UNIT

Turning
Points
Life is filled with little
moments and big moments.
Most of the time they just
pass by, but sometimes an
event or experience can
change someone’s life
in an instant.

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Discuss It What sorts of turning points occur in

nature and in the human experience?
Write your response before sharing your ideas.

A Transformation

224
 UNIT 3
UNIT INTRODUCTION
LAUNCH TEXT

ESSENTIAL What can cause a sudden change EXPLANATORY

Essay MODEL
QUESTION:
in someone’s life? At the
Crossroads

WHOLE-CLASS SMALL-GROUP INDEPENDENT

LEARNING LEARNING LEARNING
ANCHOR TEXT: DRAMA SHORT STORY REFLECTIVE ESSAY
A Christmas Carol: Thank You, M’am Little Things Are Big
Scrooge and Langston Hughes Jesús Colón
Marley, Act I
Israel Horovitz

ANCHOR TEXT: DRAMA MEMOIR NEWS ARTICLE

A Christmas Carol: fromAn American Profile: Malala
COMPARE

Scrooge and Childhood Yousafzai

Marley, Act II Annie Dillard BBC
Israel Horovitz

MEDIA: FILM MEDIA: PHOTO GALLERY BIOGRAPHY

from Scrooge Urban Farming Is Noor Inayat Khan
directed by Growing a Greener from Women Heroes of
Henry Edwards Future WWII
Hillary Schwei Kathryn J. Atwood

SHORT STORY
A Retrieved
Reformation
O. Henry
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

PERFORMANCE TASK PERFORMANCE TASK PERFORMANCE-BASED ASSESSMENT PREP

WRITING FOCUS: SPEAKING AND LISTENING FOCUS: Review Evidence for an Explanatory
Write an Explanatory Essay Present an Explanatory Essay Essay

PERFORMANCE-BASED ASSESSMENT
Explanatory Text: Essay and Oral Presentation
PROMPT:

What can cause a significant change in someone’s life?

225
UNIT
3 INTRODUCTION

Unit Goals
Throughout this unit you will deepen your perspective about turning
points in people’s lives by reading, writing, speaking, listening,
and presenting. These goals will help you succeed on the Unit
Performance‑Based Assessment.

Rate how well you meet these goals right now. You will revisit your
ratings later when you reflect on your growth during this unit.

1 2 3 4 5
SCALE

NOT AT ALL NOT VERY SOMEWHAT VERY EXTREMELY

WELL WELL WELL WELL WELL

READING GOALS 1 2 3 4 5

• Read and analyze explanatory texts.

• Expand your knowledge and use of

academic and concept vocabulary.

WRITING AND RESEARCH GOALS 1 2 3 4 5

• Write an explanatory text to examine a

topic and convey ideas.

• Conduct research projects of various

lengths to explore a topic and clarify
meaning.

LANGUAGE GOAL 1 2 3 4 5

• Choose language that expresses ideas

precisely and concisely, recognizing Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

and eliminating wordiness and

redundancy.

SPEAKING AND LISTENING

GOALS 1 2 3 4 5

• Collaborate with your team to build on

the ideas of others, develop consensus,
 STANDARDS and communicate.
Language
Acquire and use accurately grade
appropriate general academic and • Integrate audio, visuals, and text in
domain-specific words and phrases; presentations.
gather vocabulary knowledge
when considering a word or phrase
important to comprehension or
expression.

226 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What can cause a sudden change in someone’s life?

Academic Vocabulary: Explanatory Text

Academic terms appear in all subjects and can help you read, write, and
Follow Through
discuss with more precision. Explanatory writing relies on facts to inform
Study the words in this
or explain. Here are five academic words that will be useful to you in this
chart, and mark them or
unit as you analyze and write explanatory texts.
their forms wherever they
Complete the chart. appear in the unit.

1. Review each word, its root, and mentor sentences.

2. Use the information and your own knowledge to predict the meaning
of each word.
3. For each word, list at least two related words.
4. Refer to the dictionary or other resources if needed.

WORD MENTOR SENTENCES PREDICT MEANING RELATED WORDS

contribute 1. Jennifer likes to contribute to the tribute; attribute

discussion when she has something
ROOT: meaningful to add.
-trib- 2. Julio wants to contribute a short story
“give” to the school literary magazine.

consistent 1. Keeping consistent pressure on a

wound helps stop bleeding.
ROOT: 2. The runner kept a consistent routine to
-sist- prepare for the race.
“stand”

maintain 1. The disabled train struggled to

maintain speed.
ROOT: 2. The veterinarian maintained her belief
-tain- that dogs need grooming.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

“hold”

observation 1. Watching the rat every day, the scientist

learned about it through observation.
ROOT: 2. Observation of the moon was
-serv- impossible because it was a
“watch over” cloudy night.

sufficient 1. In order to prove your point, you must

provide sufficient evidence.
ROOT: 2. I don’t have sufficient money to buy
-fic- that shirt.
“make do”

Unit Introduction 227

UNIT
3 INTRODUCTION

LAUNCH TEXT | EXPLANATORY ESSAY MODEL

This selection is an example of

an explanatory text, a type of
writing in which the author shares
detailed information about a
topic or process. This is the type
of writing you will develop in the
Performance-Based Assessment at
the end of the unit.
As you read, notice that the author
presents facts without offering
opinions or arguments.
At the
Crossroads
NOTES
1

I n April of 2012, 25-year-old Nick Kleckner was working as

an electrician and cabdriver in northern California. And then,
suddenly, he found himself at a crossroads. He left it all—his job,
his family, his friends—and bought a one-way plane ticket to
Jacksonville, Florida. He had a bold plan in mind. He was going
to walk to California with virtually nothing on his back. He hoped
the journey would change his life, but he had no idea how!
2 Nick, who was not exactly prepared, had nothing in the way
of survival skills, so he planned to survive on the goodness of the
people he met on the road.
3 Using the handle “Hobo Nick,” Nick began his journey on
April 5, leaving Jacksonville with a backpack, a sleeping bag,
and a travel kit. He also had an iPod and the ability to receive
Internet service. Throughout the journey, he would document his
experience in minute detail and send daily updates to his mother,
who’d post them on his blog. Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

4 The question is: Why? What would make someone take off like
that? Nick had a comfortable life. He had a good income, a house,
a new car, and a new motorcycle. He was moving forward with
his life. By society’s standards he should have been happy—but he
wasn’t.
5 Nick was in a rut. His life felt repetitive and boring. It lacked
a higher purpose. He felt he wasn’t growing as a person. He had
“things” but didn’t appreciate them. “It got to the point where I
couldn’t deal with everything anymore,” Nick said later. “I felt a
lot of pressure, stress, and anxiety and decided to get out.”
6 As Hobo Nick, he trekked across miles of scorched desert and
endured nights of pounding rain. In the towns and cities, he

228 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What can cause a sudden change in someone’s life?

slept on the street, where he knew that there were people to help
him out. NOTES

7 Even with help, it was a hard journey. Nick would sometimes

go days without food, or search dumpsters for things to eat. But
whenever he felt that he had more than he needed, he decided
to “pay it forward” by giving to other folks he encountered
on his way. Paying it forward was one of Nick’s goals on his
journey—giving more than he received. If he was offered money
or a gift card he didn’t need, he gave it away to people who did.
He was surprised at people’s generosity along the way. There was
a time in Mississippi when the cars actually pulled over to the side
of the road to check on him and give him money. The experience
taught him a valuable lesson: if you share what you have, and
help others as much as possible, you will never be stranded.
8 In his blog, Nick chronicled the important changes brought
about by his selfless lifestyle and rejection of material things.
He has learned to live in the moment and to be thankful for
everything he has.
9 On September 29, after an epic 2,500-mile walk across the
North American continent, Nick managed to make it all the way
to Huntington Beach, California. More than a hundred family
members, friends and well-wishers were waiting for him. During
the six months of his journey, he destroyed five pairs of shoes and
lost about 55 pounds.
10 In the future, Nick plans to do another cross-country trip. “The
point is always to give more than you take,” he says, adding that
“the biggest takeaway from this experience is to have realized that
mankind is better than I ever dreamed.” ❧

 WORD NETWORK FOR Turning Points

Vocabulary A Word
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Network is a collection of
words related to a topic. As
you read the selections in this purpose
unit, identify interesting words
related to the idea of turning
points and add them to your journey TURNING POINTS
Word Network. For example,
you might begin by adding
words from the Launch Text, experience
such as purpose, journey,
and experience. Continue to
add words as you complete
this unit.

Tool Kit
Word Network Model

At the Crossroads 229

UNIT
3 INTRODUCTION

Summary
Write a summary of “At the Crossroads.” A summary is a concise,
complete, and accurate overview of a text. It should not include a
statement of your opinion or an analysis.

Launch Activity
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down Consider this statement: A person’s life
can change in an instant.
• Record your position on the statement and explain your thinking.
Strongly Agree   Agree   Disagree   Strongly Disagree

• Form a group with like-minded students in one corner of the

classroom.
• Discuss questions such as “What examples from the text or your own
prior knowledge led you to take this position?”
• After your discussion, have a representative from each group present
a brief two- or three-minute summary of the group’s position.
• After all the groups have presented their views, move into the four
corners again. If you change your corner, be ready to explain why.

230 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What can cause a sudden change in someone’s life?

QuickWrite
Consider class discussions, presentations, the video, and the Launch Text
as you think about the prompt. Record your first thoughts here.
PROMPT: What can cause a significant change in someone’s life?

 EVIDENCE LOG FOR TURNING POINTS

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Review your QuickWrite.

Title of Text: Date:
Summarize your point of view
in one sentence to record CONNECTION TO PROMPT TEXT EVIDENCE/DETAILS ADDITIONAL NOTES/IDEAS
in your Evidence Log. Then,
record evidence from “At the
Crossroads” that supports your
point of view.
After each selection, you will
continue to use your Evidence How does this text change or add to my thinking? Date:
Log to record the evidence you
gather and the connections you
make. This graphic shows what
your Evidence Log looks like.

Tool Kit
Evidence Log Model

Unit Introduction 231

 OVERVIEW: WHOLE-CLASS LEARNING

ESSENTIAL QUESTION:

What can cause a sudden

change in someone’s life?
People change a little bit every day as they learn and enjoy new experiences, but
is it possible for a person to change in an instant? You will work with your whole
class to explore the concept of turning points. The selections you are going to
read provide some interesting insights.

Whole-Class Learning Strategies

Throughout your life, in school, in your community, and in your career, you will
continue to learn and work in large-group environments.

Review these strategies and the actions you can take to practice them as you
work with your whole class. Add ideas of your own for each category for each
step. Get ready to use these strategies during Whole-Class Learning.

STRATEGY ACTION PLAN

Listen actively • Eliminate distractions. For example, put your cellphone away.
• Keep your eyes on the speaker.

Clarify by asking • If you’re confused, other people probably are, too. Ask a question to help your
questions whole class.
• If you see that you are guessing, ask a question instead.

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Monitor • Notice what information you already know and be ready to build on it.
understanding • Ask for help if you are struggling.

Interact and • Share your ideas and answer questions, even if you are unsure.
share ideas • Build on the ideas of others by adding details or making a connection.

232 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 CONTENTS
ANCHOR TEXT: DRAMA

A Christmas Carol:
Scrooge and Marley, Act I
Israel Horovitz

What will happen when the Ghost of

Christmas Past pays a visit?

ANCHOR TEXT: DRAMA

A Christmas Carol:
Scrooge and Marley, Act II
Israel Horovitz
COMPARE

Will Ebenezer Scrooge survive Christmas?

MEDIA: FILM

from Scrooge
directed by Henry Edwards

Will it be a happy Christmas after all?

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

PERFORMANCE TASK
WRITING FOCUS
Write an Explanatory Essay
The Whole-Class readings dramatize a moment of truth for Ebenezer Scrooge. After
reading, you will write an essay in which you describe Scrooge’s transformation over
the course of the play.

Overview: Whole-Class Learning 233

 MAKING MEANING

About the Playwright

A Christmas Carol:
Scrooge and Marley, Act I
Concept Vocabulary
You will encounter the following words as you read A Christmas Carol:
Scrooge and Marley, Act I. Before reading, note how familiar you are
As a teenager, Israel with each word. Then, rank the words in order from most familiar (1) to
Horovitz (1939–2020) least familiar (6).
did not like books by
Charles Dickens. As he got WORD YOUR RANKING
older, however, he came
to appreciate Dickens’s covetous
style and stories. Horovitz
referred to Dickens as morose
“a masterful storyteller.”
He imagined that, if resolute
Dickens were still alive, he
would be “our greatest impossible
television writer, or perhaps
malcontent
screenwriter.” As Horovitz
adapted Dickens’s novella
miser
into a play, he thought
about which character was
his favorite. Surprisingly, it
After completing the first read, come back to the concept vocabulary and
was Scrooge, who reminded review your rankings. Mark changes to your original rankings as needed.
Horovitz of his own father.

First Read DRAMA

Apply these strategies as you conduct your first read. You will have an
opportunity to complete the close-read notes after your first read.

Tool Kit
First-Read Guide and Model NOTICE whom the play ANNOTATE by marking
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Annotation is about, what happens, vocabulary and key passages
where and when it happens, you want to revisit.
and why those involved react
as they do.

CONNECT ideas within RESPOND by completing

the selection to what you the Comprehension Check and
already know and what you by writing a brief summary of
 STANDARDS have already read. the selection.
Reading Literature
By the end of the year, read and
comprehend literature, including
stories, dramas, and poems, in the
grades 6–8 text complexity band
proficiently, with scaffolding as
needed at the high end of the range.

234 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 ANCHOR TEXT | DRAMA

A
Christmas
Carol:
Scrooge
and Marley
Act I
Israel Horovitz

BACKGROUND
Charles Dickens’s novella, A Christmas Carol, from which this play was
adapted, shows sympathy for the struggles of the poor. The story is set in
England during the nineteenth century, a time of rapid industrial growth.
In this booming economy, the wealthy lived in luxury, but the poor and the
working class suffered.

CHARACTERS
Jacob Marley, a specter Fezziwig, a fine and fair Tiny Tim Cratchit, another son
Ebenezer Scrooge, not yet employer Scrooge’s Niece, Fred’s wife
dead, which is to say still alive Dick, young Scrooge’s The Ghost of Christmas
Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s clerk co‑worker Future, a mute Phantom
Fred, Scrooge’s nephew Young Scrooge Three Men of Business
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Thin Do-Gooder A Fiddler Drunks, Scoundrels, Women of

Portly Do-Gooder More Dancers the Streets
Specters (Various), carrying Scrooge’s Lost Love A Charwoman
money-boxes Scrooge’s Lost Love’s Daughter Mrs. Dilber
The Ghost of Christmas Past Scrooge’s Lost Love’s Husband Joe, an old second-hand
Four Jocund Travelers The Ghost of Christmas goods dealer
A Band of Singers Present A Corpse, very like Scrooge
A Band of Dancers Some Bakers An Indebted Family
Little Boy Scrooge Mrs. Cratchit, Bob Crachit’s Adam, a young boy
wife A Poulterer
Young Man Scrooge
Belinda Cratchit, a daughter A Gentlewoman
Fan, Scrooge’s little sister
Martha Cratchit, another Some More Men of Business
The Schoolmaster
daughter
Schoolmates
Peter Cratchit, a son

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act I 235

 THE PLACE OF THE PLAY Various locations in
NOTES
and around the City of London, including Scrooge’s
Chambers and Offices; the Cratchit Home; Fred’s
Home; Scrooge’s School; Fezziwig’s Offices; Old Joe’s
Hide-a-Way.
THE TIME OF THE PLAY The entire action of the
play takes place on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and
the morning after Christmas, 1843.

Scene 1
1 [Ghostly music in auditorium. A single spotlight on Jacob Marley,
D.C. He is ancient; awful, dead-eyed. He speaks straight out to
auditorium.]

2 Marley. [Cackle-voiced] My name is Jacob Marley and I am

dead. [He laughs.] Oh, no, there’s no doubt that I am dead.
The register of my burial was signed by the clergyman, the
clerk, the undertaker . . . and by my chief mourner . . .
Ebenezer Scrooge . . . [Pause; remembers] I am dead as a
doornail.
1. counting-house n. office for 3 [A spotlight fades up, Stage Right, on Scrooge, in his counting-
keeping financial records and house1 counting. Lettering on the window behind Scrooge reads:
writing business letters.
“Scrooge and Marley, Ltd.” The spotlight is tight on Scrooge’s
head and shoulders. We shall not yet see into the offices and setting.
Ghostly music continues, under. Marley looks across at Scrooge;
pitifully. After a moment’s pause]
4 I present him to you: Ebenezer Scrooge . . . England’s most
tightfisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing,
covetous (KUHV uh tuhs) adj. wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old
greedy and jealous sinner! secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.
The cold within him freezes his old features, nips his pointed Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
CLOSE READ nose, shrivels his cheek, stiffens his gait; makes his eyes red,
ANNOTATE: Mark the use
his thin lips blue; and speaks out shrewdly in his grating
of descriptive words in
paragraph 4. voice. Look at him. Look at him . . .

QUESTION: Why might the

5 [Scrooge counts and mumbles.]
playwright have chosen these
6 Scrooge. They owe me money and I will collect. I will have
words?
them jailed, if I have to. They owe me money and I will
CONCLUDE: How does the collect what is due me.
playwright’s word choice affect
the reader’s understanding of 7 [Marley moves towards Scrooge; two steps. The spotlight stays
Scrooge’s character? with him.]

