Two Views in One Frame: Franklin's Clever Solution
Imagine sitting at a busy dinner table where you want to read a printed menu, but you also want to look up and see the faces of people across the room. If your eyes have trouble focusing on both near and far objects, you might find yourself constantly swapping between two pairs of spectacles. Benjamin Franklin faced this exact problem as he grew older, and he decided to do something about it.
Franklin loved to read, write, and converse with friends. However, by the late eighteenth century, he noticed that a pair of glasses that helped him see small letters in a book made everything far away look blurry. Conversely, glasses that sharpened objects across the room made nearby pages completely unreadable. Taking glasses on and off all day was slow and annoying. For an active thinker, this everyday frustration was a puzzle waiting to be solved.
- spectacles:
- Eyeglasses used to help a person see clearly.
- lenses:
- Curved pieces of clear glass or plastic that bend light to sharpen an image.
- horizontally:
- Going straight across from side to side, parallel to the ground.
- arrangement:
- The way things are organized or placed in a particular order.
- primary source:
- An original record or document created during the time being studied, such as a personal letter.
- inconvenience:
- A trouble, difficulty, or hassle that causes minor annoyance.
One passage, many ways to practice
Reading-skill questions, word work and writing prompts — all built from this text.
Main Idea
Identify the central idea and explain how important details develop it.
Context Clues
Use clues in the passage to work out what words mean. A separate printable Vocabulary worksheet is also available.
Summarize
Select, organize, and restate the most important information without adding opinion.
Purpose
Analyze what the author aims to do and how choices serve audience and purpose.
Structure
Analyze how sections and organizational choices build the text's ideas or effects.
Vocabulary
Practice words from the passage with a printable worksheet.
Writing Prompts
Use the passage as a springboard for short written responses, from personal reflection to evidence-based arguments.
Fix the Sentence
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Preview questions from this passageShowHide
- 1What specific problem did Benjamin Franklin face as he grew older when trying to read and look across a room?
- 2How does a curved piece of glass help a person see more clearly?
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About this explanatory article passage for Upper Elementary
“Two Views in One Frame: Franklin's Clever Solution” is a explanatory article reading passage about Benjamin Franklin's bifocal glasses design, written for Upper Elementary. It takes about 3 minutes to read (517 words) and comes with an interactive quiz and a printable worksheet with comprehension questions and an answer key.