interactive student edition

PART 1

Our World and Beyond

The Rimfall, 20th century. Jonathan Barry. Oil on canvas.

BIG IDEA
Imagine that time can move backward, that space has more than three
dimensions, or that fantastic creatures share the universe with us. The stories
in Part 1 will engage your imagination. As your read them, ask yourself: What
can we gain from thinking about realities different from our own?

1121
Private Collection/Bridgeman Art Library
 LITERARY FOCUS

Description
How do writers describe fantastic places and creatures?
Writers of fantasy and science fiction sometimes
face the challenge of describing something that no
one has ever seen or heard of. Good description
can help a reader see, hear, smell, taste, or feel a
person, place, creature, or object. There are many
literary techniques a writer can use to describe
something. Figurative language and imagery are
two. In “The Sentinel,” Arthur C. Clarke describes
the observations of a team of lunar explorers on
the Mare Crisium, a large walled plain on the moon.

The New Planet, 1921. Konstantin Yuon. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.

I said just now that there was nothing exciting about
lunar exploration, but of course that isn’t true. One
could never grow tired of those incredible moun-
tains, so much more rugged than the gentle hills
of Earth. We never knew, as we rounded the capes
and promontories of that vanished sea, what new
splendors would be revealed to us. The whole
southern curve of the Mare Crisium is a vast delta
where a score of rivers once found their way into
the ocean, fed perhaps by the torrential rains that
must have lashed the mountains in the brief volcanic
age when the Moon was young.
—Arthur C. Clarke, from “The Sentinel”

1122 UNIT 6 GENRE FICTION

Scala/Art Resource
Figurative Language
Figurative language in literature often implies
ideas indirectly. Figurative expressions are
not literally true but express some truth beyond
the literal level. In science fiction and fantasy,
authors can use figurative language to describe
the unfamiliar. A figure of speech is a
specific device or kind of figurative language
such as simile, metaphor, and personification.
Simile A figure of speech that uses like or as
to compare seemingly unlike things is a simile.
A good simile can help the reader see something
familiar in a brand new way. In science fiction
and fantasy, similes allow a writer to introduce
something imaginary by comparing it to some-
thing the reader knows.
The crows’ feet at the corners of his eyes were
still tentative, like lines scratched in soft sand.
—Nancy Kress, from “In Memoriam”
Metaphor A figure of speech that compares or
equates two or more things that have something
in common is a metaphor. Unlike a simile, a
metaphor does not use like or as.
Without his Book of Life, a person is a snapshot,
a two-dimensional image, a ghost.
—Alan Lightman, from “A World Without Memory”
In the passage above, Lightman’s metaphor gives
the reader a sense of the limitations of living
without memory.
OB J ECTIVES
•Recognize and interpret imagery and figurative language,
such as metaphor, simile, and personification.
•Analyze the effect of imagery and figurative language and
explain their appeal.
Personification A figure of speech that gives
human qualities to an animal, an object, a force
of nature, or an idea is personification. Writers
use personification to explain, expand, and
create vivid images.
The waters were retreating down the flanks
of those stupendous cliffs, retreating into the empty
heart of the Moon.
—Arthur C. Clarke, from “The Sentinel”
Imagery
Writing that portrays people, places, things,
and events with vivid details that help the reader
create a mental picture is called descriptive
writing. Good descriptive writing uses imagery—
language that appeals to one or more of the five
senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.
In creating new worlds, writers use imagery to
help create effective description that will engage
the reader.
Palani, a plump, pretty girl of twenty, made a
charming picture there in the wintry sunlight, sheep
and children around her, a leafless oak above her,
and behind her dunes and sea and clear, pale sky.
—Ursula Le Guin, from “The Rule of Names”
Quickwrite
Describing a Process Write a journal entry describing
a real or imagined time you prepared a special food.
For example, you might tell about the time you
made a birthday cake or the time you created a feast
for the birds outside your window. Describe the
steps involved in the process and what you saw,
heard, smelled, tasted, and touched as you worked.
• Examine the relationships between an author’s style, literary
form, and intended impact on the reader.
L I T E R A RY F O C U S 1123
 B E FO R E YO U R E A D

The Sentinel
MEET ARTHUR C . CLARKE

U
nlike many science fiction authors,
Arthur C. Clarke is truly a scientist.
In fact, in 1945, when he was only
twenty-eight years old, he developed the idea
for orbital communication satellites, which are
indispensable to global communications today.