236 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 8 Marley. [Disgusted] He and I were partners for I don’t know
NOTES
how many years. Scrooge was my sole executor, my sole
administrator, my sole assign, my sole residuary legatee,2 my 2. sole residuary legatee n. legal
sole friend and my sole mourner. But Scrooge was not so cut term for a person who inherits
someone’s home after he or
up by the sad event of my death, but that he was an excellent she dies.
man of business on the very day of my funeral, and
solemnized3 it with an undoubted bargain. [Pauses again in 3. solemnized v. honored or
disgust] He never painted out my name from the window. remembered. Marley is
being sarcastic.
There it stands, on the window and above the warehouse
door: Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to our
business call him Scrooge and sometimes they call him
Marley. He answers to both names. It’s all the same to him.
And it’s cheaper than painting in a new sign, isn’t it? [Pauses;
moves closer to Scrooge] Nobody has ever stopped him in the
street to say, with gladsome looks, “My dear Scrooge, how
are you? When will you come to see me?” No beggars
implored him to bestow a trifle, no children ever ask him
what it is o’clock, no man or woman now, or ever in his life,
not once, inquire the way to such and such a place. [Marley
stands next to Scrooge now. They share, so it seems, a spotlight.]
But what does Scrooge care of any of this? It is the very thing
he likes! To edge his way along the crowded paths of life,
warning all human sympathy to keep its distance.
9 [A ghostly bell rings in the distance. Marley moves away from
Scrooge, now, heading D. again. As he does, he “takes” the light:
Scrooge has disappeared into the black void beyond. Marley walks
D.C., talking directly to the audience. Pauses]
10 The bell tolls and l must take my leave. You must stay a while
with Scrooge and watch him play out his scroogey life. It is
now the story: the once-upon-a-time. Scrooge is busy in his
counting-house. Where else? Christmas eve and Scrooge is
busy in his counting-house. It is cold, bleak, biting weather
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

outside: foggy withal: and, if you listen closely, you can

hear the people in the court go wheezing up and down,
beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their
feet upon the pavement stones to warm them . . .
11 [The clocks outside strike three.]
12 Only three! and quite dark outside already: it has not been
light all day this day.
13 [This ghostly bell rings in the distance again. Marley looks about
him. Music in. Marley flies away.]
14 [N.B. Marley’s comings and goings should, from time to time,
induce the explosion of the odd flash-pot, I.H.]

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act I 237

NOTES
Scene 2
1 [Christmas music in, sung by a live chorus, full. At conclusion of
song, sound fades under and into the distance. Lights up in set:
offices of Scrooge and Marley, Ltd. Scrooge sits at his desk, at
work. Near him is a tiny fire. His door is open and in his line of
vision, we see Scrooge’s clerk, Bob Cratchit, who sits in a dismal
tank of a cubicle, copying letters. Near Cratchit is a fire so tiny as
to barely cast a light: perhaps it is one pitifully glowing coal?
4. comforter n. long, woolen Cratchit rubs his hands together, puts on a white comforter4 and
scarf. tries to heat his hands around his candle. Scrooge’s Nephew
enters, unseen.]

2 Scrooge. What are you doing, Cratchit? Acting cold, are

you? Next, you’ll be asking to replenish your coal from my
coal-box, won’t you? Well, save your breath, Cratchit! Unless
you’re prepared to find employ elsewhere!
3 Nephew. [Cheerfully; surprising Scrooge] A merry Christmas
to you, Uncle! God save you!
5. Humbug interj. nonsense. 4 Scrooge. Bah! Humbug!5
5 Nephew. Christmas a “humbug,” Uncle? I’m sure you don’t
mean that.
6 Scrooge. I do! Merry Christmas? What right do you have to
be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor
enough!
7 Nephew. Come, then. What right have you to be dismal?
morose adj. (muh ROHS) gloomy; What reason have you to be morose? You’re rich enough.
ill-tempered
8 Scrooge. Bah! Humbug!
9 Nephew. Don’t be cross, Uncle.
CLOSE READ 10 Scrooge. What else can I be? Eh? When I live in a world of
ANNOTATE: Mark words fools such as this? Merry Christmas? What’s Christmastime
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
in paragraph 10 that show
to you but a time of paying bills without any money; a time
Scrooge’s attitude toward
for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer. If I
Christmas.
could work my will, every idiot who goes about with “Merry
QUESTION: What does Christmas” on his lips, should be boiled with his own
Scrooge think of people, such
pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.
as his nephew, that celebrate
Christmas? He should!
11 Nephew. Uncle!
CONCLUDE: What does this
attitude reveal about Scrooge’s 12 Scrooge. Nephew! You keep Christmas in your own way
character? and let me keep it in mine.
13 Nephew. Keep it! But you don’t keep it, Uncle.
14 Scrooge. Let me leave it alone, then. Much good it has ever
done you!

238 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 15 Nephew. There are many things from which I have derived
NOTES
good, by which I have not profited, I daresay. Christmas
among the rest. But l am sure that l always thought of
Christmas time, when it has come round—as a good time: the
only time I know of, when men and women seem to open
their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them
as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not
another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And
therefore, Uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or
silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and
that it will do me good; and I say, God bless it!
16 [The Clerk in the tank applauds, looks at the furious Scrooge and
pokes out his tiny fire, as if in exchange for the moment of
impropriety. Scrooge yells at him.]

17 Scrooge. [To the clerk] Let me hear another sound from you
and you’ll keep your Christmas by losing your situation. [To
the nephew] You’re quite a powerful speaker, sir. I wonder you
don’t go into Parliament.6 6. Parliament national legislative
body of Great Britain, in some
18 Nephew. Don’t be angry, Uncle. Come! Dine with us ways like the U.S. Congress.
tomorrow.
19 Scrooge. I’d rather see myself dead than see myself with
your family!
20 Nephew. But, why? Why?
21 Scrooge. Why did you get married?
22 Nephew. Because I fell in love.
23 Scrooge. That, sir, is the only thing that you have said to me
in your entire lifetime which is even more ridiculous than
“Merry Christmas!” [Turns from Nephew] Good afternoon.
24 Nephew. Nay, Uncle, you never came to see me before I
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

married either. Why give it as a reason for not coming now?

25 Scrooge. Good afternoon, Nephew!
26 Nephew. I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you; why
cannot we be friends?
27 Scrooge. Good afternoon!
28 Nephew. I am sorry with all my heart, to find you so
resolute. But I have made the trial in homage to Christmas, resolute (REHZ uh loot) adj.
and I’ll keep my Christmas humor to the last. So A Merry determined
Christmas, Uncle!
29 Scrooge. Good afternoon!
30 Nephew. And a Happy New Year!
31 Scrooge. Good afternoon!

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act I 239

 32 Nephew. [He stands facing Scrooge.] Uncle, you are the
NOTES
most . . . [Pauses] No, I shan’t. My Christmas humor is
intact . . . [Pause] God bless you, Uncle . . . [Nephew turns and
starts for the door; he stops at Cratchit‘s cage.] Merry Christmas,
Bob Cratchit . . .
33 Cratchit. Merry Christmas to you sir, and a very, very happy
New Year . . .
34 Scrooge. [Calling across to them] Oh, fine, a perfection, just
fine . . . to see the perfect pair of you; husbands, with wives
and children to support . . . my clerk there earning fifteen
shillings a week . . . and the perfect pair of you, talking about
7. Bedlam n. hospital in London a Merry Christmas! [Pauses] I’ll retire to Bedlam!7
for the mentally ill.
35 Nephew. [To Cratchit] He’s impossible!
impossible (ihm POS uh buhl) adj.
disagreeable; unreasonable 36 Cratchit. Oh, mind him not, sir. He’s getting on in years, and
he’s alone. He’s noticed your visit. I’ll wager your visit has
warmed him.
37 Nephew. Him? Uncle Ebenezer Scrooge? Warmed? You are a
better Christian than I am, sir.
38 Cratchit. [Opening the door for Nephew; two Do-Gooders
will enter, as Nephew exits] Good day to you, sir, and
God bless.
39 Nephew. God bless . . . [One man who enters is portly, the other
is thin. Both are pleasant.]
40 Cratchit. Can I help you, gentlemen?
41 Thin Man. [Carrying papers and books; looks around Cratchit to
Scrooge] Scrooge and Marley’s, I believe. Have I the pleasure
of addressing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. Marley?

42 Scrooge. Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years. He

died seven years ago this very night.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
8. liberality n. generosity. 43 Portly Man. We have no doubt his liberality8 is well
represented by his surviving partner . . . [Offers his
calling card]
44 Scrooge. [Handing back the card; unlooked at] . . . Good
afternoon.
45 Thin Man. This will take but a moment, sir . . .
46 Portly Man. At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge, it
is more than usually desirable that we should make some
slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly
at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common
necessities; hundreds of thousands are in want of common
comforts, sir.
47 Scrooge. Are there no prisons?

240 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 48 Portly Man. Plenty of prisons.
NOTES
49 Scrooge. And aren’t the Union workhouses still in
operation?
50 Thin Man. They are. Still, I wish that I could say that they
are not.
51 Scrooge. The TreadmilI9 and the Poor Law10 are in full 9. the Treadmill kind of mill
vigor, then? wheel turned by the weight
of people treading steps
52 Thin Man. Both very busy, sir. arranged around it, this device
is used to punish prisoners.
53 Scrooge. Ohhh, I see. I was afraid, from what you said at
10. Poor Law the original 16th-
first, that something had occurred to stop them from their
century Poor Laws called for
useful course. [Pauses] I’m glad to hear it. overseers of the poor in each
neighborhood to provide
54 Portly Man. Under the impression that they scarcely furnish
relief for the needy. The New
Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude, a few of us Poor Law of 1834 made the
are endeavoring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat workhouses in which the
poor sometimes lived and
and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time,
worked extremely harsh and
because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, unattractive places.
and Abundance rejoices. [Pen in hand; as well as notepad] What
CLOSE READ
shall I put you down for, sir?
ANNOTATE: Mark the words in
55 Scrooge. Nothing! paragraph 54 that describe the
Portly Man’s reasons for asking
56 Portly Man. You wish to be left anonymous?
for help.
57 Scrooge. I wish to be left alone! [Pauses; turns away; turns
QUESTION: What do these
back to them] Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is
details reveal about the setting?
my answer. I help to support the establishments that I have
mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off CONCLUDE: How does this
information affect your
must go there.
understanding of the drama?
58 Thin Man. Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.
59 Scrooge. If they would rather die, they had better do it, and
decrease the surplus population. Besides—excuse me—I
don’t know that.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

60 Thin Man. But you might know it!

61 Scrooge. It’s not my business. It’s enough for a man to
understand his own business, and not to interfere with other
people’s. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon,
gentlemen!
62 [Scrooge turns his back on the gentlemen and returns to his desk.]

63 Portly Man. But, sir, Mr. Scrooge . . . think of the poor.

64 Scrooge. [Turns suddenly to them. Pauses] Take your leave of
my offices, sirs, while I am still smiling.
65 [The Thin Man looks at the Portly Man. They are undone. They
shrug. They move to the door. Cratchit hops up to open it for them.]

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act I 241

 66 Thin Man. Good day, sir . . . [To Cratchit] A merry Christmas
NOTES
to you, sir . . .
67 Cratchit. Yes. A Merry Christmas to both of you . . .
68 Portly Man. Merry Christmas . . .
69 [Cratchit silently squeezes something into the hand of the Thin Man.]

70 Thin Man. What’s this?

71 Cratchit. Shhhh . . .
72 [Cratchit opens the door; wind and snow whistle into the room.]

73 Thin Man. Thank you, sir, thank you.

74 [Cratchit closes the door and returns to his workplace. Scrooge is
at his own counting table. He talks to Cratchit without looking up.]

75 Scrooge. It’s less of a time of year for being merry, and more
a time of year for being loony . . . if you ask me.
76 Cratchit. Well, I don’t know, sir . . . [The clock’s bell strikes six
o’clock.] Well, there it is, eh, six?
77 Scrooge. Saved by six bells, are you?
CLOSE READ 78 Cratchit. I must be going home . . . [He snuffs out his candle
ANNOTATE: Mark details in and puts on his hat.] I hope you have a . . . very very lovely
paragraphs 78–95 that show day tomorrow, sir . . .
Cratchit’s attitude toward
Scrooge. 79 Scrooge. Hmmm. Oh, you’ll be wanting the whole day
tomorrow, I suppose?
QUESTION: Why might the
playwright have included this 80 Cratchit. If quite convenient, sir.
exchange between Cratchit and
81 Scrooge. It’s not convenient, and it’s not fair. If I was to stop
Scrooge?
half-a-crown for it, you’d think yourself ill-used, I’ll be bound?
CONCLUDE: What does this
82 [Cratchit smiles faintly.]
conversation reveal about
Cratchit’s character? 83 Cratchit. I don’t know, sir . . .

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

84 Scrooge. And yet, you don’t think me ill-used when I pay a
day’s wages for no work . . .
85 Cratchit. It’s only but once a year . . .
86 Scrooge. A poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every
25th of December! But l suppose you must have the whole
day. Be here all the earlier the next morning!
87 Cratchit. Oh, I will, sir. I will. I promise you. And, sir . . .
88 Scrooge. Don’t say it, Cratchit.
89 Cratchit. But let me wish you a . . .
90 Scrooge. Don’t say it, Cratchit. I warn you . . .
91 Cratchit. Sir!

242 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 92 Scrooge. Cratchit!
NOTES
93 [Cratchit opens the door.]

94 Cratchit. All right, then, sir . . . well . . . [Suddenly] Merry

Christmas, Mr. Scrooge!
95 [And he runs out the door, shutting same behind him. Scrooge
moves to his desk; gathering his coat, hat, etc. A Boy appears at his
window . . . . ]
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

96 Boy. [Singing] “Away in a manger . . .”

97 [Scrooge seizes his ruler and whacks at the image of the Boy
outside. The Boy leaves.]

98 Scrooge. Bah! Humbug! Christmas! Bah! Humbug! [He shuts

out the light.]
99 A note on the crossover, following Scene 2:
100 [Scrooge will walk alone to his rooms from his offices. As he makes
a long slow cross of the stage, the scenery should change. Christmas
music will be heard, various people will cross by Scrooge, often
smiling happily.

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act I 243

 101 There will be occasional pleasant greetings tossed at him.
NOTES
102 Scrooge, in contrast to all, will grump and mumble. He will snap
at passing boys, as might a horrid old hound.
11. misanthrope (MIHS uhn
throhp) n. a person who hates 103 In short, Scrooge’s sounds and movements will define him in
or distrusts everyone.
contrast from all other people who cross the stage: he is the
malcontent (MAL kuhn tehnt) n. a misanthrope,11 the malcontent, the miser. He is Scrooge.
person who is always unhappy
104 This statement of Scrooge’s character, by contrast to all other
miser (MY zuhr) n. greedy person characters, should seem comical to the audience.
who keeps and refuses to spend
money, even at the expense of 105 During Scrooge’s crossover to his rooms, snow should begin to
his or her own comfort fall. All passers-by will hold their faces to the sky, smiling,
allowing snow to shower them lightly. Scrooge, by contrast, will
bat at the flakes with his walking-stick, as might an insomniac swat
at a sleep-stopping, middle-of-the-night swarm of mosquitoes. He
will comment on the blackness of the night, and, finally, reach his
12. specter n. ghost. rooms and his encounter with the magical specter:12 Marley, his
eternal mate.]

Scene 3
1 Scrooge. No light at all . . . no moon . . . that is what is at the
center of Christmas Eve: dead black: void . . .
2 [Scrooge puts his key in the door’s keyhole. He has reached his
rooms now. The door knocker changes and is now Marley’s face.
A musical sound: quickly: ghostly. Marley‘s image is not at all
angry, but looks at Scrooge as did the old Marley look at Scrooge.
The hair is curiously stirred; eyes wide open, dead: absent of focus.
Scrooge stares wordlessly here. The face, before his very eyes, does
13. deliquesce (dehl ih KWEHS) v. deliquesce.13 It is a knocker again. Scrooge opens the door and
melt away. checks the back of same, probably for Marley‘s pigtail. Seeing
nothing but screws and nuts, Scrooge refuses the memory.]

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

3 Pooh, pooh!
4 [The sound of the door closing resounds throughout the house as
thunder. Every room echoes the sound. Scrooge fastens the door
and walks across the hall to the stairs, trimming his candle as he
goes; and then he goes slowly up the staircase. He checks each room:
sitting room, bedrooms, lumber-room. He looks under the sofa,
under the table: nobody there. He fixes his evening gruel on the
14. gruel on the hob thin broth hob,14 changes his jacket. Scrooge sits near the tiny low-flamed fire,
warming on a ledge at the sipping his gruel. There are various pictures on the walls: all of
back or side of the fireplace.
them now show likenesses of Marley. Scrooge blinks his eyes.]
5 Bah! Humbug!
6 [Scrooge walks in a circle about the room. The pictures change back
into their natural images. He sits down at the table in front of the

244 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 fire. A bell hangs overhead. It begins to ring, of its own accord.
Slowly, surely, begins the ringing of every bell in the house. They NOTES

continue ringing for nearly half a minute. Scrooge is stunned by

the phenomenon. The bells cease their ringing all at once. Deep
below Scrooge, in the basement of the house, there is the sound of
clanking, of some enormous chain being dragged across the floors;
and now up the stairs. We hear doors flying open.]
7 Bah still! Humbug still! This is not happening! I won’t
believe it!
8 [Marley’s Ghost enters the room. He is horrible to look at: pigtail,
vest, suit as usual, but he drags an enormous chain now, to which
is fastened cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy
purses fashioned of steel. He is transparent. Marley stands opposite
the stricken Scrooge.]
9 How now! What do you want of me?

10 Marley. Much!
11 Scrooge. Who are you?
12 Marley. Ask me who I was.
13 Scrooge Who were you then?
14 Marley. In life, I was your business partner: Jacob Marley.
15 Scrooge. I see . . . can you sit down?
16 Marley. I can.
17 Scrooge. Do it then.
18 Marley. I shall. [Marley sits opposite Scrooge, in the chair across
the table, at the front of the fireplace.] You don’t believe in me.
19 Scrooge. I don’t.
20 Marley. Why do you doubt your senses?
21 Scrooge. Because every little thing affects them. A slight
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

disorder of the stomach makes them cheat. You may be an

undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a
fragment of an underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than
of grave about you, whatever you are!
22 [There is a silence between them. Scrooge is made nervous by it.
He picks up a toothpick.]
23 Humbug! I tell you: humbug!
24 [Marley opens his mouth and screams a ghostly, fearful scream.
The scream echoes about each room of the house. Bats fly, cats
screech, lightning flashes. Scrooge stands and walks backwards
against the wall. Marley stands and screams again. This time, he
takes his head and lifts it from his shoulders. His head continues to

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act I 245

 scream. Marley’s face again appears on every picture in the room:
NOTES all screaming. Scrooge, on his knees before Marley.]
15. apparition n. ghost. 25 Mercy! Dreadful apparition,15 mercy! Why, O! why do you
trouble me so?

26 Marley. Man of the worldly mind, do you believe in me,

or not?
27 Scrooge. I do. I must. But why do spirits such as you walk
the earth? And why do they come to me?
28 Marley. It is required of every man that the spirit within him
should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far
and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is
condemned to do so after death. [Marley screams again; a
tragic scream; from his ghostly bones.] I wear the chain I forged
in life. I made it link by link, and yard by yard. Is its pattern
strange to you? Or would you know, you, Scrooge, the weight
and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

246 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 heavy and long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You have
labored on it, since. It is a ponderous chain. NOTES

29 [Terrified that a chain will appear about his body, Scrooge spins
and waves the unwanted chain away. None, of course, appears. Sees
Marley watching him dance about the room. Marley watches
Scrooge; silently.]

