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Copywork
About This Passage
This is the opening paragraph of the novel. The brook is wild and intricate in the woods but turns quiet and “well-conducted” the moment it reaches Mrs. Rachel’s window. Lucy Maud Montgomery uses the brook as an image of how Mrs. Rachel disciplines everything around her. The vocabulary words REPUTED, INTRICATE, CASCADE, DECORUM, and FERRETED all appear in this passage.
MRS. RACHEL LYNDE lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies’ eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods ...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Tell in five or six sentences what happens in this chapter: who Mrs. Rachel Lynde is, what she sees Matthew Cuthbert doing, what she learns when she walks to Green Gables, and how the chapter ends with the orphan child waiting at Bright River station.
Discussion Questions
- How does Lucy Maud Montgomery describe Mrs. Rachel’s window in the opening paragraphs, and what does that description tell you about her place in the village of Avonlea?
- When Mrs. Rachel sees Matthew Cuthbert driving away in his white collar with the buggy and the sorrel mare, why is she so certain something unusual is happening? Cite at least two specific details from the chapter.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Worthy of attention; remarkable for being unusually skilled or important.
Item 2
Having many small parts or twists that make a thing tangled or hard to follow.
Item 3
Polite, dignified behavior that suits a particular setting.
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Critical Thinking
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