Part 1

The Price of Progress

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Harrison Bergeron
Equality rules in a future society.

ACTIVITY

Create two illustrations—one suggesting progress and the other suggesting the opposite of progress. Then compare your illustrations with those of other classmates and discuss what the images reveal about your views of progress.

Joan Aiken

Searching for Summer
In this world, the sun is only a memory.

Mary Oliver

LITERARY LINK
The Sun

Stephen Vincent Benét

By the Waters of Babylon
Discoveries in the places of the dead

Sara Teasdale

LITERARY LINK
There Will Come Soft Rains

W. P. Kinsella

The Thrill of the Grass
What turns these men into conspirators?

Ray Bradbury

AUTHOR STUDY
A Sound of Thunder

Interview with Ray Bradbury

There Will Come Soft Rains

The Pedestrian
Social critic for the future

Isaac Asimov

Dial Versus Digital
The times are changing.

E. B. White

Once More to the Lake
A father revisits scenes from childhood.

LITERARY LINK
A Letter from E. B. White

Coretta Scott King

Montgomery Boycott
A historic episode in civil rights

Margaret Walker

LITERARY LINK
Sit-Ins

Robert F. Kennedy

REAL WORLD LINK
A Eulogy to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.