Write a story that builds to a tone and an outcome

Grade 11 Reading Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   The First Boat (first-person story draft)

   [1] Every August the harbor town of Merrow holds a regatta of paper boats, and every August my father folded one for each of us at the kitchen table, from whatever was nearest, with the concentration of a man defusing something. [2] I was fifteen that year and had informed him in June that I was too old for it, which he accepted in the manner of weather. [3] On the morning of the regatta I told him again, clearly, so that the neighbors would hear.

   [4] He nodded, put down the creased flyer he had been using as paper, and went out to the breakwater alone with a single boat. [5] I followed at a distance that I described to myself as unrelated to him, and stood on the seawall with my arms crossed, a spectator in the posture of a critic. [6] Forty or fifty boats went out on the flood tide like a congregation, and his was the only one I could not find.

   [7] Then I found it, the first boat, the one that had been my mother's to fold, standing in the lee of a piling against the current, its sail the pale blue of an old tax form. [8] I walked to the end of the breakwater faster than I intended and crouched beside him without a word, and for a while we watched the boat hold. [9] My throat tightened on the speech I had prepared, and I discovered that I had followed him out here to be asked to help.

   [10] My mother had folded the first boat every year, from the pages of old seed catalogs, in the evenings, with her glasses pushed up into her hair, and she had never allowed anyone to help with the final crease. [11] In March she moved to her sister's in Duluth, for reasons that nobody at our table had been willing to say aloud. [12] My father, who had no gift for folding, started in April, using tax forms and flyers, because paper was the only thing in the house that did not remind him of anything.

   [13] The tide turned, and the boat slid out of the lee and into the current with the others. [14] In the end the regatta was about more than paper boats, and I understood that I had cared about it all along.

2. 1.

   Bo sees that the draft's order is off. Which change lets each event build on the one before while the question of why the father folds stays open as long as possible?

   • Move sentences 10 to 12, the mother's boats, to follow sentence 3, so the reader knows why the folding matters before he walks out to the breakwater.
   • Move sentences 13 and 14 to the front, so that the draft opens with the boat sliding out on the tide and the narrator's changed view.
   • Change nothing, because a narrator who holds back the mother until late keeps the reader curious about the pale boat for as long as possible.
   • Move sentences 10 to 12, the mother's boats, to follow sentence 6, just before the first boat is found in sentence 7.
3. 2.

   Milo traces the narrator's defensive tone as it gives way to a candid one. In which sentence does the tone turn?

   • [5] I followed at a distance that I described to myself as unrelated to him, and stood on the seawall with my arms crossed, a spectator in the posture of a critic
   • [9] My throat tightened on the speech I had prepared, and I discovered that I had followed him out here to be asked to help
   • [8] I walked to the end of the breakwater faster than I intended and crouched beside him without a word, and for a while we watched the boat hold
   • [7] Then I found it, the first boat, the one that had been my mother's to fold, standing in the lee of a piling against the current, its sail the pale blue of an old tax form

4. The 41 (first-person story draft)

   [1] Every Tuesday that fall I took the 41 bus instead of the 9, and when my mother asked where I went after school, I said orchestra, which was true only in the sense that an orchestra is a thing that exists. [2] The 41 left from the far corner of the lot, past the stadium, where nobody I knew would be waiting, and it was always nearly empty, and the driver, a large and unhurried man named Mr. Tatum, had learned my stop without ever being told. [3] I carried a tin on my lap the whole way, and I held it like evidence.

   [4] On the third Tuesday of November, Anneliese from my chemistry class got on the 41 by mistake, sat across the aisle and asked what was in the tin. [5] I told her cookies, which was true, and that they were for my uncle, which was not, and then I kept my eyes fixed on the window for six consecutive stops. [6] She said nothing more, and that was somehow worse.

   [7] At Larkin Court, Mr. Tatum leaned back in his seat, as he did every week, and said, "Same room as last week, then?" [8] I walked past the front desk with the tin and with Anneliese's silence behind me, and the nurse looked up, and I braced for the question about what exactly I thought I was doing. [9] Instead she said that Mrs. Wren had been asking for me since lunch, and my throat tightened, and I discovered that I had told no one because telling would have made it real.

