Page 316 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade8_Flipbook

aCTIVITy 4.8
continued
Preview
In this activity, you will read an excerpt from a novel and think about the author’s use of irony to create comic situations.
Setting a Purpose for Reading
• As you read the excerpt, underline words and phrases that explain what is happening in the plot.
• Circle unknown words and phrases. Try to determine the meaning of the words by using context clues, word parts, or a dictionary.
• Place a “D” by examples of dialect.
About the Author
Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Mark Twain (1835–1910) was an American author and humorist. He is noted for his novels The Adventures of Huckle- berry Finn (1885), called “the Great American Novel,” and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). He has been lauded as the “greatest American humor- ist of his age,” and William Faulkner called Twain “the father of American literature.”
Novel
my Notes
From Tom The Adventures of
Sawyer
by Mark Twain
“A Day’s Work”
Chunk 1
1 SATURDAY morning was come, and all the summer world was bright and fresh,
and brimming with life. There was a song in every heart; and if the heart was young the
music issued at the lips. There was cheer in every face and a spring in every step. The Multiple Meaning Words
locust-trees were in bloom and the fragrance of the blossoms filled the air. Cardiff Hill, beyond the village and above it, was green with vegetation and it lay just far enough away to seem a Delectable Land, dreamy, reposeful, and inviting.
Chunk 2
2 Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled
brush. He surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. Thirty yards of board fence nine feet high. Life to him seemed hollow, and existence but a burden. Sighing, he dipped his brush and passed it along the topmost plank; repeated the operation; did it again; compared the insignificant whitewashed streak with the far-reaching continent of unwhitewashed fence, and sat down on a tree-box discouraged. Jim came skipping out at the gate with a tin pail, and singing Buffalo Gals. Bringing water from the town pump had always been hateful
The word whitewash has come to have a second meaning. In this story, whitewash means “a whitening mixture used on fences and walls.” The word has also come to mean “to conceal or cover up crimes, scandals, flaws, or failures.” You can see how this usage comes from the idea of
using whitewash to cover up something bad.
Word CoNNeCTIoNs
Unit 4 • The Challenge of Comedy 289
literary Terms
Dialect is a regional
or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary. This section of the story includes a depiction of Tom’s and Jim’s dialects.
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