Imagining the Future Arthur C. Clarke was

born in the seaside town of Minehead,
England. He was the son of an English farm-
Dana Fineman/Sygma
ing family and attended schools in his home
county until moving to London at the age
of nineteen. In London, Clarke pursued his
interest in space sciences by joining the
British Interplanetary Society and beginning
to write science fiction. When World War II
started in 1939, Clarke joined the Royal Air
Force, eventually becoming an officer in
charge of the first radar talk-down equip-
ment, which was used to help pilots land.
In 1945 Clarke initiated a new era of commu-
nication when he published a technical paper
entitled “Extra-terrestrial Relays” in the British
magazine Wireless World. The paper introduced
his idea of orbital communication satellites.
That same year, Clarke also wrote the short
story “Rescue Party,” which appeared in
Astounding Science in May 1946.
Milestones in Science Fiction After the war,
Clarke resumed his formal studies, obtaining
a Fellowship at King’s College London. He
began publishing stories, and his career blos-
somed. He quickly emerged as a prolific and
renowned science fiction writer. His works
have been credited with inspiring space
exploration and missions such as NASA’s
Apollo moon landings. His short story
“The Sentinel” inspired legendary filmmaker
Stanley Kubrick, and the two men worked
together to expand the story into the screen-
play for the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The
movie stands as a milestone in science fiction
filmmaking and earned Clarke and Kubrick
Academy Award nominations.
“I’ve seen far more than I ever
imagined would happen. I mean,
I never dreamed we would have
explored the solar system as we have.”
—Arthur C. Clarke
The Future Is Now Clarke has written more
than eighty science fiction books, many of
which describe “fantastic” elements that have
since become realities, such as lunar landings,
orbiting space stations, and computers with
artificial intelligence. He has received numer-
ous honors for his work, including a nomina-
tion for the Nobel Peace Prize. Since 1956
Clarke has lived in Sri Lanka, keeping in
touch with his international friends and col-
leagues by satellite, fax, and e-mail, all of
which he predicted in his early science fiction.
Arthur C. Clarke was born in 1917.
Author Search For more about
Arthur C. Clarke, go to www.glencoe.com.

1124 UNIT 6 GENRE FICTION

Dana Fineman/Sygma
 LIT E R AT U R E P R EV I EW R EA D I N G P R EVI EW

Connecting to the Story Reading Strategy Identifying Assumptions

In Clarke’s short story, the main character makes a Just as people do in real life, fictional narrators and
startling discovery thanks to his good instincts. Before characters often make assumptions based on their
you read, think about the following questions: observations, experience, and knowledge. Identifying
assumptions in a work of literature can help you
• Have you ever decided to do something based on understand characters and their actions.
your own instincts or intuition?
• Describe a time when you took a risk and were Reading Tip: Taking Notes Use a chart to record
surprised by the outcome?
assumptions made by characters in the story.
Building Background
First published in 1951, “The Sentinel” looks ahead to Assumption Why
the “future.” It takes place on the surface of the moon
Narrator assumes he He saw a metallic
during the late summer of 1996. Like most of Clarke’s
has spotted something glitter.
fiction, the story presents several science-based con-
cepts that at the time were conjecture—that is, ideas worth exploring.
based on incomplete information. Some of the ele-
ments of Clarke’s fiction, such as space travel and
lunar exploration, eventually became realities. The
story’s ideas about ancient water formations and basic Vocabulary
life are similar to some currently developing hypotheses
tantalize (tant
əl ¯z´) v. to torment or tease by
about the surface of Mars.
tempting with something and then withholding
A sentinel is a person or object stationed to guard it; p. 1128 She tantalized the horse by keeping its
against and warn of danger. hay just out of reach.

Setting Purposes for Reading enigma (i ni
mə) n. a mystery; a baffling per-
son or thing; p. 1128 The stranger kept to himself
Big Idea Our World and Beyond and remained an enigma to everyone.
As you read, notice how the narrator compares living ebb (eb) v. to become less or weaker; decline;
on the Moon with living on Earth. fail; p. 1131 As the battery died, the device’s
power slowly ebbed.
Literary Element Suspense irrevocably (i rev
ə kə blē) adv. in a way that
Suspense is the growing interest and excitement read- cannot be revoked or undone; p. 1132 As a result
ers experience while reading a work of literature. To of the fire, the church was irrevocably damaged.
build suspense, a writer may provide just enough
information to keep the reader wondering: “What will Vocabulary Tip: Analogies Analogies are compari-
happen next?” sons based on relationships between ideas. On a
test, you may be asked to determine the relation-
• See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R1 ship between a pair of words and then show that
relationship in a second pair of words.

Interactive Literary Elements

Handbook To review or learn more about the literary elements,
go to www.glencoe.com.

OB J ECTIVES
In studying this selection, you will focus on the following: • analyzing descriptions
• understanding suspense • writing to explore author’s purpose
• identifying assumptions

