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Copywork
About This Passage
Three of our vocabulary words (jaunty, weighted, clumsy) appear in this single moment of Jonas's body failing him. Lowry contrasts the morning's rehearsed confidence with the ceremony's actual weight, showing that the body knows before the mind does that nothing will go as Jonas had imagined.
Earlier that day, dressing in his own dwelling, he had practiced the kind of jaunty, self-assured walk that he hoped he could make to the stage when his turn came. All of that was forgotten now. He si...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell Chapter 8 in five or six sentences. Track the arc from the community's uneasy applause, through the Chief Elder's apology, to Jonas's selection as Receiver of Memory, and end with the community chanting his name.
Discussion Questions
- The Chief Elder apologizes to the community and to Jonas before she announces his new role. What does her apology, and the community's rehearsed reply "We accept your apology," reveal about what this society values?
- Find three specific details in the Chief Elder's speech that show Jonas's selection was carefully planned, not the "mistake" everyone feared. Quote or paraphrase each.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Having a cheerful, confident, lively way of moving or carrying yourself.
Item 2
Made heavier, or feeling heavy as if a weight has been added.
Item 3
Moving in an awkward, uncoordinated way; not graceful.
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Critical Thinking
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