6th Grade Assessment – Unit 2 – RL.6.1, RL.6.2, RL.6.4, RL.6.5
Justice February 3, 2015
Direction: Read this poem. Then answer questions 1 through 6.
Ponies and donkeys were once used in mines to pull carts of ore—in the United States as well as Great Britain.
The Pit Ponies
by Leslie Norris
They come like the ghosts of horses, shyly, To
this summer field, this fresh green, Which
scares them.
They have been too long in the blind mine,
5 Their hooves have trodden only stones
And the soft, thick dust of fine coal,
And they do not understand the grass.
For over two years their sun
Has shone from an electric bulb
10 That has never set, and their walking Has
been along the one, monotonous Track
of the pulled coal-trucks.
They have bunched their muscles against The
harness and pulled, and hauled.
15 But now they have come out of the underworld
And are set down in the sun and real air, Which
are strange to them. They are humble And
modest, their heads are downcast, they
Do not expect to see very far. But one
20 Is attempting a clumsy gallop. It is
Something he could do when he was very young.
When he was a little foal a long time ago
And he could run fleetly on his long foal’s legs,
And almost he can remember this. And look,
25 One rolls on her back with joy in the clean grass!
And they all, awkwardly and hesitantly, like
Clumsy old men, begin to run, and the field
Is full of happy thunder. They toss their heads,
Their manes fly, they are galloping in freedom.
30 The ponies have come above ground, they are galloping!
