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aCTIVITy 4.7
continued
who laboured under the tolerably wide-spread delusion that total strangers and chance acquaintances are hungry for the least detail of one’s ailments and infirmities, their cause and cure. “On the matter of diet they are not so much in agreement,” he continued.
21 “No?”saidMrs.Sappleton,inavoicewhichonlyreplacedayawnatthelastmoment. Then she suddenly brightened into alert attention—but not to what Framton was saying.
22 “Here they are at last!” she cried. “Just in time for tea, and don’t they look as if they were muddy up to the eyes!”
23 Framton shivered slightly and turned towards the niece with a look intended
to convey sympathetic comprehension. The child was staring out through the open window with dazed horror in her eyes. In a chill shock of nameless fear Framton swung round in his seat and looked in the same direction.
24 In the deepening twilight three figures were walking across the lawn towards the window; they all carried guns under their arms, and one of them was additionally burdened with a white coat hung over his shoulders. A tired brown spaniel kept close at their heels. Noiselessly they neared the house, and then a hoarse young voice chanted out of the dusk: “I said, Bertie, why do you bound?”
25 Framton grabbed wildly at his stick and hat; the hall-door, the gravel-drive, and the front gate were dimly-noted stages in his headlong retreat. A cyclist coming along the road had to run into the hedge to avoid an imminent collision.
26 “Hereweare,mydear,”saidthebearerofthewhitemackintosh,cominginthroughthe window; “fairly muddy, but most of it’s dry. Who was that who bolted out as we came up?”
27 “A most extraordinary man, a Mr. Nuttel,” said Mrs. Sappleton; “could only talk about his illnesses, and dashed off without a word of good-bye or apology when you arrived. One would think he had seen a ghost.”
28 “Iexpectitwasthespaniel,”saidtheniececalmly;“hetoldmehehadahorrorofdogs. He was once hunted into a cemetery somewhere on the banks of the Ganges by a pack of pariah dogs, and had to spend the night in a newly dug grave with the creatures snarling and grinning and foaming just above him. Enough to make anyone lose their nerve.”
29 Romance at short notice was her speciality.
Second Read
• Reread the short story to answer these text-dependent questions.
• Write any additional questions you have about the text in your Reader/Writer Notebook.
3. Key Ideas and Details: Why is it significant that Framton Nuttel is described as undergoing a “nerve cure” in paragraph 2? Predict how this detail could be used for humorous effect.
Nuttel will be much more susceptible to the effects of the girl’s active imagination. Her story is just eerie enough to send a man with a nervous condition into a panic. His undue nervousness or sensitivity moves his characterization into caricature that builds humor. RL.8.3
4. Craft and Structure: What phrase in paragraph 3 helps you understand what “moping” means?
“you will bury yourself down there and not speak to a living soul,...” RL.8.4
laboured under: be misled by a mistaken belief
delusion: a persistent false belief
my Notes
mackintosh:raincoat
the author tell the reader in his narration that makes Framton Nuttel appear silly and pathetic in paragraph 20? Why? Review paragraph 20. What is Nuttle’s delusion? What does this tell you about his character? Does this paragraph create sympathy towards Nuttel?
11. Key Ideas and Details (RL.8.3) Why is Nuttel’s reaction to the return of the men in
acTIVITY 4.7 continued
8 SECOND READ: During the second reading, students will be returning to the text to answer the text-dependent comprehension questions. You may choose to have students reread and work on the questions in a variety of ways:
• independently
• in pairs
• in small groups
• together as a class
9 Have students answer the text- dependent questions. If they have difficulty, scaffold the questions by rephrasing them or breaking them down into smaller parts. See the Scaffolding the Text-Dependent Questions boxes for suggestions.
your response? Read paragraph 20. Describe
what instructions Nuttle’s doctors have given
Unit 4 • The Challenge of Comedy 285
paragraph 25 comic rather than appropriate? Read paragraph 25. How does Nuttel’s reaction fit what
him. What are “cause and cure” referring to?
you know of his character? Why does he react this
way? What do you know that he doesn’t?
12. Key Ideas and Details (RL.8.3) What aspects of the niece’s character are revealed in her last line of dialogue in paragraph 28? Read paragraph 28. What is humorous about the niece’s dialogue? How does her dialogue in this paragraph mimic the niece’s interaction with Nuttle?
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10. Key Ideas and Details (RL.8.1) What does
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© 2017 College Board. All rights reserved.
© 2017 College Board. All rights reserved.