1 Short Stories

Ray Bradbury   All Summer in a Day

WARMING UP
Speaking
■■ Before reading the story, answer the following questions.
1 Can you imagine living in a place where it rained every day? What would
you miss most?
2 Have you – or have any of your friends – ever been the victim of discrimina-
tion or intolerance? Talk about it.

WHILE READING
Comprehension
■■ While reading trough, answer the questions in the margin.

8
“Ready?”
“Ready.”
“Now?”
“Soon.”
“Do the scientists really know? Will it happen today, will it?”
“Look, look; see for yourself!”
The children pressed to each other like so many roses, so
many weeds,1 intermixed, peering out for a look at the hidden
sun.
It rained.
It had been raining for seven years; thousands upon thou-
sands of days compounded and filled from one end to the
other with rain, with the drum and gush2 of water, with the
How long has it sweet crystal fall of showers and the concussion3 of storms
been raining? so heavy they were tidal waves come over the islands. A
thousand forests had been crushed4 under the rain and grown
up a thousand times to be crushed again. And this was the
way life was forever on the planet Venus, and this was the

Glossary
1 valueless plants growing wild 2 a sudden outward flow of a
large amount of liquid 3 violent shaking 4 destroyed

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 All Summer in a Day 53

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 3 Short Stories

schoolroom of the children of the rocket men and women

who had come to a raining world to set up civilization and
live out their lives.
“It’s stopping, it’s stopping!”
“Yes, yes!”
Margot stood apart from them, from these children who could
ever remember a time when there wasn’t rain and rain and
rain.
They were all nine years old, and if there had been a day,
When did the seven years ago, when the sun came out for an hour and
sun last appear? showed its face to the stunned5 world, they could not recall.
Sometimes, at night, she heard them stir, in remembrance,
and she knew they were dreaming and remembering gold or
a yellow crayon or a coin large enough to buy the world with.
She knew they thought they remembered a warmness, like a
blushing in the face, in the body, in the arms and legs and
trembling hands. But then they always awoke to the tatting
drum6, the endless shaking down of clear bead necklaces
upon the roof, the walk, the gardens, the forests, and their
dreams were gone.
All day yesterday they had read in class about the sun. About
how like a lemon it was, and how hot. And they had written
small stories or essays or poems about it:
What are the
children waiting I think the sun is a flower,
for? That blooms for just one hour.
That was Margot’s poem, read in a quiet voice in the still
classroom while the rain was falling outside.
“Aw, you didn’t write that!” protested one of the boys.
“I did,” said Margot. “I did.”
“William!” said the teacher.
But that was yesterday. Now the rain was slackening,7 and
the children were crushed in8 the great thick windows.
“Where’s teacher?”
“She’ll be back.”

Glossary
5 surprised 6 a continuous, soft beating sound 7 slow-
ing 8 pressed closely together

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 All Summer in a Day 4

“She’d better hurry, we’ll miss it!” spokes

They turned on themselves, like a feverish wheel, all tum-
bling9 spokes.
Margot stood alone. She was a very frail10 girl who looked
as if she had been lost in the rain for years and the rain had
washed out the blue from her eyes and the red from her mouth
and the yellow from her hair. She was an old photograph
dusted from an album, whitened away, and if she spoke at all
her voice would be a ghost. Now she stood, separate, staring
at the rain and the loud wet world beyond the huge glass.
“What’re you looking at?” said William.
Margot said nothing.
“Speak when you’re spoken to.”
He gave her a shove.11 But she did not move; rather she let
herself be moved only by him and nothing else. They edged12
away from her, they would not look at her. She felt them go
away. And this was because she would play no games with
them in the echoing tunnels of the underground city. If they
tagged13 her and ran, she stood blinking14 after them and did
not follow. When the class sang songs about happiness and
life and games her lips barely moved. Only when they sang
about the sun and the summer did her lips move as she
watched the drenched15 windows. And then, of course, the
biggest crime of all was that she had come here only five
Where does
years ago from Earth, and she remembered the sun and the Margot come
way the sun was and the sky was when she was four in Ohio. from?
And they, they had been on Venus all their lives, and they had
been only two years old when last the sun came out and had
long since forgotten the color and heat of it and the way it
really was. But Margot remembered.
“It’s like a penny,” she said once, eyes closed.
“No it’s not!” the children cried.
“It’s like a fire,” she said, “in the stove.”

