ELA Unit 1 G7

Reading-Writing Connection 86A>;DGC>6

Show your understanding of the characters in “Thank You, M’am” by responding W1.2 Support all statements and
to these prompts. Then complete the Grammar and Writing exercise. claims with anecdotes, descriptions,
facts and statistics, and specific
examples.

writing prompts self-check

A. Short Response: Describe a Character’s Life A successful description will . . .
Go back to the story and find details that describe
Mrs. Jones’s job, her house, and what she is able • include a topic sentence that
to give Roger. From these details, what can you tells what you infer about Mrs.
infer about her life? Write one paragraph to Jones’s life
describe Mrs. Jones’s situation.
• provide specific details to
support the topic sentence

B. Extended Response: Compare and Contrast An effective compare-and-
Write two or three paragraphs comparing contrast response will . . .
how Roger behaves on the street with how he
behaves after spending some time with Mrs. • show an understanding of
Jones. Explain how Mrs. Jones’s belief in his Roger’s actions before and after
potential helps Roger show his best self. he gets to know Mrs. Jones

• give an example that shows how
Roger values Mrs. Jones’s trust

grammar and writing 86A>;DGC>6

PUNCTUATE POSSESSIVES CORRECTLY When forming a possessive noun, LC1.4 Demonstrate the mechanics
be sure to put the apostrophe in the correct place. To help keep your of writing (e.g., quotation marks,
writing clear, follow these guidelines for punctuating possessive nouns: commas at end of dependent
clauses) and appropriate English
Singular nouns: Add an apostrophe and s, even if the word ends in s usage (e.g., pronoun reference).
(book’s cover, waitress’s tray).
Plural nouns ending in s: Add an apostrophe (songs’ melodies, bees’ honey).
Plural nouns not ending in s: Add an apostrophe and s (women’s sports,
people’s health).

Original: In the beginning, Rogers’ potential is not easy to see.

Revised: In the beginning, Roger’s potential is not easy to see.

PRACTICE Correct the possessive nouns in the following sentences.

1. Mrs. Jones’ treatment of Roger shows her sympathy toward him.
2. She proves that you cannot always prejudge childrens’ actions.
3. She knows that many boy’s actions do not reflect their true personalities.
4. Roger understands that it is wrong to take someone elses’ money.
For more help with apostrophes, see page R50 in the Grammar Handbook.

thank you, m’am 71

Before Reading

Rikki-tikki-tavi

Short Story by Rudyard Kipling

What makes you b r av e ?
KEY IDEA You see a small child stepping in front of a speeding car. . . .
86A>;DGC>6 You get the chance to sing in front of a thousand people. . . . Your best
friend needs help standing up to a bully. . . . All of these are occasions
R3.2 Identify events that advance that might make you feel brave—full of energy and courage to meet
the plot and determine how each a tough challenge. In the story you’re about to read, you will see
event explains past or present bravery in action.
action(s) or foreshadows future
action(s). PRESENT Think of a time when you felt brave. Create a picture of
the occasion, including a caption explaining what was happening
Also included in this lesson: R1.2 and why it made you brave. Share your picture with the class.
(p.90), W1.2 (p. 91), LC1.4 (p.91)

September 12, 2006 Belleville Herald 3

Local Teen
Rescues Five
Children

By Terry Jones Staff Reporter
72 ettcbwhbvhShrareceeoiacmhlnAtdvuaohte,raltoeerathoarylnirnoisfmwrftndti.ahonsest,ienCtsnottbCaphhTo-ytyreeakuhaeteyiahtatstshipryhemd-eGaeoafrerrmyultooBdmtaumweisnteenltohlrdunledroedvteetnckihzednlannlelfeewetiucxrwsfaoepttFrsamoidatirmtrhlcoemhwaaeoreOrruemDriel.nnlcaesAiwghkptdiiytdeanlfadrergoteltsrhrhermieoegaeEnutlnrel,swsnpeaoobmotstcuue.ayfndeioloslmndmdruftiheonanoaderrglfglyr

literary analysis: suspense and foreshadowing 86A>;DGC>6

When you feel growing tension and excitement as you read A Man of Two Countries
or watch a movie, that feeling is called suspense. Sometimes
writers build suspense by using foreshadowing, hints or When Rudyard
clues about events that will happen later. Foreshadowing
can occur when a character makes an unusual statement or Kipling was five,
issues a strong warning. As you read “Rikki-tikki-tavi,” notice
how the author builds suspense and makes you want to keep he left India, where
reading. Also notice examples of foreshadowing.
he had been born,
Review: Plot and Conflict
to go to school in

England. India,

however, would

always be a

reading strategy: predict powerful attraction

A prediction is a reasonable guess about what will happen for Kipling; he lived Rudyard Kipling
over the course of a story. Predicting helps you stay involved
as you read. To make predictions, ask yourself: there again for a while 1865–1936

• What do I already know about the setting and plot? as an adult, and many of his stories
• On the basis of their words and actions, what might
take place there. In works such as The
characters do in the future? What events might result?
Jungle Book, Kipling introduced a vivid
As you read, write predictions in a chart like the one shown.
cast of animal and human characters.

Kipling’s adventure stories gained

worldwide popularity. In 1907, he

received the Nobel Prize in literature.

Clues from the Story Predictions more about the author

Teddy’s mother takes Rikki- Rikki-tikki will become a For more on Rudyard Kipling, visit the
tikki home. part of Teddy’s family. Literature Center at ClassZone.com.

Review: Cause and Effect Background

vocabulary in context The Mongoose and the Cobra The
mongoose and the cobra are a pair
Rudyard Kipling uses the following boldfaced words in of natural enemies—a pair that will
telling his tale of bravery. Restate each sentence, using a fight to the death. The mongoose, a
different word or phrase for the boldfaced word. mammal growing to a length of only
16 inches, seems hardly a match for
1. She made a valiant effort to overcome hardship. the poisonous cobra, a snake that
2. She tried to revive the unconscious woman. averages six feet in length. But the
3. He cunningly outsmarted the other contestants. mongoose’s speed and agility make
4. Do not cower in scary situations. it a powerful fighter.
5. The dog had a peculiar limping gait.
6. The fledgling made its first trip outside the nest. Life in Colonial India This story is set
7. We offered them consolation in their sorrow. in India during the late 1800s, when
8. Be careful not to singe the hair on your arms. Great Britain ruled India. Many British
families lived in bungalows—open,
airy houses that permitted snakes to
enter easily. In such an environment,
mongooses were valuable assets.

rikki-tikki-tavi 73

Rikki-tikki-tavi
Rudyard Kipling

This is the story of the great war that Rikki-tikki-tavi fought single- ANALYZE VISUALS
handed, through the bathrooms of the big bungalow in Segowlee What might you infer
cantonment.1 Darzee, the tailorbird, helped him, and Chuchundra,2 about the people who
the muskrat, who never comes out into the middle of the floor but live in this house?
always creeps round by the wall, gave him advice; but Rikki-tikki did
the real fighting. a PREDICT
Recall the information in
He was a mongoose, rather like a little cat in his fur and his tail but the Background section
quite like a weasel in his head and his habits. His eyes and the end of on page 73. Whom will
his restless nose were pink; he could scratch himself anywhere he pleased Rikki-tikki go to war
10 with any leg, front or back, that he chose to use; he could fluff up his tail with? Record this and
till it looked like a bottle-brush, and his war cry as he scuttled through other predictions in your
the long grass was: Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk! a chart as you read.

One day, a high summer flood washed him out of the burrow where revive (rG-vFvP) v.
he lived with his father and mother and carried him, kicking and clucking, to return to life or
down a roadside ditch. He found a little wisp of grass floating there and consciousness
clung to it till he lost his senses. When he revived, he was lying in the hot
sun on the middle of a garden path, very draggled indeed, and a small boy
was saying, “Here’s a dead mongoose. Let’s have a funeral.”

“No,” said his mother, “let’s take him in and dry him. Perhaps he isn’t
20 really dead.”

1. Segowlee (sE-gouPlC) cantonment: area in India that was home to a British military base. Illustrations © 1997 by Jerry Pinkney.
2. Chuchundra (chE-chMnPdrE).

74 unit 1: plot, conflict, and setting



They took him into the house, and a big man picked him up between his VISUAL VOCABULARY
finger and thumb and said he was not dead but half choked; so they wrapped
him in cotton wool and warmed him over a little fire, and he opened his eyes veranda n. a long, open
and sneezed. “Now,” said the big man (he was an Englishman who had just porch, usually with a roof
moved into the bungalow), “don’t frighten him, and we’ll see what he’ll do.”
b CAUSE AND EFFECT
It is the hardest thing in the world to frighten a mongoose, because he How does Rikki-tikki
is eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity. The motto of all the mongoose come to live in the
family is “Run and Find Out”; and Rikki-tikki was a true mongoose. He bungalow?
looked at the cotton wool, decided that it was not good to eat, ran all round
30 the table, sat up and put his fur in order, scratched himself, and jumped on c SUSPENSE AND
the small boy’s shoulder. FORESHADOWING
What might the
“Don’t be frightened, Teddy,” said his father. “That’s his way of making father’s words be
friends.” foreshadowing?

“Ouch! He’s tickling under my chin,” said Teddy.
Rikki-tikki looked down between the boy’s collar and neck, snuffed at
his ear, and climbed down to the floor, where he sat rubbing his nose.
“Good gracious,” said Teddy’s mother, “and that’s a wild creature!
I suppose he’s so tame because we’ve been kind to him.”
“All mongooses are like that,” said her husband. “If Teddy doesn’t pick
40 him up by the tail or try to put him in a cage, he’ll run in and out of the
house all day long. Let’s give him something to eat.”
They gave him a little piece of raw meat. Rikki-tikki liked it immensely;
and when it was finished, he went out into the veranda and sat in the
sunshine and fluffed up his fur to make it dry to the roots. Then he
felt better.
“There are more things to find out about in this house,” he said to
himself, “than all my family could find out in all their lives. I shall certainly
stay and find out.” b
He spent all that day roaming over the house. He nearly drowned himself
50 in the bathtubs, put his nose into the ink on a writing table, and burnt it
on the end of the big man’s cigar, for he climbed up in the big man’s lap to
see how writing was done. At nightfall he ran into Teddy’s nursery to watch
how kerosene lamps were lighted, and when Teddy went to bed, Rikki-tikki
climbed up too; but he was a restless companion, because he had to get up
and attend to every noise all through the night and find out what made it.
Teddy’s mother and father came in, the last thing, to look at their boy, and
Rikki-tikki was awake on the pillow.
“I don’t like that,” said Teddy’s mother; “he may bite the child.”
“He’ll do no such thing,” said the father. “Teddy is safer with that little
60 beast than if he had a bloodhound to watch him. If a snake came into the
nursery now—” c
But Teddy’s mother wouldn’t think of anything so awful.

76 unit 1: plot, conflict, and setting

Early in the morning Rikki-tikki came to early breakfast in the veranda, SOCIAL STUDIES
riding on Teddy’s shoulder, and they gave him banana and some boiled egg; CONNECTION
and he sat on all their laps one after the other, because every well-brought-
up mongoose always hopes to be a house mongoose some day and have 3EGOWLEE
rooms to run about in; and Rikki-tikki’s mother (she used to live in the ).$)!
general’s house at Segowlee) had carefully told Rikki what to do if ever he ).$)!.
came across white men. /#%!.
70 Then Rikki-tikki went out into the garden to see what was to be
seen. It was a large garden, only half-cultivated, with bushes, as big as From 1858 to 1947, Britain
summerhouses, of Marshal Niel roses, lime and orange trees, clumps of ruled India. India gained
bamboos, and thickets of high grass. Rikki-tikki licked his lips. “This is its independence after
a splendid hunting ground,” he said, and his tail grew bottlebrushy at the decades of fighting for it.
thought of it; and he scuttled up and down the garden, snuffing here and
there till he heard very sorrowful voices in a thorn bush. It was Darzee, cower (kouPEr) v. to
the tailorbird, and his wife. They had made a beautiful nest by pulling two crouch or shrink down
big leaves together and stitching them up the edges with fibers and had in fear
filled the hollow with cotton and downy fluff. The nest swayed to and fro,
80 as they sat on the rim and cried. rikki-tikki-tavi 77

“What is the matter?” asked Rikki-tikki.
“We are very miserable,” said Darzee. “One of our babies fell out of the
nest yesterday, and Nag ate him.”
“H’m!” said Rikki-tikki, “that is very sad—but I am a stranger here.
Who is Nag?”
Darzee and his wife only cowered down in the
nest without answering, for from the thick grass at
the foot of the bush there came a low hiss—a horrid,
cold sound that made Rikki-tikki jump back two clear
90 feet. Then inch by inch out of the grass rose up the
head and spread hood3 of Nag, the big black cobra,
and he was five feet long from tongue to tail. When
he had lifted one-third of himself clear of the ground,
he stayed, balancing to and fro exactly as a dandelion
tuft balances in the wind; and he looked at Rikki-tikki
with the wicked snake’s eyes that never change their
expression, whatever the snake may be thinking of.
“Who is Nag?” said he. “I am Nag. The great
god Brahm4 put his mark upon all our people when
100 the first cobra spread his hood to keep the sun off
Brahm as he slept. Look, and be afraid!”

