Page 76 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade8_Flipbook

aCTIvITy 1.9
continued
7 What have I got that IT hasn’t got? she thought suddenly. What have I possibly got?
8 Now she was walking by the tallest of the business buildings. More dim vertical
lines of light. The walls glowed slightly to give a faint illumination to the streets. CENTRAL Central Intelligence was ahead of her. Was the man with red eyes still sitting there? Or was he allowed to go to bed? But this was not where she must go, though the man with red eyes seemed the kind old gentleman he claimed to be when compared with IT. But he was no longer of any consequence in the search for Charles Wallace. She must go directly to IT.
9 IT isn’t used to being resisted. Father said that’s how he managed, and how Calvin and I managed as long as we did. Father saved me then. There’s nobody here to save me now. I have to do it myself. I have to resist IT by myself. Is that what I have that IT hasn’t got? No, I’m sure IT can resist. IT just isn’t used to having other people resist.
10 CENTRAL Central Intelligence blocked with its huge rectangle the end of the square. She turned to walk around it, and almost imperceptibly her steps slowed.
11 It was not far to the great dome which housed IT.
12 I’m going to Charles Wallace. That’s what’s important. That’s what I have to think
of. I wish I could feel numb again the way I did at first. Suppose IT has him somewhere else? Suppose he isn’t there?
13 I have to go there first, anyhow. That’s the only way I can find out.
14 Her steps got slower and slower as she passed the great bronzed doors, the huge
slabs of the CENTRAL Central Intelligence building, as she finally saw ahead of her the strange, light, pulsing dome of IT.
15 Father said it was all right for me to be afraid. He said to go ahead and be afraid. And Mrs Who said—I don’t understand what she said but I think it was meant to make me not hate being only me, and me being the way I am. And Mrs Whatsit said to remember that she loves me. That’s what I have to think about. Not about being afraid. Or not as smart as IT. Mrs Whatsit loves me. That’s quite something, to be loved by someone like Mrs Whatsit.
16 She was there.
17 No matter how slowly her feet had taken her at the end, they had taken her there.
18 Directly ahead of her was the circular building, its walls glowing with violet
flame, its silvery roof pulsing with a light that seemed to Meg to be insane. Again she could feel the light, neither warm nor cold, but reaching out to touch her, pulling her toward IT.
my Notes
consequence: importance
19 There was a sudden sucking, and she was within. In the word inexorable, the
20 It was as though the wind had been knocked out of her. She gasped for breath, for breath in her own rhythm, not the permeating pulsing of IT. She could feel the inexorable beat within her body, controlling her heart, her lungs.
prefix in- means “not.” It
has the same meaning in ineffective and inexperienced. The suffix -able means “worthy of,” as in debatable and laughable. The root -exor- comes from Latin and means “to plead for.” Put together, inexorable can be seen to mean “not worthy of pleading for,” or in this usage, “unable to be stopped.”
imperceptibly: in a manner that is hardly noticeable
violet: a purplish-blue color permeating: spreading everywhere
Word CoNNeCTIoNS
Roots and Affixes
Unit 1 • The Challenge of Heroism 49
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