Page 75 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade8_Flipbook

aCTIvITy 1.9
continued
The return
Novel
Wrinkle
eerie: spooky; inspiring fear
my Notes
from Time
A in
Grammar USaGe
Prepositional Phrases
Prepositional phrases add detail in sentences by showing relationships of time, direction, or location. Prepositional phrases function as adjectives or adverbs. Note the examples in Madeleine L’Engle’s writing. In paragraph 2, she uses several prepositional phrases to add detail:
“... she was standing breathlessly on her feet on the same hill on which they had first landed on Camazotz.”
The first two prepositional phrases are adverbial phrases because they modify the verb was standing. The phrase “on which they had first landed
on Camazotz” is an adjective phrase modifying the noun hill.
In your writing, look for opportunities to add detail with prepositional phrases.
by Madeleine L’Engle
Excerpt from Chapter 12, “The Foolish and the Weak”
This excerpt comes near the end of Meg Murry’s journey. She has found her father and they have escaped Camazotz, but they were forced to leave behind her younger brother Charles Wallace in the grip of the “Black Thing.” Now Meg must return to Camazotz to get her brother.
1 Immediately Meg was swept into darkness, into nothingness, and then into the icy devouring cold of the Black Thing. Mrs Which won’t let it get me, she thought over and over while the cold of the Black Thing seemed to crunch at her bones.
2 Then they were through it, and she was standing breathlessly on her feet on the same hill on which they had first landed on Camazotz. She was cold and a little numb, but no worse than she had often been in the winter in the country when she had spent an afternoon skating on the pond. She looked around. She was completely alone. Her heart began to pound.
3 Then, seeming to echo from all around her, came Mrs Which’s unforgettable voice, “I hhave nnott ggivenn yyou mmyy ggifftt. Yyou hhave ssomethinngg thatt ITT hhass nnott. Thiss ssomethinngg iss yyourr onlly wweapponn. Bbutt yyou mmusstt ffinndd itt fforr yyourrssellff.” Then the voice ceased, and Meg knew that she was alone.
4 She walked slowly down the hill, her heart thumping painfully against her ribs. There below her was the same row of identical houses they had seen before, and beyond these the linear buildings of the city. She walked along the quiet street. It was dark and the street was deserted. No children playing ball or skipping rope. No mother figures
at the doors. No father figures returning from work. In the same window of each
house was a light, and as Meg walked down the street all the lights were extinguished simultaneously. Was it because of her presence, or was it simply that it was time for lights out?
5 She felt numb, beyond rage or disappointment or even fear. She put one foot ahead of the other with precise regularity, not allowing her pace to lag. She was not thinking; she was not planning; she was simply walking slowly but steadily toward the city and the domed building where IT lay.
6 Now she approached the outlying buildings of the city. In each of them was a vertical line of light, but it was a dim, eerie light, not the warm light of stairways in cities at home. And there were no isolated brightly lit windows where someone was working late, or an office was being cleaned. Out of each building came one man, perhaps a watchman, and each man started walking the width of the building. They appeared not to see her, At any rate they paid no attention to her whatsoever, and she went on past them.
48 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 8
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