3. hood: an expanded part on or near the head of an animal.

4. Brahm (bräm): another name for Brahma, creator of the universe
in the Hindu religion.

ANALYZE VISUALS

Notice how the
mongoose and the snake
hold their bodies. Does
either of these characters
look particularly brave
or scared?

He spread out his hood more than ever, and Rikki-tikki saw the spectacle fledgling (flDjPlGng) n.
mark on the back of it that looks exactly like the eye part of a hook-and-eye a young bird that has
fastening. He was afraid for the minute, but it is impossible for a mongoose recently grown its flight
to stay frightened for any length of time; and though Rikki-tikki had never feathers
met a live cobra before, his mother had fed him on dead ones, and he knew
that all a grown mongoose’s business in life was to fight and eat snakes. Nag
knew that too, and at the bottom of his cold heart, he was afraid.

“Well,” said Rikki-tikki, and his tail began to fluff up again, “marks or
110 no marks, do you think it is right for you to eat fledglings out of a nest?”

Nag was thinking to himself and watching the least little movement in
the grass behind Rikki-tikki. He knew that mongooses in the garden meant
death sooner or later for him and his family; but he wanted to get Rikki-
tikki off his guard. So he dropped his head a little, and put it on one side.

“Let us talk,” he said. “You eat eggs. Why should not I eat birds?”
“Behind you! Look behind you!” sang Darzee.
Rikki-tikki knew better than to waste time in staring. He jumped up in
the air as high as he could go, and just under him whizzed by the head of

78 unit 1: plot, conflict, and setting

Nagaina,5 Nag’s wicked wife. She had crept up behind him as he was d SUSPENSE AND
120 talking, to make an end of him; and he heard her savage hiss as the stroke FORESHADOWING
Reread lines 111–125.
missed. He came down almost across her back, and if he had been an old Which details of
mongoose, he would have known that then was the time to break her back Nagaina’s attack
with one bite; but he was afraid of the terrible lashing return stroke of the on Rikki-tikki create
cobra. He bit, indeed, but did not bite long enough; and he jumped clear tension?
of the whisking tail, leaving Nagaina torn and angry. d
e PREDICT
“Wicked, wicked Darzee!” said Nag, lashing up as high as he could As you read, check the
reach toward the nest in the thorn bush; but Darzee had built it out of predictions you make.
reach of snakes, and it only swayed to and fro. Was the prediction
you made on page 74
Rikki-tikki felt his eyes growing red and hot (when a mongoose’s eyes correct?
130 grow red, he is angry), and he sat back on his tail and hind legs like a
gait (gAt) n. a manner
little kangaroo and looked all around him and chattered with rage. But of walking or moving
Nag and Nagaina had disappeared into the grass. When a snake misses on foot
its stroke, it never says anything or gives any sign of what it means to do
next. Rikki-tikki did not care to follow them, for he did not feel sure that
he could manage two snakes at once. So he trotted off to the gravel path
near the house and sat down to think. It was a serious matter for him. e

If you read the old books of natural history, you will find they say that
when the mongoose fights the snake and happens to get bitten, he runs
off and eats some herb that cures him. That is not true. The victory is only
140 a matter of quickness of eye and quickness of foot—snake’s blow against
mongoose’s jump—and as no eye can follow the motion of a snake’s head
when it strikes, this makes things much more wonderful than any magic
herb. Rikki-tikki knew he was a young mongoose, and it made him all the
more pleased to think that he had managed to escape a blow from behind.

It gave him confidence in himself, and when Teddy came running down
the path, Rikki-tikki was ready to be petted. But just as Teddy was stooping,
something wriggled a little in the dust, and a tiny voice said, “Be careful.
I am Death!” It was Karait,6 the dusty brown snakeling that lies for choice
on the dusty earth; and his bite is as dangerous as the cobra’s. But he is so
150 small that nobody thinks of him, and so he does the more harm to people.

Rikki-tikki’s eyes grew red again, and he danced up to Karait with the
peculiar rocking, swaying motion that he had inherited from his family.
It looks very funny, but it is so perfectly balanced a gait that you can fly
off from it at any angle you please; and in dealing with snakes this is an
advantage.

If Rikki-tikki had only known, he was doing a much more dangerous
thing than fighting Nag; for Karait is so small and can turn so quickly,

5. Nagaina (näQgE-CPnE).
6. Karait (kE-rFtP).

rikki-tikki-tavi 79

that unless Rikki bit him close to the back of the head, he would get the f SUSPENSE AND
return stroke in his eye or his lip. But Rikki did not know: his eyes were FORESHADOWING
160 all red, and he rocked back and forth, looking for a good place to hold. Reread lines 156–163.
Karait struck out. Rikki jumped sideways and tried to run in, but the What doesn’t Rikki-tikki
wicked little dusty gray head lashed within a fraction of his shoulder, and realize about Karait?
he had to jump over the body, and the head followed his heels close. f
g PLOT AND CONFLICT
Teddy shouted to the house, “Oh, look here! Our mongoose is killing Which characters in
a snake”; and Rikki-tikki heard a scream from Teddy’s mother. His father this story have conflicts
ran out with a stick, but by the time he came up, Karait had lunged out with the snakes in the
once too far, and Rikki-tikki had sprung, jumped on the snake’s back, garden?
dropped his head far between his forelegs, bitten as high up the back
as he could get hold, and rolled away.
170 That bite paralyzed Karait, and Rikki-tikki was just going to eat him up
from the tail, after the custom of his family at dinner, when he remembered
that a full meal makes a slow mongoose; and if he wanted all his strength
and quickness ready, he must keep himself thin. He went away for a
dust bath under the castor-oil bushes, while Teddy’s father beat the dead
Karait.“What is the use of that?” thought Rikki-tikki; “I have settled it all.”

And then Teddy’s mother picked him up from the dust and hugged
him, crying that he had saved Teddy from death; and Teddy’s father said
that he was a providence,7 and Teddy looked on with big scared eyes.
Rikki-tikki was rather amused at all the fuss, which, of course, he did
180 not understand. Teddy’s mother might just as well have petted Teddy
for playing in the dust. Rikki was thoroughly enjoying himself. g

T hat night at dinner, walking to and fro among the wineglasses on the
table, he might have stuffed himself three times over with nice things;
but he remembered Nag and Nagaina, and though it was very pleasant to be
patted and petted by Teddy’s mother and to sit on Teddy’s shoulder, his eyes
would get red from time to time, and he would go off into his long war cry
of “Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk!”

Teddy carried him off to bed and insisted on Rikki-tikki sleeping under
his chin. Rikki-tikki was too well-bred to bite or scratch, but as soon as
190 Teddy was asleep, he went off for his nightly walk around the house; and
in the dark he ran up against Chuchundra, the muskrat, creeping around
by the wall. Chuchundra is a brokenhearted little beast. He whimpers and
cheeps all the night, trying to make up his mind to run into the middle of
the room; but he never gets there.

“Don’t kill me,” said Chuchundra, almost weeping. “Rikki-tikki, don’t
kill me!”

“Do you think a snake killer kills muskrats?” said Rikki-tikki scornfully.

7. providence: blessing; something good given by God.

80 unit 1: plot, conflict, and setting

“Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes,” said Chuchundra, more h SUSPENSE AND
sorrowfully than ever. “And how am I to be sure that Nag won’t mistake FORESHADOWING
200 me for you some dark night?” Reread lines 203–216.
What details make the
“There’s not the least danger,” said Rikki-tikki; “but Nag is in the conversation between
garden, and I know you don’t go there.” Chuchundra and Rikki-
tikki suspenseful?
“My cousin Chua,8 the rat, told me—” said Chuchundra, and then
he stopped. i PREDICT
Think about what
“Told you what?” Nag and Nagaina are
“H’sh! Nag is everywhere, Rikki-tikki. You should have talked to Chua planning to do. How
in the garden.” do you think Rikki-tikki
“I didn’t—so you must tell me. Quick, Chuchundra, or I’ll bite you!” might respond?
Chuchundra sat down and cried till the tears rolled off his whiskers.
210 “I am a very poor man,” he sobbed. “I never had spirit enough to run out
into the middle of the room. H’sh! I mustn’t tell you anything. Can’t you
hear, Rikki-tikki?”
Rikki-tikki listened. The house was as still as still, but he thought he
could just catch the faintest scratch-scratch in the world—a noise as faint
as that of a wasp walking on a windowpane—the dry scratch of a snake’s
scales on brickwork. h
“That’s Nag or Nagaina,” he said to himself, “and he is crawling into the
bathroom sluice.9 You’re right, Chuchundra; I should have talked to Chua.”
He stole off to Teddy’s bathroom, but there was nothing there, and
220 then to Teddy’s mother’s bathroom. At the bottom of the smooth plaster
wall, there was a brick pulled out to make a sluice for the bath water, and
as Rikki-tikki stole in by the masonry curb where the bath is put, he heard
Nag and Nagaina whispering together outside in the moonlight.
“When the house is emptied of people,” said Nagaina to her husband,
“he will have to go away, and then the garden will be our own again. Go in
quietly, and remember that the big man who killed Karait is the first one to
bite. Then come out and tell me, and we will hunt for Rikki-tikki together.”
“But are you sure that there is anything to be gained by killing the
people?” said Nag.
230 “Everything. When there were no people in the bungalow, did we have
any mongoose in the garden? So long as the bungalow is empty, we are
king and queen of the garden; and remember that as soon as our eggs
in the melon bed hatch (as they may tomorrow), our children will need
room and quiet.” i
“I had not thought of that,” said Nag. “I will go, but there is no need that
we should hunt for Rikki-tikki afterward. I will kill the big man and his

8. Chua (chLPE).

9. bathroom sluice (slLs): an opening in a wall through which the water
in a bathtub can be drained outdoors.

rikki-tikki-tavi 81

wife, and the child if I can, and come away J SUSPENSE AND
quietly. Then the bungalow will be empty,
and Rikki-tikki will go.” FORESHADOWING
240 Rikki-tikki tingled all over with rage
and hatred at this, and then Nag’s head Why is the outcome of
came through the sluice, and his five feet Rikki-tikki’s fight with
of cold body followed it. Angry as he was, Nag uncertain?
Rikki-tikki was very frightened as he saw
the size of the big cobra. Nag coiled himself
up, raised his head, and looked into the
bathroom in the dark, and Rikki could see
his eyes glitter.

“Now, if I kill him here, Nagaina will
250 know; and if I fight him on the open floor,

the odds are in his favor. What am I to do?”
said Rikki-tikki-tavi.

Nag waved to and fro, and then Rikki-
tikki heard him drinking from the biggest
water jar that was used to fill the bath.
“That is good,” said the snake. “Now, when
Karait was killed, the big man had a stick.
He may have that stick still, but when he
comes in to bathe in the morning, he will
260 not have a stick. I shall wait here till he comes. Nagaina—do you hear
me?—I shall wait here in the cool till daytime.”

