A Sound of Thunder Guided Reading Questions

1. What type of Safaris does Time Safari Inc. arrange for their customers?

Big Game Hunting during different time periods.

2. Who is the elected president of the United States at the beginning of the story? How do they

describe his opponent? Why is this significant?

At the beginning of the story, Keith was elected as president. They describe his opponent as a type of
dictator. This could be significant to how the election would go.

3. Describe the path created by Time Safari Inc. What is the purpose of this path?

They created anti-gravity metal in order to prevent hunters from touching things.

4. What might happen if someone steps off of the path?

They could drastically change history.

5. Why are the hunters allowed to hunt the dinosaurs that are marked with red paint?

They were allowed to hunt them because they were going to die anyways.

6. What mistake does Eckels make while the men are hunting?

He went off the path.

7. What does Eckels have to do as punishment for this mistake?

He has to take out the bullets from a deceased dinosaur.

8. Why can't the men take the dinosaur home as a "trophy?" What are they allowed to do instead? Do

they do this?

He can’t take it home because they want it to decay naturally. They were allowed to take is picture with
it, but they didn’t.

9. At the end of the story, in what ways is the present day different than before?

There is a different president, and they spell Safari Inc differently.

10. Besides mud, what does Eckels discover on his boot?

A dead butterfly.

11. What does this story tell us about the human impact of time travel? Do you agree? Explain your

opinion.
This tells us that when it comes to time travel, people make a lot of mistakes. They tend to be careless
and reckless with the things they do. I would agree because there would could’ve been drastic changes
made to history due to their negligence.