The document describes a story called "The Sacred Well" by Judy Donnelly. It discusses a man named Edward who reads that the Mayans used to throw treasures and young girls into a sacred well to please the rain god. Edward takes deep sea diving lessons and uses a dredge to search the well. He finds treasures, human skeletons, and other artifacts, proving the ancient story about the well was true.

1. THE SACRED WELL
by Judy Donnelly
Page 335

2. Vocabulary
• Empire
• Skeletons
• Dredge
• HOMOPHONES
• wait weight
• horse hoarse
• night knight
• pear pair
• principle principal

3. VOCABULARY EXERCISE
1. The bones of each of the __________ look old and
grayish.
2. The king ruled his ________ for more than fifty years.
3. Archeologists sometimes use a ________ to dig up
bones or artifacts.
4. The artist painted a graveyard filled with __________
to represent Death.

4. THINK IT THROUGH
Answer for homework.

5. What makes the Sacred Well so mysterious
to Edward?
• Edward has read that the Mayans
used to throw treasures and young
girls into the well to please the rain
god that lived at the bottom.

6. Tell how Edward proves that the story about
the Sacred Well is true.
• Edward decides to search the well, so he took deep-sea-
diving lessons,then bought a dredge. He solved the
problem of where to dig by throwing in logs and watching
where they went into the water. After several weeks, the
dredge brought up treasures and human skeletons,
proving that the story of the Sacred Well was true.

7. What else does Edward find to show how
the ancient Mayans used the Sacred Well?
• He found more skeletons of men and children who may
have been slaves or prisioners, as well as
weapons, carvings, and scraps of clothing.

8. What steps does Edward take to solve the
mystery of the well?
• He buys a dredge to dig into the well, drops logs into the
water to find out where to dig, dives into the water
himself to bring up more artifacts.

9. Why do you think he risks his life so many
times to explore this site?
• He is determined to prove the story true or false; he can’t
find out what he wants to know any other way; no one
else is brave enough to do what he did; he has the
knowledge, skill, and confidence to take that risk. He
believes that he will survive.