There was no answer from outside, so Rikki-tikki knew Nagaina had
gone away. Nag coiled himself down, coil by coil, around the bulge at the
bottom of the water jar, and Rikki-tikki stayed still as death. After an hour
he began to move, muscle by muscle, toward the jar. Nag was asleep, and
Rikki-tikki looked at his big back, wondering which would be the best
place for a good hold. “If I don’t break his back at the first jump,” said
Rikki, “he can still fight; and if he fights—O Rikki!” He looked at the
thickness of the neck below the hood, but that was too much for him;
270 and a bite near the tail would only make Nag savage. J

“It must be the head,” he said at last; “the head above the hood. And,
when I am once there, I must not let go.”

Then he jumped. The head was lying a little clear of the water jar,
under the curve of it; and, as his teeth met, Rikki braced his back against
the bulge of the red earthenware to hold down the head. This gave him
just one second’s purchase,10 and he made the most of it. Then he was
battered to and fro as a rat is shaken by a dog—to and fro on the floor, up

10. purchase: an advantage, such as a firm hold, to be used when applying power.

82 unit 1: plot, conflict, and setting

and down, and round in great circles; but his eyes were red, and he held k PREDICT
on as the body cart-whipped over the floor, upsetting the tin dipper and the Thinking about how
280 soap dish and the flesh brush, and banged against the tin side of the bath. k the plot has unfolded
so far, predict what will
As he held, he closed his jaws tighter and tighter, for he made sure he happen next.
would be banged to death; and, for the honor of his family, he preferred
to be found with his teeth locked. He was dizzy, aching, and felt shaken singe (sGnj) v. to burn
to pieces when something went off like a thunderclap just behind him; a hot lightly
wind knocked him senseless, and red fire singed his fur. The big man had
been awakened by the noise and had fired both barrels of a shotgun into l CAUSE AND EFFECT
Nag just behind the hood. What happens because
of Rikki-tikki’s tight hold
Rikki-tikki held on with his eyes shut, for now he was quite sure he was on Nag?
dead; but the head did not move, and the big man picked him up and said,
290 “It’s the mongoose again, Alice; the little chap has saved our lives now.” l

Then Teddy’s mother came in with a very white face and saw what was
left of Nag, and Rikki-tikki dragged himself to Teddy’s bedroom and spent
half the rest of the night shaking himself tenderly to find out whether he
really was broken into forty pieces, as he fancied.

W hen morning came, he was very stiff but well pleased with his valiant (vBlPyent) adj.
doings. “Now I have Nagaina to settle with, and she will be worse brave; courageous
than five Nags, and there’s no knowing when the eggs she spoke of will
hatch. Goodness! I must go and see Darzee,” he said.

Without waiting for breakfast, Rikki-tikki ran to the thorn bush where
300 Darzee was singing a song of triumph at the top of his voice. The news

of Nag’s death was all over the garden, for the sweeper had thrown the
body on the rubbish heap.

“Oh, you stupid tuft of feathers!” said Rikki-tikki angrily. “Is this the
time to sing?”

“Nag is dead—is dead—is dead!” sang Darzee. “The valiant Rikki-
tikki caught him by the head and held fast. The big man brought the
bang stick, and Nag fell in two pieces! He will never eat my babies again.”

“All that’s true enough; but where’s Nagaina?” said Rikki-tikki, looking
carefully round him.
310 “Nagaina came to the bathroom sluice and called for Nag,” Darzee
went on; “and Nag came out on the end of a stick—the sweeper picked
him up on the end of a stick and threw him upon the rubbish heap. Let
us sing about the great, the red-eyed Rikki-tikki!” And Darzee filled his
throat and sang.

“If I could get up to your nest, I’d roll your babies out!” said Rikki-
tikki. “You don’t know when to do the right thing at the right time. You’re

rikki-tikki-tavi 83

safe enough in your nest there, but it’s war for me down here. Stop singing m SUSPENSE AND
a minute, Darzee.” FORESHADOWING
Why does Rikki-tikki’s
“For the great, the beautiful Rikki-tikki’s sake I will stop,” said Darzee. impatience with Darzee
320 “What is it, O Killer of the terrible Nag?” lend suspense to this
scene?
“Where is Nagaina, for the third time?”
“On the rubbish heap by the stables, mourning for Nag. Great is Rikki- consolation
tikki with the white teeth.” (kJnQsE-lAPshEn) n.
“Bother my white teeth! Have you ever heard where she keeps her eggs?” a comfort
“In the melon bed, on the end nearest the wall, where the sun strikes
nearly all day. She hid them there weeks ago.” n PLOT AND CONFLICT
“And you never thought it worthwhile to tell me? The end nearest the How do Darzee and
wall, you said?” his wife differ in their
“Rikki-tikki, you are not going to eat her eggs?” approach to the conflict
330 “Not ‘eat’ exactly, no. Darzee, if you have a grain of sense, you will fly with Nagaina?
off to the stables and pretend that your wing is broken and let Nagaina
chase you away to this bush. I must get to the melon bed, and if I went
there now, she’d see me.” m
Darzee was a featherbrained little fellow who could never hold more
than one idea at a time in his head; and just because he knew that Nagaina’s
children were born in eggs like his own, he didn’t think at first that it was
fair to kill them. But his wife was a sensible bird, and she knew that cobra’s
eggs meant young cobras later on; so she flew off from the nest and left
Darzee to keep the babies warm and continue his song about the death
340 of Nag. Darzee was very like a man in some ways.
She fluttered in front of Nagaina by the rubbish heap and cried out,
“Oh, my wing is broken! The boy in the house threw a stone at me and
broke it.” Then she fluttered more desperately than ever.
Nagaina lifted up her head and hissed, “You warned Rikki-tikki when
I would have killed him. Indeed and truly, you’ve chosen a bad place to be
lame in.” And she moved toward Darzee’s wife, slipping along over the dust.
“The boy broke it with a stone!” shrieked Darzee’s wife.
“Well! It may be some consolation to you when you’re dead to know that
I shall settle accounts11 with the boy. My husband lies on the rubbish heap
350 this morning, but before night the boy in the house will lie very still. What
is the use of running away? I am sure to catch you. Little fool, look at me!”
Darzee’s wife knew better than to do that, for a bird who looks at a snake’s
eyes gets so frightened that she cannot move. Darzee’s wife fluttered on,
piping sorrowfully, and never leaving the ground, and Nagaina quickened
her pace. n
Rikki-tikki heard them going up the path from the stables, and he raced
for the end of the melon patch near the wall. There, in the warm litter above

11. settle accounts: even things out by getting revenge.

84 unit 1: plot, conflict, and setting

the melons, very cunningly hidden, he cunningly (kOnPGng-lC)
found twenty-five eggs, about the size of adv. in a clever way
360 a bantam’s eggs12 but with whitish skins that is meant to trick
instead of shells. or deceive

“I was not a day too soon,” he said, o SUSPENSE AND
for he could see the baby cobras curled FORESHADOWING
up inside the skin, and he knew that the At this point in the
minute they were hatched they could each story, what questions
kill a man or a mongoose. He bit off the are you waiting to have
tops of the eggs as fast as he could, taking answered?
care to crush the young cobras, and turned
over the litter from time to time to see
370 whether he had missed any. At last there
were only three eggs left, and Rikki-tikki
began to chuckle to himself when he heard
Darzee’s wife screaming.

“Rikki-tikki, I led Nagaina toward the house, and she has gone into
the veranda and—oh, come quickly—she means killing!”

Rikki-tikki smashed two eggs and tumbled backward down the melon
bed with the third egg in his mouth and scuttled to the veranda
as hard as he could put foot to the ground. Teddy and his mother and
father were there at early breakfast; but Rikki-tikki saw that they were
380 not eating anything. They sat stone still, and their faces were white.
Nagaina was coiled up on the matting by Teddy’s chair, within easy
striking distance of Teddy’s bare leg; and she was swaying to and fro,
singing a song of triumph.

“Son of the big man that killed Nag,” she hissed, “stay still. I am not
ready yet. Wait a little. Keep very still, all you three! If you move, I strike,
and if you do not move, I strike. Oh, foolish people who killed my Nag!”

Teddy’s eyes were fixed on his father, and all his father could do was
to whisper, “Sit still, Teddy. You mustn’t move. Teddy, keep still.” o

Then Rikki-tikki came up and cried, “Turn round, Nagaina; turn
390 and fight!”

“All in good time,” said she, without moving her eyes. “I will settle my
account with you presently. Look at your friends, Rikki-tikki. They are
still and white. They are afraid. They dare not move, and if you come
a step nearer, I strike.”

“Look at your eggs,” said Rikki-tikki, “in the melon bed near the wall.
Go and look, Nagaina!”

The big snake turned half round and saw the egg on the veranda.
“Ah-h! Give it to me,” she said.

12. bantam’s eggs: the eggs of a small hen.

rikki-tikki-tavi 85

Rikki-tikki put his paws one on each side of the egg, and his eyes were p CAUSE AND EFFECT
400 blood-red. “What price for a snake’s egg? For a young cobra? For a young
Reread lines 395–406.
king cobra? For the last—the very last of the brood? The ants are eating What does Rikki-tikki
all the others down by the melon bed.” do to save Teddy?

Nagaina spun clear round, forgetting everything for the sake of the one
egg; and Rikki-tikki saw Teddy’s father shoot out a big hand, catch Teddy
by the shoulder, and drag him across the little table with the teacups, safe
and out of reach of Nagaina. p

“Tricked! Tricked! Tricked! Rikk-tck-tck!” chuckled Rikki-tikki. “The boy
is safe, and it was I—I—I that caught Nag by the hood last night in the
bathroom.” Then he began to jump up and down, all four feet together,

86 unit 1: plot, conflict, and setting

410 his head close to the floor. “He threw me to and fro, but he could not q SUSPENSE AND
shake me off. He was dead before the big man blew him in two. I did it! FORESHADOWING
Rikki-tikki-tck-tck! Come then, Nagaina. Come and fight with me. You shall Reread lines 429–434.
not be a widow long.” How does the suspense
Nagaina saw that she had lost her chance of killing Teddy, and the egg increase at this point?
lay between Rikki-tikki’s paws. “Give me the egg, Rikki-tikki. Give me
the last of my eggs, and I will go away and never come back,” she said, r PREDICT
lowering her hood. What problem does
“Yes, you will go away, and you will never come back, for you will go Rikki-tikki now face? On
to the rubbish heap with Nag. Fight, widow! The big man has gone for his the basis of the details
you’ve learned, what
420 gun! Fight!” do you predict?
Rikki-tikki was bounding all round Nagaina, keeping just out of reach

of her stroke, his little eyes like hot coals. Nagaina gathered herself together
and flung out at him. Rikki-tikki jumped up and backwards. Again and
again and again she struck, and each time her head came with a whack on
the matting of the veranda, and she gathered herself together like a watch
spring. Then Rikki-tikki danced in a circle to get behind her, and Nagaina
spun round to keep her head to his head, so that the rustle of her tail on
the matting sounded like dry leaves blown along by the wind.

He had forgotten the egg. It still lay on the veranda, and Nagaina came
430 nearer and nearer to it, till at last, while Rikki-tikki was drawing breath,

she caught it in her mouth, turned to the veranda steps, and flew like an
arrow down the path, with Rikki-tikki behind her. When the cobra runs
for her life, she goes like a whiplash flicked across a horse’s neck. Rikki-
tikki knew that he must catch her, or all the trouble would begin again. q

She headed straight for the long grass by the thorn bush, and as he
was running, Rikki-tikki heard Darzee still singing his foolish little song
of triumph. But Darzee’s wife was wiser. She flew off her nest as Nagaina
came along and flapped her wings about Nagaina’s head. If Darzee had
helped, they might have turned her; but Nagaina only lowered her hood
440 and went on. Still, the instant’s delay brought Rikki-tikki up to her, and
as she plunged into the rat hole where she and Nag used to live, his little
white teeth were clenched on her tail, and he went down with her—and
very few mongooses, however wise and old they may be, care to follow
a cobra into its hole. r

It was dark in the hole; and Rikki-tikki never knew when it might
open out and give Nagaina room to turn and strike at him. He held on
savagely and stuck out his feet to act as brakes on the dark slope of the
hot, moist earth.

