Daily Read / Short Story
Short Story · Put story events in order using time clues, and explain how one early event causes a problem later in the story
Short Story: Three Clocks, One Morning
Original fiction. On the morning the clocks fall back, Nadia finds three clocks showing three times. Order the events and trace the mistake to its cause.
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Saturday night
This is an original short story. The characters and their family are invented.
On Saturday night, Dad tapped the calendar on the fridge. "Tonight the clocks fall back," he said. "At two in the morning, the time goes back one hour. We get an extra hour of sleep."
Nadia had a skating lesson at nine o'clock on Sunday morning, and she did not want to be late. Her old alarm clock did not change by itself, so she decided to fix it before bed. She remembered a saying from school, spring forward, fall back, but in her sleepy head the two halves swapped places. At nine o'clock she turned the hands of her clock forward to ten. Then she set the alarm for seven and climbed into bed, feeling very organized.[1]
Too quiet
Beep, beep, beep. Nadia's alarm clock said 7:00. She switched it off and pulled back the curtain. The street was as dark as midnight, and the streetlights were still on.
She tiptoed down the hall. Her little brother Sami was awake by half past six every single day, watching cartoons with the sound turned low. But this morning his door was closed, and there was no cartoon music anywhere. Dad's door was closed too. The whole house was silent except for the furnace humming. That's strange, Nadia thought.[1]
Three clocks
In the kitchen, the green numbers on the oven clock said 6:03. Nadia frowned and looked back up the hall at her own clock, which now said 7:03. Then she picked up the family tablet from the counter. Its screen said 5:03.
Three clocks, three times, one hour apart. Nadia sat down at the table with a glass of water and thought about it the way her teacher, Mr. Osei, said to think about a mystery: start at the beginning and go in order.[1]
Working backward
First, the tablet. Dad always said the tablet set its own time from the internet. If the clocks had fallen back at two o'clock, the tablet would have changed by itself. So 5:03 was probably the real time.
Next, the oven. Nobody had touched it last night, so it still showed the old time, one hour ahead of the new time. That explained 6:03.
Then Nadia's own clock. It was two hours ahead. One hour was the same as the oven's, because it had not fallen back either. But where had the other hour come from? Nadia remembered turning the hands from nine to ten. Ten is later than nine. She had moved her clock forward, not back.
"Spring forward, fall back," she whispered. "Fall back. I did it backward."[1]
Two hours later
Nadia went back to bed and slept until the tablet said 7:00. This time the sky outside was grey and getting lighter. At breakfast, she told Dad the whole story, starting with Saturday night.
Dad laughed. "So you got an extra hour of sleep and an extra two hours of thinking." After breakfast, Nadia fixed her alarm clock, turning the hands back two hours. Then she and Sami found the oven's instruction book and set the oven clock back one hour. At 8:40, by the tablet and the oven and her own clock, which all agreed at last, Nadia walked into the arena with her skates over her shoulder, twenty minutes early.[1]
Fast lesson
Use these checks before you answer the practice questions.
Draw a long line on paper. Write Saturday on the left and Sunday 8:40 on the right. Have your child place each event with its time or a time-order word.
Ask: which event started the trouble? Work back from the alarm ringing in the dark to the hands turning from nine to ten.
Use a toy clock or draw clock faces. Show the old time, the new time after falling back, and Nadia's clock. Seeing the one-hour gaps makes the sequence concrete.
Common mistakes
Why this fails: Time words and clock times show the real order. Saturday night comes before Sunday morning, even though Nadia only remembers it later.
Why this fails: It worked fine; nobody had changed it, so it still showed the old time.
Why this fails: Falling back moves the clock to an earlier time: 2:00 becomes 1:00.
Word Lab
Use the meaning, hear the word, then try it in your own sentence.
fall back
phrasal verbto move the clock back one hour in the fall
Tonight the clocks fall back one hour.
organized
adjectiveprepared and planned ahead
She felt organized after setting her alarm.
swap
verbto change places with each other
The two halves of the saying swapped places.
tiptoe
verbto walk quietly on the front of your feet
Nadia tiptoed down the hall.
silent
adjectivewith no sound
The whole house was silent.
frown
verbto pull your eyebrows together when you are puzzled or unhappy
Nadia frowned at the oven clock.
sequence
nounthe order in which events happen
Retell the story in sequence.
clue
nouna piece of information that helps you solve a problem
The dark sky was a clue.
explain
verbto make clear why something happened
The old time explained 6:03.
timeline
nouna line that shows events in the order they happened
Draw a timeline of Nadia's morning.
agree
verbto be the same; to match
At last, all three clocks agreed.