Glossary
9 rolling over and over 10 not very strong 11 strong, forceful
push 12 moved slowly 13 tapped 14 looking with little con-
cern 15 impregnated with water

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 5 Short Stories

“You’re lying, you don’t remember!” cried the children.

But she remembered and stood quietly apart from all of them
and watched the patterning windows. And once, a month ago,
she had refused to shower in the school shower rooms, had
clutched16 her hands to her ears and over her head, screaming
the water mustn’t touch her head. So after that, dimly,17 dimly,
she sensed it, she was different and they knew her difference
and kept away. There was talk that her father and mother were
Why don’t taking her back to Earth next year; it seemed vital to her that
Margot’s parents
return to the they do so, though it would mean the loss of thousands of dollars
Earth? to her family. And so, the children hated her for all these reasons
of big and little consequence.18 They hated her pale snow face,
her waiting silence, her thinness, and her possible future.
“Get away!” The boy gave her another push. “What’re you
waiting for?”
Then, for the first time, she turned and looked at him. And
what she was waiting for was in her eyes.
“Well, don’t wait around here!” cried the boy savagely. “You
won’t see nothing!”
Her lips moved.
“Nothing!” he cried. “It was all a joke, wasn’t it?” He turned
to the other children.
“Nothing’s happening today. Is it?”
They all blinked at him and then, understanding, laughed and
shook their heads.
“Nothing, nothing!”
“Oh, but,” Margot whispered, her eyes helpless. “But this is
a closet the day, the scientists predict, they say, they know, the sun…”
“All a joke!” said the boy, and seized her roughly. “Hey,
everyone, let’s put her in a closet before the teacher comes!”
“No,” said Margot, falling back.
They surged19 about her, caught her up and bore her, protest-
ing, and then pleading,20 and then crying, back into a tunnel,

Glossary
16 held tightly 17 in an indistinct way 18 importance 19 moved
very quickly 20 asking for something in a serious and emotion-
al way

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 All Summer in a Day 6

a room, a closet, where they slammed and locked the door.

They stood looking at the door and saw it tremble from her
beating and throwing herself against it. They heard her muf-
fled cries. Then, smiling, they turned and went out and back
down the tunnel, just as the teacher arrived.
“Ready, children?” She glanced at her watch. “Yes!” said
everyone.
“Are we all here?”
“Yes!”
The rain slacked still more. They crowded to the huge door.
The rain stopped. It was as if, in the midst of a film concern-
ing an avalanche, a tornado, a hurricane, a volcanic eruption,
something had, first, gone wrong with the sound apparatus,
thus muffling and finally cutting off all
noise, all of the blasts and repercussions
and thunders, and then, second, ripped
the film from the projector and inserted
in its place a beautiful tropical slide
which did not move or tremor. The world
ground to a standstill. The silence was
so immense and unbelievable that you
felt your ears had been stuffed21 or you
had lost your hearing together. The chil-
dren put their hands to their ears. They
stood apart. The door slid back and the
smell of the silent, waiting world came in to them.
The sun came out. It was the color of flaming bronze and it
was very large. And the sky around it was a blazing22 blue
tile color. And the jungle burned with sunlight as the children,
released from their spell,23 rushed out, yelling into the spring-
time.
“Now, don’t go too far,” called the teacher after them. “You’ve
only two hours, you know. You wouldn’t want to get caught
out!” But they were running and turning their faces up to the