Then the grass by the mouth of the hole stopped waving, and Darzee
450 said, “It is all over with Rikki-tikki! We must sing his death song. Valiant

Rikki-tikki is dead! For Nagaina will surely kill him underground.”

rikki-tikki-tavi 87

So he sang a very mournful song that he made up on the spur of the s PLOT AND CONFLICT
minute;13 and just as he got to the most touching part, the grass quivered
again, and Rikki-tikki, covered with dirt, dragged himself out of the hole How is the conflict
leg by leg, licking his whiskers. Darzee stopped with a little shout. Rikki- between Rikki-tikki and
tikki shook some of the dust out of his fur and sneezed. “It is all over,” the cobras resolved?
he said. “The widow will never come out again.” And the red ants that
live between the grass stems heard him and began to troop down one after
another to see if he had spoken the truth.
460 Rikki-tikki curled himself up in the grass and slept where he was—
slept and slept till it was late in the afternoon, for he had done a hard
day’s work. s

“Now,” he said, when he awoke, “I will go back to the house. Tell the
coppersmith, Darzee, and he will tell the garden that Nagaina is dead.”

The coppersmith is a bird who makes a noise exactly like the beating
of a little hammer on a copper pot; and the reason he is always making
it is because he is the town crier to every Indian garden and tells all the
news to everybody who cares to listen. As Rikki-tikki went up the path,
he heard his “attention” notes like a tiny dinner gong, and then the steady
470 “Ding-dong-tock! Nag is dead—dong! Nagaina is dead! Ding-dong-tock!”
That set all the birds in the garden singing and the frogs croaking, for Nag
and Nagaina used to eat frogs as well as little birds.

When Rikki got to the house, Teddy and Teddy’s mother (she looked
very white still, for she had been fainting) and Teddy’s father came out
and almost cried over him; and that night he ate all that was given him till
he could eat no more and went to bed on Teddy’s shoulder, where Teddy’s
mother saw him when she came to look late at night.

“He saved our lives and Teddy’s life,” she said to her husband. “Just
think, he saved all our lives.”
480 Rikki-tikki woke up with a jump, for the mongooses are light sleepers.

“Oh, it’s you,” said he. “What are you bothering for? All the cobras are
dead; and if they weren’t, I’m here.”

Rikki-tikki had a right to be proud of himself; but he did not grow too
proud, and he kept that garden as a mongoose should keep it, with tooth
and jump and spring and bite, till never a cobra dared show its head inside
the walls.

13. on the spur of the minute: on a sudden impulse, without previous thought or planning.

88 unit 1: plot, conflict, and setting

After Reading

Comprehension 86A>;DGC>6

1. Recall Why is Rikki-tikki grateful to Teddy’s family? R3.2 Identify events that advance
the plot and determine how each
2. Recall Why does Rikki-tikki destroy Nagaina’s eggs? event explains past or present
action(s) or foreshadows future
3. Represent At first, Teddy’s mother doesn’t want the mongoose too close to action(s).
Teddy. Use a timeline to show the events that help Rikki-tikki prove himself.

Literary Analysis

4. Predict Check the predictions you wrote in your chart against what
happened. What details helped you guess correctly or misled you?

5. Analyze Suspense and Foreshadowing Go back through the story and
write down clues that foreshadow Rikki-tikki’s ultimate victory. Then
write down details that led you to believe Rikki might be defeated. How
did the combination of the two kinds of details help create suspense?

6. Compare Literary Works Both “Rikki-tikki-tavi” and “The Last Dog” have
exciting plots and brave main characters. How else are the two stories
similar? How are they different? To present your answer, add details to a
Venn diagram like the one shown.

“Rikki-tikki-tavi ” “The Last Dog”

Humans are Animal/human An animal is
protected by friendship protected by
an animal. a human.

7. Make Judgments “Rikki-tikki-tavi” is regarded as one of the great
adventure stories. Does it deserve this reputation? Explain your answer.

Extension and Challenge

8. Creative Response: Drama Plan an oral reading of a scene from the story.
Some students can perform the parts of the characters and the narrator,
while other students provide sound effects. Rehearse your performance
and tape-record it for other classes.

9. SOCIAL STUDIES CONNECTION This story takes place in colonial
India. With a partner, do research to find out more about India under

British rule, from 1858 to 1947. What are two long-lasting effects that
resulted from Britain’s control of India? Present your findings to the class.

research links

For more on colonial India, visit the Research Center at ClassZone.com.

rikki-tikki-tavi 89

Vocabulary in Context consolation
cower
vocabulary practice
cunningly
Choose the vocabulary word that makes the most sense in each sentence. fledgling

1. After Rikki-tikki almost drowned, the family put him by the fire gait
to _____ him. revive

2. The fire accidentally began to _____ his fur, and he quickly woke up. singe
3. Nag would not hesitate to eat a _____. valiant
4. Though Darzee would _____ in fear at the sight of Nag, Rikki was not afraid.
5. He walked with a proud _____ that showed how brave he felt.
6. Rikki’s killing Nag was a great _____ to the frightened family.
7. Rikki also _____ discovered Nagaina’s eggs hidden among the melons.
8. Because of his _____ actions, everyone admired Rikki’s courage.

vocabulary in writing

Using three or more vocabulary words, write a paragraph to describe
how Rikki killed Nag. Here is a sample of how you might begin.

example sentence

Rikki cunningly waited until Nagaina had left her husband alone. 86A>;DGC>6
R1.2 Use knowledge of Greek, Latin,
vocabulary strategy: the latin roots viv and vit and Anglo-Saxon roots and affixes to
understand content-area vocabulary.
The vocabulary word revive contains the Latin root viv, which means “live.”
Another Latin root, vit, has the same meaning. Viv and vit occur in a number vocabulary
of English words. To understand the meaning of words with viv or vit, practice
use context clues and your knowledge of what these roots mean.
For more practice, go
to the Vocabulary Center
at ClassZone.com.

PRACTICE Choose the word from the web that best completes each sentence.
Then tell how viv or vit helps give meaning to each word.

1. People cannot _____ without food and water. vitamins vitality survive
2. She was a _____ hostess who threw lively parties. vivid vivacious
3. _____ can provide some of the substances our bodies viv,
vit
need to be healthy.
4. He lost much of his _____ after the accident.
5. The artist used _____ colors in her painting.

90 unit 1: plot, conflict, and setting

Reading-Writing Connection 86A>;DGC>6

Deepen your understanding of “Rikki-tikki-tavi” by responding to these W1.2 Support all statements and
prompts. Then complete the Grammar and Writing exercise. claims with anecdotes, descriptions,
facts and statistics, and specific
examples.

writing prompts self-check

A. Short Response: Write a Scene A creative scene will . . .
Most of the characters, but not all, consider Rikki- • include details about events
tikki to be a hero. In one paragraph, write a scene
from the story from Nagaina’s perspective. What in the story
does she think and feel about Rikki-tikki?
• include a convincing portrait
of Nagaina

B. Extended Response: Give an Evaluation An effective evaluation will . . .
Is Rikki-tikki the bravest character in this story?
Choose a brave character. Decide whether the • describe scenes that show
character shows more or less bravery than Rikki. each character’s bravery
Write two or three paragraphs to evaluate the
bravery of your chosen character and of Rikki. • show similarities and differ-
ences between Rikki-tikki and
the other character

grammar and writing 86A>;DGC>6

MAINTAIN PRONOUN–ANTECEDENT AGREEMENT You may recall that LC1.2 Identify and use infinites and
an antecedent is the noun or pronoun that a pronoun refers to. For participles and make clear references
example, in the following sentence, notice how the plural pronoun their between pronouns and antecedents.
refers to the plural antecedent friends: My friends grabbed their bags.
Be especially careful when using antecedents like each, someone, and
no one. These words should always be paired with singular pronouns.
In the revised sentence, notice how the pronouns (in yellow) and the
antecedent (in green) agree in number.

Original: Someone had to take control. They would need to kill
Revised: the snakes.

Someone had to take control. He or she would need
to kill the snakes.

PRACTICE Correct the pronoun-antecedent error in each sentence.

1. Each snake wants the garden for themselves.
2. No one in the family wants to have their life threatened by the snakes.
3. Rikki-tikki stands up to the snakes and gets rid of its eggs.
4. Each person has their own space again!

For more help with pronoun-antecedent agreement, see pages R52–R53
in the Grammar Handbook.

rikki-tikki-tavi 91

Great Holes 86A>;DGC>6
Reads
Novel by Louis Sachar R3.1 Articulate the expressed
Louis Sachar purposes and characteristics of
born 1954 different forms of prose (e.g., short
story, novel, novella, essay).
Other Books by
Louis Sachar Meet Louis Sachar
• The Boy Who Lost
Louis Sachar knows what it’s like to be a kid. As a writer, he
His Face tries to share with his readers the thoughts and feelings he
• Dogs Don’t Tell Jokes had when he was their age. “When I write,” he says, “I’m
• Sixth Grade Secrets always putting myself in the shoes of the character and always
• Someday Angeline reacting to how I would feel about something if I were that
character.” Sachar also says that as he writes, he’s “constantly
doing it in fear that the reader is going to close the book at
any second.” Fearing that his readers might get bored inspires
Sachar to keep his plots interesting.

Sachar worked as a teacher’s aide at an elementary school
while he was in college, and that gave him the idea to try
writing books for young readers. He even used the names of
his students in the first stories he wrote. He went to law school
after college, but he found that he was more interested in
writing than in practicing law.

Try an Adventure Novel

Holes is an example of an adventure novel. This type of fiction
focuses on a main character who is usually on a mission and
is facing many challenges and choices. There is often physical
danger involved. In Holes, the main character and his friend
face what seem at times to be overwhelming obstacles, but
they do so with great courage.

92 unit 1: plot, conflict, and setting

86A>;DGC>6

Read a Great Book

Stanley Yelnats, the main character in Holes, gets teased
in school, has no friends, and lives in a smelly apartment.
He also has some unfortunate family history. Stanley is
suffering from a curse dating back to the time of his
great-great-grandfather, a “no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-
stealing” character whose reputation continues to
haunt Stanley. In an episode of bad luck, Stanley lands
at Camp Green Lake, “a camp for bad boys.” And so
the adventure begins.

holes

There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. There once
was a very large lake here, the largest lake in Texas. That was over
a hundred years ago. Now it is just a dry, flat wasteland.

There used to be a town of Green Lake as well. The town shriveled
and dried up along with the lake, and the people who lived there.

During the summer the daytime temperature hovers around
ninety-five degrees in the shade—if you can find any shade. There’s
not much shade in a big dry lake.

The only trees are two old oaks on the eastern edge of the “lake.”
10 A hammock is stretched between the two trees, and a log cabin

stands behind that.
The campers are forbidden to lie in the hammock. It belongs to

the Warden. The Warden owns the shade.
Out on the lake, rattlesnakes and scorpions find shade under

rocks and in the holes dug by the campers.
Here’s a good rule to remember about rattlesnakes and scorpions:

If you don’t bother them, they won’t bother you.
Usually.
Being bitten by a scorpion or even a rattlesnake is not the worst

20 thing that can happen to you. You won’t die.
Usually.

great reads 93

Sometimes a camper will try to be bitten by a scorpion, or even
a small rattlesnake. Then he will get to spend a day or two recovering
in his tent, instead of having to dig a hole out on the lake.

But you don’t want to be bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard. That’s
the worst thing that can happen to you. You will die a slow and
painful death.

Always.
If you get bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard, you might as well
30 go into the shade of the oak trees and lie in the hammock.
There is nothing anyone can do to you anymore.

The reader is probably asking: Why would anyone go to Camp
Green Lake?

Most campers weren’t given a choice. Camp Green Lake is a
camp for bad boys.

If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in
the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy.

That was what some people thought.
Stanley Yelnats was given a choice. The judge said, “You may
40 go to jail, or you may go to Camp Green Lake.”
Stanley was from a poor family. He had never been to camp before.

Stanley Yelnats was the only passenger on the bus, not counting
the driver or the guard. The guard sat next to the driver with his
seat turned around facing Stanley. A rifle lay across his lap.

