Practice contractions as you learn about people who’ve been hanging around for a long, long time.
Directions: For each space below, think of the contraction that is formed by shortening the word or combining the two words in parentheses. We’ve done the first one for you.
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1. People from many cultures have turned bodies into mummies. Why? They believed there was life after death, and they thought they’d (they would) live forever if their body was made into a mummy.
2. Some of the fanciest mummies were in Egypt. The mummy of a king would be placed in a painted coffin. The coffin was kept in a building called a tomb. The tomb was filled with everything ______ (he would) need in his next life. You ______ (will not) believe this, but some tombs even included boats!
3. The most famous mummy was King Tut of Egypt. He began ruling when he was 9 and died at age 19. He was buried in a tomb with 5,000 of his favorite objects. (Guess he _____ (did not) like to give anything away!)
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4. People believed that if you disturbed a mummy’s tomb, ______ (you would) die. This ______ (did not) stop the scientist who discovered King Tut’s tomb. He and his workers explored it anyway—and many of those workers died soon afterward. ______ (It is) known as King Tut’s curse.
5. Last year, scientists in Egypt discovered the mummy of a woman in nearly perfect condition. Scientists believe she died more than 3,000 years ago. ______ (That is) one old lady!
6. Today, ______ (there is) a company that will turn pets into mummies. ______ (We are) not sure whether ______ (that is) sweet or creepy!
