Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources Reading Comprehension Worksheets The 1910's

The Piltdown Man Hoax The 1910's

---

The Piltdown Man Hoax
Print The Piltdown Man Hoax Reading Comprehension with Fifth Grade Work

Print The Piltdown Man Hoax Reading Comprehension with Sixth Grade Work

Print The Piltdown Man Hoax Reading Comprehension

Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 5 to 7
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	6.17

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		bogus, dawsoni, doubters, fluorine, geologist, controversy, religious, geologic, mastermind, humiliate, genuine, theory, priest, fragment, public, mere
	content words:		Charles Dawson, Piltdown Man, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, Martin A. C.

---

The Piltdown Man Hoax By Jane Runyon

---

¹     Scientists, religious leaders, and the general public have been arguing for years about how humans have originated. Many scientists believe that the ancestor of man was the ape. They have tried to find proof of their theory for quite a long time. In 1912, many of these scientists believed that the proof they needed had been found.
 
²     An expedition led by an amateur geologist named Charles Dawson found two bone fragments in Sussex, England. He found part of a skull and part of a jawbone with teeth intact in a gravel pit. The bones certainly looked old. And the shape of the bones led many scientists who study them to the conclusion that these were bones belonging to a creature not an ape, but not quite human. They named the bones the Piltdown Man. They believed that the Piltdown Man was the link that had been missing from the puzzle proving that man had descended from apes. These were the "missing link."
 
³     Many great scientists of the day joined forces in proclaiming these bone fragments as genuine relics from thousands of years in the past. After all, relics of a Neanderthal had been found in Germany in 1856. And a Cro-Magnon had been found in France in 1868. It made perfect sense to them that a far more advanced specimen should be found in England at this time.

Paragraphs 4 to 10:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable

---

Weekly Reading Books

Create Weekly Reading Books Prepare for an entire week at once!

---

Feedback on The Piltdown Man Hoax

Leave your feedback on The Piltdown Man Hoax   (use this link if you found an error in the story)

---

The 1910's

The 1910's

---

United States

United States

American Government         Black History and Blacks in U.S. History         Children in History         Government Careers         Hispanic Heritage         How Can I Help?

Immigration         National Parks and Monuments         Native Americans         Presidents of the United States         Women's History

---

United States History

A Nation Divided (1840-1861)         A New Nation (1776-1830)         After the Civil War (1865-1870)         American Revolution         Cold War (1947-1991)         Colonial America (1492-1776)         Lewis and Clark (1804-1806)         Pearl Harbor         Spanish American War (1898)         The 1890's         The 1900's         The 1910's         The 1920's         The 1930's

The 1940's         The 1950's         The 1960's         The 1970's         The 1980's         The 1990's         The 2000's         The Civil War (1861-1865)         The Great Depression (1929-1945)         The United States Grows (1865-1900)         The War of 1812         Wild, Wild West         World War I (1914-1918)         World War II

---

50 States

Fifty States Theme Unit

---

Document Based Activities

Document Based Activities

Copyright © 2025 edHelper