Stanley was sitting about ten rows back, handcuffed to his
armrest. His backpack lay on the seat next to him. It contained
his toothbrush, toothpaste, and a box of stationery his mother had
given him. He’d promised to write to her at least once a week.

He looked out the window, although there wasn’t much to see—
50 mostly fields of hay and cotton. He was on a long bus ride to

nowhere. The bus wasn’t air-conditioned, and the hot, heavy
air was almost as stifling as the handcuffs.

Stanley and his parents had tried to pretend that he was just
going away to camp for a while, just like rich kids do. When
Stanley was younger he used to play with stuffed animals, and

94 unit 1: plot, conflict, and setting

Great Reads

pretend the animals were at camp. Camp Fun and Games he called
it. Sometimes he’d have them play soccer with a marble. Other times
they’d run an obstacle course, or go bungee jumping off a table,
tied to broken rubber bands. Now Stanley tried to pretend he was
60 going to Camp Fun and Games. Maybe he’d make some friends,
he thought. At least he’d get to swim in the lake.

He didn’t have any friends at home. He was overweight and the
kids at his middle school often teased him about his size. Even his
teachers sometimes made cruel comments without realizing it. On
his last day of school, his math teacher, Mrs. Bell, taught ratios. As
an example, she chose the heaviest kid in the class and the lightest
kid in the class, and had them weigh themselves. Stanley weighed
three times as much as the other boy. Mrs. Bell wrote the ratio on
the board, 3:1, unaware of how much embarrassment she had caused
70 both of them.

Stanley was arrested later that day.
He looked at the guard who sat slumped in his seat and wondered
if he had fallen asleep. The guard was wearing sunglasses, so Stanley
couldn’t see his eyes.
Stanley was not a bad kid. He was innocent of the crime for
which he was convicted. He’d just been in the wrong place at the
wrong time.
It was all because of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-
great-grandfather!
80 He smiled. It was a family joke. Whenever anything went wrong,
they always blamed Stanley’s no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-
great-grandfather.
Supposedly, he had a great-great-grandfather who had stolen a
pig from a one-legged Gypsy, and she put a curse on him and all
his descendants. Stanley and his parents didn’t believe in curses, of
course, but whenever anything went wrong, it felt good to be able to
blame someone.
Things went wrong a lot. They always seemed to be in the wrong
place at the wrong time.
90 He looked out the window at the vast emptiness. He watched the
rise and fall of a telephone wire. In his mind he could hear his father’s
gruff voice softly singing to him.

great reads 95

“If only, if only,” the woodpecker sighs,
“The bark on the tree was just a little bit softer.”
While the wolf waits below, hungry and lonely,

He cries to the moo—oo—oon,
“If only, if only.”

It was a song his father used to sing to him. The melody was sweet
and sad, but Stanley’s favorite part was when his father would howl
100 the word “moon.”

The bus hit a small bump and the guard sat up, instantly alert.
Stanley’s father was an inventor. To be a successful inventor you need
three things: intelligence, perseverance, and just a little bit of luck.
Stanley’s father was smart and had a lot of perseverance. Once
he started a project he would work on it for years, often going days
without sleep. He just never had any luck.
Every time an experiment failed, Stanley could hear him cursing
his dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-grandfather.
Stanley’s father was also named Stanley Yelnats. Stanley’s father’s
110 full name was Stanley Yelnats III. Our Stanley is Stanley Yelnats IV.
Everyone in his family had always liked the fact that “Stanley
Yelnats” was spelled the same frontward and backward. So they kept
naming their sons Stanley. Stanley was an only child, as was every
other Stanley Yelnats before him.
All of them had something else in common. Despite their awful
luck, they always remained hopeful. As Stanley’s father liked to say,
“I learn from failure.”
But perhaps that was part of the curse as well. If Stanley and his
father weren’t always hopeful, then it wouldn’t hurt so much every
120 time their hopes were crushed.
“Not every Stanley Yelnats has been a failure,” Stanley’s mother
often pointed out, whenever Stanley or his father became so
discouraged that they actually started to believe in the curse. The first
Stanley Yelnats, Stanley’s great-grandfather, had made a fortune in the
stock market. “He couldn’t have been too unlucky.”
At such times she neglected to mention the bad luck that befell the
first Stanley Yelnats. He lost his entire fortune when he was moving
from New York to California. His stagecoach was robbed by the
outlaw Kissin’ Kate Barlow.

96

Great Reads

130 If it weren’t for that, Stanley’s family would now be living in a
mansion on a beach in California. Instead, they were crammed in
a tiny apartment that smelled of burning rubber and foot odor.
If only, if only . . .
The apartment smelled the way it did because Stanley’s father was
trying to invent a way to recycle old sneakers. “The first person who
finds a use for old sneakers,” he said, “will be a very rich man.”
It was this latest project that led to Stanley’s arrest.
The bus ride became increasingly bumpy because the road was
no longer paved.

140 Actually, Stanley had been impressed when he first found out
that his great-grandfather was robbed by Kissin’ Kate Barlow. True,
he would have preferred living on the beach in California, but it
was still kind of cool to have someone in your family robbed by a
famous outlaw.
Kate Barlow didn’t actually kiss Stanley’s great-grandfather. That
would have been really cool, but she only kissed the men she killed.
Instead, she robbed him and left him stranded in the middle of the
desert.
“He was lucky to have survived,” Stanley’s mother was quick

150 to point out.
The bus was slowing down. The guard grunted as he stretched

his arms.
“Welcome to Camp Green Lake,” said the driver.
Stanley looked out the dirty window. He couldn’t see a lake.
And hardly anything was green.

Keep Reading

Now you have a sense of the bad situation Stanley is in. Which
part of the description of the camp surprised you most? To find
out how Stanley will handle the situation, read the rest of the story.
As the plot of Holes unfolds, Stanley experiences many challenges
and obstacles, some because of the harsh setting and others
because of some harsh people. Through it all, he learns a few
things about himself.

97

Before Reading

from Exploring the Titanic

Narrative Nonfiction by Robert D. Ballard

Whatdcaniwsealesartn feromr s ?
KEY IDEA Have you ever learned a lesson the hard way? Unfortunately,
86A>;DGC>6 sometimes it takes a disaster to teach us to properly plan for danger.
In the selection you’re about to read, people on an “unsinkable”
R3.2 Identify events that advance ship encounter terrible danger at sea—without enough lifeboats
the plot and determine how each for everyone.
event explains past or present
action(s) or foreshadows future CHART IT When a disaster happens, we try to find out what went
action(s). wrong so that we know how to be better prepared in the future.
Using a chart like the one shown, list different types of disasters and
Also included in this lesson: W1.2 things we can learn from them. Compare your chart with those of
(p. 117), LC1.4 (p. 117) your classmates.

Disasters What We Can Learn from Them
Fires
We can learn to build safer buildings.
More fire drills will help people know
what to do in emergencies.

98

literary analysis: narrative nonfiction 86A>;DGC>6

Narrative nonfiction uses literary elements, such as plot, Underwater Explorer
setting, and conflict, to tell a story. Unlike fiction, though,
narrative nonfiction tells a true story about events that Robert D. Ballard,
really happened. To be accurate, narrative nonfiction relies
on source material, such as quotations from real people, a pioneer of deep-
facts from reliable accounts, and photographs. As you read
Exploring the Titanic, notice how literary elements and sea exploration,
source material help create a compelling narrative.
Review: Suspense and Foreshadowing traces his interest

reading skill: use chronological order in the ocean to

When writers use chronological order, or time order, childhood walks
they present events in the order in which they happened.
To help you recognize time order, look for on the beach in

• calendar dates, such as Wednesday, April 10, 1912 San Diego. He was
• clock time, such as shortly after noon and 8:03 P.M.
• words and phrases that show time order, such as before, so fascinated by

later, around lunchtime, and for the next ten months sea lore and by the Robert D. Ballard
crabs washed in born 1942
Use a timeline to track the events of the Titanic’s final day.
by the tide that he decided to spend
Harold Bride receives iceberg
warning from operator. his life by the water. Ballard is trained

Sunday morning, April 14, 1912 as a marine geologist, a geophysicist

Review: Make Inferences (a mapper of land and oceans), and

vocabulary in context a Navy commander. After years of

The boldfaced words help tell the story of this disaster. Use searching, he found one of the most
context clues to give a definition for each word.
important shipwrecks in history—
1. The elegant accommodations thrilled the passengers.
2. Adjoining rooms kept families together. the remains of the Titanic.
3. There were moderate prices for less luxurious rooms.
4. Travelers enjoyed the novelty of the ship’s first voyage. A World Beneath the Water
5. Some believed they had heard a prophecy of tragedy. The oxygen-poor water at the
6. The crews worked feverishly to avoid a collision. bottom of the ocean keeps shipwrecks
7. They were unable to prevent a ghastly disaster at sea. in excellent condition. “There’s
8. Rescue ships were delayed indefinitely. probably more history now preserved
underwater than in all the museums
of the world combined,” Ballard has
observed. To help excavate that history,
Ballard organizes expeditions to areas
rich in shipwrecks. He explores the
depths with the help of robots and
submersibles, or minisubmarines.

Mysteries Solved Ballard’s discovery
solved many mysteries about the
Titanic’s last hours. For instance,
pieces on the ocean floor reveal that
the ship broke in two before sinking.

more about the author

For more on Robert D. Ballard, visit the
Literature Center at ClassZone.com.

exploring the TITANIC 99

xploring the

Robert D. Ballard

T he story of the Titanic began before anyone had even thought about ANALYZE VISUALS
building the great ship. In 1898, fourteen years before the Titanic What details in the
sank, an American writer named Morgan Robertson wrote a book called poster emphasize the
The Wreck of the Titan.1 In his story, the Titan, a passenger ship almost Titanic’s huge size?
identical to the Titanic, and labeled “unsinkable,” sails from England
headed for New York. With many rich and famous passengers on board, prophecy (prJfPG-sC) n.
the Titan hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sinks. Because there a prediction of the
are not enough lifeboats, many lives are lost. future

The story of the Titan predicted exactly what would happen to the a CHRONOLOGICAL
10 Titanic fourteen years later. It was an eerie prophecy of terrible things ORDER
Why do you think Ballard
to come. a begins his narrative with
In 1907, nearly ten years after The Wreck of the Titan was written, two a reference to The Wreck
of the Titan?
men began making plans to build a real titanic ship. At a London dinner
party, as they relaxed over coffee and cigars, J. Bruce Ismay, president
of the White Star Line of passenger ships, and Lord Pirrie, chairman of
Harland & Wolff shipbuilders, discussed a plan to build three enormous

1. Titan: In Greek mythology, the Titans were a race of giants. The word titanic has come to be Titanic, Olympic, White Star Line (1912),
applied to any person or thing of great size or power. Montague B. Black. Christie’s Images/Corbis.

100 unit 1: plot, conflict, and setting



ocean liners. Their goal was to give the White Star Line a competitive accommodations
edge in the Atlantic passenger trade with several gigantic ships whose (E-kJmQE-dAPshEnz)
accommodations would be the last word in comfort and elegance. n. rooms and food,
20 The two men certainly dreamed on a grand scale.2 When these floating especially in a hotel
palaces were finally built, they were so much bigger than other ships that or on a ship or train
new docks had to be built on each side of the Atlantic to service them.
Four years after that London dinner party, the first of these huge liners, b NARRATIVE
the Olympic, safely completed her maiden voyage.3 NONFICTION
What details help you
On May 31, 1911, the hull of the Titanic was launched at the Harland picture the setting of
& Wolff shipyards in Belfast, Ireland, before a cheering crowd of the Titanic’s launch?
100,000. Bands played, and people came from miles around to see this
great wonder of the sea. Twenty-two tons of soap, grease, and train oil c NARRATIVE
were used to slide her into the water. In the words of one eyewitness, NONFICTION
30 she had “a rudder as big as an elm tree . . . propellers as big as a windmill. What do the newspaper
Everything was on a nightmare scale.” b quotations add to your
understanding?
For the next ten months the Titanic was outfitted and carefully
prepared down to the last detail. The final size and richness of this new
ship was astounding. She was 882 feet long, almost the length of four city
blocks. With nine decks, she was as high as an eleven-story building.

