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1、Visit www.readinga- for thousands of books and materials.WritingHow do you think Peyton Farquhar was captured by the soldiers?Write your version of what happened,including a detailed description of the setting.Social StudiesResearch the Civil War.Write a report about the Federal Armys advance into n
2、orthern Alabama.Conclude with a description of how these historical events affect the characters.ConnectionsAn Occurrence at Owl Creek BridgeA Reading AZ Level Z2 Leveled BookWord Count:3,754www.readinga-Adapted from the Writings of Ambrose Bierce Illustrated by Chiara FedeleAn Occurrence at Owl Cre
3、ek BridgeLEVELED BOOK Z2Classic Storieswww.readinga-Ambrose Bierce was an American writer and journalist.He enlisted with the Union Army during the Civil War.In 1913,he traveled to Mexico to witness the Mexican Revolutionary War firsthand.Bierce mysteriously disappeared in Mexico and was never heard
4、 from again.Ambrose Bierce 1842?How does the author manipulate time in this story to shape the plot?Focus QuestionAdapted from the Writings of Ambrose BierceIllustrated by Chiara FedeleAn Occurrence at Owl Creek BridgeAn Occurrence at Owl Creek BridgeLevel Z2 Leveled Book Learning AZAdapted from the
5、 Writings of Ambrose BierceIllustrated by Chiara FedeleAll rights reserved.www.readinga-Photo Credits:Title page:Mary Evans Picture Library/Alamy Stock Photo;pages 3,8,22:Victoria Ryabinina/iStock/Thinkstockabrasion blockaded cannoneer civilian commandant condemned delirium diminuendo executioners f
6、atigued Federal Armygesticulated infantry ingloriousintolerable martinetmuzzle outpost provision ramrods report sentinel stockade suffocation Words to KnowCorrelationLEVEL Z2YZN/A70+Fountas&PinnellReading RecoveryDRA3Iman stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama,looking down into the swift w
7、ater twenty feet below.The mans hands were behind his back,the wrists bound with a cord.A rope closely encircled his neck.It was attached to a stout cross-timber above his head and the slack fell to the level of his knees.Some loose boards laid upon the ties supporting the rails of the railway suppl
8、ied a footing for him and his executionerstwo private soldiers of the Federal Army,directed by a sergeant who in civil life may have been a deputy sheriff.At a short remove upon the same temporary platform was an officer in the uniform of his rank,armed.He was a captain.An Occurrence at Owl Creek Br
9、idge Level Z24A sentinel at each end of the bridge stood with his rifle in the position known as“support,”that is to say,vertical in front of the left shoulder,the hammer resting on the forearm thrown straight across the chesta formal and unnatural position,enforcing an erect carriage of the body.It
10、 did not appear to be the duty of these two men to know what was occurring at the center of the bridge;they merely blockaded the two ends of the foot planking that traversed it.Beyond one of the sentinels nobody was in sight;the railroad ran straight away into a forest for a hundred yards,then,curvi
11、ng,was lost to view.Doubtless there was an outpost farther along.The other bank of the stream was open grounda gentle slope topped with a stockade of vertical tree trunks,loopholed for rifles,with a single embrasure through which protruded the muzzle of a brass cannon commanding the bridge.Midway up
12、 the slope between the bridge and fort were the spectatorsa single company of infantry in line,at“parade rest,”the butts of their rifles on the ground,the barrels inclining slightly backward against the right shoulder,the hands crossed upon the stock.A lieutenant stood at the right of the line,the p
13、oint of his sword upon the ground,his left hand resting upon his right.5Excepting the group of four at the center of the bridge,not a man moved.The company faced the bridge,staring stonily,motionless.The sentinels,facing the banks of the stream,might have been statues to adorn the bridge.The captain
14、 stood with folded arms,silent,observing the work of his subordinates,but making no sign.Death is a dignitary who when he comes announced is to be received with formal manifestations of respect,even by those most familiar with him.In the code of military etiquette silence and fixity are forms of def
15、erence.The man who was engaged in being hanged was apparently about thirty-five years of age.He was a civilian,if one might judge from his habit,which was that of a planter.His features were gooda straight nose,firm mouth,broad forehead,from which his long,dark hair was combed straight back,falling
16、behind his ears to the collar of his well-fitting frock coat.He wore a moustache and pointed beard,but no whiskers;his eyes were large and dark gray,and had a kindly expression which one would hardly have expected in one whose neck was in the hemp.Evidently this was no vulgar assassin.The liberal mi
17、litary code makes provision for hanging many kinds of persons,and gentlemen are not excluded.An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Level Z26The preparations being complete,the two private soldiers stepped aside and each drew away the plank upon which he had been standing.The sergeant turned to the capta
