Page 60 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade7_Flipbook

aCTIvITy 1.8
continued
roll, I apologize if I mispronounce anyone’s name” with a very apologetic look on her face. She looked down at the attendance sheet, paused for a minute, and then looked up with an extremely puzzled look on her face. I remember thinking that there was probably some weird name before mine; although, my name was always the first name to be called in kindergarten. Suddenly, my palms started sweating and then she began to hopelessly stutter my name, “Im-Immaculet Arch-liki, I mean, Achei. . . .” Here, I interrupted. My ears burned with embarrassment and droplets of perspiration formed on my nose. “Did I say it right?” she said with the same apologetic look on her face. Before I responded, the laughs that the other kids in class had been holding back suddenly exploded, like a volatile vial of nitroglycerin, into peals of laughter. One kid thought it was so funny his chubby face started turning red and I could see a tear gradually making its way down his face. I found myself wishing I could sink into the ground and never come back.
I hated being the laughing stock.
5 I never really recovered from the shock of that day. From that day forward, the first day of school was always my most feared day. I didn’t know what to do; all I could do was to tell my teachers, “I go by Imma.”
6 I felt so alone when all the other girls in my class had sparkly, pink pencils with their names printed on them. You know, the ones they sell in the stores along with name-embossed sharpeners, rulers and pencil pouches. Every year I searched through and rummaged around that rack at the store, but I could never find a pencil with my name on it.
7 The summer of my seventh-grade year, my family and I took a vacation to our “home” in Nigeria, where my parents were born. My cousin and I were playing cards, talking girl talk, and relating our most embarrassing moments. Each tried to see whose story could top whose. I told one story of how I wet the bed at a sleepover, and she told me how she had farted in class during a test. That was a hoot. Then, I told her the story of how I was laughed at because of my weird name. I thought it was pretty funny, but she didn’t laugh. She had the most serious look on her face, then she asked me, “Immaculeta Uzoma Achilike, do you know what your name means?” I shook my head at her and that’s when she started laughing. I thought she was making fun of me, and as I started to leave she said: “Immaculeta means ‘purity’, ‘Uzoma’ means ‘the good road’ and . . . ” Having heard her words,
I stopped walking away and turned around in amazement. What does Achilike mean?” I asked. After a long pause she calmly said, “Achilike means ‘to rule without force.’” I was astonished and pleased. I never knew what my name meant.
8 My name is Immaculeta Uzoma Achilike. I am the daughter of first-generation Nigerian immigrants. I am the daughter of hardworking and brave parents. My name means “to rule without force.” My grandfather was a wealthy man of generous character. When I say my name in Nigeria, people know me as the granddaughter of a wealthy man of generous character. They know me by my name. There my name is not embossed on any pencil or vanity plate. It is etched in the minds of
the people.
My name is Immaculeta Uzoma Achilike.
My Notes
GraMMar UsaGe
Commas
Commas in prose signify a pause. Writers use commas:
• to separate items in a series
• after introductory words, phrases, and clauses in sentences
• to set off parenthetical phrases (which can be omitted from the sentence without changing its meaning)
• to separate quoted material.
Unit 1 • The Choices We Make 33
volatile: unstable, explosive
embossed: raised above the surface
© 2017 College Board. All rights reserved.