Among her gigantic features, she had four huge funnels, each one big
enough to drive two trains through. During construction an astonishing
three million rivets had been hammered into her hull. Her three
enormous anchors weighed a total of thirty-one tons—the weight of
40 twenty cars. And for her maiden voyage, she carried enough food to feed
a small town for several months.

As her name boasted, the Titanic was indeed the biggest ship in the
world. Nicknamed “the Millionaires’ Special,” she was also called “the
Wonder Ship,” “the Unsinkable Ship,” and “the Last Word in Luxury”
by newspapers around the world. c

The command of this great ocean liner was given to the senior captain
of the White Star Line, Captain Edward J. Smith. This proud, white-
bearded man was a natural leader and was popular with both crew
members and passengers. Most important, after thirty-eight years’ service
50 with the White Star Line, he had an excellent safety record. At the age of
fifty-nine, Captain Smith was going to retire after this last trip, a perfect
final tribute to a long and successful career.

On Wednesday, April 10, 1912, the Titanic’s passengers began to arrive
in Southampton for the trip to New York. Ruth Becker was dazzled as she
boarded the ship with her mother, her younger sister, and two-year-old
brother, Richard. Ruth’s father was a missionary in India. The rest of the

2. on a grand scale: in a large or impressive way.
3. maiden voyage: very first trip.

102 unit 1: plot, conflict, and setting

Ruth Becker

Illustration © Onslow Auctions Limited/Mary Evans Picture Library. Jack Thayer

family was sailing to New York to find medical help for young Richard, ANALYZE VISUALS
who had developed a serious illness in India. They had booked second- The photographs of
class tickets on the Titanic. Ruth Becker and Jack
60 Twelve-year-old Ruth was delighted with the ship. As she pushed her Thayer are source
little brother about the decks in a stroller, she was impressed with what material. How does
she saw. “Everything was new. New!” she recalled. “Our cabin was just seeing the faces of these
like a hotel room, it was so big. The dining room was beautiful—the young passengers affect
linens, all the bright, polished silver you can imagine.” the way you read the
selection?
Meanwhile, seventeen-year-old Jack Thayer from Philadelphia was
trying out the soft mattress on the large bed in his cabin. The first-class adjoining (E-joiPnGng)
rooms his family had reserved for themselves and their maid had thick adj. next to or in contact
carpets, carved wooden panels on the walls, and marble sinks. As his with adjoin v.
parents were getting settled in their adjoining stateroom,4 Jack decided
70 to explore this fantastic ship. d d NARRATIVE
NONFICTION
On A Deck, he stepped into the Verandah and Palm Court and What details about
admired the white wicker furniture and the ivy growing up the trellised the setting do you
walls. On the lower decks, Jack discovered the squash court,5 the learn from firsthand
swimming pool, and the Turkish bath6 decorated like a room in a sultan’s observations of people
palace. In the gymnasium, the instructor was showing passengers the on the ship?

4. stateroom: a private cabin on a ship.
5. squash court: a walled court or room for playing squash, in which a rubber ball is hit off the walls.
6. Turkish bath: steam bath.

exploring the TITANIC 103

First-class
promenade

Third-class Second-class
general room promenade
Second-class
Third-class cabin
cabin
Second-class
dining room

Illustration by Steve Noon. © Dorling Kindersley.

latest in exercise equipment, which included a mechanical camel you
could ride on, stationary bicycles, and rowing machines.

Daylight shone through the huge glass dome over the Grand Staircase
as Jack went down to join his parents in the first-class reception room.
80 There, with the ship’s band playing in the background, his father
pointed out some of the other first-class passengers. “He’s supposed to
be the world’s richest man,” said his father of Colonel John Jacob Astor,
who was escorting the young Mrs. Astor. He also identified Mr. and Mrs.
Straus, founders of Macy’s of New York, the world’s largest department
store. Millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim was aboard, as were Jack’s
parents’ friends from Philadelphia, Mr. and Mrs. George Widener and
their son, Harry. Mr. Widener had made a fortune building streetcars.
Mr. and Mrs. William Carter were also friends of the Thayers. Stowed
in one of the holds below was a new Renault car that they were bringing
90 back from England.

J. Bruce Ismay, president of the White Star Line, moved about the
room saying hello to people. He wanted to make sure that his wealthy
passengers were comfortable, that they would feel relaxed and safe aboard
his floating palace.

104 unit 1: plot, conflict, and setting

First-class
lounge
First-class
cabin

ANALYZE VISUALS

Identify which parts of
the boat are dedicated
to the first-, second-, and
third-class passengers.
What differences do
you note?

Indeed, when Ruth Becker’s mother had asked one of the second-class indefinitely
staff about the safety of the ship, she had been told that there was absolutely (Gn-dDfPE-nGt-lC) adv.
nothing to worry about. The ship had watertight compartments that would for an unlimited length
allow her to float indefinitely. There was much talk among the passengers of time
about the Titanic being unsinkable.
100 In 1912, people were divided into social classes according to background, moderate (mJdPEr-Gt)
wealth, and education. Because of these class lines, the Titanic was rather adj. not excessive or
like a big floating layer cake. The bottom layer consisted of the lowly extreme; average
manual workers sweating away in the heat and grime of the boiler rooms
and engine rooms. The next layer was the third-class passengers, people e NARRATIVE
of many nationalities hoping to make a new start in America. After that NONFICTION
came the second class—teachers, merchants, and professionals of moderate Why is it important to
means like Ruth’s family. Then, finally, there was the icing on the cake understand the way
in first class: the rich and the aristocratic. The differences between these social class influenced
groups were enormous. While the wealthy brought their maids and valets7 the people on the ship?
110 and mountains of luggage, most members of the crew earned such tiny
salaries that it would have taken them years to save the money for a single
first-class ticket. e

7. valets (vB-lAzP): gentlemen’s personal servants.

exploring the TITANIC 105

At noon on Wednesday, April 10, the Titanic cast off. The whistles SCIENCE
on her huge funnels were the biggest ever made. As she began her journey CONNECTION
to the sea, they were heard for miles around.
An important
Moving majestically down the River Test,8 and watched by a crowd that technological
had turned out for the occasion, the Titanic slowly passed two ships tied advancement used
up to a dock. All of a sudden, the mooring ropes holding the passenger on the Titanic was the
liner New York snapped with a series of sharp cracks like fireworks going wireless. A wireless
120 off. The enormous pull created by the Titanic moving past her had telegraph is a machine
broken the New York’s ropes and was now drawing her stern toward the used for transmitting
Titanic. Jack Thayer watched in horror as the two ships came closer and and receiving messages.
closer. “It looked as though there surely would be a collision,” he later
wrote. “Her stern could not have been more than a yard or two from our f SUSPENSE AND
side. It almost hit us.” At the last moment, some quick action by Captain FORESHADOWING
Smith and a tugboat captain nearby allowed the Titanic to slide past with Reread lines 116–130.
only inches to spare. How does the author
use foreshadowing
It was not a good sign. Did it mean that the Titanic might be too big to create suspense?
a ship to handle safely? Those who knew about the sea thought that such
130 a close call at the beginning of a maiden voyage was a very bad omen. f novelty (nJvPEl-tC) n.
something new, original,
Jack Phillips, the first wireless operator on the Titanic, quickly jotted or unusual
down the message coming in over his headphones. “It’s another iceberg
warning,” he said wearily to his young assistant, Harold Bride. “You’d g CHRONOLOGICAL
better take it up to the bridge.” Both men had been at work for hours ORDER
in the Titanic’s radio room, trying to get caught up in sending out a large Reread lines 139–141.
number of personal messages. In 1912, passengers on ocean liners thought What day does Bride
it was a real novelty to send postcard-style messages to friends at home pick up the iceberg
from the middle of the Atlantic. warning from the
operator? Begin your
Bride picked up the iceberg message and stepped out onto the boat deck. timeline by recording
140 It was a sunny but cold Sunday morning, the fourth day of the Titanic’s this event. As you read
on, record each major
maiden voyage. The ship was steaming at full speed across a calm sea. event that follows.
Harold Bride was quite pleased with himself at having landed a job on such
a magnificent new ship. After all, he was only twenty-two years old and had
just nine months’ experience at operating a “wireless set,” as a ship’s radio was
then called. As he entered the bridge area, he could see one of the crewmen
standing behind the ship’s wheel steering her course toward New York. g

Captain Smith was on duty in the bridge, so Bride handed the message
to him. “It’s from the Caronia,9 sir. She’s reporting icebergs and pack ice
ahead.” The captain thanked him, read the message, and then posted
150 it on the bulletin board for other officers on watch to read. On his way

8. the River Test: a river flowing into the English Channel at Southampton, the city in England from which
the Titanic set sail.

9. Caronia (kE-rIPnC-E).

106 unit 1: plot, conflict, and setting

Harold Bride

The Titanic, Gordon Johnson. Oil on paper. © Margaret Johnson/SuperStock.

back to the radio room, Bride thought the captain had seemed quite h CHRONOLOGICAL
unconcerned by the message. But then again, he had been told that it was
not unusual to have ice floating in the sea lanes during an April crossing. ORDER
Besides, what danger could a few pieces of ice present to an unsinkable ship?
Reread lines 160–170.
Elsewhere on board, passengers relaxed on deck chairs, reading or taking About how much time
naps. Some played cards, some wrote letters, while others chatted with passes between these
friends. As it was Sunday, church services had been held in the morning, iceberg warnings and
the first-class service led by Captain Smith. Jack Thayer spent most of the Jack’s conversation?
day walking about the decks getting some fresh air with his parents.
160 Two more ice warnings were received from nearby ships around lunch
time. In the chaos of the radio room, Harold Bride only had time to take
one of them to the bridge. The rest of the day passed quietly. Then, in the
late afternoon, the temperature began to drop rapidly. Darkness approached
as the bugle call announced dinner.

Jack Thayer’s parents had been invited to a special dinner for Captain
Smith, so Jack ate alone in the first-class dining room. After dinner, as
he was having a cup of coffee, he was joined by Milton Long, another
passenger going home to the States. Long was older than Jack, but in the
easy-going atmosphere of shipboard travel, they struck up a conversation
170 and talked together for an hour or so. h

At 7:30 p.m., the radio room received three more warnings of ice about
fifty miles ahead. One of them was from the steamer Californian reporting
three large icebergs. Harold Bride took this message up to the bridge, and
it was again politely received. Captain Smith was attending the dinner
party being held for him when the warning was delivered. He never got

exploring the TITANIC 107

to see it. Then, around 9:00 p.m., the captain excused himself and went up i NARRATIVE
to the bridge. He and his officers talked about how difficult it was to spot NONFICTION
icebergs on a calm, clear, moonless night like this with no wind to kick How does the inclusion
up white surf around them. Before going to bed, the captain ordered of primary source
180 the lookouts to keep a sharp watch for ice. material—Jack Thayer’s
firsthand observation—
After trading travel stories with Milton Long, Jack Thayer put on his help you better
coat and walked around the deck. “It had become very much colder,” he understand what it
said later. “It was a brilliant, starry night. There was no moon, and I have must have been like on
never seen the stars shine brighter . . . sparkling like diamonds. . . . It was the the ship that night?
kind of night that made one feel glad to be alive.” At eleven o’clock, he went
below to his cabin, put on his pajamas, and got ready for bed. i J SUSPENSE AND
FORESHADOWING
In the radio room, Harold Bride was exhausted. The two operators Reread lines 187–197.
were expected to keep the radio working twenty-four hours a day, and What details in these
Bride lay down to take a much-needed nap. Phillips was so busy with lines create a sense of
190 the passenger messages that he actually brushed off the final ice warning worry and dread?
of the night. It was from the Californian. Trapped in a field of ice, she
had stopped for the night about nineteen miles north of the Titanic. She
was so close that the message literally blasted in Phillips’s ears. Annoyed
by the loud interruption, he cut off the Californian’s radio operator with
the words, “Shut up, shut up. I’m busy.”