ART HUR C . C LARKE 1125


The next time you see the full moon high in
the south, look carefully at its right-hand
edge and let your eye travel upward along
the curve of the disk. Round about two
o’clock you will notice a small, dark oval:
anyone with normal eyesight can find it
quite easily. It is the great walled plain, one
of the finest on the Moon, known as the
Mare Crisium1—the Sea of Crises. Three
hundred miles in diameter, and almost com-
pletely surrounded by a ring of magnificent
mountains, it had never been explored until
we entered it in the late summer of 1996.
Our expedition was a large one. We had
two heavy freighters which had flown our
supplies and equipment from the main
lunar base in the Mare Serenitatis,2 five
hundred miles away. There were also three
small rockets which were intended for
short-range transport over regions which
our surface vehicles couldn’t cross. Luckily,
most of the Mare Crisium is very flat. There
are none of the great crevasses3 so common
and so dangerous elsewhere, and very few
craters or mountains of any size. As far as
1. [Mare Crisium] In 1609, when Italian scientist Galileo Galilei
first viewed the moon’s dark patches through an early
telescope, he called them “seas.” Mare (mar
ā) is Latin for
“sea.” Today, these dark areas are known to be broad,
lowland plains, but the Latin names given them in the
1600s are still used.
2. [Mare Serenitatis] In the early 1970s, Apollo astronauts
landed near the Sea of Serenity (“calmness”).
3. A crevasse (kri vas
) is a deep narrow crack.
Big Idea
Our World and Beyond How does this open-
ing paragraph create the effect of transporting the reader
to the moon?
1126 UNIT 6 GENRE FICTION
Arthur C. Clarke
we could tell, our powerful caterpillar trac-
tors would have no difficulty in taking us
wherever we wished to go.
I was geologist—or selenologist, if you
want to be pedantic4—in charge of the group
exploring the southern region of the Mare. We
had crossed a hundred miles of it in a week,
skirting the foothills of the mountains along
the shore of what was once the ancient sea,
some thousand million years before. When
life was beginning on Earth, it was already
dying here. The waters were retreating down
the flanks of those stupendous cliffs, retreat-
ing into the empty heart of the Moon. Over
the land which we were crossing, the tideless
ocean had once been half a mile deep, and
now the only trace of moisture was the hoar-
frost one could sometimes find in caves
which the searing sunlight never penetrated.
We had begun our journey early in the slow
lunar dawn, and still had almost a week of
Earth-time before nightfall. Half a dozen times
a day we would leave our vehicle and go out-
side in the space suits to hunt for interesting
minerals, or to place markers for the guid-
ance of future travelers. It was an uneventful
routine. There is nothing hazardous or even
particularly exciting about lunar exploration.
We could live comfortably for a month in our
pressurized tractors, and if we ran into trouble,
we could always radio for help and sit tight
until one of the spaceships came to our rescue.
4. One who is pedantic (pi dan
tik) pays excessive attention to
minor details and formal rules. Such a person would insist
that a geologist studies the structure and history of Earth,
while a selenologist studies the Moon.
 Man Gazing at a Dark Moon. Paul Anderson.
Viewing the Art: What do you think the man pictured is thinking? Why?
I said just now that there was nothing
exciting about lunar exploration, but of
course that isn’t true. One could never grow
tired of those incredible mountains, so much
more rugged than the gentle hills of Earth.
We never knew, as we rounded the capes and
promontories5 of that vanished sea, what
new splendors would be revealed to us. The
5. Points of land that project out into a body of water, capes
are usually low and flat, whereas promontories are elevated.
whole southern curve of the Mare Crisium
is a vast delta where a score of rivers once
found their way into the ocean, fed perhaps
by the torrential rains that must have lashed
the mountains in the brief volcanic age when
the Moon was young. Each of these ancient
valleys was an invitation, challenging us to
climb into the unknown uplands beyond.
But we had a hundred miles still to cover,
and could only look longingly at the heights
which others must scale.
ART HUR C . C LA RKE 1127
Images.com/CORBIS
 We kept Earth-time aboard the tractor, and
precisely at 2200 hours the final radio mes-
sage would be sent out to Base and we would
close down for the day. Outside, the rocks
would still be burning beneath the almost
vertical sun, but to us it would be night until
we awoke again eight hours later. Then one
of us would prepare breakfast, there would
be a great buzzing of electric razors, and
someone would switch on the shortwave
radio from Earth. Indeed, when the smell of
frying sausages began to fill the cabin, it was
sometimes hard to believe that we were not
back on our own world—everything was so
normal and homely, apart from the feeling of
decreased weight and the unnatural slowness
with which objects fell.
It was my turn to prepare breakfast in the
corner of the main cabin
that served as a galley. I can
remember that moment
quite vividly after all these
years, for the radio had just
played one of my favorite
melodies, the old Welsh air
“David of the White Rock.”
Our driver was already out-
side in his space suit,
inspecting our caterpillar
treads. My assistant, Louis Garnett, was up
forward in the control position, making some
belated entries in yesterday’s log.
As I stood by the frying pan, waiting, like
any terrestrial6 housewife, for the sausages to
brown, I let my gaze wander idly over the
mountain walls which covered the whole of
the southern horizon, marching out of sight
to east and west below the curve of the
Moon. They seemed only a mile or two from
the tractor, but I knew that the nearest was
twenty miles away. On the Moon, of course,
there is no loss of detail with distance—none
6. Terrestrial means “of the earth; earthly.”
Big Idea
Our World and Beyond Why do you think the
lunar explorers live much as they would on Earth?
Literary Element Suspense What does this comment sug-
gest about the moment the narrator is about to describe?
1128 UNIT 6 GENRE FICTION
of that almost imperceptible7 haziness which
softens and sometimes transfigures8 all far-
off things on Earth.
Those mountains were ten thousand feet
high, and they climbed steeply out of the
plain as if ages ago some subterranean erup-
tion had smashed them skyward through the
molten crust. The base of even the nearest
was hidden from sight by a steeply curving
surface of the plain, for the Moon is a very
little world, and from where I was standing
the horizon was only two miles away.
I lifted my eyes toward the peaks which
no man had ever climbed, the peaks which,
before the coming of terrestrial life, had
watched the retreating oceans sink sullenly
into their graves, taking with them the hope
and the morning promise of a world. The
sunlight was beating
against those ramparts9
with a glare that hurt the
On the Moon, eyes, yet only a little way
above them the stars were
of course, there is shining steadily in a sky
no loss of detail blacker than a winter mid-
night on Earth.
with distance . . . I was turning away
when my eye caught a
metallic glitter high on the
ridge of a great promontory thrusting out
into the sea thirty miles to the west. It was a
dimensionless point of light, as if a star had
been clawed from the sky by one of those
cruel peaks, and I imagined that some
smooth rock surface was catching the
sunlight and heliographing10 it straight into
my eyes. Such things were not uncommon.
7. Imperceptible means “not noticeable.”
8. To transfigure a thing is to change its outward appearance,
often into something glorious.
9. Ramparts are walls or embankments built for protection,
as around a castle. Here, metaphorically, the ramparts are
the mountain walls.
10. Here, heliographing means “reflecting.” A heliograph is
a signaling device that uses mirrors to reflect light from
the sun.
Reading Strategy Identifying Assumptions What
assumption does the narrator make? Why does he make
this assumption?
A group of lunar mountains stand on the surface of the moon,
creating the ideal lunar landscape.
When the Moon is in her second quarter,
observers on Earth can sometimes see the
great ranges in the Oceanus Procellarum11
burning with a blue-white iridescence12 as the
sunlight flashes from their slopes and leaps
again from world to world. But I was curious
to know what kind of rock could be shining
so brightly up there, and I climbed into the
observation turret and swung our four-inch
telescope round to the west.
I could see just enough to tantalize me.
Clear and sharp in the field of vision, the
mountain peaks seemed only half a mile
11. Oceanis Procellarum is the (waterless) Ocean of Storms.
12. Iridescence is a display of shimmering and changing colors.
Vocabulary
tantalize (tant

