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Copywork
About This Passage
This passage marks the first crack in Marilla's hard surface: a smile 'rusty from long disuse' softens her grim face, and she grants Anne a night's reprieve. Copying it lets students study indirect characterization, the metaphor that betrays buried warmth, beside the plain, decisive speech of a woman unused to mercy.
Something like a reluctant smile, rather rusty from long disuse, mellowed Marilla’s grim expression. “Well, don’t cry any more. We’re not going to turn you out-of-doors to-night. You’ll have to stay ...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Reconstruct the chapter's movement: Marilla's shock at the girl, Anne's collapse into despair, the talk about her name, the silent supper, and the night-time argument over whether Anne can stay.
Discussion Questions
- Anne cries out that 'nobody ever did want me' before she even knows what Marilla and Matthew will do. What does that quick leap tell you about how Anne has learned to think about herself, and why does this moment strike her so deeply? Use details from the chapter.
- Anne insists on 'Cordelia,' or at least 'Anne spelled with an e,' caring intensely about a name even as her future hangs in doubt. Why might naming and spelling carry such weight for Anne, and what does that reveal about how she copes? Use details from the chapter.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Unwilling and hesitant to do something.
Item 2
Softened and made gentler.
Item 3
To look into something carefully to learn the truth.
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Critical Thinking
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