   [10] My grandmother had moved to Larkin Court in January, after a fall on the kitchen stairs and a conversation among the adults that went on behind closed doors. [11] She no longer remembered the house or the street, but she remembered ginger cookies, and she remembered my name on Tuesdays, mostly. [12] On the day she left I had promised to bring her a tin every week, and my mother, who believed that the visits would upset me more than they would help her, had said that we would see.

   [13] Anneliese was still waiting in the lobby when I came out, and I told her, without being asked, which room it was, and whose. [14] In the end the bus was more than a bus, and I understood that I had been going for her all along.

5. 3.

   Pia sees that the draft's order is off. Which change lets each event build on the one before while the question of where the narrator goes stays open as long as possible?

   • Move sentences 13 and 14 to the front, so that the draft opens with the narrator telling Anneliese which room it was and whose.
   • Move sentences 10 to 12, the grandmother's move, to follow sentence 3, so the reader knows where the bus goes before Anneliese boards it.
   • Move sentences 10 to 12, the grandmother's move, to follow sentence 6, before sentence 7 names Larkin Court and the same room.
   • Move sentences 4 to 6, Anneliese on the bus, to the end of the draft, so that she appears after the visit.
6. 4.

   Ren replaces the summary in [14] with a reflection. Which closing sentence matches the draft's tone and claims no more than the events resolved?

   • Anneliese and my grandmother and I are close friends now, and nothing about that room frightens me anymore.
   • I still tell my mother that orchestra is where I go on Tuesdays, and it is nearly true.
   • Honestly, riding a bus past a stadium to sit with someone's grandmother turned out to be the funniest hobby of my whole life, and I recommend it to anyone who asks.
   • That night I told my mother where the 41 goes, and she was quiet, and then she asked what kind of cookies, which was not an answer to anything and was enough.
7. 5.

   Tala traces the narrator's joking, guarded tone as it gives way to a candid one. In which sentence does the tone turn?

   • [13] Anneliese was still waiting in the lobby when I came out, and I told her, without being asked, which room it was, and whose
   • [9] Instead she said that Mrs. Wren had been asking for me since lunch, and my throat tightened, and I discovered that I had told no one because telling would have made it real
   • [3] I carried a tin on my lap the whole way, and I held it like evidence
   • [4] On the third Tuesday of November, Anneliese from my chemistry class got on the 41 by mistake, sat across the aisle and asked what was in the tin

8. Backup (first-person story draft)

   [1] I should say at the start that I had no intention of playing goalie for the Hendry Street Hornets, a team that had never won anything except, once, a raffle. [2] The regular goalie, a tall boy named Dmitri, was out for the season with a collarbone he did not like to discuss, and Coach Lindqvist told me, in the tone of someone reading a tide table, that the pads were in his trunk. [3] I put them on in the parking lot while the others pretended not to watch, and I pulled the mask down until the world became a barred rectangle.

   [4] For two periods I stopped everything, with an efficiency that frightened me. [5] I stopped shots from the point and shots from the slot, and a breakaway that I met standing perfectly still, and when the horn sounded the Hornets were up three to nothing and no one on either bench could account for it. [6] Coach Lindqvist said I was a natural, and I said that I was a wall, which is not the same thing, and left the ice before anyone could ask me what I meant.

   [7] In the locker room I sat on the bench with the mask still on and heard the coach say, as though continuing a thought, that nobody had ever blamed anyone for the night in February. [8] The mask was suddenly very hot. [9] I took it off and said, to the floor and to no one, that I had been the one who took the shot, and that I had stopped every puck all night because I could not stand to be the reason for one more.

   [10] In February, at practice, I had fired a slapshot from the blue line, high and hard, and it had gone through a gap in the screen and struck Dmitri below the mask on the collarbone. [11] He had gone down without a sound, and the arena had gone quiet around him in the way that rinks do, and he had been taken away to the hospital while the rest of us stood on our sticks. [12] I told everybody that it was nobody's fault, which was the only thing I knew how to say, and I stopped shooting, and I told no one why.

   [13] In the third period I played without the mask, and I let one in on purpose, and it felt like setting down something I had carried for months. [14] In the end the game was about more than winning, and I understood that I had needed to forgive myself all along.

9. 6.

   Bo sees that the draft's order is off. Which change lets each event build on the one before while the reason for the narrator's fear stays hidden as long as possible?