The radio room had received a total of seven ice warning messages in one
day. It was quite clear that floating icebergs lay ahead of the Titanic. J

High up in the crow’s nest on the forward mast, Fred Fleet had passed
a quiet watch. It was now 11:40 p.m., and he and his fellow lookout were
200 waiting to be relieved so they could head below, perhaps for a hot drink
before hopping into their warm bunks. The sea was dead calm. The air
was bitterly cold.

Suddenly, Fleet saw something. A huge, dark shape loomed out of the
night directly ahead of the Titanic. An iceberg! He quickly sounded the
alarm bell three times and picked up the telephone.

Illustration by Steve Noon. © Dorling Kindersley.

“What did you see?” asked the duty officer. k CHRONOLOGICAL
“Iceberg right ahead,” replied Fleet. ORDER
Immediately, the officer on the bridge ordered the wheel turned as far What is the time order
as it would go. The engine room was told to reverse the engines, while of the events that
210 a button was pushed to close the doors to the watertight compartments happen after Fleet spots
in the bottom of the ship. the iceberg? Record the
The lookouts in the crow’s nest braced themselves for a collision. Slowly events on your timeline.
the ship started to turn. It looked as though they would miss it. But it was
too late. They had avoided a head-on crash, but the iceberg had struck l NARRATIVE
a glancing blow along the Titanic’s starboard bow. Several tons of ice fell NONFICTION
on the ship’s decks as the iceberg brushed along the side of the ship and In lines 218–240 the
passed into the night. A few minutes later, the Titanic came to a stop. k author describes how
Many of the passengers didn’t know the ship had hit anything. Because it the passengers react
was so cold, almost everyone was inside, and most people had already gone after the collision.
220 to bed. Ruth Becker and her mother were awakened by the dead silence. Compare and contrast
They could no longer hear the soothing hum of the vibrating engines from the responses of the
below. Jack Thayer was about to step into bed when he felt himself sway passengers and the
ever so slightly. The engines stopped. He was startled by the sudden quiet. workers in different
Sensing trouble, Ruth’s mother looked out of the door of their second- areas of the ship.
class cabin and asked a steward10 what had happened. He told her that
nothing was the matter, so Mrs. Becker went back to bed. But as she lay
there, she couldn’t help feeling that something was very wrong.
Jack heard running feet and voices in the hallway outside his first-class
cabin. “I hurried into my heavy overcoat and drew on my slippers. All
230 excited, but not thinking anything serious had occurred, I called in to
my father and mother that I was going up on deck to see the fun.”
On deck, Jack watched some third-class passengers playing with the
ice that had landed on the forward deck as the iceberg had brushed by.
Some people were throwing chunks at each other, while a few skidded
about playing football with pieces of ice.
Down in the very bottom of the ship, things were very different. When
the iceberg had struck, there had been a noise like a big gun going off in
one of the boiler rooms. A couple of stokers11 had been immediately hit
by a jet of icy water. The noise and the shock of cold water had sent them
240 running for safety. l
Twenty minutes after the crash, things looked very bad indeed to
Captain Smith. He and the ship’s builder, Thomas Andrews, had made
a rapid tour below decks to inspect the damage. The mail room was
filling up with water, and sacks of mail were floating about. Water was
also pouring into some of the forward holds and two of the boiler rooms.

10. steward: a worker on a ship who attends to the needs of the passengers.
11. stokers: workers who tended the boilers that powered steamships.

exploring the TITANIC 109

Captain Smith knew that the Titanic’s hull was divided into a number m NARRATIVE
of watertight compartments. She had been designed so that she could still NONFICTION
float if only the first four compartments were flooded, but not any more What conflict do the
than that. But water was pouring into the first five compartments. And people aboard the
250 when the water filled them, it would spill over into the next compartment. ship now face?
One by one all the remaining compartments would flood, and the ship
would eventually sink. Andrews told the captain that the ship could last n MAKE INFERENCES
an hour, an hour and a half at the most. m What can you infer
about how Thomas
Harold Bride had just awakened in the radio room when Captain Smith Andrews, the ship’s
stuck his head in the door. “Send the call for assistance,” he ordered. builder, might have felt
as he passed through
“What call should I send?” Phillips asked. the passenger lounge?
“The regulation international call for help. Just that.” Then the captain
was gone. Phillips began to send the Morse code12 “CQD” distress call,
flashing away and joking as he did it. After all, they knew the ship was
260 unsinkable.
Five minutes later, the captain was back. “What are you sending?” he asked.
“CQD,” Phillips answered. Then Bride cut in and suggested that they
try the new SOS13 signal that was just coming into use. They began to
send out the new international call for help—it was one of the first SOS
calls ever sent out from a ship in distress.
Ruth and her family had stayed in their bunks for a good fifteen
minutes or so after the room steward had told them nothing was wrong.
But Ruth’s mother couldn’t stop worrying as she heard the sound of
running feet and shouting voices in the hallway. Poking her head out
270 of the cabin, she found a steward and asked what the matter was.
“Put on your things and come at once,” said the steward.
“Do we have time to dress?” she asked.
“No, madam. You have time for nothing. Put on your life jackets
and come up to the top deck.”
Ruth helped her mother dress the children quickly. But they only
had time to throw their coats over their nightgowns and put on their
shoes and stockings. In their rush, they forgot to put on their life jackets.
Just after midnight, Captain Smith ordered the lifeboats uncovered.
The ship’s squash court, which was thirty-two feet above the keel,14 was
280 now completely flooded. Jack Thayer and his father came into the first-
class lounge to try to find out exactly what the matter was. When Thomas
Andrews, the ship’s builder, passed by, Mr. Thayer asked him what was
going on. He replied in a low voice that the ship had not much more than
an hour to live. Jack and his father couldn’t believe their ears. n

12. Morse code: a system used in wireless telegraphy in which numbers and letters are represented
by sets of long and short sounds or flashes of light.

13. CQD . . . SOS: standard international distress calls used by ships at sea.
14. keel: the main timber or steel piece that extends the whole length of the bottom of a ship.

110 unit 1: plot, conflict, and setting

This telegraph message
was sent by Bride and
Phillips as a call for help.

Illustration by Steve Noon. © Dorling Kindersley. feverishly
(fCPvEr-Gsh-lC) adv. in a
From the bridge of the Titanic, a ship’s lights were observed not far way marked by intense
away, possibly the Californian’s. Captain Smith then ordered white emotion or activity
distress rockets fired to get the attention of the nearby ship. They burst
high in the air with a loud boom and a shower of stars. But the rockets o SUSPENSE AND
290 made no difference. The mystery ship in the distance never answered. FORESHADOWING
Given what you already
In the radio room, Bride and Phillips now knew how serious the know about the Titanic,
accident was and were feverishly sending out calls for help. A number what details help create
of ships heard and responded to their calls, but most were too far away suspense?
to come to the rescue in time. The closest ship they had been able to
reach was the Carpathia,15 about fifty-eight miles away. Immediately, p CHRONOLOGICAL
the Carpathia reported that she was racing full steam to the rescue. ORDER
But could she get there in time? o Record the Californian’s
response on your
Not far away, the radio operator of the Californian had gone to bed timeline. At this point,
for the night and turned off his radio. Several officers and crewmen on how might disaster still
300 the deck of the Californian saw rockets in the distance and reported them have been minimized?
to their captain. The captain told them to try to contact the ship with
a Morse lamp. But they received no answer to their flashed calls. No one
thought to wake up the radio operator. p

On board the Titanic, almost an hour after the crash, most of the
passengers still did not realize the seriousness of the situation. But
Captain Smith was a very worried man. He knew that the Titanic only
carried lifeboats for barely half the estimated twenty-two hundred people
on board. He would have to make sure his officers kept order to avoid
any panic among the passengers. At 12:30 Captain Smith gave the orders

15. Carpathia (kär-pAPthC-E).

exploring the TITANIC 111

to start loading the lifeboats—women and children first. Even though q NARRATIVE
310 the Titanic was by now quite noticeably down at the bow and listing16 NONFICTION
How does Ruth’s
slightly to one side, many passengers still didn’t want to leave the huge, mother’s pleading
brightly lit ship. The ship’s band added to a kind of party feeling as the with the sailor add
musicians played lively tunes. to the conflict?

About 12:45 the first lifeboat was lowered. It could carry sixty-five r MAKE INFERENCES
people, but left with only twenty-eight aboard. Indeed, many of the Given the lifeboat
first boats to leave were half empty. Ruth Becker noticed that there was situation, what do delays
no panic among the crowds of passengers milling about on the decks. in getting above decks
“Everything was calm, everybody was orderly.” But the night air was now mean for the third-class
biting cold. Ruth’s mother told her to go back to their cabin to get some passengers?
320 blankets. Ruth hurried down to the cabin and came back with several
blankets in her arms. The Beckers walked toward one of the lifeboats, and
a sailor picked up Ruth’s brother and sister and placed them in the boat.

“That’s all for this boat,” he called out. “Lower away!”
“Please, those are my children!” cried Ruth’s mother. “Let me go
with them!” q
The sailor allowed Mrs. Becker to step into the lifeboat with her two
children. She then called back to Ruth to get into another lifeboat. Ruth
went to the next boat and asked the officer if she could get in. He said,
“Sure,” picked her up, and dumped her in.
330 Boat No. 13 was so crowded that Ruth had to stand up. Foot by foot
it was lowered down the steep side of the massive ship. The new pulleys
shrieked as the ropes passed through them, creaking under the weight
of the boat and its load of sixty-four people. After landing in the water,
Ruth’s lifeboat began to drift. Suddenly Ruth saw another lifeboat coming
down right on top of them! Fearing for their lives, the men in charge of
her boat shouted, “Stop!” to the sailors up on the deck. But the noise was
so great that nobody noticed. The second lifeboat kept coming down, so
close that they could actually touch the bottom of it. All of a sudden, one
of the men in Ruth’s boat jumped up, pulled out a knife, and cut them
340 free of their lowering ropes. Ruth’s boat pushed away from the Titanic
just as boat No. 15 hit the water inches away from them.
Below, in the third-class decks of the ship, there was much more
confusion and alarm. Most of these passengers had not yet been able
to get above decks. Some of those who did finally make it out had to
break down the barriers between third and first class. r
By 1:30 the bow was well down, and people were beginning to notice
the slant of the decks. In the radio room, Bride and Phillips were still
desperately sending out calls for help: “We are sinking fast . . . women
and children in boats. We cannot last much longer.” The radio signal

16. listing: tilting; leaning.

112 unit 1: plot, conflict, and setting

Illustration by Steve Noon. © Dorling Kindersley.

gradually got weaker and weaker as the ship’s power faded out. Out s NARRATIVE
on the decks, most passengers now began to move toward the stern17 area,
which was slowly lifting out of the water. NONFICTION
Recall the conflict you
By 2:05 there were still over 1,500 people left on the sinking ship. All identified on page 110.
the lifeboats were now away, and a strange stillness took hold. People stood How do the various
quietly on the upper decks, bunching together for warmth, trying to keep people on the ship
away from the side of the tilting ship. respond to the conflict?

Captain Smith now made his way to the radio room and told Harold
Bride and Jack Phillips to save themselves. “Men, you have done your full
360 duty,” he told them. “You can do no more. Abandon your cabin. Now it’s
every man for himself.” Phillips kept working the radio, hanging on until
the very last moment. Suddenly Bride heard water gurgling up the deck
outside the radio room. Phillips heard it, too, and cried, “Come on, let’s
clear out.”

Near the stern, Father Thomas Byles had heard confession and given
absolution18 to over one hundred passengers. Playing to the very end, the
members of the ship’s brave band finally had to put down their instruments
and try to save themselves. In desperation, some of the passengers and crew
began to jump overboard as the water crept up the slant of the deck. s

17. stern: the rear end of the ship.

18. heard confession . . . absolution: Father Byles had conducted a Roman Catholic religious ceremony
in which a priest listens to people confess their sins and then declares them forgiven.

exploring the TITANIC 113

Jack Thayer stood with his friend Milton Long at the railing to keep ghastly (gBstPlC) adj.
370 away from the crowds. He had become separated from his father in terrifyingly horrible

the confusion on deck. Now Jack and his friend heard muffled thuds t NARRATIVE
and explosions deep within the ship. Suddenly the Titanic began to slide NONFICTION
into the water. The water rushed up at them. Thayer and Long quickly Reread lines 385–402
said goodbye and good luck to each other. Then they both jumped. and decide which
quotation is most
As he hit the water, Jack Thayer was sucked down. “The cold was memorable. Why
terrific. The shock of the water took the breath out of my lungs. Down do you think so?
and down I went, spinning in all directions.” When he finally surfaced,
gasping for air and numbed by the water, the ship was about forty feet
away from him. His friend Milton Long was nowhere to be seen. Jack
380 would never see him again.

