Name____________________________________                             Date_______________________
           
The Cemetery Mimic
Reading Comprehension Worksheet           

Directions:  Read the passage below carefully. When you have finished reading it completely, answer the questions that follow.

There's a defiled cemetery in the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, the city I was born in. People who can't afford to pay funerary services often bury their loved ones here. In Mexico, there's no such thing as medical aid for low income workers. People that come from out of town are not used to the ever changing weather and as a consequence, many children die in the winter and end up buried in the old cemetery.

When I was about ten years old, four older friends and I decided to check it out. We walked for hours and when we finally arrived, it was almost dark. We started walking around and nothing seemed out of place. The air was getting very heavy and we heard a strange noise from an old, rotted tree. As we got near it, the tree started shaking. We all got really scared and ran. Later on, we found out that it was one of our friends playing a prank on us.

We were laughing when suddenly the old grave keeper showed up. He said "Boys, I know you are all just here to have fun and fool around, but please understand that horrible things happen here! I live in that house over there (about 100 feet from the cemetery), and every night that those high school punks come and drink and make their mess, weird things begin to happen. Last time there were loud voices and someone was knocking on my door at 2:00 am. I thought it was those punks, but no one was there. I am very tired and I really would like to sleep tonight, so if you have no business here, please leave." We felt bad for the poor old guy and left.

We never returned to that place until I was seventeen. I was with my high school punk friends in a truck and we were looking for the old cemetery. After ten years, the place had really changed and we were having trouble finding it. The trail was wet and muddy and there were so many of us that the truck got stuck in the mud. When we got out of the truck, we soon found out that we were inside of the cemetery.

My friend left the truck in neutral so we could push it, when suddenly the truck began moving by itself. After we saw that, we were so scared that we just got in the truck and drove off. When we finally decided to stop, we noticed that the truck was marked with tiny foot and hand prints all over. Then the grave keeper showed up and said "I remember you, you don't understand what is going on, do you?" The spirits will chase you for a long time."

I really didn't pay much attention to what he said until I later learned that there hadn't been any grave keeper there for years. I got really freaked out when my friends started telling me that I looked different. The said they would run into me and I would have a disturbing, "evil" look in my eyes. The weird part is that I was never even at the place and time they would tell me they saw me.

One of my friends said he chased me all the way into a dead-end alley, and that I would just disappear without a trace. Even my girlfriend said she would sometimes see me near her house, dressed in black, with a disturbing glare, when I was actually out somewhere drinking, with someone else.

My sister says that sometimes she hears me when I get home, and watches me open the door and go into the living room with the light turned off. She would see me lay down on the sofa from across the hall, and suddenly I would begin ripping my clothes off like some wild animal. When she turns the light on, there's no one there. Hours later, I would arrive home, leave my keys on the table and go to my room. All of this happens as if someone, or something was imitating me -- like a mimic. Story submitted by Alex

Lauryl writes:

I think what those people were experiencing was a doppelganger, which is a person's spirit double. Everyone is supposed to have one, and the theory is that sometimes due to an error in the space time continuum, we see them.

Questions:

1)   What is the tone of this selection?

2)   What is the setting of this passage?

3)   What seems to be the author's intent for writing this selection?

4)   What is the Main Idea of this passage?

5>   Tell 3 things that hapened in the story.

6>   Draw a picture about this story.

7>   Did you like this story?  Why or Why Not?