Page 142 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade8_Flipbook

aCTIvITy 2.3
continued
72 They leaped like deer on the moon.
73 The studio ceiling was thirty feet high, but each leap brought the dancers nearer
to it.
74 It became their obvious intention to kiss the ceiling. They kissed it.
75 And then, neutralizing gravity with love and pure will, they remained suspended in
air inches below the ceiling, and they kissed each other for a long, long time.
76 It was then that Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, came into the studio with a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun. She fired twice, and the Emperor and the Empress were dead before they hit the floor.
77 Diana Moon Glampers loaded the gun again. She aimed it at the musicians and told them they had ten seconds to get their handicaps back on.
78 It was then that the Bergerons’ television tube burned out.
79 Hazel turned to comment about the blackout to George. But George had gone out
into the kitchen for a can of beer.
80 George came back in with the beer, paused while a handicap signal shook him up. And then he sat down again. “You been crying” he said to Hazel.
81 “Yup,” she said.
82 “What about?” he said.
83 “I forget,” she said. “Something real sad on television.”
84 “What was it?” he said.
85 “It’s all kind of mixed up in my mind,” said Hazel.
86 “Forget sad things,” said George.
87 “I always do,” said Hazel.
88 “That’s my girl,” said George. He winced. There was the sound of a riveting gun in
his head.
89 “Gee—I could tell that one was a doozy,” said Hazel.
90 “You can say that again,” said George.
91 “Gee—” said Hazel, “I could tell that one was a doozy.”
Second Read
• Reread the passage to answer these text-dependent comprehension questions.
• Write any additional questions you have about the text in your Reader/Writer Notebook.
1. Key Ideas and Details: What is George’s “little mental handicap radio” and what is it intended to do?
my Notes
Unit 2 • The Challenge of Utopia 115
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