30 Scrooge. Jacob. Old Jacob Marley, tell me more. Speak CLOSE READ
comfort to me, Jacob . . . ANNOTATE: Mark the words in
paragraphs 30–34 that show
31 Marley. I have none to give. Comfort comes from other Scrooge’s reaction to Marley.
regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed by other
QUESTION: What do these
ministers, to other kinds of men. A very little more, is all that
words reveal about Scrooge at
is permitted to me. I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger this point in the play?
anywhere . . . [He moans again.] My spirit never walked
CONCLUDE: What does
beyond our counting-house—mark me!—in life my spirit
Scrooge’s reaction in these
never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-
paragraphs suggest about his
changing hole; and weary journeys lie before me! character?
32 Scrooge. But you were always a good man of business,
Jacob.
33 Marley. [Screams word “business”; a flash-pot explodes with him.]
BUSINESS!!! Mankind was my business. The common
welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance,
benevolence, were, all, my business. [Scrooge is quaking.]
Hear me, Ebenezer Scrooge! My time is nearly gone.
34 Scrooge. I will, but don’t be hard upon me. And don’t be
flowery, Jacob! Pray!
35 Marley. How is it that I appear before you in a shape that
you can see, l may not tell. I have sat invisible beside you
many and many a day. That is no light part of my penance. I
am here tonight to warn you that you have yet a chance and
hope of escaping my fate. A chance and hope of my
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

procuring, Ebenezer.
36 Scrooge. You were always a good friend to me. Thank’ee!
37 Marley. You will be haunted by Three Spirits.
38 Scrooge. Would that be the chance and hope you mentioned,
Jacob?
39 Marley. It is.
40 Scrooge. I think I’d rather not.
41 Marley. Without their visits, you cannot hope to shun the
path I tread. Expect the first one tomorrow, when the bell
tolls one.
42 Scrooge. Couldn’t I take ’em all at once, and get it over,
Jacob?

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act I 247

 43 Marley. Expect the second on the next night at the same hour.
NOTES
The third upon the next night when the last stroke of twelve
has ceased to vibrate. Look to see me no more. Others may,
but you may not. And look that, for your own sake, you
remember what has passed between us!
44 [Marley places his head back upon his shoulders. He approaches the
window and beckons to Scrooge to watch. Outside the window,
specters fly by, carrying money-boxes and chains. They make a
confused sound of lamentation. Marley, after listening a moment,
joins into their mournful dirge. He leans to the window and floats
out into the bleak, dark night. He is gone.]

45 Scrooge. [Rushing to the window] Jacob! No, Jacob! Don’t

leave me! I’m frightened! [He sees that Marley has gone. He
looks outside. He pulls the shutter closed, so that the scene is
blocked from his view. All sound stops. After a pause, he re-opens
the shutter and all is quiet, as it should be on Christmas Eve.
Carolers carol out of doors, in the distance. Scrooge closes the
shutter and walks down the stairs. He examines the door by which
Marley first entered.] No one here at all! Did I imagine all that?
Humbug! [He looks about the room.] I did imagine it. It only
happened in my foulest dream-mind, didn’t it? An
undigested bit of . . . [Thunder and lightning in the room;
suddenly] Sorry! Sorry!
46 [There is silence again. The lights fade out.]

Scene 4
1 [Christmas music, choral, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” sung by
an onstage choir of children, spotlighted, D.C. Above, Scrooge in
his bed, dead to the world, asleep, in his darkened room. It should
appear that the choir is singing somewhere outside of the house, of
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
course, and a use of scrim16 is thus suggested. When the singing is
ended, the choir should fade out of view and Marley should fade
into view, in their place.]

2 Marley. [Directly to audience] From this point forth . . . I shall

16. scrim n. see-through fabric
backdrop used to create be quite visible to you, but invisible to him. [Smiles] He will
special effects in the theater. feel my presence, nevertheless, for, unless my senses fail me
17. ferret eyes A ferret is a completely, we are—you and I—witness to the changing of a
small, weasel-like animal miser: that one, my partner in life, in business, and in eternity:
used for hunting rabbits. that one: Scrooge. [Moves to staircase, below Scrooge] See him
This expression means to
stare continuously, the way a now. He endeavors to pierce the darkness with his ferret
ferret hunts. eyes.17 [To audience] See him, now. He listens for the hour.

248 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 3 [The bells toll. Scrooge is awakened and quakes as the hour
approaches one o’clock, but the bells stop their sound at the hour NOTES

of twelve.]

4 Scrooge. [Astonished] Midnight! Why this isn’t possible. It CLOSE READ

was past two when I went to bed. An icicle must have gotten ANNOTATE: Mark details in
paragraph 4 that describe the
into the clock’s works! I couldn’t have slept through the
setting.
whole day and far into another night. It isn’t possible that
anything has happened to the sun, and this is twelve at noon! QUESTION: Why might the
[He runs to window; unshutters same; it is night.] Night, still. playwright have included these
details?
Quiet, normal for the season, cold. It is certainly not noon.
I cannot in any way afford to lose my days. Securities come CONCLUDE: How do these
due, promissory notes,18 interest on investments: these are details work together to
increase the tension?
things that happen in the daylight! [He returns to his bed.]
Was this a dream?
5 [Marley appears in his room. He speaks to the audience.] 18. promissory notes n. written
promises to pay someone a
6 Marley. You see? He does not, with faith, believe in me fully, certain sum of money.
even still! Whatever will it take to turn the faith of a miser
from money to men?
7 Scrooge. Another quarter and it’ll be one and Marley’s
ghostly friends will come. [Pauses; listens] Where’s the chime
for one? [Ding, dong] A quarter past [Repeats] Half-past!
[Repeats] A quarter to it! But where’s the heavy bell of the
hour one? This is a game in which I lose my senses! Perhaps,
if I allowed myself another short doze . . .
8 Marley. . . . Doze, Ebenezer, doze.
9 [A heavy bell thuds its one ring; dull and definitely one o’clock.
There is a flash of light. Scrooge sits up, in a sudden. A hand
draws back the curtains by his bed. He sees it.]

10 Scrooge. A hand! Who owns it! Hello!

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

11 [Ghostly music again, but of a new nature to the play. A strange

figure stands before Scrooge—like a child, yet at the same time
like an old man: white hair, but unwrinkled skin, long, muscular
arms, but delicate legs and feet. Wears white tunic; lustrous belt
cinches waist. Branch of fresh green holly in its hand, but has its
dress trimmed with fresh summer flowers. Clear jets of light
spring from the crown of its head. Holds cap in hand. The Spirit is
called Past.]
12 Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me?

13 Past. I am.
14 Marley. Does he take this to be a vision of his green grocer?

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act I 249

 15 Scrooge. Who, and what are you?
NOTES
16 Past. I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.
17 Scrooge. Long past?
18 Past. Your past.
19 Scrooge. May I ask, please, sir, what business you have here
with me?
20 Past. Your welfare.
21 Scrooge. Not to sound ungrateful, sir, and really, please do
understand that I am plenty obliged for your concern, but,
really, kind spirit, it would have done all the better for my
welfare to have been left alone altogether, to have slept
peacefully through this night.
22 Past. Your reclamation, then. Take heed!
23 Scrooge. My what?
24 Past. [Motioning to Scrooge and taking his arm] Rise! Fly with
me! [He leads Scrooge to the window.]
25 Scrooge. [Panicked] Fly, but I am a mortal and cannot fly!
26 Past. [Pointing to his heart] Bear but a touch of my hand here
and you shall be upheld in more than this!
27 [Scrooge touches the spirit’s heart and the lights dissolve into
sparkly flickers. Lovely crystals of music are heard. The scene
dissolves into another. Christmas music again]

Scene 5
1 [Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past walk together across
an open stage. In the background, we see a field that is open;
covered by a soft, downy snow: a country road.]

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

2 Scrooge. Good Heaven! I was bred in this place. I was a
boy here!
3 [Scrooge freezes, staring at the field beyond. Marley’s ghost
appears beside him; takes Scrooge’s face in his hands, and turns his
face to the audience.]

4 Marley. You see this Scrooge: stricken by feeling. Conscious

of a thousand odors floating in the air, each one connected
with a thousand thoughts, and hopes, and joys, and care
long, long forgotten. [Pause] This one—this Scrooge—before
your very eyes, returns to life, among the living. [To audience,
19. rapt adj. giving complete
attention; totally carried away sternly] You’d best pay your most careful attention. I would
by something. suggest rapt.19

250 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 5 [There is a small flash and puff of smoke and Marley is gone
again.] NOTES

6 Past. Your lip is trembling, Mr. Scrooge. And what is that

upon your cheek?
7 Scrooge. Upon my cheek? Nothing . . . a blemish on the skin
from the eating of overmuch grease . . . nothing . . . [Suddenly]
Kind Spirit of Christmas Past, lead me where you will, but
quickly! To be stagnant in this place is, for me, unbearable!
8 Past. You recollect the way?
9 Scrooge. Remember it! I would know it blindfolded! My
bridge, my church, my winding river! [Staggers about, trying
to see it all at once. He weeps again.]
10 Past. These are but shadows of things that have been. They
have no consciousness of us.
11 [Four jocund travelers enter, singing a Christmas song in four-part
harmony—“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.”]

12 Scrooge. Listen! I know these men! I remember the beauty of

their song!
13 Past. But, why do you remember it so happily? It is Merry
Christmas that they say to one another! What is Merry
Christmas to you, Mr. Scrooge? Out upon Merry Christmas,
right? What good has Merry Christmas ever done you, Mr.
Scrooge? . . .
14 Scrooge. [After a long pause] None. No good. None . . . [He
bows his head.]
15 Past. Look, you, sir, a school ahead. The schoolroom is not CLOSE READ
quite deserted. A solitary child, neglected by his friends, is ANNOTATE: Mark words in
left there still. paragraphs 15–19 that describe
Scrooge’s emotions and
[Scrooge falls to the ground; sobbing as he sees, and we see, a small
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

16 behavior.
boy, the young Scrooge, sitting and weeping, bravely, alone at his
QUESTION: What does the
desk: alone in a vast space, a void.] playwright reveal through these
17 Scrooge. I cannot look on him! words?

18 Past. You must, Mr. Scrooge, you must. CONCLUDE: What can you
conclude about the Ghost
19 Scrooge. It’s me. [Pauses; weeps] Poor boy. He lived inside his of Christmas Past’s effect
head . . . alone . . . [Pauses; weeps] poor boy. [Pauses; stops his on Scrooge based on this
weeping] I wish . . . [Dries his eyes on his cuff] ah! it’s too late! description?

20 Past. What is the matter?

21 Scrooge. There was a boy singing a Christmas Carol outside
my door last night. I should like to have given him
something: that’s all.

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act I 251

 22 Past. [Smiles; waves his hand to Scrooge] Come. Let us see
NOTES
another Christmas.
23 [Lights out on a little boy. A flash of light. A puff of smoke. Lights
up on older boy]

24 Scrooge. Look! Me, again! Older now! [Realizes] Oh, yes . . .

still alone.
25 [The boy—a slightly older Scrooge—sits alone in a chair, reading.
The door to the room opens and a young girl enters. She is much,
much younger than this slightly older Scrooge. She is, say, six,
and he is, say, twelve. Elder Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas
Past stand watching the scene, unseen.]

26 Fan. Dear, dear brother, I have come to bring you home.

27 Boy. Home, little Fan?
28 Fan. Yes! Home, for good and all! Father is so much kinder
than he ever used to be, and home’s like heaven! He spoke so
gently to me one dear night when I was going to bed that I
was not afraid to ask him once more if you might come
home; and he said “yes” . . . you should; and sent me in a
coach to bring you. And you’re to be a man and are never to
come back here, but first, we’re to be together all the
Christmas long, and have the merriest time in the world.
29 Boy. You are quite a woman, little Fan!
30 [Laughing; she drags at boy, causing him to stumble to the door
with her. Suddenly we hear a mean and terrible voice in the
hallway. Off. It is the Schoolmaster.]

31 Schoolmaster. Bring down Master Scrooge’s travel box at

once! He is to travel!
32 Fan. Who is that, Ebenezer?

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

33 Boy. O! Quiet, Fan. It is the Schoolmaster, himself!
34 [The door bursts open and into the room bursts with it the
Schoolmaster.]

35 Schoolmaster. Master Scrooge?

36 Boy. Oh, Schoolmaster, I’d like you to meet my little sister,
Fan, sir . . .
37 [Two boys struggle on with Scrooge’s trunk.]

38 Fan. Pleased, sir . . . [She curtsies.]

39 Schoolmaster. You are to travel, Master Scrooge.
40 Scrooge. Yes, sir, I know sir . . .

252 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 41 [All start to exit, but Fan grabs the coattail of the mean old
Schoolmaster.] NOTES

42 Boy. Fan!
43 Schoolmaster. What’s this?
44 Fan. Pardon, sir, but l believe that you’ve forgotten to say
your goodbye to my brother, Ebenezer, who stands still now
awaiting it . . . [She smiles, curtsies, lowers her eyes.] pardon, sir.
45 Schoolmaster. [Amazed] I . . . uh . . . harumph . . . uhh . . .
well, then . . . [Outstretches hand] Goodbye, Scrooge.
46 Boy. Uh, well, goodbye, Schoolmaster . . .
47 [Lights fade out on all but Boy looking at Fan; and Scrooge and
Past looking at them.]

48 Scrooge. Oh, my dear, dear little sister, Fan . . . how I

loved her.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act I 253

 49 Past. Always a delicate creature, whom a breath might have
NOTES
withered, but she had a large heart . . .
50 Scrooge. So she had.
51 Past. She died a woman, and had, as I think, children.
52 Scrooge. One child.
53 Past. True. Your nephew.
54 Scrooge. Yes.
55 Past. Fine, then. We move on, Mr. Scrooge. That warehouse,
there? Do you know it?
20. apprenticed (uh PREHN tihst) v. 56 Scrooge. Know it? Wasn’t I apprenticed20 there?
received instruction in a trade
as well as food and housing or 57 Past. We’ll have a look.
wages in return for work. 58 [They enter the warehouse. The lights crossfade with them, coming
up on an old man in Welsh wig: Fezziwig.]

59 Scrooge. Why, it’s old Fezziwig! Bless his heart; it’s

Fezziwig, alive again!
60 [Fezziwig sits behind a large, high desk, counting. He lays down
his pen; looks at the clock: seven bells sound.]
61 Quittin’ time . . .

62 Fezziwig. Quittin’ time . . . [He takes off his waistcoat and

laughs: calls off] Yo ho, Ebenezer! Dick!
63 [Dick Wilkins and Ebenezer Scrooge—a young man version—
enter the room. Dick and Ebenezer are Fezziwig’s apprentices.]

64 Scrooge. Dick Wilkins, to be sure! My fellow-’prentice! Bless

my soul, yes. There he is. He was very much attached to me,
was Dick. Poor Dick! Dear, dear!
65 Fezziwig. Yo ho, my boys. No more work tonight. Christmas
Eve, Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer!
66 [They stand at attention in front of Fezziwig; laughing] Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

67 Hilli-ho! Clear away, and let’s have lots of room here! Hilli-
ho, Dick! Chirrup, Ebenezer!
68 [The young men clear the room, sweep the floor, straighten the
pictures, trim the lamps, etc. The space is clear now. A fiddler
enters, fiddling.]
69 Hi-ho, Matthew! Fiddle away . . . where are my daughters?
70 [The fiddler plays. Three young daughters of Fezziwig enter
followed by six young adult male suitors. They are dancing to the
music. All employees come in: workers, clerks, housemaids, cousins,
the baker, etc. All dance. Full number wanted here. Throughout the

254 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 dance, food is brought into the feast. It is “eaten” in dance, by the
dancers. Ebenezer dances with all three of the daughters, as does NOTES

Dick. They compete for the daughters, happily, in the dance. CLOSE READ
Fezziwig dances with his daughters. Fezziwig dances with Dick ANNOTATE: Mark details in
and Ebenezer. The music changes: Mrs. Fezziwig enters. She paragraphs 70–76 that describe
lovingly scolds her husband. They dance. She dances with young Scrooge’s behavior and
Ebenezer, lifting him and throwing him about. She is enormously personality.
fat. When the dance is ended, they all dance off, floating away, as QUESTION: Why might the
does the music. Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past stand playwright have included these
alone now. The music is gone.] descriptions?

CONCLUDE: How do
71 Past. It was a small matter, that Fezziwig made those silly
these details deepen your
folks so full of gratitude. understanding of Scrooge?
72 Scrooge. Small!
73 Past. Shhh!
74 [Lights up on Dick and Ebenezer]

75 Dick. We are blessed, Ebenezer, truly, to have such a master

as Mr. Fezziwig!
76 Young Scrooge. He is the best, best, the very and absolute
best! If ever I own a firm of my own, I shall treat my
apprentices with the same dignity and the same grace. We
have learned a wonderful lesson from the master, Dick!
77 Dick. Ah, that’s a fact, Ebenezer. That’s a fact!
78 Past. Was it not a small matter, really? He spent but a few
pounds21 of his mortal money on your small party. Three or 21. pounds n. common type of
four pounds, perhaps. Is that so much that he deserves such money used in Great Britain.

praise as you and Dick so lavish now?

79 Scrooge. It isn’t that! It isn’t that, Spirit. Fezziwig had the
power to make us happy or unhappy; to make our service
light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. The happiness he
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

gave is quite as great as if it cost him a fortune.

80 Past. What is the matter?
81 Scrooge. Nothing particular.
82 Past. Something, I think.
83 Scrooge. No, no. l should like to be able to say a word or two
to my clerk just now! That’s all!
84 [Ebenezer enters the room and shuts down all the lamps. He
stretches and yawns. The Ghost of Christmas Past turns to
Scrooge all of a sudden.]

85 Past. My time grows short! Quick!

86 [In a flash of light, Ebenezer is gone, and in his place stands an
Older Scrooge, this one a man in the prime of his life. Beside him

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act I 255

 stands a young woman in a mourning dress. She is crying. She
NOTES speaks to the man, with hostility.]

