like it. Over the following century, researchers studied it with X-rays and later with powerful scanners that could see inside the fragments without damaging them. The scans revealed dozens of gears and thousands of tiny letters of inscription, most of it a kind of instruction manual.

The device is now called the Antikythera mechanism. Its builders cut every tooth by hand, and the gears worked together in trains so that turning a single crank moved many dials at once. Researchers believe the dials showed the positions of the sun and moon, the phases of the moon, and the time of certain eclipses. It may have tracked calendars and other events in the sky, too.

Some parts are missing, and some details remain uncertain, so scientists continue to debate exactly how the whole machine looked and worked. What is clear is that its makers understood a great deal about astronomy and about gears. For many centuries afterward, no surviving machine shows such careful gearing, which makes this crusted lump from the sea a remarkable window into the past.

Questions

  1. Who found the shipwreck near Antikythera? in the text

  2. What did people notice when the lump of bronze cracked? in the text

  3. How did researchers look inside the fragments without damaging them? in the text

  4. What did researchers believe the dials showed? in the text

  5. Why was the discovery so astonishing to scholars? think about it

  6. Why do scientists still debate parts of the machine? think about it

Words to know

shipwreck
the remains of a ship that sank or was destroyed
corroded
slowly eaten away, as metal is by water or air
inscription
words that are carved or scratched into a surface
eclipse
when one object in the sky blocks light from another
astronomy
the study of stars, planets, and space
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One passage, three levels

The same topic and facts written three ways, so a mixed class can read and talk about one text. Each group’s sheet shows only a shape; the key says which is which.

● Easier · 264 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 4.9

In 1901, sponge divers were waiting out a storm near a small Greek island called Antikythera. There they found an ancient shipwreck on the seafloor. They brought up marble statues, pottery and coins. One find was a crusty lump of old bronze. It did not seem important at first. It sat in a museum in Athens for a while before anyone looked at it closely.

Then the lump cracked, and people saw the teeth of gears. It was about two thousand years old, so this was a big surprise. Scholars had not thought the ancient world could make a machine like it. Over the next hundred years, researchers studied it with X-rays. Later they used strong scanners that could see inside the pieces without harming them. The scans showed dozens of gears. They also showed thousands of tiny letters, mostly a kind of how-to guide.

The device is now called the Antikythera mechanism. Its makers cut every tooth by hand. The gears worked together, so turning one crank moved many dials at once. Researchers think the dials showed where the sun and moon were, the moon's phases, and when some eclipses would happen. It may have tracked calendars and other events in the sky as well.

Some parts are missing, and some facts are still not certain. Scientists still argue about how it looked and worked. But its makers clearly knew a lot about the stars and about gears. For many centuries after, no machine that survives has such careful gears. This crusty lump from the sea is a window into the past.

▲ This passage · 272 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 9.1

In 1901, sponge divers sheltering from a storm near the small Greek island of Antikythera found an ancient shipwreck resting on the seafloor. They brought up marble statues, pottery, and coins. Among the finds was a crusted lump of corroded bronze that seemed unimportant at first. It sat in a museum in Athens for a while before anyone looked closely.

When the lump cracked, people saw the teeth of gears. For a piece of machinery that was about two thousand years old, that was astonishing. Scholars had not expected the ancient world to produce anything like it. Over the following century, researchers studied it with X-rays and later with powerful scanners that could see inside the fragments without damaging them. The scans revealed dozens of gears and thousands of tiny letters of inscription, most of it a kind of instruction manual.

The device is now called the Antikythera mechanism. Its builders cut every tooth by hand, and the gears worked together in trains so that turning a single crank moved many dials at once. Researchers believe the dials showed the positions of the sun and moon, the phases of the moon, and the time of certain eclipses. It may have tracked calendars and other events in the sky, too.

Some parts are missing, and some details remain uncertain, so scientists continue to debate exactly how the whole machine looked and worked. What is clear is that its makers understood a great deal about astronomy and about gears. For many centuries afterward, no surviving machine shows such careful gearing, which makes this crusted lump from the sea a remarkable window into the past.

■ Harder · 282 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 11.6

In 1901, a group of sponge divers sheltering from a storm near the small Greek island of Antikythera happened upon an ancient shipwreck resting on the seafloor. From it they recovered marble statues, pottery, and coins. Among the finds was a crusted lump of corroded bronze that appeared unremarkable at first, and it sat in a museum in Athens for some time before anyone examined it closely.

When the lump cracked open, observers noticed the unmistakable teeth of gears. For a piece of machinery roughly two thousand years old, that discovery was astonishing, because scholars had never expected the ancient world to produce anything of the kind. Over the following century, researchers studied the fragments with X-rays and later with powerful scanners capable of peering inside them without causing any damage. The scans revealed dozens of gears and thousands of tiny letters of inscription, much of it resembling an instruction manual.

The device is now called the Antikythera mechanism. Its builders cut every tooth by hand, and the gears worked together in trains, so that turning a single crank moved many dials simultaneously. Researchers believe the dials displayed the positions of the sun and moon, the phases of the moon, and the timing of certain eclipses. The machine may also have tracked calendars and other events in the sky.

Some parts are missing and some details remain uncertain, so scientists continue to debate exactly how the whole machine appeared and operated. What is clear is that its makers understood a great deal about astronomy and about gears. For many centuries afterward, no surviving machine displays such careful gearing, which makes this crusted lump from the sea a remarkable window into the past.

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How to use it

  1. Press Read it big (or B) to put the text on the projector, or Full screen (F) to fill the whole screen.
  2. Ask the questions one at a time and use Show answer when the class has decided. A shows or hides every answer.
  3. Print student copy for the class, or Print with answers for yourself.

Ideas for class

  • Before reading, put shipwreck, corroded, inscription, eclipse and astronomy on the board with their meanings from the Words to know section and have students predict what the text will be about.
  • Read it aloud once while students follow along, then have them reread it alone or with a partner. At a calm 100 words a minute it takes about 3 minutes to read aloud.
  • Use the Read it big button (or B) to put the text on the projector, and Show answer on one question at a time so the class commits to an answer first.
  • Question 5 asks the reader to infer. Ask students to point to the words in the passage that led them to their answer.
  • Ask students to write one question the passage did not answer, then look for the answer in a book or on a classroom screen.
  • Print the student copy for independent work and keep the answer-key copy for yourself.

Related

Questions

What reading level is "The Greek Gear Box Pulled from a Shipwreck"?

It was written for 8th grade. It has 272 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 9.1. That is a formula's estimate from sentence length and syllables, and it is not a Lexile or a guided reading level, so check it against your students.

What do the questions ask?

There are six. 4 ask for something the text says directly and 2 ask the reader to work something out from clues. Each has an answer in the key, and the answers are written as a teacher would accept them, not as the only possible wording.

How long does it take to read?

About 3 minutes read aloud at 100 words a minute. For a one-minute fluency check, paste it into the fluency timer and use the word count.

Can I print it?

Yes. Print student copy gives the passage, the questions with lines to write on, and the word meanings. Print with answers gives the same page with the answers filled in. Both are made in your browser.

Is this passage from a published book?

No. It was written for Peabody Teach, so there is no book to buy and no login to read it.

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