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Copywork
About This Passage
This is the pivot of the novel: the moment Jonas is publicly skipped at the Ceremony of Twelve. The passage braids Jonas's racing mind (free indirect thought: "She made a mistake") with the chillingly flat sentence "The Chief Elder made no mistakes." Three of our vocabulary words (stunned, startled, dizzy) appear here, showing the physical grammar of shock.
She skipped me, Jonas thought, stunned. Had he heard wrong? No. There was a sudden hush in the crowd, and he knew that the entire community realized that the Chief Elder had moved from Eighteen to Twe...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell Chapter 7 in five or six sentences. Include the Chief Elder's opening speech about acknowledging differences, Asher's snack-and-smack story, Fiona's Assignment, and the moment the Chief Elder skips from Eighteen to Twenty.
Discussion Questions
- What does the Chief Elder mean when she says, "This is the time when we acknowledge differences," and what does her speech reveal about how the community has treated differences in all the years before?
- Why does the author include the long story of Asher's childhood discipline with the wand? What does it tell us about the community's methods, even when the community remembers them fondly?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
So surprised or shocked that you cannot think clearly for a moment.
Item 2
Suddenly frightened or surprised by something you did not expect.
Item 3
Feeling as if the room is spinning or you might fall over.
+ 7 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide
Critical Thinking
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