18、in,saluted and placed himself immediately behind that officer,who in turn moved apart one pace.These movements left the condemned man and the sergeant standing on the two ends of the same plank,which spanned three of the cross-ties of the bridge.The end upon which the civilian stood almost,but not q
19、uite,reached a fourth.This plank had been held in place by the weight of the captain;it was now held by that of the sergeant.At a signal from the former the latter would step aside,the plank would tilt and the condemned man go down between two ties.The arrangement commended itself to his judgement a
20、s simple and effective.His face had not been covered nor his eyes bandaged.He looked a moment at his“unsteadfast footing,”then let his gaze wander to the swirling water of the stream racing madly beneath his feet.A piece of dancing driftwood caught his attention and his eyes followed it down the cur
21、rent.How slowly it appeared to move!What a sluggish stream!7He closed his eyes in order to fix his last thoughts upon his wife and children.The water,touched to gold by the early sun,the brooding mists under the banks at some distance down the stream,the fort,the soldiers,the piece of driftall had d
22、istracted him.And now he became conscious of a new disturbance.Striking through the thought of his dear ones was sound which he could neither ignore nor understand,a sharp,distinct,metallic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmiths hammer upon the anvil;it had the same ringing quality.He wondered
23、what it was,and whether immeasurably distant or near byit seemed both.Its recurrence was regular,but as slow as the tolling of a death knell.He awaited each new stroke with impatience andhe knew not whyapprehension.The intervals of silence grew progressively longer;the delays became maddening.With t
24、heir greater infrequency the sounds increased in strength and sharpness.They hurt his ear like the thrust of a knife;he feared he would shriek.What he heard was the ticking of his watch.An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Level Z28He unclosed his eyes and saw again the water below him.If I could free
25、my hands,he thought,I might throw off the noose and spring into the stream.By diving I could evade the bullets and,swimming vigorously,reach the bank,take to the woods and get away home.My home,thank God,is as yet outside their lines;my wife and little ones are still beyond the invaders farthest adv
26、ance.As these thoughts,which have here to be set down in words,were flashed into the doomed mans brain rather than evolved from it the captain nodded to the sergeant.The sergeant stepped aside.9IIPeyton Farquhar was a well to do planter,of an old and highly respected Alabama family.Being a slave own
27、er and like other slave owners a politician,he was naturally an original secessionist and ardently devoted to the Southern cause.Circumstances of an imperious nature,which it is unnecessary to relate here,had prevented him from taking service with that gallant army which had fought the disastrous ca
28、mpaigns ending with the fall of Corinth,and he chafed under the inglorious restraint,longing for the release of his energies,the larger life of the soldier,the opportunity for distinction.That opportunity,he felt,would come,as it comes to all in wartime.An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Level Z210Me
29、anwhile he did what he could.No service was too humble for him to perform in the aid of the South,no adventure too perilous for him to undertake if consistent with the character of a civilian who was at heart a soldier,and who in good faith and without too much qualification assented to at least a p
30、art of the frankly villainous dictum that all is fair in love and war.One evening while Farquhar and his wife were sitting on a rustic bench near the entrance to his grounds,a gray-clad soldier rode up to the gate and asked for a drink of water.Mrs.Farquhar was only too happy to serve him with her o
31、wn white hands.While she was fetching the water her husband approached the dusty horseman and inquired eagerly for news from the front.“The Yanks are repairing the railroads,”said the man,“and are getting ready for another advance.They have reached the Owl Creek bridge,put it in order and built a st
32、ockade on the north bank.The commandant has issued an order,which is posted everywhere,declaring that any civilian caught interfering with the railroad,its bridges,tunnels,or trains will be summarily hanged.I saw the order.”11“How far is it to the Owl Creek bridge?”Farquhar asked.“About thirty miles
33、.”“Is there no force on this side of the creek?”“Only a picket post half a mile out,on the railroad,and a single sentinel at this end of the bridge.”“Suppose a mana civilian and student of hangingshould elude the picket post and perhaps get the better of the sentinel,”said Farquhar,smiling,“what cou