87 Woman. It matters little . . . to you, very little. Another idol

has displaced me.
88 Man. What idol has displaced you?
89 Woman. A golden one.
90 Man. This is an even-handed dealing of the world. There is
nothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there is
nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the
pursuit of wealth!
91 Woman. You fear the world too much. Have I not seen your
nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until the master-
passion, Gain, engrosses you? Have I not?
92 Scrooge. No!
93 Man. What then? Even if I have grown so much wiser, what
then? Have I changed towards you?
94 Woman. No . . .
95 Man. Am I?
96 Woman. Our contract is an old one. It was made when we
were both poor and content to be so. You are changed. When
it was made, you were another man.
97 Man. I was not another man: I was a boy.
98 Woman. Your own feeling tells you that you were not what
you are. I am. That which promised happiness when we were
one in heart is fraught with misery now that we are two . . .
99 Scrooge. No!
100 Woman. How often and how keenly I have thought of this,
I will not say. It is enough that I have thought of it, and can
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
release you . . .
101 Scrooge. [Quietly] Don’t release me, madame . . .
102 Man. Have I ever sought release?
103 Woman. In words. No. Never.
104 Man. In what then?
105 Woman. In a changed nature: in an altered spirit. In
everything that made my love of any worth or value in your
sight. If this has never been between us, tell me, would you
seek me out and try to win me now? Ah, no!
106 Scrooge. Ah, yes!
107 Man. You think not?

256 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 108 Woman. I would gladly think otherwise if I could, heaven
NOTES
knows! But if you were free today, tomorrow, yesterday, can
even I believe that you would choose a dowerless girl22—you
who in your very confidence with her weigh everything by
Gain; or, choosing her, do I not know that your repentance 22. a dowerless girl girl without a
and regret would surely follow? I do; and I release you. With dowry, the property or wealth
a woman brought to her
a full heart, for the love of him you once were. husband in marriage.
109 Scrooge. Please, I . . . I . . .
110 Man. Please, I . . . I . . .
111 Woman. Please. You may—the memory of what is past half CLOSE READ
makes me hope you will—have pain in this. A very, very brief ANNOTATE: In paragraphs
time, and you will dismiss the memory of it, as an 111–122, mark Scrooge’s words
to his younger self.
unprofitable dream, from which it happened well that you
awoke. May you be happy in the life that you have chosen for QUESTION: What do these
yourself . . . words reveal about the ways in
which Scrooge’s feelings have
112 Scrooge. No! changed?
113 Woman. Yourself . . . alone . . . CONCLUDE: How does this
114 Scrooge. No! change deepen the reader’s
understanding of Scrooge’s
115 Woman. Goodbye, Ebenezer . . . personality?
116 Scrooge. Don’t let her go!
117 Man. Goodbye.
118 Scrooge. No!
119 [She exits. Scrooge goes to younger man: himself.]
120 You fool! Mindless loon! You fool!

121 Man. [To exited woman] Fool. Mindless loon. Fool . . .

122 Scrooge. Don’t say that! Spirit, remove me from this place.
123 Past. I have told you these were shadows of the things that
have been. They are what they are. Do not blame me, Mr.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Scrooge.
124 Scrooge. Remove me! I cannot bear it!
125 [The faces of all who appeared in this scene are now projected for a
moment around the stage: enormous, flimsy, silent.]
126 Leave me! Take me back! Haunt me no longer!
127 [There is a sudden flash of light: a flare. The Ghost of Christmas
Past is gone. Scrooge is, for the moment, alone onstage. His bed is
turned down, across the stage. A small candle burns now in
Scrooge’s hand. There is a child’s cap in his other hand. He slowly
crosses the stage to his bed, to sleep. Marley appears behind
Scrooge, who continues his long, elderly cross to bed. Marley
speaks directly to the audience.]

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act I 257

 128 Marley. Scrooge must sleep now. He must surrender to the
NOTES
irresistible drowsiness caused by the recognition of what
was. [Pauses] The cap he carries is from ten lives past: his
boyhood cap . . . donned atop a hopeful hairy head . . .
askew, perhaps, or at a rakish angle. Doffed now in honor of
23. donned . . . regret To don regret.23 Perhaps even too heavy to carry in his present state
and doff a hat means to put of weak remorse . . .
it on and take it off, askew
means “crooked,” and at a 129 [Scrooge drops the cap. He lies atop his bed. He sleeps. To
rakish angle means “having a audience]
dashing or jaunty look.”
130 He sleeps. For him, there’s even more trouble ahead. [Smiles]
For you? The play house tells me there’s hot cider, as should
be your anticipation for the specter Christmas Present and
Future, for I promise you both. [Smiles again] So, I pray you
hurry back to your seats refreshed and ready for a miser—to
turn his coat of gray into a blazen Christmas holly-red. [A
flash of lightning. A clap of thunder. Bats fly. Ghosty music.
Marley is gone.] ❧

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

258 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 Comprehension Check
Complete the following items after you finish your first read.

1. When Marley was alive, what relationship did he have with Scrooge?

2. In what year and city is the play set?

3. What does Scrooge say to those who wish him a “Merry Christmas”?

4. Notebook Write a brief summary of A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Marley, Act I.

RESEARCH
Research to Clarify Choose at least one unfamiliar detail from the text. Briefly
research that detail. In what way does the information you learned shed light on an
aspect of the play?

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act I 259

 MAKING MEANING

Close Read the Text

1. This model, from Scene 5, paragraph 4, shows two sample
annotations, along with questions and conclusions. Close read the
passage, and find another detail to annotate. Then, write a question
A CHRISTMAS CAROL:
and conclusion.
SCROOGE AND MARLEY, ACT I

ANNOTATE: I notice that the playwright

has used lots of s’s in this dialogue.
QUESTION: Why might the writer have
made this choice?
ANNOTATE:
CONCLUDE: The repeated s sound makes After a series of
it seem as if Marley were hissing or long, hypnotic
whispering, creating an eerie mood. statements, these
are short and
formal.
Marley. You see this Scrooge: stricken
QUESTION:
by feeling. Conscious of a thousand What effect does
odors floating in the air, each one this change in
connected with a thousand thoughts, word choice and
and hopes, and joys, and care long, sentence structure
long forgotten. [Pause] This one— create?

this Scrooge—before your very eyes, CONCLUDE:

returns to life, among the living. Marley is
unpredictable and
[To audience, sternly] You’d best pay used to being
your most careful attention. I would obeyed.
suggest rapt.

Tool Kit 2. For more practice, go back into the text and complete the
Close-Read Guide and close-read notes.
Model Annotation
3. Revisit a section of the text you found important during your
first read. Read this section closely and annotate what you

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

notice. Ask yourself questions such as “Why did the author
make this choice?” What can you conclude?

CITE TEXTUAL EVIDENCE

Analyze the Text to support your answers.

Notebook Respond to these questions.

1. Connect Why does Marley’s ghost drag a chain fastened to
cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy steel purses?
2. (a) Deduce What effects have Scrooge’s past experiences had on
 STANDARDS
the person he has become? (b) Evaluate Based on Scrooge’s past
Reading Literature
• Analyze how particular elements of experiences, do you think he should be excused for his current
a story or drama interact. attitudes and behavior? Explain.
• Analyze how a drama’s or poem’s
form or structure contributes to its 3. Essential Question: What can cause a sudden change in
meaning. someone’s life? What have you learned about what can cause a
sudden change in someone’s life by reading Act I of this play?
260 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS
 ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What can cause a sudden change in someone’s life?

Analyze Craft and Structure

Text Structure: Dialogue in Drama Dialogue is a conversation
between characters. In a play, dialogue serves several key functions.

• When a play is performed, dialogue helps the audience understand

what characters feel and think.
• Characters’ words and speech patterns give clues to their
personalities.
• Dialogue advances the plot and develops the conflict, or struggle
between opposing forces.
• In a dramatic script, a character’s name appears before the lines he or
she speaks. For example:

Mrs. Perez. Come on, kids! We’re leaving.

Jen. Wait for me! Please wait for me!

CITE TEXTUAL EVIDENCE

Practice to support your answers.

Use the chart below to identify and analyze examples of dialogue in

Act I of A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley.

WHAT DOES IT
EXAMPLE OF WHAT DOES IT
WHAT DOES IT SAY? SHOW ABOUT THE
DIALOGUE MEAN?
CHARACTER?
How now! What do
you want of me?...
Humbug! I tell you:
humbug! (Scene 3,
paragraphs 9–23)

Marley. [Directly
to audience] From
this point . . . for
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

the hour. (Scene 4,

paragraph 2)

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act I 261

 LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Concept Vocabulary
covetous resolute malcontent
morose impossible miser
A CHRISTMAS CAROL:
SCROOGE AND MARLEY, ACT I
Why These Words? The concept vocabulary words relate to Scrooge’s
character and personality in Act I of the play. For example, Scrooge
shows he is a miser by refusing to share his coal with Cratchit, and
demonstrates he is a malcontent when he walks through the street,
unhappy about the Christmas activities going on around him.

1. How does the concept vocabulary sharpen the reader’s understanding

of Scrooge?

2. What other words in the selection describe Scrooge’s character and

personality?

Practice
 WORD NETWORK Notebook The concept vocabulary words appear in A Christmas
Add interesting words Carol. Respond to the prompts, using the vocabulary words to show
related to turning points your understanding.
from the text to your Word 1. What might someone do if he or she were covetous?
Network.
2. How might a person behave if he or she were morose?
3. Describe a situation in which someone might be resolute.
4. What character traits might cause a person to be viewed as
impossible?
5. How would a malcontent behave at a party?
6. What actions and behaviors might be expected of a miser?

Word Study Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Latin Prefix: mal- The Latin prefix mal- means “bad.” As an adjective,
 STANDARDS the word malcontent means “dissatisfied with current conditions or
Language
circumstances.” As a noun, malcontent means “a discontented, or
Determine or clarify the meaning
of unknown and multiple-meaning unhappy, person.”
words and phrases based on grade
7 reading and content, choosing 1. Write your own sentence that correctly uses the word malcontent,
flexibly from a range of strategies. either as a noun or an adjective.
b. Use common, grade-appropriate
Greek or Latin affixes and roots as
clues to the meaning of a word.
c. Consult general and specialized
reference materials, both print and 2. Using a dictionary or thesaurus, find three other words that have the
digital, to find the pronunciation prefix mal-. Record a definition for each word and write a sentence
of a word or determine or clarify
its precise meaning or its part of that correctly uses it.
speech.

262 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What can cause a sudden change in someone’s life?

Conventions
Subject-Verb Agreement Writers need to maintain subject-verb
agreement, which means that subjects and their verbs must agree
in number.

• To check subject-verb agreement, determine whether a subject is

singular or plural, and then make sure its verb matches.

SUBJECT EXAMPLE

Singular subject and verb Jake writes a new poem every day.

Plural subject and verb Books take us to new places.

• A compound subject consists of two subjects joined by a

conjunction such as and, or, or nor. When the subjects joined are
plural, they take a plural verb. When the subjects joined are singular
or when they differ in number, refer to the rules in the chart below.

AGREEMENT RULES EXAMPLE

Two or more singular subjects joined English and math are my favorite subjects.
by and take a plural verb.

Singular subjects joined by or or nor Painting or drawing is a creative activity.

take a singular verb.
Neither Lucy nor Carmen takes this class.

When a singular subject and a plural Neither the bear nor the tigers are happy in that enclosure.
subject are joined by or or nor, the
Flowers or a tree is what this yard needs.
verb agrees with the closer subject.

Read It
Underline the subject-verb agreement in these sentences from the  EVIDENCE LOG
selection. Before moving on to a
1. These are but shadows of things that have been. new selection, go to your
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Evidence Log and record

2. The young men clear the room, sweep the floor, straighten the
what you’ve learned from
pictures, trim the lamps, etc. Act I of A Christmas Carol:
3. He is the best, best, the very and absolute best! Scrooge and Marley.

Write It
Respond to these items.
1. Rewrite the following sentences to correct the subject-verb agreement.
a. Mexico and Canada is part of North America.
b. Wood or stone are a good material for this house.
 Standards
c. A truck or several cars is what we need for this trip. Language
2. Notebook Write a four-sentence paragraph in which at least two Demonstrate command of the
conventions of standard English
sentences have compound subjects. Make sure that all the sentences grammar and usage when writing or
have correct subject-verb agreement. speaking.

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act I 263

 MAKING MEANING

Playwright A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act II

Concept Vocabulary
You will encounter the following words as you read A Christmas Carol:
Scrooge and Marley, Act II. Before reading, note how familiar you are
with each word. Then, rank the words in order from most familiar (1) to
least familiar (6).
Israel Horovitz
WORD YOUR RANKING

parallel

altered

strive

dispelled

earnest

infinitely

After completing the first read, come back to the concept vocabulary and
review your rankings. Mark changes to your original rankings as needed.

First Read DRAMA

Apply these strategies as you conduct your first read. You will have an
opportunity to complete the close-read notes after your first read.

NOTICE whom the play ANNOTATE by marking

is about, what happens, vocabulary and key passages
where and when it happens, you want to revisit.

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

and why those involved react
as they do.

CONNECT ideas within RESPOND by completing

the selection to what you the Comprehension Check and
already know and what you by writing a brief summary of
have already read. the selection.

 STANDARDS
Reading Literature
By the end of the year, read and
comprehend literature, including
stories, dramas, and poems, in the
grades 6–8 text complexity band
proficiently, with scaffolding as
needed at the high end of the range.

264 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 ANCHOR TEXT | DRAMA

A
Christmas
Carol:
Scrooge
and Marley
Act II
Israel Horovitz

BACKGROUND
In mid-nineteenth century England, millions of peasants moved
to the cities. There, they lived in overcrowded slums. Adults and
many children worked up to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. In
contrast, factory owners and professionals lived in grand houses
with at least one—and often many—servants. These differences in
social conditions play a part in A Christmas Carol.

Scene 1
[Lights. Choral music is sung. Curtain. Scrooge, in bed, sleeping,
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

in spotlight. We cannot yet see the interior of his room. Marley, NOTES
opposite, in spotlight equal to Scrooge’s. Marley laughs. He tosses
his hand in the air and a flame shoots from it, magically, into the
air. There is a thunder clap, and then another; a lightning flash, and
then another. Ghostly music plays under. Colors change. Marley’s
spotlight has gone out and now reappears, with Marley in it,
standing next to the bed and the sleeping Scrooge. Marley
addresses the audience directly.]

2 Marley. Hear this snoring Scrooge! Sleeping to escape the

nightmare that is his waking day. What shall I bring to him
now? I’m afraid nothing would astonish old Scrooge now.
Not after what he’s seen. Not a baby boy, not a rhinoceros,
nor anything in between would astonish Ebenezer Scrooge

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act II 265

 just now. l can think of nothing . . . [Suddenly] that’s it!
NOTES Nothing! [He speaks confidentially.] I’ll have the clock strike
one and, when he awakes expecting my second messenger,
there will be no one . . . nothing. Then I’ll have the bell strike
twelve. And then one again . . . and then nothing. Nothing . . .
[Laughs] nothing will . . . astonish him. I think it will work.
3 [The bell tolls one. Scrooge leaps awake.]
4 Scrooge. One! One! This is it; time! [Looks about the room]
Nothing!
5 [The bell tolls midnight.]
6 Midnight! How can this be? I’m sleeping backwards.
7 [One again]
8 Good heavens! One again! I’m sleeping back and forth!
[A pause. Scrooge looks about.] Nothing! Absolutely nothing!
9 [Suddenly, thunder and lightning. Marley laughs and disappears.
The room shakes and glows. There is suddenly springlike music.
Scrooge makes a run for the door.]

10 Marley. Scrooge!
11 Scrooge. What?
12 Marley. Stay you put!
13 Scrooge. Just checking to see if anyone is in here.
14 [Lights and thunder again: more music. Marley is of a sudden
gone. In his place sits the Ghost of Christmas Present—to be
called in the stage directions of the play, Present—center of room.
Heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of throne, are turkeys, geese,
game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, suckling pigs, long
wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum puddings, barrels of oysters,
red hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious
pears, immense twelfth cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that
make the chamber dim with their delicious steam. Upon this throne Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

sits Present, glorious to see. He bears a torch, shaped as a Horn of

1. Horn of Plenty horn Plenty.1 Scrooge hops out of the door, and then peeks back again
overflowing with fruits, into his bedroom. Present calls to Scrooge.]
flowers, and grain,
representing wealth and 15 Present. Ebenezer Scrooge. Come in, come in! Come in and
abundance.
know me better!
16 Scrooge. Hello. How should I call you?
17 Present. I am the Ghost of Christmas Present. Look upon me.
18 [Present is wearing a simple green robe. The walls around the room
are now covered in greenery, as well. The room seems to be a perfect
grove now: leaves of holly, mistletoe and ivy reflect the stage lights.

266 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 Suddenly, there is a mighty roar of flame in the fireplace and now
the hearth burns with a lavish, warming fire. There is an ancient NOTES

scabbard girdling the Ghost’s middle, but without sword. The

sheath is gone to rust.]
19 You have never seen the like of me before?
20 Scrooge. Never.
21 Present. You have never walked forth with younger
members of my family: my elder brothers born on
Christmases past.
22 Scrooge. I don’t think I have. I’m afraid I’ve not. Have you
had many brothers, Spirit?
23 Present. More than eighteen hundred.
24 Scrooge. A tremendous family to provide for! [Present
stands] Spirit, conduct me where you will. I went forth last
night on compulsion, and learnt a lesson which is working
now. Tonight, if you have aught to teach me, let me profit
by it.
25 Present. Touch my robe.
26 [Scrooge walks cautiously to Present and touches his robe. When
he does, lightning flashes, thunder claps, music plays. Blackout]

Scene 2
1 [PROLOGUE: Marley stands spotlit, L. He speaks directly to the CLOSE READ
ANNOTATE: Mark the details in
audience.]
paragraphs 5–6 that describe
2 Marley. My ghostly friend now leads my living partner the setting.
through the city’s streets. QUESTION: Why might the
3 [Lights up on Scrooge and Present] playwright have chosen to begin
the scene with these details?
4 See them there and hear the music people make when the
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

weather is severe, as it is now. CONCLUDE: How does this

information help you to better
5 [Winter music. Choral group behind scrim, sings. When the song is understand the play?
done and the stage is re-set, the lights will fade up on a row of
shops, behind the singers. The choral group will hum the song they
have just completed now and mill about the streets,2 carrying their 2. mill about the streets walk
dinners to the bakers’ shops and restaurants. They will, perhaps, around aimlessly.

sing about being poor at Christmastime, whatever.]

6 Present. These revelers, Mr. Scrooge, carry their own dinners

to their jobs, where they will work to bake the meals the rich
men and women of this city will eat as their Christmas
dinners. Generous people these . . . to care for the others, so . . .