əl ¯ z´) v. to torment or tease by tempting
with something and then withholding it
away, but whatever was catching the sun-
light was still too small to be resolved.13 Yet
it seemed to have an elusive14 symmetry,
and the summit upon which it rested was
curiously flat. I stared for a long time at the
glittering enigma, straining my eyes into
space, until presently a smell of burning
from the galley told me that our breakfast
sausages had made their quarter-million-
mile journey in vain.
13. Here, resolved means “made clearly visible.”
14. The precise shape of the object was difficult to identify or
grasp (elusive).
Literary Element Suspense What descriptive phrases in
this passage help build suspense?
Vocabulary
enigma (i ni
mə) n. a mystery; a baffling person
or thing
ART HUR C . C LARKE 1129
Sean Sexton Collection/CORBIS
 All that morning we argued our way
across the Mare Crisium while the western
mountains reared higher in the sky. Even
when we were out prospecting in the space
suits, the discussion would continue over
the radio. It was absolutely certain, my com-
panions argued, that there had never been
any form of intelligent life on the Moon. The
only living things that had ever existed there
were a few primitive plants and their
slightly less degenerate15 ancestors. I knew
that as well as anyone, but there are times
when a scientist must not be afraid to make
a fool of himself.
“Listen,” I said at last, “I’m going up
there, if only for my own peace of mind.
That mountain’s less than
twelve thousand feet
high—that’s only two
thousand under Earth The real danger
gravity—and I can make
the trip in twenty hours
in lunar
at the outside. I’ve always
wanted to go up into
mountaineering lies
those hills, anyway,
and this gives me an
in overconfidence.
excellent excuse.”
“If you don’t break your neck,” said
Garnett, “you’ll be the laughingstock of the
expedition when we get back to Base. That
mountain will probably be called Wilson’s
Folly from now on.”
“I won’t break my neck,” I said firmly.
“Who was the first man to climb Pico and
Helicon?”16
“But weren’t you rather younger in those
days?” asked Louis gently.
15. Here, degenerate (di jen
er it) means “having sunk below
a former condition.” The idea is that as water vanished, the
moon’s plant life gradually deteriorated in quality and
finally died out.
16. Moon mountains are commonly named after Earth mountains.
Pico is a mountain in the Azores, a group of islands in the
northern Atlantic, and Helicon is a peak in Greece.
Reading Strategy Identifying Assumptions What
assumptions does the narrator make about what he has
seen and about how discoveries are made?
1130 UNIT 6 GENRE FICTION
“That,” I said with great dignity, “is as
good a reason as any for going.”
We went to bed early that night, after driv-
ing the tractor to within half a mile of the
promontory. Garnett was coming with me in
the morning; he was a good climber, and
had often been with me on such exploits17
before. Our driver was only too glad to be
left in charge of the machine.
At first sight, those cliffs seemed completely
unscalable, but to anyone with a good head
for heights, climbing is easy on a world where
all weights are only a sixth of their normal
value. The real danger in lunar mountaineer-
ing lies in overconfidence; a six-hundred-foot
drop on the Moon can kill you just as thor-
oughly as a hundred-foot
fall on Earth.
We made our first halt on
a wide ledge about four
thousand feet above the
plain. Climbing had not
been very difficult, but my
limbs were stiff with the
unaccustomed effort, and I
was glad of the rest. We
could still see the tractor as
a tiny metal insect far down at the foot of the
cliff, and we reported our progress to the
driver before starting on the next ascent.
Inside our suits it was comfortably cool,
for the refrigeration units were fighting the
sun and carrying away the body heat of our
exertions. We seldom spoke to each other,
except to pass climbing instructions and to
discuss our best plan of ascent. I do not
know what Garnett was thinking, probably
that this was the craziest goose chase he
had ever embarked upon. I more than half
agreed with him, but the joy of climbing,
the knowledge that no man had ever gone
this way before, and the exhilaration of the
steadily widening landscape gave me all
the reward I needed.
I don’t think I was particularly excited
when I saw in front of us the wall of rock
17. An exploit is a bold, daring deed.
I had first inspected through the telescope
from thirty miles away. It would level off
about fifty feet above our heads, and there
on the plateau would be the thing that had
lured me over these barren wastes. It would
be, almost certainly, nothing more than a
boulder splintered ages ago by a falling
meteor, and with its cleavage planes18 still
fresh and bright in this incorruptible,
unchanging silence.
There were no handholds on the rock face,
and we had to use a grapnel. My tired arms
seemed to gain new strength as I swung the
three-pronged metal anchor round my head
and sent it sailing up toward the stars. The
first time it broke loose and came falling
slowly back when we
pulled the rope. On the
third attempt, the prongs
gripped firmly and our
combined weights could
The haunting
not shift it.
Garnett looked at me
had scarcely
anxiously. I could tell that
he wanted to go first, but I
begun.
smiled back at him through
the glass of my helmet and
shook my head. Slowly, taking my time, I
began the final ascent.
Even with my space suit, I weighed only
forty pounds here, so I pulled myself up
hand over hand without bothering to use my
feet. At the rim I paused and waved to my
companion, then I scrambled over the edge
and stood upright, staring ahead of me.
You must understand that until this very
moment I had been almost completely con-
vinced that there could be nothing strange or
unusual for me to find here. Almost, but not
quite; it was that haunting doubt that had
driven me forward. Well, it was a doubt no
