Name______Period______Date______

Directions: Through close reading find the main idea of the introductory paragraph or first stanza of poetry. Highlight or underline the main idea of each piece of text. Then interpret the main idea of the text.

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone byJ.K.Rowling

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they didn’t hold with such nonsense.

2.The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

I was born with water on the brain.

Okay, so that’s not exactly true. I was actually born with too much cerebral spinal fluid inside my skull. But cerebral spinal fluid is just the doctors’ fancy way of saying brain grease. And brain grease works inside the lobes like car grease work inside an engine. It keeps things running smooth and fast. But weirdo me, I was born with too much grease inside my skull, and it got all thick and muddy and disgusting, and it only mucked up the works. My thinking and breaking and living engine slowed down and flooded.

3.“After weeks of watching the roof leak” by Gary Snyder

After weeks of watching the roof leak

I fixed it tonight

By moving a single board

4. XXVII Emily Dickinson

Because I could not stop for Death,

He kindly stopped for me;

The carriage held but just ourselves

And Immortality.

5.Wintergirlsby Laurie Halse Anderson

So she tells me, the words dribbling out with the cranberry muffin crumbs, commas dunked in her coffee.

She tells me in four sentences. No, five.

I can’t let her hear this, but it’s too late. The facts sneak in an stab me. When she gets to the worst part

…body found in motel room, alone. . .

. . .my walls go up and my doors lock. I nod like I’m listening, like we’re communicating, and she never knows the difference.

It’s not nice when girls die.

6.“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at the close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.