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act II 267

 7 [Present walks among the choral group and a sparkling incense3
NOTES falls from his torch on to their baskets, as he pulls the covers off of
3. incense (IHN sehns) n. any the baskets. Some of the choral group become angry with each
of various substances that other.]
produce a pleasant odor when
burned. 8 Man #1. Hey, you, watch where you’re going.
9 Man #2. Watch it yourself, mate!
10 [Present sprinkles them directly, they change.]

11 Man #1. I pray go in ahead of me. It’s Christmas. You be first!

12 Man #2. No, no. I must insist that YOU be first!
13 Man #1. All right, I shall be, and gratefully so.
14 Man #2. The pleasure is equally mine, for being able to
watch you pass, smiling.
15 Man #1. I would find it a shame to quarrel on Christmas
Day . . .
16 Man #2. As would I.
17 Man #1. Merry Christmas then, friend!
18 Man #2. And a Merry Christmas straight back to you!
19 [Church bells toll. The choral group enter the buildings: the shops
and restaurants; they exit the stage, shutting their doors closed
behind them. All sound stops. Scrooge and Present are alone
again.]
20 Scrooge. What is it you sprinkle from your torch?
21 Present. Kindness.
22 Scrooge. Do you sprinkle your kindness on any particular
people or on all people?
23 Present. To any person kindly given. And to the very poor
most of all.

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

24 Scrooge. Why to the very poor most?
25 Present. Because the very poor need it most. Touch my
heart . . . here, Mr. Scrooge. We have another journey.
26 [Scrooge touches the Ghost’s heart and music plays, lights change
color, lightning flashes, thunder claps. A choral group appears on
the street, singing Christmas carols.]

Scene 3
1 [Marley stands spotlit in front of a scrim on which is painted the
exterior of Cratchit‘s four-roomed house. There is a flash and a
clap and Marley is gone. The lights shift color again, the scrim
flies away, and we are in the interior of the Cratchit family home.

268 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 Scrooge is there, with the spirit (Present), watching
Mrs. Cratchit set the table, with the help of Belinda Cratchit NOTES

and Peter Cratchit, a baby, pokes a fork into the mashed potatoes
on his highchair’s tray. He also chews on his shirt collar.]

2 Scrooge. What is this place, Spirit?

3 Present. This is the home of your employee, Mr. Scrooge.
Don’t you know it?
4 Scrooge. Do you mean Cratchit, Spirit? Do you mean this is
Cratchit’s home?
5 Present. None other.
6 Scrooge. These children are his?
7 Present. There are more to come presently.
8 Scrooge. On his meager earnings! What foolishness!
9 Present. Foolishness, is it?
10 Scrooge. Wouldn’t you say so? Fifteen shillings4 a week’s 4. fifteen shillings small amount
what he gets! of money for a week’s work.

11 Present. I would say that he gets the pleasure of his family,

fifteen times a week times the number of hours a day! Wait,
Mr. Scrooge. Wait, listen and watch. You might actually learn
something . . .
12 Mrs. Cratchit. What has ever got your precious father then?
And your brother, Tiny Tim? And Martha warn’t as late last
Christmas by half an hour!
13 [Martha opens the door, speaking to her mother as she does.]

14 Martha. Here’s Martha, now, Mother! [She Iaughs. The

Cratchit Children squeal with delight.]
15 Belinda. It’s Martha, Mother! Here’s Martha!
Peter. Marthmama, Marthmama! Hullo!
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

16

17 Belinda. Hurrah! Martha! Martha! There’s such an enormous

goose for us, Martha!
18 Mrs. Cratchit. Why, bless your heart alive, my dear, how late
you are!
19 Martha. We’d a great deal of work to finish up last night, and
had to clear away this morning, Mother.
20 Mrs. Cratchit. Well, never mind so long as you are come. Sit
ye down before the fire, my dear, and have a warm, Lord
bless ye!
21 Belinda. No, no! There’s Father coming. Hide, Martha, hide!
22 [Martha giggles and hides herself.]

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act II 269

 23 Martha. Where? Here?
NOTES
24 Peter. Hide, hide!
25 Belinda. Not there! THERE!
26 [Martha is hidden. Bob Cratchit enters, carrying Tiny Tim atop
his shoulder. He wears a threadbare and fringeless comforter
hanging down in front of him. Tiny Tim carries small crutches and
his small legs are bound in an iron frame brace.]
27 Bob and Tiny Tim. Merry Christmas.
28 Bob. Merry Christmas my love, Merry Christmas Peter,
Merry Christmas Belinda. Why, where is Martha?
29 Mrs. Cratchit. Not coming.
30 Bob. Not coming: Not coming upon Christmas Day?
31 Martha. [Pokes head out] Ohhh, poor Father. Don’t be
disappointed.
32 Bob. What’s this?
33 Martha. ’Tis I!
34 Bob. Martha! [They embrace.]
35 Tiny Tim. Martha! Martha!
36 Martha. Tiny Tim!
37 [Tiny Tim is placed in Martha’s arms. Belinda and Peter rush
him offstage.]

38 Belinda. Come, brother! You must come hear the pudding

singing in the copper.
39 Tiny Tim. The pudding? What flavor have we?
40 Peter. Plum! Plum!
41 Tiny Tim. Oh, Mother! I love plum!
[The children exit the stage giggling.]
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
42

43 Mrs. Cratchit. And how did little Tim behave?

CLOSE READ 44 Bob. As good as gold, and even better. Somehow he gets
ANNOTATE: Mark the pauses thoughtful sitting by himself so much, and thinks the
and the sound effect in strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home,
paragraph 44.
that he hoped people saw him in the church, because he was
QUESTION: Why might the a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon
playwright have included the Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk and blind men
pauses and sound effects in the see. [Pauses] He has the oddest ideas sometimes, but he
dialogue?
seems all the while to be growing stronger and more
CONCLUDE: What can you hearty . . . one would never know. [Hears Tim’s crutch on floor
conclude about Bob Cratchit’s outside door]
state of mind as a result of
these details? 45 Peter. The goose has arrived to be eaten!
46 Belinda. Oh, mama, mama, it’s beautiful.

270 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 47 Martha. It’s a perfect goose, Mother!
NOTES
48 Tiny Tim. To this Christmas goose, Mother and Father I say
. . . [Yells] Hurrah! Hurrah!
49 Other Children. [Copying Tim] Hurrah! Hurrah!
50 [The family sits round the table. Bob and Mrs. Cratchit serve the
trimmings, quickly. All sit; all bow heads; all pray.]

51 Bob. Thank you, dear Lord, for your many gifts . . . our dear
children; our wonderful meal; our love for one another; and
the warmth of our small fire—[Looks up at all] A merry
Christmas to us, my dear. God bless us!
52 All. [Except Tim] Merry Christmas! God bless us!
53 Tiny Tim. [In a short silence] God bless us every one.
54 [All freeze. Spotlight on Present and Scrooge]

55 Scrooge. Spirit, tell me if Tiny Tim will live.

56 Present. I see a vacant seat . . . in the poor chimney corner,
and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. If these
shadows remain unaltered by the future, the child will die.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act II 271

 57 Scrooge. No, no, kind Spirit! Say he will be spared!
NOTES
58 Present. If these shadows remain unaltered by the future,
none other of my race will find him here. What then? If he be
like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus
population.
59 [Scrooge bows his head. We hear Bob‘s voice speak Scrooge’s
name.]

60 Bob. Mr. Scrooge . . .

61 Scrooge. Huh? What’s that? Who calls?
CLOSE READ 62 Bob. [His glass raised in a toast] I’ll give you Mr. Scrooge, the
ANNOTATE: In paragraphs Founder of the Feast!
62–71, mark words and phrases
that highlight the differences 63 Scrooge. Me, Bob? You toast me?
between Mrs. Cratchit’s and 64 Present. Save your breath, Mr. Scrooge. You can’t be seen or
Bob Cratchit’s attitudes toward
heard.
Scrooge.
65 Mrs. Cratchit. The Founder of the Feast, indeed! I wish I had
QUESTION: Why might the
him here, that miser Scrooge. I’d give him a piece of my mind
playwright have chosen to show
this contrast in their attitudes to feast upon, and I hope he’d have a good appetite for it!
through their dialogue? 66 Bob. My dear! Christmas Day!
CONCLUDE: What does the 67 Mrs. Cratchit. It should be Christmas Day, I am sure, on
contrast reveal about the which one drinks the health of such an odious, stingy,
personality of each character? unfeeling man as Mr. Scrooge . . .
68 Scrooge. Oh. Spirit, must I? . . .
69 Mrs. Cratchit. You know he is, Robert! Nobody knows it
better than you do, poor fellow!
70 Bob. This is Christmas Day, and I should like to drink to
the health of the man who employs me and allows me to
earn my living and our support and that man is Ebenezer
Scrooge . . .

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

71 Mrs. Cratchit. I’ll drink to his health for your sake and the
day’s, but not for his sake . . . a Merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year to you, Mr. Scrooge, wherever you may be
this day!
72 Scrooge. Just here, kind madam . . . out of sight, out
of sight . . .
73 Bob. Thank you, my dear. Thank you.
74 Scrooge. Thank you, Bob . . . and Mrs. Cratchit, too. No
one else is toasting me, . . . not now . . . not ever. Of that
I am sure . . .
75 Bob. Children . . .
76 All. Merry Christmas to Mr. Scrooge.
77 Bob. I’ll pay you sixpence, Tim, for my favorite song.

272 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 78 Tiny Tim. Oh, Father, I’d so love to sing it, but not for pay.
NOTES
This Christmas goose—this feast—you and Mother, my
brother and sisters close with me: that’s my pay—
79 Bob. Martha, will you play the notes on the lute, for Tiny
Tim’s song.
80 Belinda. May I sing, too, Father?
81 Bob. We’ll all sing.
82 [They sing a song about a tiny child lost in the snow—probably
from Wordsworth’s poem. Tim sings the lead vocal; all chime in for
the chorus. Their song fades under, as the Ghost of Christmas
Present speaks.]

83 Present. Mark my words, Ebenezer Scrooge. I do not present

the Cratchits to you because they are a handsome, or brilliant
family. They are not handsome. They are not brilliant. They
are not well-dressed, or tasteful to the times. Their shoes are
not even waterproofed by virtue of money or cleverness
spent. So when the pavement is wet, so are the insides of
their shoes and the tops of their toes. These are the Cratchits,
Mr. Scrooge. They are not highly special. They are happy,
grateful, pleased with one another, contented with the time
and how it passes. They don’t sing very well, do they? But,
nonetheless, they do sing . . . [Pauses] think of that, Scrooge.
Fifteen shillings a week and they do sing . . . hear their song
until its end.
84 Scrooge. I am listening. [The chorus sings full volume now,
until . . . the song ends here.] Spirit, it must be time for us to
take our leave. I feel in my heart that it is . . . that I must think
on that which I have seen here . . .
85 Present. Touch my robe again . . .
[Scrooge touches Present’s robe. The lights fade out on the
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

86

Cratchits, who sit, frozen, at the table. Scrooge and Present in a

spotlight now. Thunder, lightning, smoke. They are gone.]

Scene 4
1 [Marley appears D.L. in single spotlight. A storm brews. Thunder
and lightning. Scrooge and Present “fly” past, U. The storm
continues, furiously, and, now and again, Scrooge and Present
will zip past in their travels. Marley will speak straight out to the
audience.]

2 Marley. The Ghost of Christmas Present, my co-worker in

this attempt to turn a miser, flies about now with that very
miser, Scrooge, from street to street, and he points out

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act II 273

 partygoers on their way to Christmas parties. If one were to
NOTES judge from the numbers of people on their way to friendly
gatherings, one might think that no one was left at home to
give anyone welcome . . . but that’s not the case, is it? Every
home is expecting company and . . . [He laughs.] Scrooge is
amazed.
3 [Scrooge and Present zip past again. The lights fade up around
them. We are in the Nephew’s home, in the living room. Present
and Scrooge stand watching the Nephew: Fred and his wife,
fixing the fire.]

4 Scrooge. What is this place? We’ve moved from the mines!

5 Present. You do not recognize them?
6 Scrooge. It is my nephew! . . . and the one he married . . .
7 [Marley waves his hand and there is a lightning flash. He
disappears.]

8 Fred. It strikes me as sooooo funny, to think of what he

said . . . that Christmas was a humbug, as I live! He
believed it!
9 Wife. More shame for him, Fred!
10 Fred. Well, he’s a comical old fellow, that’s the truth.
11 Wife. I have no patience with him.
12 Fred. Oh, I have! I am sorry for him; I couldn’t be angry
with him if I tried. Who suffers by his ill whims? Himself,
always . . .
13 Scrooge. It’s me they talk of, isn’t it, Spirit?
14 Fred. Here, wife, consider this. Uncle Scrooge takes it into his
head to dislike us, and he won’t come and dine with us.
What’s the consequence?

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

15 Wife. Oh . . . you’re sweet to say what I think you’re about to
say, too, Fred . . .
16 Fred. What’s the consequence? He don’t lose much of a
dinner by it, I can telI you that!
17 Wife. Ooooooo, Fred! Indeed, I think he loses a very good
dinner . . . ask my sisters, or your bachelor friend, Topper . . .
ask any of them. They’ll tell you what old Scrooge, your
uncle, missed: a dandy meal!
18 Fred. Well, that’s something of a relief, wife. Glad to hear it!
[He hugs his wife. They laugh. They kiss.] The truth is, he misses
much yet. I mean to give him the same chance every year,
whether he likes it or not, for I pity him. Nay, he is my only
uncle and I feel for the old miser . . . but, I tell you, wife: I see

274 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 my dear and perfect mother’s face on his own wizened
cheeks and brow: brother and sister they were, and I cannot NOTES

erase that from each view of him I take . . .

19 Wife. I understand what you say, Fred, and I am with you in
your yearly asking. But he never will accept, you know. He
never will.
20 Fred. Well, true, wife. Uncle may rail at Christmas till he dies.
I think I shook him some with my visit yesterday . . .
[Laughing] I refused to grow angry . . . no matter how nasty
he became . . . [Whoops] It was HE who grew angry, wife!
[They both laugh now.]
21 Scrooge. What he says is true, Spirit . . .
22 Fred and Wife. Bah, humbug!
23 Fred. [Embracing his wife] There is much laughter in our
marriage, wife. It pleases me. You please me . . .
24 Wife. And you please me, Fred. You are a good man . . .
[They embrace.] Come now. We must have a look at the
meal . . . our guests will soon arrive . . . my sisters, Topper . . .
25 Fred. A toast first . . . [He hands her a glass] A toast to Uncle
Scrooge . . . [Fills their glasses]
26 Wife. A toast to him?
27 Fred. Uncle Scrooge has given us plenty of merriment, I am
sure, and it would be ungrateful not to drink to his health.
And I say . . . Uncle Scrooge!
28 Wife. [Laughing] You’re a proper loon,5 Fred . . . and I’m a 5. a proper loon silly person.
proper wife to you . . . [She raises her glass.] Uncle Scrooge!
[They drink. They embrace. They kiss.]
29 Scrooge. Spirit, please, make me visible! Make me audible!
I want to talk with my nephew and my niece!
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

30 [Calls out to them. The lights that light the room and Fred and wife
fade out. Scrooge and Present are alone, spotlit.]

31 Present. These shadows are gone to you now, Mr. Scrooge.

You may return to them later tonight in your dreams.
[Pauses] My time grows short, Ebenezer Scrooge. Look you
on me! Do you see how I’ve aged?
32 Scrooge. Your hair has gone gray! Your skin, wrinkled! Are
spirits’ lives so short?
33 Present. My stay upon this globe is very brief. It ends
tonight.
34 Scrooge. Tonight?
35 Present. At midnight. The time is drawing near!

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act II 275

 36 [Clock strikes 11:45.]
NOTES
37 Hear those chimes? In a quarter hour, my life will have been
spent! Look, Scrooge, man. Look you here.
38 [Two gnarled baby dolls are taken from Present‘s skirts.]

39 Scrooge. Who are they?

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

40 Present. They are Man’s children, and they cling to me,
appealing from their fathers. The boy is Ignorance; the girl is
Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of
all beware this boy, for I see that written on his brow which is
doom, unless the writing be erased.
41 [He stretches out his arm. His voice is now amplified: loudly and
oddly.]

42 Scrooge. Have they no refuge or resource?

43 Present. Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?
[Twelve chimes] Are there no prisons? Are there no
workhouses?
44 [A Phantom, hooded, appears in dim light, D., opposite.]
45 Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?

276 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 46 [Present begins to deliquesce. Scrooge calls after him.]
NOTES
47 Scrooge. Spirit, I’m frightened! Don’t leave me! Spirit!
CLOSE READ
48 Present. Prisons? Workhouses? Prisons? Workhouses . . . ANNOTATE: Mark the words
49 [He is gone. Scrooge is alone now with the Phantom, who is, of and phrases that the Ghost of
Christmas Present repeats in
course, the Ghost of Christmas Future. The Phantom is
paragraphs 43–48.
shrouded in black. Only its outstretched hand is visible from under
his ghostly garment.] QUESTION: Why might the
playwright have chosen to have
50 Scrooge. Who are you, Phantom? Oh, yes. I think I know the Ghost of Christmas Present
you! You are, are you not, the Spirit of Christmas Yet to repeat these words and phrases
upon departing?
Come? [No reply] And you are about to show me the shadows
of the things that have not yet happened, but will happen in CONCLUDE: What effect does
time before us. Is that not so, Spirit? [The Phantom allows this repetition have on the
Scrooge a look at his face. No other reply wanted here. A nervous reader?
giggle here.] Oh, Ghost of the Future, I fear you more than any
Specter I have seen! But, as I know that your purpose is to do
me good and as I hope to live to be another man from what I
was, I am prepared to bear you company. [Future does not
reply, but for a stiff arm, hand and finger set, pointing forward.]
Lead on, then, lead on. The night is waning fast, and it is
precious time to me. Lead on, Spirit!
51 [Future moves away from Scrooge in the same rhythm and motion
employed at its arrival. Scrooge falls into the same pattern, a
considerable space apart from the Spirit. In the space between them,
Marley appears. He looks to Future and then to Scrooge. He claps
his hands. Thunder and lightning. Three Businessmen appear,
spotlighted singularly: One is D.L.; one is D.R.; one is U.C. Thus,
six points of the stage should now be spotted in light. Marley will
watch this scene from his position, C. Scrooge and Future are R.
and L. of C.]

52 First Businessman. Oh, no, I don’t know much about it either

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

way, I only know he’s dead.

