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Copywork
About This Passage
The announcer's reasoning builds to a confident absurdity. He points to Wilbur's glow (the reader knows it is buttermilk), recalls the web word, raises the grand question of its origin, and then dismisses the obvious author with 'spiders cannot write.' The dramatic irony peaks exactly where he is most certain: a spider wrote every word. Copying these steady, formal sentences shows how orderly rhetoric can carry a mistake the reader sees straight through.
Note the general radiance of this animal! Then remember the day when the word 'radiant' appeared clearly on the web. Whence came this mysterious writing? Not from the spider, we can rest assured of th...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Reconstruct the chapter from the loud speaker's announcement through the truck's return to the pigpen. Which moment carries the most weight beneath the public fuss, and what in the chapter makes you say so?
Discussion Questions
- White calls this Charlotte's 'hour of triumph' even though Wilbur is the one standing before the crowd. Why might the chapter place the triumph with Charlotte at this moment? Use details from Charlotte's quiet scene and Wilbur's public one to support your answer.
- The announcer insists the web writing came from 'supernatural forces' and that 'spiders cannot write,' while Charlotte, the true author, murmurs, 'Oh, they can't, can't they?' What does White accomplish by setting these two voices against each other? Use the details of what the announcer and Charlotte say to explain what you think.
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Vocabulary
Item 1
A great victory or success; the word for this hour that, privately, belongs to Charlotte.
Item 2
Grand and self-important in a showy way; the manner of the loud speaker's announcement.
Item 3
Beyond the laws of nature, seemingly magical; the announcer's explanation for the web writing.
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Critical Thinking
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