Glossary
21 filled and blocked up 22 very bright 23 state of enchant-
ment

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 7 Short Stories

sky and feeling the sun on their cheeks like a warm iron; they
were taking off their jackets and letting the sun burn their arms.
“Oh, it’s better than the sun lamps, isn’t it?”
an octopus “Much, much better!”
They stopped running and stood in the great jungle that cov-
ered Venus, that grew and never stopped growing, tumultu-
ously, even as you watched it. It was a nest of octopuses,
clustering up great arms of fleshlike weed, wavering, flow-
ering in this brief spring.
It was the color of rubber and ash, this jungle, from the many
years without sun. It was the color of stones and white chees-
es and ink, and it was the color of the moon. The children lay
out, laughing, on the jungle mattress, and heard it sigh and
squeak under them resilient24 and alive. They ran among the
trees, they slipped and fell, they pushed each other, they
played hide-and-seek and tag, but most of all they squinted
at the sun until the tears ran down their faces; they put their
hands up to that yellowness and that amazing blueness and
they breathed of the fresh, fresh air and listened and listened
to the silence which suspended them in a blessed sea of no
sound and no motion. They looked at everything and savored
everything. Then, wildly, like animals escaped from their
caves, they ran and ran in shouting circles. They ran for an
hour and did not stop running.
How long does
the sun shine on And then in the midst of their running one of the girls wailed.
planet Venus? Everyone stopped.
The girl, standing in the open, held out her hand.
“Oh, look, look,” she said, trembling.
They came slowly to look at her opened palm. In the center
Why is the girl of it, cupped and huge, was a single raindrop. She began to
crying? cry, looking at it. They glanced quietly at the sun.
“Oh. Oh.”
A few cold drops fell on their noses and their cheeks and their
mouths. The sun faded25 behind a stir of mist.26 A wind blew

Glossary
24 springy 25 disappeared slowly 26 a mass of small drops of
water in the air close to the ground

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 All Summer in a Day 8

cold around them. They turned and started to walk back

toward the underground house, their hands at their sides, their
smiles vanishing away. A boom of thunder startled them and lightning
like leaves before a new hurricane, they tumbled upon each
other and ran. Lightning struck ten miles away, five miles
away, a mile, a half mile. The sky darkened into midnight in
a flash.
They stood in the doorway of the underground for a moment
until it was raining hard. Then they closed the door and heard
the gigantic sound of the rain falling in tons and avalanches,
everywhere and forever.
“Will it be seven more years?”
“Yes. Seven.”
Then one of them gave a little cry.
“Margot!”
“What?”
“She’s still in the closet where we locked her.” stakes

“Margot.”
They stood as if someone had driven them, like so many
stakes, into the floor. They looked at each other and then
looked away. They glanced out at the world that was raining
now and raining and raining steadily.27 They could not meet
each other’s glances. Their faces were solemn and pale.
They looked at their hands and feet, their faces down.
“Margot.”
One of the girls said, “Well… ?”
No one moved.
“Go on,” whispered the girl.
They walked slowly down the hall in the sound of cold rain.
They turned through the doorway to the room in the sound
of the storm and thunder, lightning on their faces, blue and
terrible. They walked over to the closet door slowly and stood
by it. Behind the closet door was only silence. They unlocked
the door, even more slowly, and let Margot out.

Glossary
27 on and on

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 9 Short Stories

CLOSE READING
Comprehension
■■ Answer the following questions.
1 Why are the children so excited at the beginning of the story?
...............................................................................................................................
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2 Why is Margot different from the other children?
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3 Why are the children on Venus jealous of Margot?
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4 How does William bully Margot?
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5 How do the children seem to feel about what they have done to Margot?
...............................................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................................
6 How does the setting affect Margot’s mood?
...............................................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................................