53 Second Businessman. When did he die?
54 First Businessman. Last night, I believe.
55 Second Businessman. Why, what was the matter with him?
I thought he’d never die, really . . .
56 First Businessman. [Yawning] Goodness knows, goodness
knows . . .
57 Third Businessman. What has he done with his money?
58 Second Businessman. I haven’t heard. Have you?
59 First Businessman. Left it to his Company, perhaps. Money
to money; you know the expression . . .

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act II 277

 60 Third Businessman. He hasn’t left it to me. That’s all I
NOTES
know . . .
61 First Businessman. [Laughing] Nor to me . . . [Looks at Second
Businessman] You, then? You got his money???
62 First Businessman. [Laughing] Me, me, his money? Nooooo!
63 [They all laugh.]

64 Third Businessman. It’s likely to be a cheap funeral, for upon

my life, I don’t know of a living soul who’d care to venture to
it. Suppose we make up a party and volunteer?
65 Second Businessman. I don’t mind going if a lunch is
provided, but I must be fed, if I make one.
66 First Businessman. Well, I am the most disinterested among
you, for I never wear black gloves, and I never eat lunch. But
I’ll offer to go, if anybody else will. When I come to think of
it, I’m not all sure that I wasn’t his most particular friend: for
we used to stop and speak whenever we met. Well, then . . .
bye, bye!
67 Second Businessman. Bye, bye . . .
68 Third Businessman. Bye, bye . . .
69 [They glide offstage in three separate directions. Their lights
follow them.]

70 Scrooge. Spirit, why did you show me this? Why do you

show me businessmen from my streets as they take the death
of Jacob Marley? That is a thing past. You are future!
71 [Jacob Marley laughs a long, deep laugh. There is a thunder clap
and lightning flash, and he is gone. Scrooge faces Future, alone on
stage now. Future wordlessly stretches out his arm-hand-and-
finger-set, pointing into the distance, U. There, above them,
scoundrels “fly” by, half-dressed and slovenly. When this scene has
passed, a woman enters the playing area. She is almost at once Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

followed by a second woman; and then a man in faded black; and

then, suddenly, an old man, who smokes a pipe. The old man scares
the other three. They laugh, anxious.]

72 First Woman. Look here, old Joe, here’s a chance! If we

haven’t all three met here without meaning it!
73 Old Joe. You couldn’t have met in a better place. Come into
the parlor. You were made free of it long ago, you know;
and the other two ain’t strangers [He stands; shuts a door.
Shrieking] We’re all suitable to our calling. We’re well
matched. Come into the parlor. Come into the parlor . . . [They
follow him D. Scrooge and Future are now in their midst,
watching; silent. A truck comes in on which is set a small wall with

278 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 fireplace and a screen of rags, etc. All props for the scene.] Let me
just rake this fire over a bit . . . NOTES

74 [He does. He trims his lamp with the stem of his pipe. The First
Woman throws a large bundle on to the floor. She sits beside it,
crosslegged, defiantly.]

75 First Woman. What odds then? What odds, Mrs. Dilber? CLOSE READ
ANNOTATE: In paragraph
Every person has a right to take care of themselves. HE
75, mark the word that
always did!
is emphasized.
76 Mrs. Dilber. That’s true indeed! No man more so!
QUESTION: Why did the
77 First Woman. Why, then, don’t stand staring as if you was playwright choose to emphasize
afraid, woman! Who’s the wiser? We’re not going to pick this word?
holes in each other’s coats, I suppose? CONCLUDE: How does
78 Mrs. Dilber. No, indeed! We should hope not! emphasizing this word reveal
the First Woman’s attitude
79 First Woman. Very well, then! That’s enough. Who’s the toward the man of whom she
worse for the loss of a few things like these? Not a dead man, speaks?
I suppose?
80 Mrs. Dilber. [Laughing] No, indeed!
81 First Woman. If he wanted to keep ’em after he was dead,
the wicked old screw, why wasn’t he natural in his lifetime?
If he had been, he’d have had somebody to look after him
when he was struck with Death, instead of lying gasping out
his last there, alone by himself.
82 Mrs. Dilber. It’s the truest word that was ever spoke. It’s a
judgment on him.
83 First Woman. I wish it were a heavier one, and it should
have been, you may depend on it, if I could have laid my
hands on anything else. Open that bundle, old Joe, and let me
know the value of it. Speak out plain. I’m not afraid to be the
first, nor afraid for them to see it. We knew pretty well that
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

we were helping ourselves, before we met here, I believe. It’s

no sin. Open the bundle, Joe.
84 First Man. No, no, my dear! I won’t think of letting you being
the first to show what you’ve . . . earned . . . earned from this.
I throw in mine.
85 [He takes a bundle from his shoulder, turns it upside down, and
empties its contents out on to the floor.]
86 It’s not very extensive, see . . . seals . . . a pencil case . . . sleeve
buttons . . .

87 First Woman. Nice sleeve buttons, though . . .

88 First Man. Not bad, not bad . . . a brooch there . . .
89 Old Joe. Not really valuable, I’m afraid . . .

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act II 279

 90 First Man. How much, old Joe?
NOTES
91 Old Joe. [Writing on the wall with chalk] A pitiful lot, really.
Ten and six and not a sixpence more!
92 First Man. You’re not serious!
93 Old Joe. That’s your account and I wouldn’t give another
sixpence if I was to be boiled for not doing it. Who’s next?
94 Mrs. Dilber. Me! [Dumps out contents of her bundle] Sheets,
towels, silver spoons, silver sugar-tongs . . . some boots . . .
95 Old Joe. [Writing on wall] I always give too much to the
ladies. It’s a weakness of mine and that’s the way I ruin
myself. Here’s your total comin’ up . . . two pounds-ten . . . if
you asked me for another penny, and made it an open
question, I’d repent of being so liberal and knock off
half-a-crown.
96 First Woman. And now do MY bundle, Joe.
97 Old Joe. [Kneeling to open knots on her bundle] So many
knots, madam . . . [He drags out large curtains; dark] What do
you call this? Bed curtains!
98 First Woman. [Laughing] Ah, yes, bed curtains!
99 Old Joe. You don’t mean to say you took ’em down, rings
and all, with him lying there?
100 First Woman. Yes, I did, why not?
101 Old Joe. You were born to make your fortune and you’ll
certainly do it.
102 First Woman. I certainly shan’t hold my hand, when I can
get anything in it by reaching it out, for the sake of such a
man as he was. I promise you, Joe. Don’t drop that lamp oil
on those blankets, now!
103 Old Joe. His blankets?
104 First Woman. Whose else’s do you think? He isn’t likely to Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

catch cold without ’em, I daresay.

105 Old Joe. I hope that he didn’t die of anything catching? Eh?
106 First Woman. Don’t you be afraid of that. I ain’t so fond of
his company that I’d loiter about him for such things if he
did. Ah! You may look through that shirt till your eyes ache,
but you won’t find a hole in it, nor a threadbare place. It’s the
best he had, and a fine one, too. They’d have wasted it, if it
hadn’t been for me.
107 Old Joe. What do you mean “They’d have wasted it”?
108 First Woman. Putting it on him to be buried in, to be sure.
Somebody was fool enough to do it, but I took it off again . . .
109 [She laughs, as do they all, nervously.]

280 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 110 If calico6 ain’t good enough for such a purpose, it isn’t good
enough then for anything. It’s quite as becoming to the body. NOTES

He can’t look uglier than he did in that one! 6. calico (KAL ih koh) n. coarse
and inexpensive cotton cloth.
111 Scrooge. [A low-pitched moan emits from his mouth; from the CLOSE READ
bones.] OOOOOOOoooooOOOOOoooooOOOOOOOO ANNOTATE: Mark the sounds
oooooOOOOOOoooooOO! and sound effects in paragraphs
111–114.
112 Old Joe. One pound six for the lot. [He produces a small
flannel bag filled with money. He divvies it out. He continues QUESTION: Why do you think
the author chose to include
to pass around the money as he speaks. All are laughing.]
these details?
That’s the end of it, you see! He frightened every one away
from him when he was alive, to profit us when he was dead! CONCLUDE: What effect does
Hah ha ha! this choice have on the reader?

113 All. HAHAHAHAhahahahahahah!

114 Scrooge. OOoooOOoooOOOoooOOOoooOOoooOOoooOOOooo!
[He screams at them.] Obscene demons! Why not market the
corpse itself, as sell its trimming??? [Suddenly] Oh, Spirit, I see
it, I see it! This unhappy man—this stripped-bare corpse . . .
could very well be my own. My life holds parallel! My life parallel (PAR uh lehl) adj. having
ends that way now! the same direction or nature;
similar
115 [Scrooge backs into something in the dark behind his spotlight.
Scrooge looks at Future, who points to the corpse. Scrooge pulls
back the blanket. The corpse is, of course, Scrooge, who screams.
He falls aside the bed; weeping.]
116 Spirit, this is a fearful place. In leaving it, I shall not leave its
lesson, trust me. Let us go!
117 [Future points to the corpse.]
118 Spirit, let me see some tenderness connected with a death, or
that dark chamber, which we just left now, Spirit, will be
forever present to me.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

119 [Future spreads his robes again. Thunder and lightning. Lights up,
U., in the Cratchit home setting. Mrs. Cratchit and her daughters,
sewing]

120 Tiny Tim’s Voice. [Off] And He took a child and set him in
the midst of them.
121 Scrooge. [Looking about the room; to Future] Huh? Who
spoke? Who said that?
122 Mrs. Cratchit. [Puts down her sewing] The color hurts my
eyes. [Rubs her eyes] That’s better. My eyes grow weak
sewing by candlelight. I shouldn’t want to show your father
weak eyes when he comes home . . . not for the world! It
must be near his time . . .

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act II 281

 123 Peter. [In corner, reading. Looks up from book] Past it, rather.
NOTES
But l think he’s been walking a bit slower than usual these
CLOSE READ last few evenings, Mother.
ANNOTATE: In paragraphs 124 Mrs. Cratchit. I have known him walk with . . . [Pauses] I
123–136, mark the terms the have known him walk with Tiny Tim upon his shoulder and
characters use to identify each
very fast indeed.
other in the dialogue.
125 Peter. So have I, Mother! Often!
QUESTION: Why might the
playwright have included these 126 Daughter. So have I.
terms in the dialogue? 127 Mrs. Cratchit. But he was very light to carry and his father
CONCLUDE: How do these loved him so, that it was not trouble—no trouble. [Bob, at door]
terms help the reader to better
128 And there is your father at the door.
understand the conversation?
129 [Bob Cratchit enters. He wears a comforter. He is cold, forlorn.]

130 Peter. Father!

131 Bob. Hello, wife, children . . .
132 [The daughter weeps; turns away from Cratchit.]
133 Children! How good to see you all! And you, wife. And look
at this sewing! I’ve no doubt, with all your industry, we’ll
have a quilt to set down upon our knees in church on
Sunday!
134 Mrs. Cratchit. You made the arrangements today, then,
Robert, for the . . . service . . . to be on Sunday.
135 Bob. The funeral. Oh, well, yes, yes, I did. I wish you could
have gone. It would have done you good to see how green a
place it is. But you’ll see it often. I promised him that I would
walk there on Sunday, after the service. [Suddenly]
My little, little child! My little child!
136 All Children. [Hugging him] Oh, Father . . .
137 Bob. [He stands] Forgive me. I saw Mr. Scrooge’s nephew,
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
who you know I’d just met once before, and he was so
wonderful to me, wife . . . he is the most pleasant-spoken
gentleman I’ve ever met . . . he said “I am heartily sorry for
it and heartily sorry for your good wife. If I can be of service
to you in any way, here’s where I live.” And he gave me
this card.
138 Peter. Let me see it!
139 Bob. And he looked me straight in the eye, wife, and said,
meaningfully, “I pray you’ll come to me, Mr. Cratchit, if you
need some help. I pray you do.” Now it wasn’t for the sake of
anything that he might be able to do for us, so much as for
his kind way. It seemed as if he had known our Tiny Tim and
felt with us.

282 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 140 Mrs. Cratchit. I’m sure that he’s a good soul.
NOTES
141 Bob. You would be surer of it, my dear, if you saw and spoke
to him. I shouldn’t be at all surprised, if he got Peter a
situation.
142 Mrs. Cratchit. Only hear that, Peter!
143 Martha. And then, Peter will be keeping company with
someone and setting up for himself!
144 Peter. Get along with you!
145 Bob. It’s just as likely as not, one of these days, though
there’s plenty of time for that, my dear. But however and
whenever we part from one another, I am sure we shall none
of us forget poor Tiny Tim—shall we?—or this first parting
that was among us?
146 All Children. Never, Father, never!
147 Bob. And when we recollect how patient and mild he was,
we shall not quarrel easily among ourselves, and forget poor
Tiny Tim in doing it.
148 All Children. No, Father, never!
149 Little Bob. I am very happy, I am. I am. I am very happy.
150 [Bob kisses his little son, as does Mrs. Cratchit, as do the other
children. The family is set now in one sculptural embrace. The
lighting fades to a gentle pool of light, tight on them.]

151 Scrooge. Specter, something informs me that our parting

moment is at hand. I know it, but I know not how I know it.
152 [Future points to the other side of the stage. Lights out on
Cratchits. Future moves slowing, gliding. Scrooge follows.
Future points opposite. Future leads Scrooge to a wall and a
tombstone. He points to the stone.]
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

153 Am I that man those ghoulish parasites7 so gloated over? 7. ghoulish parasites (GOOL ish
[Pauses] Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you PAR uh syts) referring to the
men and women who stole
point, answer me one question. Are these the shadows and divided Scrooge’s goods
of things that will be, or the shadows of things that MAY after he died.
be, only?
154 [Future points to the gravestone. Marley appears in light well U.
He points to grave as well. Gravestone turns front and grows to ten
feet high. Words upon it: Ebenezer Scrooge: Much smoke billows
now from the grave. Choral music here. Scrooge stands looking up
at gravestone. Future does not at all reply in mortals’ words, but
points once more to the gravestone. The stone undulates and glows.
Music plays, beckoning Scrooge. Scrooge reeling in terror]
155 Oh, no. Spirit! Oh, no, no!
156 [Future’s finger still pointing]

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act II 283

 157 Spirit! Hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man
NOTES I would have been but for this intercourse. Why show me
this, if I am past all hope?
158 [Future considers Scrooge’s logic. His hand wavers.]
159 Oh. Good Spirit, I see by your wavering hand that your good
nature intercedes for me and pities me. Assure me that I yet
may change these shadows that you have shown me by an
altered (AWL tuhrd) adj. changed altered life!
160 [Future’s hand trembles; pointing has stopped.]
161 I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the
year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The
strive (STRYV) v. make a great Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out
effort; try very hard the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me that I may sponge
away the writing that is upon this stone!
162 [Scrooge makes a desperate stab at grabbing Future’s hand. He
holds firm for a moment, but Future, stronger than Scrooge, pulls
away. Scrooge is on his knees, praying.]

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

284 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 163 Spirit, dear Spirit, I am praying before you. Give me a
sign that all is possible. Give me a sign that all hope for me NOTES

is not lost. Oh, Spirit, kind Spirit, I beseech thee: give me

a sign . . .
164 [Future deliquesces, slowly, gently. The Phantom’s hood and robe
drop gracefully to the ground in a small heap. Music in. There is
nothing in them. They are mortal cloth. The Spirit is elsewhere.
Scrooge has his sign. Scrooge is alone. Tableau. The light fades
to black.]

Scene 5
1 [The end of it. Marley, spotlighted, opposite Scrooge, in his bed,
spotlighted. Marley speaks to audience, directly.]

2 Marley. [He smiles at Scrooge.] The firm of Scrooge and

Marley is doubly blessed; two misers turned; one, alas, in
Death, too late; but the other miser turned in Time’s
penultimate nick.8 Look you on my friend, Ebenezer 8. in Time’s penultimate nick just
Scrooge . . . at the last moment.

3 Scrooge. [Scrambling out of bed; reeling in delight] I will live in

the Past, in the Present, and in the Future! The Spirits of all
Three shall strive within me!
4 Marley. [He points and moves closer to Scrooge‘s bed.] Yes,
Ebenezer, the bedpost is your own. Believe it! Yes, Ebenezer,
the room is your own. Believe it!
5 Scrooge. Oh, Jacob Marley! Wherever you are, Jacob, know
ye that I praise you for this! I praise you . . . and heaven . . .
and Christmastime! [Kneels facing away from Marley] I say it
to you on my knees, old Jacob, on my knees! [He touches his
bed curtains.] Not torn down. My bed curtains are not at all
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

torn down! Rings and all, here they are! They are here: I am
here: the shadows of things that would have been, may now
be dispelled. They will be, Jacob! I know they will be! dispelled (dihs PEHLD) v. driven
away; scattered
6 [He chooses clothing for the day. He tries different pieces of clothing
and settles, perhaps, on a dress suit, plus a cape of the bed clothing:
something of color.]
7 I am light as a feather, I am happy as an angel. I am as merry
as a schoolboy. [Yells out window and then out to audience]
Merry Christmas to everybody! Merry Christmas to
everybody! A Happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here!
Whoop! Whoop! Hallo! Hallo! I don’t know what day of the
month it is! I don’t care! I don’t know anything! I’m quite a
baby! I don’t care! I don’t care a fig! I’d much rather be a baby

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act II 285

 than be an old wreck like me or Marley! (Sorry, Jacob.
NOTES wherever ye be!) Hallo! Hallo there!
8 [Church bells chime in Christmas Day. A small boy, named Adam,
is seen now D.R., as a light fades up on him.] Hey, you boy!
What’s today? What day of the year is it?

