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Copywork
About This Passage
Two sentences that build the chapter's mirror. The first takes inventory with a semicolon and a flat list — TV, pinball machine, furniture — the grammar of a damage report. Then the pivot: 'Even the people looked broken.' One word, 'Even,' moves the boys onto the list of damaged property, and 'sprawled' finishes the job, draping their bodies over the furniture until person and object blur. Copy both sentences exactly, keeping the semicolon and the comma series. The craft worth absorbing: the sentence structure files boys and broken machines under one heading, which is precisely what this camp does.
Nearly everything in the room was broken; the TV, the pinball machine, the furniture. Even the people looked broken, with their worn-out bodies sprawled over the various chairs and sofas.
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Summarize the evening in the order the chapter stages it: shower, WRECK ROOM, the near-fight, the couch, the letter, Zero's question, the dinner call. Then name the sentence you would call the chapter's hinge and defend the choice with the chapter's words — what does that sentence change about everything before it?
Discussion Questions
- The chapter saves its key fact for two short sentences at the dinner call: 'The Lump wasn't the Caveman. He was.' The writer could have revealed Stanley's nickname during the rescue instead. Why might the author hold the reveal until the chapter's last lines? Use the chapter's words from the couch scene to explain what the delay lets the earlier moments do.
- Stanley's letter mixes truth with invention: he says he has 'made some friends,' says they were 'out on the lake all day,' and mentions a swimming test that does not exist. What does that mix show about Stanley? Use 'She'll worry if I don't' and the letter's exact words to explain what he is trying to protect, and what that reveals about him.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Said quietly, half-hoping not to be heard.
Item 2
Extended out at full length — placed where it will be met.
Item 3
The padded covering of furniture — cloth, filling, and surface.
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Critical Thinking
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