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Copywork
About This Passage
This sentence introduces Miss Maudie through one of Lee’s finest double portraits — the gardener in coveralls and the dignified woman who “reigns” in the evening. It practices a long compound-complex sentence, the noun-apposition construction (“a chameleon lady”), and the elevated diction (“magisterial beauty”) that tells the reader Lee takes Miss Maudie seriously.
She was a widow, a chameleon lady who worked in her flower beds in an old straw hat and men’s coveralls, but after her five o’clock bath she would appear on the porch and reign over the street in magi...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Summarize Chapter 5 in a short paragraph. Include Scout’s growing friendship with Miss Maudie, the porch conversation about Arthur Radley, the fishing-pole plan, and Atticus’s final lecture about the children’s treatment of Mr. Radley.
Discussion Questions
- Scout’s narrator-self explicitly tells us that Miss Maudie “had never told on us, had never played cat-and-mouse with us, she was not at all interested in our private lives. She was our friend.” What definition of friendship is Scout offering here, and why does that definition matter to a child living in a town like Maycomb?
- Miss Maudie says of Arthur Radley, “The things that happen to people we never really know. What happens in houses behind closed doors, what secrets — ” Why does Lee let this sentence trail off, and what is Miss Maudie refusing to say aloud?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
A lizard that changes color; used here figuratively for a person whose appearance or role changes depending on circumstance.
Item 2
Having the dignified, authoritative bearing of a person in command.
Item 3
A one-piece work garment worn over other clothes to protect them.
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Critical Thinking
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