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Copywork
About This Passage
This one sentence holds the chapter’s great triumph. After weeks of forcing the ship through cracking ice, the crew has sailed ‘more than eight degrees farther’ south than anyone before them — and instead of a wall of ice, ‘the sea still lay perfectly open before us.’ Copying it lets a young reader feel how thrilling it is to go where no one has ever gone, and to see how Poe makes that wonder plain with simple, confident words.
We had now advanced to the southward more than eight degrees farther than any previous navigators, and the sea still lay perfectly open before us.
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell this chapter in order: how the ship pushes through cracking, crashing ice until it breaks into open water; how the sea grows warmer instead of colder after it crosses the Antarctic circle; how the crew loses a sailor overboard and sails past a giant iceberg; how a huge white bear attacks the boat until Dirk Peters leaps onto its back and stops it; how they land on a small island, which Captain Guy names Bennet's Isle, and find a strange carved piece of wood; and how Captain Guy wants to turn back, but the narrator begs him to keep sailing south. Stop where the chapter most surprises you and tell why.
Discussion Questions
- After the ship crosses the Antarctic circle, the sea grows warmer and opens up instead of turning to solid ice. Why might that surprise the crew, and what part of the chapter shows how it made them feel? Use details from the chapter.
- Captain Guy wants to turn back because the crew is low on fuel and some sailors are sick, but the narrator begs to keep sailing toward the pole. Was it wiser to keep going or to turn back, and what makes you think so? Use details from the chapter.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Shy or fearful; lacking courage.
Item 2
Huge; very large.
Item 3
Rough; not smooth.
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Critical Thinking
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