longer, but the haunting had scarcely begun.
18. Here, planes are rock surfaces, exposed as a result of the
boulder’s splitting, or cleavage.
Literary Element Suspense How does the narrator’s
uncertainty help build suspense as he climbs toward
the plateau?
I was standing on a plateau perhaps a
hundred feet across. It had once been
smooth—too smooth to be natural—but fall-
ing meteors had pitted and scored its surface
through immeasurable eons.19 It had been
leveled to support a glittering, roughly
pyramidal structure, twice as high as a
man, that was set in the rock like a gigantic,
many-faceted jewel.
Probably no emotion at all filled my head
in those first few seconds. Then I felt a great
lifting of my heart, and a strange, inexpress-
ible joy. For I loved the Moon, and now I
knew that the creeping moss of Aristarchus
and Eratosthenes20 was not the only life she
had brought forth in her youth. The old, dis-
credited dream of the first
explorers was true. There
had, after all, been a lunar
civilization—and I was the
first to find it. That I had
come perhaps a hundred
million years too late did
not distress me; it was
enough to have come at all.
My mind was beginning
to function normally, to
analyze and to ask questions. Was this a
building, a shrine—or something for which
my language had no name? If a building,
then why was it erected in so uniquely inac-
cessible a spot? I wondered if it might be a
temple, and I could picture the adepts21 of
some strange priesthood calling on their
gods to preserve them as the life of the
Moon ebbed with the dying oceans, and
calling on their gods in vain.
19. An eon (ē
ən) is an indefinitely long period of time.
20. Most moon craters are named for scientists and
philosophers, such as these Greek astronomers of the
third century B.C. Aristarchus was among the first to say
that Earth moves around the Sun; Eratosthenes accurately
calculated Earth’s circumference.
21. Adepts are experts; here, they are priests.
Big Idea Our World and Beyond Why do you think the
narrator is thrilled to have made this discovery?
Vocabulary
ebb (eb) v. to become less or weaker; decline; fail
ART HUR C . C LARKE 1131
 Misti Again—A Memory, 1957. Georgia O’Keeffe. Oil on canvas, 10 x 20”. Collection
of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S.A.
Viewing the Art: Compare the mountain and the overall setting and mood in this
painting with those of the image on page 1129. Which image more closely reflects
the setting and mood of this story?
I took a dozen steps forward to examine the
thing more closely, but some sense of caution
kept me from going too near. I knew a little of
archaeology, and tried to guess the cultural
level of the civilization that must have
smoothed this mountain and raised the glitter-
ing mirror surfaces that still dazzled my eyes.
The Egyptians could have done it, I
thought, if their workmen had possessed
whatever strange materials these far more
ancient architects had used. Because of the
thing’s smallness, it did not occur to me that
I might be looking at the handiwork of a
race more advanced than my own. The idea
that the Moon had possessed intelligence at
all was still almost too tremendous to grasp,
and my pride would not let me take the
final, humiliating plunge.
And then I noticed something that set the
scalp crawling at the back of my neck—
Reading Strategy
Identifying Assumptions What
assumption does the narrator make about the civilization
that created the structure?
1132 UNIT 6 GENRE FICTION
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe / Art Resource, NY
something so trivial and so innocent that
many would never have noticed it at all. I
have said that the plateau was scarred by
meteors; it was also coated inches deep with
the cosmic dust that is always filtering down
upon the surface of any world where there
are no winds to disturb it. Yet the dust and
the meteor scratches ended quite abruptly in
a wide circle enclosing the little pyramid, as
though an invisible wall was protecting it
from the ravages of time and the slow but
ceaseless bombardment from space.
There was someone shouting in my ear-
phones, and I realized that Garnett had been
calling me for some time. I walked unsteadily
to the edge of the cliff and signaled him to join
me, not trusting myself to speak. Then I went
back toward the circle in the dust. I picked
up a fragment of splintered rock and tossed
it gently toward the shining enigma. If the
pebble had vanished at that invisible barrier,
I should not have been surprised, but it
seemed to hit a smooth, hemispheric surface
and slide gently to the ground.
 I knew then that I was looking at nothing
that could be matched in the antiquity of
my own race. This was not a building, but a
machine, protecting itself with forces that had
challenged Eternity. Those forces, whatever
they might be, were still operating, and per-
haps I had already come too close. I thought
of all the radiations man had trapped and
tamed in the past century. For all I knew, I
might be as irrevocably doomed as if I had
stepped into the deadly, silent aura of an
unshielded atomic pile.22
I remember turning then toward Garnett,
who had joined me and was now standing
motionless at my side. He seemed quite
oblivious to me, so I did not disturb him but
walked to the edge of the cliff in an effort to
marshal my thoughts.23 There below me lay
the Mare Crisium—Sea of Crises, indeed—
strange and weird to most men, but reassur-
ingly familiar to me. I lifted my eyes toward
the crescent Earth, lying in her cradle of stars,
and I wondered what her clouds had covered
when these unknown builders had finished
their work. Was it the steaming jungle of the
Carboniferous,24 the bleak shoreline over
which the first amphibians must crawl to
conquer the land—or, earlier still, the long
loneliness before the coming of life?
Do not ask me why I did not guess the
truth sooner—the truth that seems so obvious
now. In the first excitement of my discovery,
