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Copywork
About This Passage
This sentence holds the chapter's great hope. After pages telling how earlier explorers were stopped by ice, the narrator turns to his own ship and feels 'most intense interest' as Captain Guy resolves to push 'boldly to the southward,' into a 'wide field' of unexplored sea. Copying it shows how a writer can make us feel the thrill of an adventure about to begin, and how a single sentence can carry the courage of sailing toward the unknown.
Of course a wide field lay before us for discovery, and it was with feelings of most intense interest that I heard Captain Guy express his resolution of pushing boldly to the southward.
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Tell what happens in this chapter in order: how Captain Guy decides to turn the Jane Guy southward and sail toward the very bottom of the world, how the narrator shares the story of brave explorers before them — Captain Cook, who was stopped by giant walls of ice, and Captains Weddel and Morrell, who sailed far south and were surprised to find warmer, open water — and how the Jane Guy at last sets out to explore a part of the icy south that no ship had ever crossed. Slow down at the part you find most exciting and tell what you think.
Discussion Questions
- After hearing how other captains were stopped by ice, Captain Guy still wants to go south, because so much of that part of the world has 'never been crossed at all.' Why might that wide, unexplored region make the voyage feel worth the risk to the narrator? What part of the chapter helps you decide?
- Long ago, Captain Cook sailed far south but met 'an immense frozen expanse' and 'gigantic ranges of ice-mountains, the one towering above the other,' and at last 'reluctantly turned to the northward.' When Captain Cook turned back from that giant ice, was it a sign of fear or a sign of wisdom, and why? What part of the chapter helps you decide?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Turned hard and solid by cold; iced over.
Item 2
A wide, open stretch of something.
Item 3
Extremely large; huge.
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Critical Thinking
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