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Copywork
About This Passage
This paragraph is Burnett's fullest early statement of who Sara is: a child whose face wears 'an old look,' whose inner life of dreaming and thinking long predates the events of the plot. The prose enacts its meaning, the measured, qualifying syntax ('The fact was, however, that...') and the closing cadence, 'She felt as if she had lived a long, long time,' slow the reader to the rhythm of reflection itself. Copying it invites the student to study how syntax and cadence can render the texture of a consciousness, and to mark the source of the resourceful interior life on which Sara's character rests.
She was such a little girl that one did not expect to see such a look on her small face. It would have been an old look for a child of twelve, and Sara Crewe was only seven. The fact was, however, tha...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Give a concise summary of the chapter, then identify the single most important sentence or moment in it. Explain why it matters to the chapter as a whole and what it reveals about Burnett's larger design.
Discussion Questions
- What Central One Idea does this opening chapter advance, and how does Burnett make that claim persuasive through Sara, Captain Crewe, and Miss Minchin? Defend your reading with details from the chapter.
- Late in the chapter, Miss Minchin remarks that Sara has been provided for 'as if she were a little princess.' Why does that line deserve our sustained attention, and what would we miss about the chapter if we treated it as only a passing remark? Use the chapter's details to explain.
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Vocabulary
Item 1
The quality of deep, serious reflection or careful consideration.
Item 2
Strange, odd, or peculiar; markedly out of the ordinary.
Item 3
Adored or revered to an extreme, almost reverent degree.
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Critical Thinking
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