22. Atomic pile is another term for a nuclear reactor.
23. Garnett seemed oblivious to, or unaware of, the narrator.
To marshal one’s thoughts is to organize and make sense
of them.
24. In geologic time, earth’s Carboniferous (kar´ bə nif
ər əs)
Period was between 280 million and 345 million years ago,
when land was covered with lush vegetation and swamps.
Big Idea Our World and Beyond What questions do
you have about the narrator’s discovery?
Literary Element Suspense How is suspense built in
this passage?
Vocabulary
irrevocably (i rev
ə kə blē) adv. in a way that cannot be
revoked or undone
I had assumed without question that this
crystalline apparition25 had been built by
some race belonging to the Moon’s remote
past, but suddenly, and with overwhelming
force, the belief came to me that it was as
alien to the Moon as I myself.
In twenty years we had found no trace of
life but a few degenerate plants. No lunar
civilization, whatever its doom, could have
left but a single token of its existence.
I looked at the shining pyramid again, and
the more I looked, the more remote it seemed
from anything that had to do with the Moon.
And suddenly I felt myself shaking with a
foolish, hysterical laughter, brought on by
excitement and overexertion: For I had imag-
ined that the little pyramid was speaking to
me and was saying, “Sorry, I’m a stranger
here myself.”
It has taken us twenty years to crack that
invisible shield and reach the machine inside
those crystal walls. What we could not
understand, we broke at last with the savage
might of atomic power and now I have seen
the fragments of the lovely, glittering thing I
found up there on the mountain.
They are meaningless. The mechanisms—
if indeed they are mechanisms—of the pyra-
mid belong to a technology that lies far
beyond our horizon, perhaps to the technol-
ogy of paraphysical forces.26
The mystery haunts us all the more now
that the other planets have been reached and
we know that only Earth has ever been the
home of intelligent life in our Universe. Nor
could any lost civilization of our own world
have built that machine, for the thickness of
the meteoric dust on the plateau has enabled
us to measure its age. It was set there upon
25. An apparition is a ghost or ghostly vision.
26. Paraphysical forces produce ordinary physical effects
without using recognizable physical causes. Such effects
might include the ability to float in midair, to materialize
and dematerialize, and to move objects with the mind.
Reading Strategy Identifying Assumptions What
assumption does the narrator finally dismiss?
ART HUR C . C LARKE 1133
 its mountain before life had emerged from
the seas of Earth.
When our world was half its present age,
something from the stars swept through the
Solar System, left this token of its passage,
and went again upon its way. Until we
destroyed it, that machine was still fulfilling
the purpose of its builders; and as to that
purpose, here is my guess.
Nearly a hundred thousand million stars
are turning in the circle of the Milky Way,
and long ago other races on the worlds of
other suns must have scaled and passed the
heights that we have reached. Think of such
civilizations, far back in time against the fad-
ing afterglow of Creation, masters of a uni-
verse so young that life as yet had come only
to a handful of worlds. Theirs would have
been a loneliness we cannot
imagine, the loneliness of
gods looking out across
infinity and finding none to
share their thoughts. We have set off
They must have searched
the star clusters as we have the fire alarm . . .
searched the planets.
Everywhere there would be
worlds, but they would be
empty or peopled with crawling, mindless
things. Such was our own Earth, the smoke
of the great volcanoes still staining the skies,
when that first ship of the peoples of the
dawn came sliding in from the abyss27
beyond Pluto. It passed the frozen outer
worlds, knowing that life could play no part
in their destinies. It came to rest among the
inner planets, warming themselves around
the fire of the Sun and waiting for their
stories to begin.
Those wanderers must have looked on
Earth, circling safely in the narrow zone
between fire and ice, and must have guessed
that it was the favorite of the Sun’s children.
27. Here, abyss (ə bis
) refers to the immeasurably vast
reaches of space.
Big Idea Our World and Beyond What purpose do you
think the machine was fulfilling?
1134 UNIT 6 GENRE FICTION
Here, in the distant future, would be intelli-
gence; but there were countless stars before
them still, and they might never come this
way again.
So they left a sentinel, one of millions
they scattered throughout the Universe,
watching over all worlds with the promise
of life. It was a beacon that down the ages
patiently signaled the fact that no one had
discovered it.
Perhaps you understand now why that
crystal pyramid was set upon the Moon
instead of on the Earth. Its builders were
not concerned with races still struggling up
from savagery. They would be interested in
our civilization only if we proved our fit-
ness to survive—by crossing space and so
escaping from the Earth, our cradle. That
is the challenge that all
intelligent races must
meet, sooner or later. It is
a double challenge, for it
depends in turn upon
the conquest of atomic
energy and the last choice
between life and death.
Once we had passed that
crisis, it was only a matter
of time before we found the pyramid and
forced it open. Now its signals have ceased,
and those whose duty it is will be turning
their minds upon Earth. Perhaps they wish to
help our infant civilization. But they must be
very, very old, and the old are often insanely
jealous of the young.
I can never look now at the Milky Way
without wondering from which of those
banked clouds of stars the emissaries28 are
coming. If you will pardon so commonplace
a simile, we have set off the fire alarm and
have nothing to do but wait.
I do not think we will have to wait for
long.