   • Move sentences 10 to 12, the night in February, to follow sentence 3, so the reader knows about the injury before the first period begins.
   • Move sentences 10 to 12, the night in February, to follow sentence 6, before the coach mentions it in sentence 7.
   • Change nothing, because a narrator who holds back the injury until the end keeps the reader in suspense about the goalie.
   • Move sentences 4 to 6, the first two periods, to the end of the draft, so that the locker room scene comes first.
10. 7.

    Esme replaces the summary in [14] with a reflection. Which closing sentence matches the draft's tone and claims no more than the events resolved?

    • Honestly, it is hilarious now that I ever cried over a puck, and I tell the story as a bit whenever the team goes out for wings.
    • I still say I never wanted to play goalie, and I would go back to my old position tomorrow if it were up to me.
    • People should remember that the things we blame ourselves for are usually much smaller than we think they are.
    • At practice that week I took my first shot since February, and it went wide, and nobody said a word, which I counted as a start.
11. 8.

    Esme traces the narrator's sealed, defensive tone as it breaks. In which sentence does the tone turn?

    • [9] I took it off and said, to the floor and to no one, that I had been the one who took the shot, and that I had stopped every puck all night because I could not stand to be the reason for one more
    • [7] In the locker room I sat on the bench with the mask still on and heard the coach say, as though continuing a thought, that nobody had ever blamed anyone for the night in February
    • [13] In the third period I played without the mask, and I let one in on purpose, and it felt like setting down something I had carried for months
    • [6] Coach Lindqvist said I was a natural, and I said that I was a wall, which is not the same thing, and left the ice before anyone could ask me what I meant

12. The Spare Key (first-person story draft)

    [1] I should say at the start that the spare key to Mrs. Vance's house had hung on our family's key rack for six years, between the bike lock and the fob of a car we no longer owned, and that I had used it twice. [2] The first time was to water her ferns while she was in Lisbon, and the second was a Sunday in March, which I preferred to keep to myself. [3] We were not close; she corrected my grammar over the fence and returned our newspaper folded to the crossword, and I believed with complete confidence that this was what neighbors were.

    [4] In April a man from the county came to our door with a clipboard and asked whether I was a relative. [5] I said no, only a neighbor with a key, and he wrote that down on his form as though it answered a different question. [6] He asked whether I had been inside the house recently, and I said once, in March, and then I said nothing else at all, and his pen waited patiently.

    [7] I told him about the Sunday, and the stool, and what she had said about my grammar. [8] He put the pen down. [9] My voice, when it came, was thin, and I heard myself admit to a stranger with a clipboard that I had kept quiet for a month because saying it aloud would make it a thing that had happened to me.

    [10] The newspapers had piled up on her step since Thursday, folded to the crossword, and by Sunday afternoon the pile was high enough that even I, who believed in minding my own business, could not tell myself it was one. [11] I used the key, called her name down the hall, and found her on the kitchen floor beside the overturned stool, conscious and furious at the stool. [12] I sat on the cold linoleum and held her hand until the ambulance came, and she told me twice, in the tone of a woman marking a paper, that my grammar had improved.

    [13] When he said that her sister had told him no one had been there, I said that someone had, and that it had been me, and the sentence did not hurt as much as I had expected. [14] In the end the key was more than a key, and I understood that I had been her neighbor all along.

13. 9.

    Ren sees that the draft's order is off. Which change lets each event build on the one before while the question of what happened that Sunday stays open as long as possible?

    • Move sentences 10 to 12, the Sunday itself, to follow sentence 6, before the narrator tells the man about it in sentence 7.
    • Move sentences 4 to 6, the man with the clipboard, to the end of the draft, so that his visit comes after the Sunday.
    • Move sentences 13 and 14 to the front, so that the draft opens with the sister's remark and the narrator's changed view.
    • Change nothing, because a narrator who holds back the Sunday until late keeps the reader curious about the key for as long as the draft allows.
14. 10.

    Milo replaces the summary in [14] with a reflection. Which closing sentence matches the draft's tone and claims no more than the events resolved?

    • I still bring in her newspaper, but now I knock first, and wait to be told to come in.
    • Mrs. Vance and I have been close friends ever since, and I have not again kept anything to myself.
    • People should remember that the neighbors we barely notice are often the ones who need us most.
    • I still believe that a good neighbor minds her own business and returns the newspaper folded to the crossword.