The Myths in the Stars

Wise & Wide is a 6-level English reading program that consists of 60 books and each level is
systematically divided by Lexile Ⓡ measures. The Lexile Ⓡ Framework for Reading is the most popular reading measuring system in American formal education curriculums and many English programs.
Over 20 out of 50 states in the U.S. mark Lexile Ⓡ measures directly on students’ final report cards and over 300 well-known publishers adopt and use Lexile Ⓡ measures.
Experience many kinds of readings written by professional writers from the U.S. and England. They used interesting topics that were carefully chosen after analyzing elementary curriculums from around the world including Korea, the U.S., England, and Australia among many others.

Before Reading

A mysterious book about constellations that embroider the night sky
You can rarely see stars in cities, but you can often see different clusters of stars that light up the night sky if you go to the countryside. Ancient people considered the sky as a circle and divided it into 12 parts.
They called the 12 parts “the zodiac.”
Viewed from Earth, the sun appears to pass by each of the 12 parts once a year. Within the 12 parts are 88 constellations.
Ancient people wanted to hear the conversations of these constellations that had been guarding the night sky for tens of thousands of years. Especially, the Greeks’ and Romans’ imagination of these conversations was weaved into mythical stories about the stars. Shall we read Greek and Roman mythology about the 12 zodiac signs that embroider the spring, summer, fall and winter night sky?

Summary

People of the past planned farming or predicted the future by examining the movement of different stars or constellations. In this process, stars were named and myths were created to explain the different constellations. Myths about the 12 zodiac signs especially, that is, Pisces, Aries and Taurus that represent spring, Gemini, Leo and Cancer that represent summer, Virgo, Libra and Scorpio that represent fall, and lastly Sagittarius, Capricorn and Aquarius that represent winter are all very interesting and special. Listen carefully to the stories about Greek and Roman gods and goddesses such as the famous Zeus, Hera, Poseidon etc., who appear with heroes and monsters such as Jason, Hercules, Hydra, etc. in these myths about the constellations.