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Copywork
About This Passage
Chosen for its merciless construction. The speech answers Wilbur's scream with a two-word sentence — 'Kill you.' — then widens ring by ring: the product named (bacon and ham), the rule stated (almost all young pigs), the schedule fixed (cold weather, Christmastime), and finally the roster, climbing through 'even John Arable' to make the betrayal personal. The sheep's word choices do moral work: 'murdered' and 'conspiracy' are the victim's vocabulary, not the farmer's. Copying it gives practice with a fragment used for impact, a speech that escalates by widening scope, and the power of 'even' at the end of a list.
"Kill you. Turn you into smoked bacon and ham," continued the old sheep. "Almost all young pigs get murdered by the farmer as soon as the real cold weather sets in. There's a regular conspiracy around...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Reconstruct the chapter as a hinge: the easy opening — the admired campaign, the mercy compliment, the growing weight — then the sheep's widening revelation, Wilbur's charted collapse, and Charlotte's two-voiced turn from chat to command. Track who supplies facts, who supplies panic, and who supplies the promise, and end by naming what the promise still lacks.
Discussion Questions
- The chapter opens with Wilbur admiring Charlotte's mercy toward her victims — 'It's real thoughtful of you to do that, Charlotte' — and minutes later the old sheep reveals that Wilbur himself is being fattened for killing. Why might White place the anaesthetic talk just before the bad news? Use the words of Wilbur's compliment and the details of the sheep's reveal to explain what the order lets a reader notice.
- Charlotte speaks in two voices in one chapter: the 'sweet, musical voice' that chats about anaesthetics, and the brisk command voice of the crisis — 'Be quiet, Wilbur!' and 'Stop your crying!' What does the range between her two voices show about Charlotte? Use the words of each voice and the details of when she uses them to explain what the change reveals.
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Vocabulary
Item 1
A drug or treatment that prevents pain, often by putting the patient to sleep.
Item 2
Feeding a creature to make it heavier — on a farm, usually with a purpose.
Item 3
To wish you had what someone else has.
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Critical Thinking
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