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Copywork
About This Passage
At their lowest point the friends do two things at once: they pray for help, then rise to act 'by mortal means.' Copying it teaches the semicolon that balances two matched clauses, and shows how a writer can hold faith and human effort together in a single breath.
Throwing ourselves on our knees to God, we implored His aid in the many dangers which beset us; and arose with renewed hope and vigor to think what could yet be done by mortal means toward accomplishi...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell this chapter in order: how the four friends survive the hurricane night lashed to the windlass, how they free and revive one another when the sea calms, how hunger and thirst become the new danger, and how Peters dives again and again into the flooded cabin. Then choose the moment you find most important and explain why.
Discussion Questions
- Lashed to the wreck in terror, the narrator is told by Peters and Parker that the brig cannot sink, since its cargo is empty oil-casks. Their danger has not changed, yet his courage revives at once. Explain why the same situation can feel so different to the narrator once he learns this one fact. Use details from the chapter.
- Through the black night, unable to see one another, Augustus, Peters, and the narrator keep calling back and forth across the wreck. What do you think the calling means to the friends, and what would change if each faced the night in silence? Use details from the chapter.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Torn or deeply cut.
Item 2
Completely drained of strength.
Item 3
Made numb; deprived of feeling.
+ 5 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide
Critical Thinking
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