CLOSE READ
9 Adam. Today, sir? Why, it’s Christmas Day!
ANNOTATE: In paragraphs 10 Scrooge. It’s Christmas Day, is it? Whoop! Well, I haven’t
12–22, mark words that show missed it after all, have I? The Spirits did all they did in one
Scrooge’s attitude and behavior
night. They can do anything they like, right? Of course they
toward Adam.
can! Of course they can!
QUESTION: What do these
11 Adam. Excuse me, sir?
word choices reveal about
Scrooge? 12 Scrooge. Huh? Oh, yes, of course. What’s your name, lad?
CONCLUDE: How does 13 [Scrooge and Adam will play their scene from their own
Scrooge’s attitude and spotlights.]
behavior toward Adam reveal a
transformation in his character? 14 Adam. Adam, sir.
15 Scrooge. Adam! What a fine, strong name! Do you know the
9. poulterer’s (POHL tuhr uhrz) n. poulterer’s9 in the next street but one, at the corner?
British term for a person or a
store that sells poultry. 16 Adam. I certainly should hope I know him, sir!
17 Scrooge. A remarkable boy! An intelligent boy! Do you
know whether the poulterer’s have sold the prize turkey that
was hanging up there? I don’t mean the little prize turkey,
Adam. I mean the big one!
18 Adam. What, do you mean the one they’ve got that’s as big
as me?
19 Scrooge. I mean, the turkey the size of Adam: that’s the bird!
20 Adam. It’s hanging there now, sir.
21 Scrooge. It is? Go and buy it! No, no. I am absolutely in
earnest (UR nihst) adj. serious and earnest. Go and buy it and tell ’em to bring it here, so that I
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
heartfelt; not joking may give them the directions to where I want it delivered, as
a gift. Come back here with the man, Adam, and I’ll give you
a shilling. Come back here with him in less than five minutes,
and I’ll give you half-a-crown!
22 Adam. Oh, my sir! Don’t let my brother in on this.
23 [Adam runs offstage. Marley smiles.]

24 Marley. An act of kindness is like the first green grape of

summer: one leads to another and another and another. It
would take a queer man indeed to not follow an act of
kindness with an act of kindness. One simply whets the
tongue for more . . . the taste of kindness is too too sweet.
Gifts—goods—are lifeless. But the gift of goodness one feels
in the giving is full of life. It . . . is . . . a . . . wonder.

286 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 NOTES

25 [Pauses; moves closer to Scrooge, who is totally occupied with his

dressing and arranging of his room and his day. He is making lists,
etc. Marley reaches out to Scrooge.]
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

26 Adam. [Calling, off] I’m here! I’m here!

27 [Adam runs on with a man, who carries an enormous turkey.]
28 Here I am, sir. Three minutes flat! A world record! I’ve got the
poultryman and he’s got the poultry! [He pants, out of breath.]
I have earned my prize, sir, if I live . . .
29 [He holds his heart, playacting. Scrooge goes to him and embraces
him.]

30 Scrooge. You are truly a champion, Adam . . .

31 Man. Here’s the bird you ordered, sir . . .
32 Scrooge. Oh, my, MY!!! Look at the size of that turkey, will
you! He never could have stood upon his legs, that bird! He
would have snapped them off in a minute, like sticks of

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act II 287

 sealingwax! Why you’ll never be able to carry that bird to
NOTES Camden-Town, I’ll give you money for a cab . . .
33 Man. Camden-Town’s where it’s goin’, sir?
34 Scrooge. Oh, I didn’t tell you? Yes, I’ve written the precise
address down just here on this . . . [Hands paper to him] Bob
Cratchit’s house. Now he’s not to know who sends him this.
Do you understand me? Not a word . . . [Handing out money
and chuckling]
35 Man. I understand, sir, not a word.
36 Scrooge. Good. There you go then . . . this is for the
turkey . . . [Chuckle] . . . and this is for the taxi. [Chuckle] . . .
and this is for your world-record run, Adam . . .
37 Adam. But I don’t have change for that, sir.
38 Scrooge. Then keep it, my lad. It’s Christmas!
39 Adam. [He kisses Scrooge’s cheek, quickly.] Thank you, sir.
Merry, Merry Christmas! [He runs off.]
40 Man. And you’ve given me a bit overmuch here, too, sir . . .
41 Scrooge. Of course I have, sir. It’s Christmas!
42 Man. Oh, well, thanking you, sir. I’ll have this bird to
Mr. Cratchit and his family in no time, sir. Don’t you worry
none about that. Merry Christmas to you, sir, and a very
happy New Year, too . . .
43 [The man exits. Scrooge walks in a large circle about the stage,
which is now gently lit. A chorus sings Christmas music far in the
distance. Bells chime as well, far in the distance. A gentlewoman
enters and passes. Scrooge is on the streets now.]

44 Scrooge. Merry Christmas, madam . . .

45 Woman. Merry Christmas, sir . . .

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

46 [The portly businessman from the first act enters.]

47 Scrooge. Merry Christmas, sir.

CLOSE READ 48 Portly Man. Merry Christmas, sir.
ANNOTATE: In paragraphs
49–56, mark words and phrases 49 Scrooge. Oh, you! My dear sir! How do you do? I do hope
that indicate the Portly Man’s that you succeeded yesterday! It was very kind of you.
reaction to Scrooge. A Merry Christmas.
QUESTION: Why might the 50 Portly Man. Mr. Scrooge?
playwright have included these
51 Scrooge. Yes, Scrooge is my name though I’m afraid you
details?
may not find it very pleasant. Allow me to ask your pardon.
CONCLUDE: What does the And will you have the goodness to—[He whispers into the
Portly Man’s reaction show
man’s ear.]
about Scrooge’s character at this
point in the play?

288 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 52 Portly Man. Lord bless me! My dear Mr. Scrooge, are you
NOTES
serious!?!
53 Scrooge. If you please. Not a farthing10 less. A great many 10. farthing (FAHR thihng) n. small
back payments are included in it, I assure you. Will you do British coin.

me that favor?
54 Portly Man. My dear sir, I don’t know what to say to such
munifi—
55 Scrooge. [Cutting him off] Don’t say anything, please. Come
and see me. Will you?
56 Portly Man. I will! I will! Oh I will, Mr. Scrooge! It will be my
pleasure!
57 Scrooge. Thank’ee, I am much obliged to you. I thank you
fifty times. Bless you!
58 [Portly Man passes offstage, perhaps by moving backwards.
Scrooge now comes to the room of his Nephew and Niece. He
stops at the door, begins to knock on it, loses his courage, tries
again, loses his courage again, tries again, fails again, and then
backs off and runs at the door, causing a tremendous bump against
it. The Nephew and Niece are startled. Scrooge, poking head
into room]
59 Fred!

60 Nephew. Why, bless my soul! Who’s that?

61 Nephew and Niece. [Together] How now? Who goes?
62 Scrooge. It’s I. Your Uncle Scrooge.
63 Niece. Dear heart alive!
64 Scrooge. I have come to dinner. May I come in, Fred?
65 Nephew. May you come in???!!! With such pleasure for me
you may, Uncle!!! What a treat!
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

66 Niece. What a treat, Uncle Scrooge! Come in, come in!

67 [They embrace a shocked and delighted Scrooge: Fred calls into the
other room.]

68 Nephew. Come in here, everybody, and meet my Uncle

Scrooge! He’s come for our Christmas party!
69 [Music in. Lighting here indicates that day has gone to night and
gone to day again. It is early, early morning. Scrooge walks alone
from the party, exhausted, to his offices, opposite side of the stage.
He opens his offices. The offices are as they were at the start of the
play. Scrooge seats himself with his door wide open so he can see
into the tank, as he awaits Cratchit, who enters, head down, full of
guilt. Cratchit, starts writing almost before he sits.]

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act II 289

 70 Scrooge. What do you mean by coming in here at this time
NOTES
of day, a full eighteen minutes late, Mr. Cratchit? Hallo, sir?
Do you hear me?
71 Bob. I am very sorry, sir. I am behind my time.
72 Scrooge. You are? Yes, I certainly think you are. Step this
way, sir, if you please . . .
73 Bob. It’s only but once a year, sir . . . It shall not be repeated.
I was making rather merry yesterday and into the night . . .
74 Scrooge. Now, I’ll tell you what, Cratchit. I am not going to
stand this sort of thing any longer. And therefore . . .
75 [He stands and pokes his finger into Bob‘s chest.]
76 I am . . . about . . . to . . . raise . . . your salary.

77 Bob. Oh, no, sir. I . . . [Realizes] what did you say, sir?
78 Scrooge. A Merry Christmas, Bob . . . [He claps Bob‘s back.]
A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow! than I have given
you for many a year. I’ll raise your salary and endeavor to
assist your struggling family and we will discuss your affairs
11. smoking bishop a type of this very afternoon over a bowl of smoking bishop.11 Bob!
mulled wine or punch that Make up the fires and buy another coal scuttle before you dot
was especially popular in
Victorian England at another i, Bob. It’s too cold in this place! We need warmth
Christmas time. and cheer, Bob Cratchit! Do you hear me? DO . . . YOU . . .
HEAR . . . ME?
79 [Bob Cratchit stands, smiles at Scrooge: Bob Cratchit faints.
Blackout. As the main lights black out, a spotlight appears on
Scrooge: C. Another on Marley: He talks directly to the audience.]

80 Marley. Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all and
infinitely (IHN fuh niht lee) adv. infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a
enormously; remarkably second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master,
as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
old city, town, or borough in the good old world. And it was
always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well,
if any man alive possessed the knowledge. [Pauses] May that
be truly said of us, and all of us. And so, as Tiny Tim
observed . . .
81 Tiny Tim. [Atop Scrooge’s shoulder] God Bless Us, Every
One . . .
82 [Lights up on chorus, singing final Christmas Song. Scrooge and
Marley and all spirits and other characters of the play join in.
When the song is over, the lights fade to black.] ❧

290 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 Comprehension Check
Complete the following items after you finish your first read.

1. Who is the second spirit that Scrooge encounters?

2. What does the Ghost of Christmas Present sprinkle on people in the street?

3. Who is the third spirit that Scrooge encounters?

4. What is the last thing the Ghost of Christmas Future shows Scrooge?
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

5. Notebook Write a brief summary of A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and

Marley, Act II.

RESEARCH
Research to Clarify Choose at least one unfamiliar detail from the text. Briefly
research that detail. In what way does the information you learned shed light on an
aspect of the play?

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act II 291

 MAKING MEANING

Close Read the Text

1. T​ his model, from Scene 1, paragraph 18, shows two sample
annotations, along with questions and conclusions. Close read the
passage, and find another detail to annotate. Then, write a question
A CHRISTMAS CAROL:
and conclusion.
SCROOGE AND MARLEY, ACT II

ANNOTATE: The words flame, fireplace, burns,

warming, and fire appear in one sentence.
QUESTION: What effect is created with this
word choice? ANNOTATE:
The Ghost of
CONCLUDE: The Ghost of Christmas Present Christmas Present
has brought warmth and comfort into wears a rusty
Scrooge’s home. scabbard and
there is no sword
in it.
Present is wearing a simple green QUESTION: What
robe.... Suddenly, there is a mighty idea is being
roar of flame in the fireplace and conveyed by
now the hearth burns with a lavish, these details?
warming fire. There is an ancient CONCLUDE:
scabbard girdling the Ghost’s middle, The Ghost of
Christmas Present
but without sword. The sheath is gone
represents peace.
to rust.

Tool Kit 2. For more practice, go back into the text and complete the close read
Close-Read Guide and notes.
Model Annotation
3. Revisit a section of the text you found important during your first read.
Read this section closely and annotate what you notice. Ask yourself
questions such as “Why did the author make this choice?” What can
you conclude?

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Cite textual evidence

Analyze the Text to support your answers.

Notebook Respond to these questions.

1. (a) Analyze Why is Scrooge happy at the end of the play? (b) Predict
How well do you think Scrooge will live up to his promise to learn his
 STANDARDS
“lessons”? (c) Support What details in Act II support your prediction?
Reading Literature
• Cite several pieces of textual 2. Take a Position Do you think Cratchit and Scrooge’s nephew do the
evidence to support analysis of what right thing by forgiving Scrooge immediately? Explain.
the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text. 3. Essential Question What can cause a sudden change in
• Analyze how particular elements of
a story or drama interact.
someone’s life? What have you learned about what can cause a
• Analyze how a drama’s or poem’s sudden change in someone’s life by reading Act II of this play?
form or structure contributes to its
meaning.

292 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What can cause a sudden change in someone’s life?

Analyze Craft and Structure

Text Structure: Stage Directions The written text of a play is called
a script. The two main parts of a script are dialogue, or conversations
between characters, and stage directions. Stage directions instruct
actors on how to move and speak, or they describe what the stage
should look and sound like. If you are reading a play instead of watching
a performance, you get certain information only from the stage
directions. Stage directions are usually written in italic type and set off by
brackets or parentheses.

Stage directions are the playwright’s instructions to the director and

actors to guide them in performing and interpreting the script. Through
stage directions, playwrights convey important information about:

• the setting and the context

• the scenery, lighting, and sound effects
• the behavior and actions of the actors
• the ways in which actors should deliver lines

CITE TEXTUAL EVIDENCE

Practice to support your answers.

Use the chart to analyze the playwright’s use of stage directions in

Act II of A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley. In the center column,
identify key details that are important to understanding the stage
direction; for example, the actors involved or the types of sound
effects. In the right column, summarize what you learn from the stage
direction; for example, how the characters feel or move.

Stage Direction KEY DETAILS WHAT YOU LEARN FROM IT

[Lights. Choral music is

sung….the audience directly.]
(Scene 1, paragraph 1)
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

[Church bells toll….are

alone again.] (Scene 2,
paragraph 19)

[Jacob Marley laughs…They

laugh, anxious.] (Scene 4,
paragraph 71)

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act II 293

 LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Concept Vocabulary
parallel strive earnest
altered dispelled infinitely
A CHRISTMAS CAROL:
SCROOGE AND MARLEY, ACT II
Why These Words? The concept vocabulary words relate to Scrooge’s
transforming character and personality. For example, after the Spirits’
visits he is an altered man who is infinitely more pleasant and willing to
help other people.

1. How does the concept vocabulary sharpen the reader’s understanding

of how Scrooge changes?

2. What other words in the selection describe Scrooge’s change in

character and personality?

Practice
 WORD NETWORK Notebook Confirm the definitions for the six concept vocabulary
Add interesting words words. Consult a dictionary as necessary to verify the meanings. Then,
related to turning points complete the activities.
from the text to your Word 1. Use each concept vocabulary word in a sentence that demonstrates its
Network.
meaning.
2. Rewrite each sentence using a synonym, or word with a similar
meaning, for the concept vocabulary word. How does the replacement
change the meaning of the sentence?
 STANDARDS
Language
• Determine or clarify the meaning Word Study
of unknown and multiple-meaning
words and phrases based on grade 7 Greek Prefix: para- The Greek prefix para- means “beside.” In the
reading and content, choosing word parallel, the prefix is combined with a Greek root that means “of
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
flexibly from a range of strategies. one another.” So, parallel means “beside one another.” Two lines that
b. Use common, grade-appropriate
are parallel extend in the same direction beside one another and are
Greek or Latin affixes and roots as
clues to the meaning of a word. always the same distance apart.
c. Consult general and specialized
reference materials, both print and 1. Write your own sentence that correctly uses the word parallel.
digital, to find the pronunciation
of a word or determine or clarify
its precise meaning or its part of
speech.
d. Verify the preliminary
determination of the meaning of a 2. Using a dictionary or thesaurus, find two other words or phrases that
word or phrase. contain the Greek prefix para-. Record a definition for each word or
• Demonstrate understanding phrase, and write a sentence that correctly uses it.
of figurative language, word
relationships, and nuances in word
meanings.
b. Use the relationship between
particular words to better
understand each of the words.

294 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What can cause a sudden change in someone’s life?

Conventions
Sentence Structures In English, there are four types of sentence
structure.

• A simple sentence consists of one independent clause—a group

of words that has a subject and a verb and that can stand by itself
as a complete thought.
EXAMPLE: My cousin Tyrone and I are close friends.
• A compound sentence consists of two or more independent
clauses linked by a conjunction such as and, but, or or.
EXAMPLE: I like spending time with Tyrone, and we like doing
the same things.
• A complex sentence contains one independent clause and
one or more dependent clauses. A dependent clause is a group of
words that has a subject and verb but is not a complete thought.
EXAMPLE Tyrone lives in my neighborhood, although his
house is not very close to mine.
• A compound-complex sentence consists of two or more
independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses.
EXAMPLE: We often go to the park, and, if we have all
afternoon, we might go to a movie.

Read It
Reread these sentences from the selection. Identify each sentence
structure, and then underline and label the clauses as independent
or dependent.

1. He has the oddest ideas sometimes, but he seems all the while to be
growing stronger and more hearty.

2. Tonight, if you have aught to teach me, let me profit by it.

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

3. The lights shift color again, the scrim flies away, and we are in the
interior of the Cratchit family home.

4. I’ll have the clock strike one and, when he awakes expecting my
second messenger, there will be no one.

Write It
Notebook Write an example of each sentence type.
1. simple
 STANDARDS
2. compound
Language
3. complex Choose among simple, compound,
complex, and compound-complex
4. compound-complex sentences to signal differing
relationships among ideas.

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act II 295

 EFFECTIVE EXPRESSION

Writing to Sources
An explanatory essay defines, explains, or interprets ideas, events, or
processes in an organized, logical way.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL:
SCROOGE AND MARLEY, ACT II Assignment
Write an explanatory essay in which you analyze how the stage
directions in A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley enhance your
understanding and enjoyment of the play. Be sure to provide details
and specific examples from the play to support your ideas.
• Begin with an introductory paragraph in which you state the
central idea of your essay.
• Organize your essay so that each paragraph or section clearly
supports your central idea.
• Support your analysis with details, quotations, and examples
from the play.
• Maintain a formal style in your writing, and use precise words
and phrases that help your audience understand your ideas.
• Provide a conclusion that reinforces the explanation you present
in your essay.

 STANDARDS
Writing Vocabulary and Conventions Connection Consider including several
• Write informative/explanatory texts
to examine a topic and convey ideas, of the concept vocabulary words in your essay. Also, remember to use a
concepts, and information through variety of sentence structures to make your writing more interesting.
the selection, organization, and
analysis of relevant content.
a. Introduce a topic clearly, parallel strive earnest
previewing what is to follow;
organize ideas, concepts, and altered dispelled infinitely
information, using strategies
such as definition, classification,
comparison/contrast, and cause/
effect; include formatting, graphics,
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
and multimedia when useful to Reflect on Your Writing
aiding comprehension.
b. Develop the topic with relevant After you have written your essay, answer these questions.
facts, definitions, concrete details,
quotations, or other information 1. Was it easy or difficult to find stage directions that helped you enjoy
and examples. or understand the play?
d. Use precise language and
domain-specific vocabulary to
inform about or explain the topic.
e. Establish and maintain a
formal style.
f. Provide a concluding statement
2. Have your ideas about stage directions changed after writing this
or section that follows from essay? Why, or why not?
and supports the information or
explanation presented.
• Draw evidence from literary or
informational texts to support
analysis, reflection, and research. 3. Why These Words? The words you choose make a difference in
a. Apply grade 7 Reading standards your writing. Which words did you specifically choose to make your
to literature. ideas clear?