Setting description
■■ Which senses are involved in the description of the setting? Fill in the chart
below quoting examples from the text.
Sight Hearing Smell Touch

Analysis
■■ The author uses both direct characterisation (the narrator tells us directly what
this character is like) and indirect characterisation (the author shows us what
the character is like through the character’s actions, words, and thoughts) in
the story. Find an example of each of them for the character of Margot.
Direct characterisation Indirect characterisation

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 All Summer in a Day 10

Prepositions
■■ Fill in the blanks with the missing prepositions.
1 It had been raining ...................... seven years.
2 And this was the way life was for ever ...................... the planet Venus.
3 Margot stood apart ...................... these children.
4 All day yesterday they had read ...................... class ...................... the sun.
5 “What are you looking ......................?” said William.
6 She let herself be moved ...................... them.
7 The biggest crime ...................... all was that she had come here only five
years ago ...................... Earth.
8 And what she was waiting ...................... was in her eyes.

Matching
■■ Match each of the following adjectives with the corresponding noun, then
provide the Italian equivalents.
1 Tidal A Photograph ...................................................................
2 Yellow B Voice ...................................................................
3 Possible C Waves ...................................................................
4 Quiet D World ...................................................................
5 Loud E Future ...................................................................
6 Cold F Crayon ...................................................................
7 Old G Drops ...................................................................

Phrasal verbs
■■ Look at the phrasal verbs below and build a sentence of your own for each of
the meanings illustrated in the sentences provided. Follow the pattern below.
Verb
Meaning " Example
Your sentence: .....................................................................................................
1 Set up
a Establish " Men and women had come to a raining world to set up civi-
lisation.
..........................................................................................................................
b Prepare equipment for use " The computer network was set up by the
technician.
..........................................................................................................................
c Provide someone with the money necessary to live " Her uncle’s inher-
itance set him up for life.
..........................................................................................................................

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 11 Short Stories

d Lay plans for " The terrorists were setting up a bomb attack.
..........................................................................................................................
2 Take off
a Remove " They were taking off their jackets.
..........................................................................................................................
b Reduce the price of an item " They have taken 20% off summer shoes.
..........................................................................................................................
c (of a plane) Leave the ground " The flight for Manchester took off on time.
..........................................................................................................................
d Make great progress " Her singing career took off in the 1970s.
..........................................................................................................................
3 Hold out
a Hold something where someone else can reach it " The girl held out her
hand.
..........................................................................................................................
b Continue to be enough " His money won’t hold out for long.
..........................................................................................................................
c Continue to resist a place under attack " The soldiers can hold out for a
few more hours.
..........................................................................................................................
d Say that something may happen " He held out the possibility of new
elections.
..........................................................................................................................

Vocabulary
■■ Label the pictures below with words from the story.

1 ...................... 2 ...................... 3 ...................... 4 ......................

5 ...................... 6 ...................... 7 ...................... 8 ......................

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 All Summer in a Day 12

Mind mapping
■■ Complete the mind maps below with words from the story.

Gold or
yellow crayon ................. .................

Sun

................. ................. .................

Avalanche ................. .................

Natural disasters

................. ................. .................

9 Phonetics

■■ The [-ed] ending of the past tense can be pronounced in three different ways:
/t/, /d/ and /ɪd/. Listen to the following verbs and put each of them into the
right column below.
Pressed – dusted – turned – seized – sensed – hated – watched – stopped –
filled – squinted – protested – crushed – washed – showed – looked – refused
– played.
/t/ /d/ /ɪd/
......................................... ......................................... .........................................
......................................... ......................................... .........................................
......................................... ......................................... .........................................
......................................... ......................................... .........................................
......................................... ......................................... .........................................
......................................... ......................................... .........................................

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 13 Short Stories

STORY ANALYSIS
Plot stages
■■ Match each of the sentences below with the corresponding stage of the
story, then put the sequences in chronological order.
1 The children bully Margot when she recalls her memory A Exposition
of the sun and lock her in a closet. B Resolution
2 The sun fades away and the children go inside again. Then C Rising action
they realise that Margot is still locked in the closet.
D Falling action
3 Margot, William, other students and their teacher are in a
E Climax
school on Venus, waiting to see the sun for the first time in
seven years. Margot is the only one who remembers the
sun because she came from the Earth four years before.
4 The children let Margot out of the closet.
5 The sun comes out and all the children, except Margot,
go out and enjoy it.