28. An emissary is a person or agent sent, often in secret, on
an official mission.
Literary Element Suspense Why does Clarke end the
story on a suspenseful note?
 A F T E R YO U R E A D
R E SP ON D I N G A N D T H I N K I NG C R I T I C ALLY
Respond
1. If you could leave something on a distant world to
be found by an alien civilization, what would it be?
Recall and Interpret
2. (a)Describe the setting of the story. Include details
about daily life, as well as about people’s ideas and
values at the time. (b)What can you infer about life
on the Moon from the setting’s details?
3. (a)When the narrator makes breakfast, what does he
see out the window? How do he and his crew mem-
bers react? (b)“A scientist must not be afraid to make
a fool of himself,” says the narrator. How does this
sentiment set him apart from his crew members?
4. (a)Why did the narrator experience “a strange,
inexpressible joy” upon making his discovery?
(b)Early in the story, the narrator states, “There
is nothing hazardous or even particularly exciting
about lunar exploration.” Given the outcome of the
story, what do you make of this statement?
V I S UA L L I T E R AC Y: Graphic Organizer
Timeline of a Mystery
As the mystery of “The Sentinel” unfolds, we
slowly learn the narrator’s hypothesis about
the origin and purpose of the machine. The
narrator describes his hypothesis in relation-
ship to events in Earth’s history. The timeline
below marks events as described in the story.
After studying the timeline, answer the follow-
ing questions.
Story Timeline
Aliens leave
Earth and “the sentinel”
Moon form. on the Moon.
4.5 BYA 2.5 BYA 1 BYA
BYA = billion years ago
MYA = million years ago
Analyze and Evaluate
5. In your opinion, why did the scientists try for twenty
years to crack the shield surrounding the machine?
6. Why do you think Clarke chose not to give any
definitive answers about the machine’s origins
or purpose?
7. In your opinion, was the use of atomic power
against “the sentinel” appropriate, or should the
scientists have left it intact? Explain.
Connect
8. Big Idea Our World and Beyond A hypothe-
sis is a theory or educated guess about some-
thing. If this story were true, would you find its
hypothesis reasonable—that “wanderers” from
other worlds left sentinels to watch over all worlds
that hold the promise of life? Explain.
1. Roughly how much time passed between
the formation of the earth and the aliens
leaving “the sentinel” on the moon?
2. In what year do humans discover “the
sentinel”?
3. The sentinel is eventually destroyed by
curious humans. If you were going to add
the date of the destruction of “the sentinel”
to this timeline, where would you place it?
Explain.
First humans Humans discover
appear on Earth. “the sentinel.”
2 MYA A.D. 1 1996 2016
ART HUR C . C LARKE 1135
 LIT E R A RY A NA LYS I S R EAD I N G AN D VO CAB U L ARY