Jack Thayer was lucky. As he struggled in the water, his hand came
to rest on an overturned lifeboat. He grabbed hold and hung on, barely
managing to pull himself up out of the water. Harold Bride had been
washed overboard and now also clung to this same boat.

Both Jack and Harold witnessed the mighty ship’s last desperate
moments. “We could see groups of . . . people aboard, clinging in clusters
or bunches, like swarming bees; only to fall in masses, pairs, or singly,
as the great part of the ship . . . rose into the sky. . . .” said Thayer.
“I looked upwards—we were right under the three enormous propellers.
390 For an instant, I thought they were sure to come right down on top of us.
Then . . . she slid quietly away from us into the sea.”

Out in the safety of her lifeboat, Ruth Becker also witnessed the end
of the Titanic. “I could look back and see this ship, and the decks were
just lined with people looking over. Finally, as the Titanic sank faster,
the lights died out. You could just see the stern remaining in an upright
position for a couple of minutes. Then . . . it disappeared.”

Then, as Ruth recalled, “there fell upon the ear the most terrible noise
that human beings ever listened to—the cries of hundreds of people
struggling in the icy cold water, crying for help with a cry we knew could
400 not be answered.” In Thayer’s words, they became “a long continuous
wailing chant.” Before long this ghastly wailing stopped, as the freezing
water took its toll.19 t

Jack Thayer and Harold Bride and a number of other survivors clung
to their overturned lifeboat, inches away from an icy death in the North
Atlantic. Numb from the cold and not daring to move in case the boat
sank under their weight, they prayed and waited for help. Then, as the
first light of dawn crept on the horizon, a rocket was seen in the distance.
The Carpathia had come to their rescue.

19. took its toll: claimed passengers’ lives.

114 unit 1: plot, conflict, and setting

After Reading

Comprehension 86A>;DGC>6

1. Recall Why was Captain Smith given command of the Titanic? R3.2 Identify events that advance
the plot and determine how each
2. Recall What kinds of accommodations did the ship have for first-class, event explains past or present
second-class, and third-class passengers? action(s) or foreshadows future
action(s).
3. Summarize What safety precautions did Captain Smith and other crew
members take before and after the collision?

Literary Analysis

4. Understand Chronological Order Using the timeline you made as you
read and other information in the selection, determine about how much
time passed between the ship’s hitting the iceberg and the survivors’
being rescued.

5. Make Inferences Harold Bride and Captain Smith both received iceberg
warnings before the Titanic sank. Use a graphic organizer like the one
shown to note how they reacted to the warnings and why they might
have reacted the way they did.

Iceberg Warning

Harold Bride Captain Smith

How : Why : How : Why :

6. Identify Events Events are often related by cause and effect—that is, one
event brings about another. Referring to your timeline, note which events
caused others to happen.

7. Evaluate Narrative Nonfiction Ballard could have written
his account as a piece of informational text, presenting
just the facts of what happened the day the Titanic sank.
Instead he wrote a piece of narrative nonfiction; he added
foreshadowing and suspense, and he included the words
and experiences of people on the ship. In your opinion,
is Ballard’s telling an effective way of involving readers
in the story? Explain your answer.

Extension and Challenge

8. Readers’ Circle The sinking of the Titanic has inspired
many movies and books. In a group, discuss why this
disaster lends itself to storytelling. Find details in the
selection to support your views.

exploring the TITANIC 115

Vocabulary in Context accommodations

vocabulary practice adjoining
feverishly
Choose the letter of the word that has the same, or nearly the same,
meaning as the boldfaced word. ghastly
1. an exciting novelty: (a) innovation, (b) discussion, (c) solution, (d) occasion indefinitely
2. working feverishly: (a) steadily, (b) carelessly, (c) frantically, (d) sickly
3. have moderate success: (a) huge, (b) average, (c) surprising, (d) little moderate
4. elegant accommodations: (a) clothes, (b) lodging, (c) manners, (d) jewelry novelty
5. a disturbing prophecy: (a) prediction, (b) crash, (c) party, (d) curse
6. to wait indefinitely: (a) patiently, (b) endlessly, (c) silently, (d) anxiously prophecy
7. a ghastly accident: (a) traffic, (b) slight, (c) terrible, (d) funny
8. in adjoining rooms: (a) carpeted, (b) decorated, (c) large, (d) connected

vocabulary in writing

Use details from the selection to write a paragraph describing the Titanic.
Include three or more vocabulary words. Below is a sample beginning.

example sentence

The first-class accommodations on the Titanic were extravagant.

vocabulary strategy: analogies

An analogy presents relationships between pairs of words. To complete
an analogy, identify the relationship between the words in the first pair.
The words in the second pair should relate to each other in the same way.

• If the words in the first pair relate to each other as antonyms (words with
opposite meanings), the words in the second pair should also relate as
antonyms.

• If the words in the first pair relate to each other as synonyms (words with
the same meaning), the words in the second pair should also relate as
synonyms.

Analogies often follow the format low : high :: wild : tame. If the analogy is
read aloud, one would say, “Low is to high as wild is to tame.”

PRACTICE Choose a word from the box to complete each analogy.

1. man : woman :: boy : _____ worried stingy vocabulary
2. foolish : silly :: famous : _____ girl well-known
3. amazed : astonished :: concerned : _____ practice

4. freezing : boiling :: generous : _____ For more practice, go
to the Vocabulary Center
at ClassZone.com.

116 unit 1: plot, conflict, and setting

Reading-Writing Connection 86A>;DGC>6

Deepen your understanding of the excerpt from Exploring the Titanic by W1.2 Support all statements and
responding to these prompts. Then complete the Grammar and Writing claims with anecdotes, descriptions,
exercise. facts and statistics, and specific
examples.

writing prompts self-check

A. Short Response: Write a Description An effective description will . . .
How would you describe the state of mind of the • include passengers’
passengers and crew when the Titanic first set
sail? Write one paragraph, describing how people impressions of the ship
felt that day. Include details from the selection.
• include quotations from eye-
witnesses or newspapers

B. Extended Response: Give an Evaluation A convincing evaluation will . . .
What was your opinion of the behavior of the • make a judgment about
Titanic’s builder, captain, and crew before and
during the disaster? Could more lives have been whether more lives could
saved if responses to warnings or evacuation have been saved
efforts had been conducted differently? Write
two or three paragraphs, giving your evaluation. • give reasons and evidence
why or why not

grammar and writing 86A>;DGC>6

USE CORRECT PRONOUN CASE People often confuse the subject and object LC1.4 Demonstrate the mechanics
cases of personal pronouns. If a pronoun is functioning as a subject, then of writing (e.g., quotation marks,
you should use a subject pronoun, such as I, she, he, we, or they. If a pronoun commas at end of dependent
is functioning as an object, then you should use an object pronoun, such clauses) and appropriate English
as me, her, him, us, or them. (You and it function as both subject and usage (e.g., pronoun reference).
object pronouns.)

Original: Him and his crew should have been more careful.

Revised: He and his crew should have been more careful.
(The pronoun is a subject, so it should be he, not him.)

PRACTICE Choose the correct pronouns in the following sentences.

1. The crew knew about the icebergs. The captain had warned (they,
them) about the possibility of floating ice.

2. Despite everything, the crew didn’t pay attention to (he, him).
3. The radio operator was especially to blame. (Him, He) and his assistant

didn’t pass on messages to the captain.
4. (They, Them) should’ve communicated better with each other.

For more help with pronoun cases, see page R53 in the Grammar Handbook.

exploring the TITANIC 117

Before Reading

from An American Childhood

Memoir by Annie Dillard

Whenadolyoiuvfeeel most

?

86A>;DGC>6 KEY IDEA We all have something that makes us appreciate the
wonder and excitement of life. It might be a tense basketball game,
R2.3 Analyze text that uses the a rocky roller-coaster ride, or the thrill of an unexpected snowstorm.
cause-and-effect organizational The author Annie Dillard has said that nothing makes her feel alive
pattern. like facing a tough challenge. This selection is about one of the most
exciting challenges she ever faced.
R3.2 Identify events that advance
the plot and determine how each QUICKWRITE When do you feel most alive? Reflect on this question
event explains past or present in a journal entry. Other questions you might ask yourself are these:
action(s) or foreshadows future When do I feel the happiest? What makes me feel great about my
action(s). life? When am I glad to be me? Explain your answers.

Also included in this lesson: R1.2
(p. 127)

118

literary analysis: setting in nonfiction 86A>;DGC>6

In the memoir you’re about to read, Annie Dillard tells a true Childhood Memories
story from her childhood. The setting, the time and place in
which events occur, is the 1950s in suburban Pittsburgh, Pulitzer Prize–
Pennsylvania, where Dillard grew up.
winner Annie
As you read, look for details that help you understand
and picture where the selection takes place. Dillard frequently

We were standing up to our boot tops in snow on a front writes about
yard on trafficked Reynolds Street . . .
events in her life
Then look for ways the setting affects events.
when she was

growing up. Her

parents shared

with her and

reading skill: recognize cause and effect her sisters their Annie Dillard
favorite books and born 1945

Events are often related as cause and effect: one event music and told stories and jokes. The

brings about the other. The event that happens young Dillard, full of curiosity, spent

first is the cause; the one that follows is Cause: hours studying small pond creatures
the effect. Often an effect becomes
with her microscope. But despite a
the cause of another effect, forming
childhood filled with happy memories,
a chain of causes and effects.
As you read “An American Effect/Cause: as Dillard reached her late teens, she

began to rebel and yearned to get

Childhood,” record causes and effects away.

in a chain like the one shown. Effect: A Fulfilling Life Dillard got her wish
for a new adventure when she went
Review: Make Inferences away to college and began to focus
on writing. Since then, she has
vocabulary in context written essays, a memoir, poetry, and
a Western novel. Dillard spends a great
The following words help Annie Dillard tell about her deal of time alone in the wilderness,
exciting experience. How many of the words do you and she frequently writes about
know? Create a chart like the one shown, and place nature. One might think a nature
each word in the appropriate column. As you read the writer would tend to be serious, but
selection, look for definitions of words that you’ve listed Dillard loves to laugh. She keeps an
in the third column. “index of jokes” and says that “. . .
irony has the highest place . . .” in
word improvise revert spherical literature.
list perfunctorily righteous translucent
redundant simultaneously

Know Well Think I Know Don’t Know at All more about the author

For more on Annie Dillard, visit the
Literature Center at ClassZone.com.

an american childhood 119

An American

Annie Dillard

S ome boys taught me to play football. This was fine sport. You thought ANALYZE VISUALS
up a new strategy for every play and whispered it to the others. You Why is it interesting to
went out for a pass, fooling everyone. Best, you got to throw yourself see the snowballs flying
mightily at someone’s running legs. Either you brought him down or through the air but not
you hit the ground flat out on your chin, with your arms empty before see who threw them?
you. It was all or nothing. If you hesitated in fear, you would miss and
get hurt: you would take a hard fall while the kid got away, or you would a CAUSE AND EFFECT
get kicked in the face while the kid got away. But if you flung yourself What effect does the
wholeheartedly at the back of his knees—if you gathered and joined body snow have on the
10 and soul and pointed them diving fearlessly—then you likely wouldn’t get children’s activities?
hurt, and you’d stop the ball. Your fate, and your team’s score, depended Begin creating your
on your concentration and courage. Nothing girls did could compare chain here.
with it.

Boys welcomed me at baseball, too, for I had, through enthusiastic
practice, what was weirdly known as a boy’s arm. In winter, in the snow,
there was neither baseball nor football, so the boys and I threw snowballs
at passing cars. I got in trouble throwing snowballs, and have seldom
been happier since. a

120 unit 1: plot, conflict, and setting