Content Words VS. Function Words

Part I

Instructions. Work with a partner and read the following shortened version of the Myth of Prometheus. Read it allow and concentrate on giving special emphasis to the content words in the text below.

Prometheus was a young Titan, no great admirer of Zeus. Although he knew the great lord of the sky hated explicit questions, he did not hesitate to beard him when there was something he wanted to know.

One morning he came to Zeus, and said, "O Thunderer, I do not understand your design. You have caused the race of man to appear on earth, but you keep him in ignorance and darkness."

"Perhaps you had better leave the race of man to me," said Zeus. "What you call ignorance is innocence. What you call darkness is the shadow of my decree. Man is happy now. And he is so framed that he will remain happy unless someone persuades him that he is unhappy. Let us not speak of this again."

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Prometheus was not satisfied. All that night he lay awake making plans. Then he left his couch at dawn, and standing tiptoe on Olympus, stretched his arm to the eastern horizon where the first faint flames of the sun were flickering. In his hand he held a reed filled with a dry fiber; he thrust it into the sunrise until a spark smoldered. Then he put the reed in his tunic and came down from the mountain.

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"This that I have brought you is called 'fire,'" Prometheus said. "It is an ill-natured spirit, a little brother of the sun, but if you handle it carefully, it can change your whole life. It is very greedy; you must feed it twigs but only until it becomes a proper size. Then you must stop, or it will eat everything in sight -and you too. If it escapes, use this magic: water. It fears the water spirit, and if you touch it with water, it will fly away untill you need it again.

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Then one day Zeus looked down from the mountain and was amazed. Everything had changed. Man had come out of his cave. Zeus saw woodmen's huts, farm houses, villages, ... He saw forges blazing, men beating ploughs, keels, swords, spears ... They were wearing helmets, riding out in chariots to do battle, like the gods themselves.

Zeus was full of rage. Then he thought: Let them destroy themselves with their new skills. This will make a long twisted game, interesting to watch. I'll attend to them later. My first business is with Prometheus.

Text taken and adapted for educational purposes from Heroes, Gpds and Monters of the Greek Mythology by Bernard Evslin.

Part II

Instructions. If you want to read more about the myth of Prometheus and how he gave manking fire, read the information on the following links. Try to read allow so you can improve your sentence stress and rhythm while reading.

http://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanPrometheus.html

http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/grecoromanmyth1/a/prometheus.htm

http://studyguide.org/prometheus_myth.htm