Check your understanding
Choose an answer, explain your choice, and then check. Hints and retries are welcome.
Try the questions here. Public practice does not save a learning record.
Support · Find it in the text
Support · Find it in the text practice
Each answer is stated in the story. Point to the sentence.
1. What time was Nadia's skating lesson?
2. What time did the oven clock show?
3. What time did the tablet show?
4. What is the name of Nadia's teacher?
5. What saying did Nadia remember from school?
6. What time did Nadia walk into the arena?
Apply · Sequence and cause
Apply · Sequence and cause practice
Use a time-order word or 'because' and a detail from the story.
7. Why did the oven clock show 6:03?
8. Why did Nadia decide the tablet was probably right?
9. What did Nadia do right after she worked out her mistake?
10. What two things did Nadia fix after breakfast, and in what order?
11. Why did Nadia start her explanation to Dad with Saturday night?
12. Why does Dad say she got 'an extra two hours of thinking'?
Reason · Order events and trace causes
Reason · Order events and trace causes practice
Build the timeline and link each problem to its cause.
13. Put in order: Nadia checks the oven; Nadia turns her clock to ten; all three clocks agree; Nadia's alarm rings.
14. Complete the chain: Nadia moves her clock forward → the clocks fall back at 2 a.m. → ?
15. If Nadia had not changed her clock at all, what would it have shown when the tablet said 5:03?
16. If Nadia had moved her clock back from nine to eight on Saturday night, what would it have shown when the tablet said 7:00?
17. Sami says, "The oven clock was broken." Is that a good explanation? Use the story.
Practice answer key
- 1. Nine o'clock on Sunday morning.
See 'Saturday night'. - 2. 6:03.
See 'Three clocks'. - 3. 5:03.
See 'Three clocks'. - 4. Mr. Osei.
See the end of 'Three clocks'. - 5. Spring forward, fall back.
See 'Saturday night'. - 6. 8:40.
See 'Two hours later'. - 7. Because nobody changed it, so it still showed the old time, one hour ahead of the new time.
See 'Working backward'. - 8. Because Dad said it sets its own time from the internet, so it would have fallen back by itself.
See 'Working backward'. - 9. She went back to bed and slept until the tablet said 7:00.
This opens 'Two hours later'. - 10. First her alarm clock (back two hours), then the oven clock with Sami (back one hour).
See 'Two hours later'. - 11. Because that is where the story began, and it is when the mistake happened.
Retelling in order makes causes clear. - 12. Because she woke two hours too early by the real time and used that time to solve the mystery.
Dad is joking about the two extra hours. - 13. Nadia turns her clock to ten → Nadia's alarm rings → Nadia checks the oven → all three clocks agree.
Use the section headings to help. - 14. Her clock is two hours ahead of the real time, so the alarm rings at 5:00 real time.
Two causes add up to one effect. - 15. 6:03, the same as the oven, because it would show the old time.
Compare it with the oven, which nobody touched. - 16. 7:00. Moving it back one hour in advance would match the new time after 2 a.m.
This is what 'fall back' means. - 17. No. The oven clock worked; it just had not been changed, so it still showed the old time, exactly one hour ahead.
A clock showing the old time is not broken.
Related skills
Put it in your own words
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Check your own explanation
This is self-review, not automatic marking.
Compare with a model response
On Saturday night, Dad told Nadia that the clocks would fall back one hour. Because she had a skating lesson, she fixed her own clock, but she swapped the saying and moved it forward from nine to ten. The next morning, her alarm rang at seven by her clock, but the house was silent and Sami, who is always up by half past six, was still asleep, which was a clue that it was too early. In the kitchen, she found three clocks: the oven said 6:03, her clock said 7:03 and the tablet said 5:03. First, she decided the tablet was right because it changes by itself. Next, she realized the oven still showed the old time. Then she worked out that her clock was two hours ahead because she had moved it the wrong way. Finally, she went back to sleep, fixed both clocks after breakfast and arrived at the arena twenty minutes early.
Sources and revision notes
Source check: 2026-10-29. Grade guidance is an editorial suggestion, not a standardised reading score.
What changed in this edition?
Original fiction. All characters, their home and the arena are invented. The source supports the story-sequence reading strategy, not the story's events. The clock change in the story follows the real Canadian rule that clocks fall back one hour at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of November.