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Copywork
About This Passage
This passage shows how Stanley stays perfectly still even while terrifying things happen around him. The author chose strong verbs — shatter, scurried, flinch — that make the reader feel the panic. Yet Stanley’s body stays calm. Copywork here teaches that sometimes courage looks like stillness, and that a glance between two friends can say everything without a word.
Stanley felt the blast shatter the air around him. The lizards scurried frantically across his very still body. He did not flinch. A lizard ran across his closed mouth. He glanced at Zero and Zero’s e...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell Chapter 46 in five or six sentences. Include: what Mr. Sir shot, what the Warden plans to tell ‘that woman,’ what memory Stanley travels to in his mind, what Mr. Sir reveals about Stanley’s innocence, and what Zero communicates with a thumbs-up.
Discussion Questions
- Mr. Sir lights a cigarette after shooting the lizard and says he’ll have nightmares the rest of his life. How do you know that even the adults are terrified, and what does this reveal about how brave Stanley and Zero are being?
- The Warden plans to tell ‘that woman’ a false story about Stanley falling in a hole. What evidence in the text shows that the camp has been practicing this kind of dishonesty for a long time?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
To break into many pieces with sudden force, or to disturb suddenly.
Item 2
Moved quickly with short, hurried steps.
Item 3
To make a sudden small movement from fear, surprise, or pain.
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Critical Thinking
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