Examining theme
■■ Read the text again and mark the passages dealing with the following top-
ics. To which experience is each theme related? Fill in the chart below.
Human experiences References to the story
Power of nature
Discrimination
Cruelty
Weather influence on human behaviour

WRITING
Summing up
■■ Summarise the story in five to seven sentences.
...............................................................................................................................
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Story writing
■■ Write a plausible ending for the story.
...............................................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................................

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 All Summer in a Day 14

Short story graphic organiser

■■ Now fill in the graphic organiser below, focusing on the main aspects of the
short story you have just read. Look online and gather some information
about the author and the collection this story belongs to.
Short story graphic organiser

TITLE ......................................................................................................................
COLLECTION ........................................................... DATE ...................................
AUTHOR .................................................................................................................
AUTHOR’S SHORT BIOGRAPHY ............................................................................
................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................
SETTING
Time Place
.............................................................. ................................................................
CHARACTERS
Main characters Minor characters Describe the main character(s)
.............................. ............................................ .................................................
.............................. ............................................ .................................................
.............................. ............................................ Round or flat?
.............................. ............................................ .................................................
.............................. ............................................ .................................................
POINT OF VIEW
Internal or external? ................................................................................................
CONFLICT
Person vs person ...................................................................................................
Person vs group ......................................................................................................
Person vs nature .....................................................................................................
THEME
What is the author’s message about life, human behaviour, or society?
................................................................................................................................
SYMBOLS
What does the sun symbolise?
................................................................................................................................
LITERARY DEVICES
Provide an example of the following devices quoting from the text.
Metaphor ................................................................................................................
Simile ......................................................................................................................
Personification ........................................................................................................
Hyperbole ...............................................................................................................

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 15 Short Stories

Writing an analysis paragraph

■■ “Differences between people often cause conflict.” Comment on this state-
ment, providing examples from your personal experience or the society you
live in.

ACTING IT OUT
Role-playing
■■ In pairs, act out the dialogue between William and Margot.

Speaking
■■ Imagine you are William and apologise to Margot for your bullying behaviour
towards her.

FROM THE PRESS

Reporting
■■ Read the following article and report its content to the rest of the class. You
may make use of notes and charts.
Bullying can be defined by many
things. It’s teasing, name-call- BULLYING BY said. “The classroom is a place
where you’re with people you
ing, stereotyping, fighting, didn’t choose to be with, and you
exclusion, spreading rumors,
public shaming and aggressive
PEERS HAS can’t escape them if something
negative happens.”
intimidation. It can be in person
and online. But it can no longer
EFFECTS LATER Children can internalize the
harmful effects of bullying,
be considered a rite of passage
that strengthens character, new IN LIFE which creates stress-related
issues such as anxiety and
research suggests. long-lasting, he said. They also depression, or they can external-
Adolescents who are bullied by found that children maltreated ize it by turning from a victim
their peers actually suffer from by adults were more likely to be into a bully themselves. Either
worse long-term mental health bullied. way, the result has a painful
effects than children who are The researchers discovered that impact.
maltreated by adults, based on a The study also concluded with a
children who were bullied are
study published last week in The call to action, suggesting that
more likely to suffer anxiety,
Lancet Psychiatry. while the government has justi-
depression and consider self-
The findings were a surprise to fiably focused on addressing
Dr. Dieter Wolke and his team harm and suicide later in life. maltreatment and abuse in the
that led the study, who expected While all children face conflict, home, they should also consider
the two groups to be similarly disagreements between friends bullying as a serious problem
affected. However, because chil- can usually be resolved in some that requires schools, health ser-
dren tend to spend more time way. But the repetitive nature of vices and communities to pre-
with their peers, it stands to rea- bullying is what can cause such vent, respond to or stop this abu-
son that if they have negative harm, Wolke said. sive culture from forming.
relationships with one another, “Bullying is comparable to a (Adapted from
the effects could be severe and scenario for a caged animal,” he www.cnn.com)

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