34、ld he accomplish?”The soldier reflected.“I was there a month ago,”he replied.“I observed that the flood of last winter had lodged a great quantity of driftwood against the wooden pier at this end of the bridge.It is now dry and would burn like tinder.”The lady had now brought the water,which the sol
35、dier drank.He thanked her ceremoniously,bowed to her husband and rode away.An hour later,after nightfall,he repassed the plantation,going northward in the direction from which he had come.He was a Federal scout.An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Level Z212IIIAs Peyton Farquhar fell straight downward
36、through the bridge he lost consciousness and was as one already dead.From this state he was awakenedages later,it seemed to himby the pain of a sharp pressure upon his throat,followed by a sense of suffocation.Keen,poignant agonies seemed to shoot from his neck downward through every fiber of his bo
37、dy and limbs.These pains appeared to flash along well-defined lines of ramification and to beat with an inconceivably rapid periodicity.They seemed like streams of pulsating fire heating him to an intolerable temperature.As to his head,he was conscious of nothing but a feeling of fullnessof congesti
38、on.13These sensations were unaccompanied by thought.The intellectual part of his nature was already effaced;he had power only to feel,and feeling was torment.He was conscious of motion.Encompassed in a luminous cloud,of which he was now merely the fiery heart,without material substance,he swung thro
39、ugh unthinkable arcs of oscillation,like a vast pendulum.Then all at once,with terrible suddenness,the light about him shot upward with the noise of a loud splash;a frightful roaring was in his ears,and all was cold and dark.The power of thought was restored;he knew that the rope had broken and he h
40、ad fallen into the stream.There was no additional strangulation;the noose about his neck was already suffocating him and kept the water from his lungs.To die of hanging at the bottom of a river!the idea seemed to him ludicrous.He opened his eyes in the darkness and saw above him a gleam of light,but
41、 how distant,how inaccessible!He was still sinking,for the light became fainter and fainter until it was a mere glimmer.Then it began to grow and brighten,and he knew that he was rising toward the surfaceknew it with reluctance,for he was now very comfortable.To be hanged and drowned,he thought,that
42、 is not so bad;but I do not wish to be shot.No;I will not be shot;that is not fair.An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Level Z214He was not conscious of an effort,but a sharp pain in his wrist apprised him that he was trying to free his hands.He gave the struggle his attention,as an idler might observ
43、e the feat of a juggler,without interest in the outcome.What splendid effort!what magnificent,what superhuman strength!Ah,that was a fine endeavor!Bravo!The cord fell away;his arms parted and floated upward,the hands dimly seen on each side in the growing light.He watched them with a new interest as
44、 first one and then the other pounced upon the noose at his neck.They tore it away and thrust it fiercely aside,its undulations resembling those of a water snake.Put it back,put it back!He thought he shouted these words to his hands,for the undoing of the noose had been succeeded by the direst pang
45、that he had yet experienced.His neck ached horribly;his brain was on fire,his heart,which had been fluttering faintly,gave a great leap,trying to force itself out at his mouth.His whole body was racked and wrenched with an insupportable anguish!But his disobedient hands gave no heed to the command.T
46、hey beat the water vigorously with quick,downward strokes,forcing him to the surface.He felt his head emerge;his eyes were blinded by the sunlight;his chest expanded convulsively,and with a supreme and crowning15agony his lungs engulfed a great draught of air,which instantly he expelled in a shriek!
47、He was now in full possession of his physical senses.They were,indeed,preternaturally keen and alert.Something in the awful disturbance of his organic system had so exalted and refined them that they made record of things never before perceived.He felt the ripples upon his face and heard their separ
48、ate sounds as they struck.He looked at the forest on the bank of the stream,saw the individual trees,the leaves and the veining of each leafhe saw the very insects upon them:the locusts,the brilliant bodied flies,the gray spiders stretching their webs from twig to twig.He noted the prismatic colors
49、in all the dewdrops upon a million blades of grass.The humming of the gnats that danced above the eddies of the stream,the beating of the dragon flies wings,the strokes of the water spiders legs,like oars which had lifted their boatall these made audible music.A fish slid along beneath his eyes and
50、he heard the rush of its body parting the water.He had come to the surface facing down the stream;in a moment the visible world seemed to wheel slowly round and he saw the bridge,the fort,the soldiers upon the bridge,the captain,the sergeant,the two privates,his executioners.An Occurrence at Owl Cre