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Copywork
About This Passage
This passage captures the exact mechanism of Pinocchio's slow surrender — he has already said good-by, he has already taken two steps toward home, and then he stops and asks. Copying it forces the eye onto the geometry of temptation: the small step home, the stop, the question that pulls him back. Lamp Wick's flat "I am positive" answers nothing real but gives Pinocchio the cover he wants to keep standing there.
Having said this, the marionette took two steps toward home; then he stopped and asked, "But are you sure that there are six Saturdays in the week and only one Sunday?" "I am positive." "And can you s...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Tell the chapter back from the moment Pinocchio asks the Fairy's permission to invite his friends through the moment the little carriage's lights and trumpets appear in the dark. Include where Pinocchio finds Lamp Wick, what Lamp Wick promises about the Country of Playthings, and how Pinocchio's answers change as the conversation goes on.
Discussion Questions
- When the Fairy warns Pinocchio that "boys make promises easily, but sometimes they do not keep them," Pinocchio answers, "I am not like other boys. When I make a promise I always keep it." What evidence does the chapter give us, in the very same conversation with Lamp Wick, that the Fairy's warning was the more honest description of Pinocchio?
- Lamp Wick describes the Country of Playthings almost entirely by what is NOT there — no schools, no teachers, no books, never study. What does it suggest about a place when the best thing you can say about it is a list of things it does not have?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
A puppet on strings; what Pinocchio still is in this chapter, until the next morning when he is supposed to become a real boy.
Item 2
Causing playful trouble on purpose; Lamp Wick is called the most mischievous boy in all the school.
Item 3
Not paying attention to what matters; Lamp Wick is described as careless about everything except getting away.
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Critical Thinking
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