Literary Element Suspense Reading Strategy Identifying Assumptions

Authors use a variety of techniques to create suspense The narrator and his colleagues assume that there
in their work. One technique is the use of foreshadow- has never been intelligent life on the Moon. Later in
ing, which provides clues to future events and allows the story, they are shocked to learn otherwise. Explain
readers to make guesses about the outcome. the assumptions that led characters to make the fol-
lowing conclusions.
1. The narrator is cooking breakfast on the morning
of his discovery. What specific events and details 1. Garnett concludes that the narrator will be the
in this scene add to the suspense of the story? laughingstock of the expedition following their
exploration of the mountain.
2. Several times in the story, the narrator says that he
and others believed that nothing “strange or unusual” 2. The narrator concludes that the aliens will come
would be found on top of the mountain and that to Earth in the near future.
intelligent life had never existed on the Moon. Why
might these statements be considered foreshadow-
ing of discoveries to come? What do they add to the Vocabulary Practice
overall suspensefulness of the story? Practice with Analogies Choose the word that
best completes each analogy.
Review: Description 1. tantalize : discourage :: pull :
a. yank b. drop c. push
As you learned on pages 1122–1123, description is
writing that helps readers picture settings, events, and 2. enigma : mystery :: answer :
characters. In “The Sentinel” Clarke provides vivid a. question b. solution c. maybe
descriptions of elements such as the moonscape, 3. work : relax :: ebb :
the mysterious pyramid, and the actions of the astro- a. flatten b. struggle c. increase
nauts. Strong description is especially important in 4. irrevocably : firmly :: similarly :
science fiction and fantasy, which may have charac- a. identically b. differently c. closely
ters, settings, and actions that are totally unfamiliar
to the reader.
Partner Activity Meet with a classmate and choose
Academic Vocabulary
a story element that Clarke describes in detail, such as
the machine he finds. Create a web diagram like the
Here are two words from the vocabulary list on
one below, and use it to record the details Clarke uses
page R86.
to describe the element.
logic (loj
ik) n. a mode of reasoning; valid
reasoning
Descriptive panel (pan
əl) n. a flat, usually rectangular
Descriptive Detail Descriptive piece forming a raised, recessed, or framed
Detail Detail part of the surface in which it is set
Story
Practice and Apply
Element
1. What logic does the narrator use to explain why
the machine was left on the Moon instead of
Descriptive Descriptive on Earth?
Detail Detail

1136 UNIT 6 GENRE FICTION

 WR IT I N G A N D EX T E N D I N G
Writing About Literature
Explore Author’s Purpose The author’s purpose is
the author’s reason for creating a literary work. When
exploring the author’s purpose, it is useful to examine
the reasons for specific choices the writer made. For
example, in “The Sentinel,” Clarke chose to use a sci-
entist as the narrator and to set the story on the
Moon. Exploring why Clarke made these choices can
help you determine his purpose in writing the story.
Write a brief essay that explores the reasons behind
Clarke’s choices of setting and character. Be sure to
explain how these choices support his overall purpose
for writing.
Before you begin writing, organize your ideas using
a Venn diagram. Use the circles to list the author’s
reasons for the following creative choices: using a sci-
entist as narrator and setting the story on the Moon.
In the overlapping area, list any purposes that both
choices serve.
Scientist
Setting on
as Both
Moon
Narrator
After you complete your draft, meet with a partner to
evaluate each other’s work and to suggest revisions.
Then proofread and edit your draft to correct errors in
spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
Literary Criticism
In his introduction to “The Sentinel” in the story collec-
tion Science Fiction: Masters of Today, Arthur Liebman
writes that this story “did more to enhance the popular-
ity of science fiction than perhaps any other short story
of recent times. It remains ‘must’ reading for all science
fiction fans.” Write a critical review of “The Sentinel”
in which you explain why the story might have made
science fiction so popular, and why you agree or dis-
agree with Liebman’s opinion that it is “must” reading.
G R AM MAR AN D ST Y L E
Clarke’s Language and Style
Using Infinitives and Infinitive Phrases An infini-
tive is a verb form that begins with the word to and
functions as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. The
most common use of an infinitive is as a noun, as in
the three examples below.
An infinitive can come at the end of a sentence.
Here, it is being used as an object:
The astronauts were curious and decided to
investigate.
Alternatively, an infinitive can come at the beginning
of a sentence. Here, it is being used as a subject:
To leave was not an option for the lunar explorers.
An infinitive phrase includes the infinitive and any
complements and modifiers. In this example, the
phrase is used as a noun:
Wilson and Garnett decided to climb the mountain.
Activity In “The Sentinel,” find three examples of
sentences containing an infinitive or infinitive phrase
used as a noun. Copy the sentences and underline
the infinitive or infinitive phrase in each one.
Revising Check
Infinitives and Infinitive Phrases Review your
essay about the author’s purpose. Are all of the infini-
tives or infinitive phrases used properly? Correct any
sentences that require revision. If you have not used
any infinitives or infinitive phrases in your essay, try
rewriting one or two sentences to include an infinitive
or infinitive phrase where appropriate.
Web Activities For eFlashcards,
Selection Quick Checks, and other Web activities, go to
www.glencoe.com.
ART HUR C . C LA RKE 1137