A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury

1. A Sound of Thunderby Ray Bradbury Feature Menu Introducing the Story Literary Focus: Style Reading Skills: Cause and Effect

2. A Sound of Thunderby Ray Bradbury

3. A Sound of Thunderby Ray Bradbury Who controls the past controls the future. —George Orwell

4. A Sound of ThunderIntroducing the Story It’s the year 2055. Eckels, a wealthy hunter, wants to travel back in time to shoot a ferocious dinosaur. But he gets in over his head when he books passage with Time Safari, Inc. • This story explores the possibility that even tiny changes to the environment of the past can drastically alter the future.

5. A Sound of ThunderIntroducing the Story T-rex lived during the late Cretaceous Period. What other life forms were around then? insects similar to today’s the first flowering plants marine invertebrates [End of Section]

6. A Sound of ThunderLiterary Focus: Style Style—the particular way a writer uses language. • Writers use diction, or word choice, to create style. For example, some writers use long, elegant words; others prefer shorter, everyday words. • Style is also created through the sentence patterns writers use. Sentences can be short or long, simple or complicated.

7. A Sound of ThunderLiterary Focus: Style The use of vivid images and figurative language often plays a part in a writer’s style. • Images—words and phrases that appeal to the senses. • Figurative language—imaginative comparisons between seemingly unlike things.

8. A Sound of ThunderLiterary Focus: Style Ray Bradbury tells this science-fiction story in a lush style. • He uses vivid images and imaginative figurative language to create an exotic setting. • The setting and the figurative language shape a tense and suspenseful mood, or atmosphere.

9. A Sound of ThunderLiterary Focus: Style As you read “A Sound of Thunder,” notice the elements of Bradbury’s style. • Diction and sentence patterns: How do they create a distinctive writing style? • Images:Which of your senses do they appeal to? What feelings do they evoke for you? • Figurative language:How does it help create the setting? the mood? [End of Section]

10. Cause Effect A power outage occurs at 2:30 A.M. Valeria’s alarmdoes not go off. Cause Effect Valeria’s alarmdoes not go off. Valeria is late For school. A Sound of ThunderReading Skills: Cause and Effect The events in a plot are interconnected, like links in a chain: One cause leads to an effect, which causes another effect, and so on.

11. Time-travelinghuman steps on butterfly in past. This butterfly does not pass on its genes Butterflies and the ecosystemis altered. Humans evolvein differentenvironment. Moderncivilization is altered. A Sound of ThunderReading Skills: Cause and Effect The plot of “A Sound of Thunder” is based on a theoretical cause-and-effect chain that might look something like this: [End of Section]