296 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What can cause a sudden change in someone’s life?

Speaking and Listening

Costume plans provide descriptions and sketches or images of the
clothing that actors will wear on stage during the performance of a
drama. Costume plans should reflect the drama’s setting as well as the
vision of the playwright who created the characters.

Assignment
Work with a partner to conduct research on the clothing that was
worn in Victorian-era England. Then, create and present costume
plans for two different characters from A Christmas Carol: Scrooge
and Marley.

1. Analyze the Characters Work with your partner to review the play
 evidence log
and analyze the characters. Select two characters on which to focus.
Before moving on to a
Take notes on the following details:
new selection, go to your
• the social positions of the characters Evidence Log and record
• how the season would influence the characters’ clothing what you’ve learned from
A Christmas Carol: Scrooge
2. Conduct Research Use the Internet and library resources to find and Marley, Act II.
information and visuals to accurately develop realistic costume plans
for both characters. You will need to know:
• the types of clothing the characters would have worn based on
their social position
• the types of clothing that were typically popular during the season
• fabrics and materials that were available during the time period
3. Develop Your Costume Plans Use the information from your
analysis and your research to create costume plans. In your plans,
show and describe the types of clothing, including the colors and
fabrics. Include pictures and sketches to illustrate your descriptions.
4. Deliver Your Presentation
• Explain why you chose each costume.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

• Ask classmates for feedback about whether your costumes reflect  STANDARDS
what they imagined as they read the play. Writing
Conduct short research projects
Presentation Evaluation Guide to answer a question, drawing on
several sources and generating
Rate each statement on a scale of 1 (not demonstrated) to 5 additional related, focused questions
for further research and investigation.
(demonstrated).
Speaking and Listening
• Present claims and findings,
The costume plans were creative and original. emphasizing salient points in a
focused, coherent manner with
The costume plans accurately reflected both the characters and the pertinent descriptions, facts, details,
time period. and examples; use appropriate eye
contact, adequate volume, and clear
pronunciation.
The speakers clearly explained the decisions behind each costume. • Include multimedia components
and visual displays in presentations
The presentation was illustrated with pictures and sketches. to clarify claims and findings and
emphasize salient points.

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, Act II 297

 MAKING MEANING

Comparing Text to Media

In this lesson, you will watch a clip from the film
Scrooge. You will then compare the film clip to
the written dramatic adaptation of A Christmas
A CHRISTMAS CAROL: from SCROOGE
SCROOGE AND MARLEY Carol: Scrooge and Marley. While watching
the film clip, note the differences in how each
medium—text and film—tells the story.

from Scrooge
Media Vocabulary
The following words or concepts will be useful to you as you analyze,
discuss, and write about media.

screenplay: the written script of a All films begin with a screenplay, including
film, including acting instructions those based on other works.
and scene directions
director: the creative artist The director is responsible for the film’s
responsible for interpreting the visual and dramatic effect on an audience.
screenplay
performance: an actor’s An actor’s performance affects how the
portrayal of a character audience responds to a character.

editing: how separate shots An editor combines, rearranges, and cuts

filmed during production are film and adds things, such as music and
arranged to tell a story, add special effects.
suspense, and set pacing

First Review MEDIA: VIDEO

Apply these strategies as you watch the video. Be sure to note time codes
so you can revisit specific sections later.

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

H
TC
WA

WATCH whom the video is NOTE elements that you find

 STANDARDS about, what happens, where interesting and want to revisit.
Reading Literature and when it happens, and why
By the end of the year, read and those involved react as they do.
comprehend literature, including
stories, dramas, and poems, in the
grades 6–8 text complexity band
proficiently, with scaffolding as
needed at the high end of the range. CONNECT details in the  ESPOND by completing
R
Language video to other videos or the Comprehension Check at
Acquire and use accurately grade- texts. the end.
appropriate general academic and
domain-specific words and phrases;
gather vocabulary knowledge
when considering a word or phrase
important to comprehension or
expression.

298 UNIT 3 • Turning Points

 MEDIA | FILM

from Scrooge
Directed by Henry Edwards

BACKGROUND
Charles Dickens first published A Christmas Carol in 1843. The novella was an
instant success and has become a holiday classic. A Christmas Carol has inspired
many television and film adaptations, including this 1935 British film Scrooge.
The title role of Ebenezer Scrooge is played by Seymour Hicks, a British actor,
playwright, and producer.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

NOTES

from Scrooge 299

Comprehension Check
Complete the following items after you finish your first review.

1. What part of the story does the film clip show?

2. What joke does the Cratchit family play on Bob Cratchit when he returns home?

3. What hopeful statement does Cratchit make about Tiny Tim? Does Mrs. Cratchit
agree with him?

4. Notebook Write a few sentences in which you explain which actor you think Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
gives the most engaging performance in the film clip.

RESEARCH
Research to Clarify Choose one element of the film, such as the direction,
performance, or editing. Briefly research that element. In what way does the
information you learned shed light on the experience of watching the film?

300 UNIT 3 • Turning Points

 MAKING MEANING

Close Review
Watch the excerpt from Scrooge again. Write any new
observations that seem important. What questions do
you have? What can you conclude?
from SCROOGE

Cite textual evidence

Analyze the Media to support your answers.

Notebook Complete the activities.

1. (a) Interpret What do you think the Ghost of Christmas Present
means when he says Scrooge may be “more worthless than millions”?
(b) Make Inferences Based on the details in the clip, do you think
Scrooge understands and appreciates the Ghost’s meaning? Why or
why not?
2. Essential Question: What can cause a sudden change in
someone’s life? What have you learned about what can cause a
sudden change in someone’s life by watching Scrooge?

language development

Media Vocabulary
screenplay      director
performance     editing

Use the vocabulary words in your responses to the questions.

1. Identify something that a film can allow viewers to see or experience
that a text version of the same story would not.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

2. How did the film portray the Cratchit family?

3. How did the film clip capture the experience of both Scrooge and the  Standards
Cratchit family? Reading Literature
Cite several pieces of textual
evidence to support analysis of
what the text says explicitly as
well as inferences drawn from
4. Do you think the film clip portrayed the story accurately and the text.
realistically? Why or why not? Language
Acquire and use accurately grade-
appropriate general academic
and domain-specific words
and phrases; gather vocabulary
knowledge when considering
a word or phrase important to
comprehension or expression.

from Scrooge 301

 eFFECTIVE EXPreSSION

Writing to Compare
Both the drama A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley and the
film Scrooge tell the same story, but they reflect the use of different
techniques that are unique to each medium. To compare reading the play
with watching the film, look for similarities and differences in how the
A CHRISTMAS CAROL :
Scrooge and Marley two mediums present the same subject.

Assignment
Write a comparison-and-contrast essay in which you analyze
the similarities and differences between the two versions of Charles
Dickens’s famous novel. Describe the techniques unique to each
medium, and conclude your essay by explaining which adaptation you
think is more effective.
from SCROOGE

Planning and Prewriting

Compare Play and Film Techniques Discuss the techniques used in the
play and in the film to tell the same story. Use the chart below to guide
your analysis of the two mediums. Identify the similarities and differences
in the ways the play and the film develop characters, setting, and mood.

PLAY FILM

Characters How are characters How do actors’

 Standards
described and performances develop
Reading Literature
Compare and contrast a written developed? the characters?
story, drama, or poem to its audio,
filmed, staged, or multimedia Setting How do stage What setting details
version, analyzing the effects directions convey the have the greatest
of techniques unique to each
medium.
setting? impact on the viewer?
Writing
• Write informative/explanatory Mood How does the How do lighting,

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

texts to examine a topic and playwright create the editing, directing, and
convey ideas, concepts, and mood, or atmosphere, sound effects create
information through the selection,
organization, and analysis of in different scenes? the mood in different
relevant content. scenes?
b. Develop the topic with
relevant facts, definitions,
concrete details, quotations, or Notebook Respond to these questions.
other information and examples.
• Draw evidence from literary 1. Which medium, written drama or film, gives the audience’s
or informational texts to support imagination more room to fill in details? Explain.
analysis, reflection, and research.
a. Apply grade 7 Reading 2. Which version of this story is more effective? Why?
standards to literature.
Speaking and Listening
Analyze the main ideas and
supporting details presented in
diverse media and formats and
explain how the ideas clarify a
topic, text, or issue under study.

302 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 essential question: What can cause a sudden change in someone’s life?

Drafting
Create an Outline There are two main ways to organize a comparison-
 evidence log
and-contrast essay: the block method and the point-by-point method.
Before moving on to a
If you choose the block method of comparison, you will write about
new selection, go to your
each medium separately. If you choose the point-by-point method, each Evidence Log and record
paragraph will analyze one feature as it is developed in both the play and what you’ve learned from
the film. Create an outline, using one of the following models as a guide. the film clip from Scrooge.

Block Method of Comparison Point-by-Point Method of Comparison

I. Introduction Present the topic and identify I. Introduction Present the topic and identify the
the two sources you will compare and contrast. two sources you will compare and contrast.
II. A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley II. Characters
A. Techniques used in the written play A. A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley
B. Strengths of the medium B. from Scrooge
C. Limitations of the medium III. Setting
III. from Scrooge A. A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley
A. Techniques used in the film B. from Scrooge
B. Strengths of the medium IV. Mood
C. Limitations of the medium A. A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley
IV. Conclusion Explain which version you think is B. from Scrooge
more effective and why.
V. Conclusion Explain which version you think
is more effective and why.

Use Precise Language When comparing a written play and a film,  Standards
Reading Literature
using precise language and technical vocabulary will enable you to Compare and contrast a written
accurately discuss your subjects. For example, when discussing the story, drama, or poem to its audio,
sounds in a film, you might use technical terms such as soundtrack, filmed, staged, or multimedia
version, analyzing the effects
dialogue, and sound effects. of techniques unique to each
medium.
Support Your Conclusion In the final paragraph of your essay, present
Writing
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

an evaluation in which you explain which medium tells the story more • Write informative/explanatory
effectively. Support your evaluation with evidence. texts to examine a topic and
convey ideas, concepts, and
Review, Revise, and Edit information through the selection,
organization, and analysis of
Review the assignment to make sure your essay fulfills the requirements. relevant content.
Ask yourself: d. Use precise language and
domain-specific vocabulary to
• Does my essay have a clear organization that highlights the points inform about or explain the
of comparison? topic.
f. Provide a concluding
• Are my ideas supported by relevant evidence? statement or section that
follows from and supports the
• Does my conclusion state and support my evaluation as to which information or explanation
medium is more effective? presented.
• Is my essay free from errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar? • Produce clear and coherent
writing in which the development,
organization, and style are
appropriate to task, purpose, and
audience.

from Scrooge 303

 PERFORMANCE TASK: WRITING FOCUS

WRITING TO SOURCES

• A CHRISTMAS CAROL:
Write an Explanatory Essay
SCROOGE AND MARLEY
You have just read and watched selections that relate to someone
experiencing a turning point in life. In A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and
• from SCROOGE Marley and in the clip from the film Scrooge, we meet Ebenezer Scrooge,
a bitter miser who undergoes a transformation when he is visited by
three spirits.

Assignment
Review the selections in this section, and analyze the ways in which
specific events and experiences contribute to Scrooge’s transformation.
Then, write a cause-and-effect essay in which you address the
ACADEMIC following prompt:
VOCABULARY
How does Scrooge’s character transform over the
As you craft your essay,
consider using some of the
course of the play?
academic vocabulary you
learned in the beginning
of the unit. Elements of a Cause-and-Effect Essay
contribute A cause-and-effect essay explains why something happens or what
consistent happens as a result of something else. A successful cause-and-effect
maintain essay includes the following elements:
observation
• an introduction that grabs readers’ interest and a strong, insightful
sufficient
conclusion
• a well-defined central idea that is supported by textual evidence
Tool Kit • detailed analysis and factual explanations of events or experiences
Student Model of an and the relationships among them
Informative/Explanatory
• a clear, logical organization with effective transitions that show
Essay
causes and effects
• precise language and specific vocabulary that is appropriate to the
topic and audience
• a formal style and an objective tone

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Model Essay For a model of a well-crafted LAUNCH TEXT
cause-and-effect essay, see the Launch Text,
UNIT
3 INTRODUCTION

LAUNCH TEXT | EXPLANATORY ESSAY MODEL

This selection is an example of

an explanatory text, a type of

“At the Crossroads.”

writing in which the author shares
detailed information about a
topic or process. This is the type
of writing you will develop in the
Performance-Based Assessment at
the end of the unit.
As you read, notice that the author
presents facts without offering
opinions or arguments.
At the

Challenge yourself to find all of the elements of a NOTES

1

I
Crossroads
n April of 2012, 25-year-old Nick Kleckner was working as
an electrician and cabdriver in northern California. And then,

cause-and-effect essay in the text. You will have

suddenly, he found himself at a crossroads. He left it all—his job,
his family, his friends—and bought a one-way plane ticket to
Jacksonville, Florida. He had a bold plan in mind. He was going
to walk to California with virtually nothing on his back. He hoped
the journey would change his life, but he had no idea how!
2 Nick, who was not exactly prepared, had nothing in the way

an opportunity to review these elements as you

of survival skills, so he planned to survive on the goodness of the
people he met on the road.
3 Using the handle “Hobo Nick,” Nick began his journey on
April 5, leaving Jacksonville with a backpack, a sleeping bag,

 STANDARDS
and a travel kit. He also had an iPod and the ability to receive
Internet service. Throughout the journey, he would document his
experience in minute detail and send daily updates to his mother,
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

prepare to write your own essay.

who’d post them on his blog.
4 The question is: Why? What would make someone take off like
that? Nick had a comfortable life. He had a good income, a house,

Writing
a new car, and a new motorcycle. He was moving forward with
his life. By society’s standards he should have been happy—but he
wasn’t.
5 Nick was in a rut. His life felt repetitive and boring. It lacked
a higher purpose. He felt he wasn’t growing as a person. He had

• Write informative/explanatory texts

“things” but didn’t appreciate them. “It got to the point where I
couldn’t deal with everything anymore,” Nick said later. “I felt a
lot of pressure, stress, and anxiety and decided to get out.”
6 As Hobo Nick, he trekked across miles of scorched desert and
endured nights of pounding rain. In the towns and cities, he

to examine a topic and convey ideas, 228 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

concepts, and information through

LIT22_SE07_U03_LT.indd 228 18/03/21 2:47 PM

the selection, organization, and

analysis of relevant content.
• Write routinely over extended time
frames and shorter time frames for
a range of discipline-specific tasks,
purposes, and audiences.

304 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 ESSENTIAL QUESTION : What can cause a sudden change in someone’s life?

Prewriting / Planning
Develop Your Ideas To develop ideas for your essay, consider the
 EVIDENCE LOG
various causes for and effects of the transformation in Scrooge’s
Review your Evidence Log
character over the course of the play. Review the play, and identify
and identify key details you
three key events or experiences that you think are most significant in may want to include in
bringing about this transformation. The topic web shown provides an your essay.
example of causes and effects in the Launch Text. To develop your ideas,
create a topic web for each key event and experience you will discuss in
your essay.

EFFECT
CAUSE Nick’s adventure provided
Nick was bored and felt him with new experiences
his life was “in a rut.” and taught him to “live in
the moment.”
EVENT/ EXPERIENCE
Nick walks from Florida
to California.

EFFECT
CAUSE Nick learned to be thankful
Nick had “things,” but no for everything he has and
longer appreciated them. that the generosity of
strangers is surprising.

Connect Across Texts In order to effectively support the analysis you

present, you will need relevant details, quotations, and examples from
the selections. Review the texts that you have read so far in this unit,
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

using your topic webs as a guide, and take notes on passages that  STANDARDS
strongly support the causes and effects on which you are focusing. Try Writing
Write informative/explanatory texts
to vary the ways in which you incorporate support. For example, you to examine a topic and convey ideas,
can use direct quotations, or the playwright’s exact words, when concepts, and information through
these words are important to making your point. Alternatively, you can the selection, organization, and
analysis of relevant content.
paraphrase, or restate in your own words, a complex idea or a broad
a. Introduce a topic clearly,
example to make its importance clear to your audience. previewing what is to follow;
organize ideas, concepts, and
information, using strategies
such as definition, classification,
comparison/contrast, and cause/
effect; include formatting, graphics,
and multimedia when useful to
aiding comprehension.
b. Develop the topic with relevant
facts, definitions, concrete details,
quotations, or other information
and examples.

Performance Task: Write an Explanatory Essay 305

 PERFORMANCE TASK: WRITING FOCUS

Drafting
Develop Your Introduction To introduce your topic and show why it
is interesting, begin your essay with an engaging opening sentence. For
example, you might begin with a rhetorical question or an interesting
quotation. You should then provide a clear statement of your central idea
as well as background information to establish context for your readers.

Organize Logically To help readers follow your explanation for the

transformation of Scrooge’s character, you must logically organize your
ideas and information so that readers can easily follow the causes and
effects of key events and experiences. To do so, use one of the following
structures:

• Order of Importance: In this type of organization, each paragraph

or section of your essay should focus on explaining the causes and
effects of one key event or experience. You may choose either
to begin with the most important event or experience in order
to capture your readers’ attention, or to arouse their curiosity
by beginning with your least important event or experience and
building toward your most important one.

• Chronological Order: This organizational structure is especially

useful if your key events and experiences build on each other as
a result of a sequence of causes and effects. First, sequence the
events or experiences in the order in which they occurred in the
play. In the first paragraph or section of your essay, explain the
causes that resulted in the first event as well as the effects the event
had—these effects serve as the cause for the event or experience
you will discuss next, and so on.

Use Transitions Transition words and phrases will help you to explain
the links between causes and effects and clarify the analysis on which
your explanation is based. Incorporate transitions, such as the ones
shown, to help your audience to follow your train of thought.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
 STANDARDS
Writing
Write informative/explanatory texts
to examine a topic and convey ideas, if, when, because of, since, due to, until, in order
concepts, and information through TO SHOW A CAUSE
to, provided that
the selection, organization, and
analysis of relevant content. TO SHOW AN then, as a result, consequently, therefore, after,
a. Introduce a topic clearly, EFFECT eventually
previewing what is to follow;
organize ideas, concepts, and
information, using strategies
such as definition, classification,
comparison/contrast, and cause/
effect; include formatting, graphics,
and multimedia when useful to
aiding comprehension.
c. Use appropriate transitions to
create cohesion and clarify the
relationships among ideas and
concepts.

306 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 ESSENTIAL QUESTION : What can cause a sudden change in someone’s life?

I
Language Development: Conventions

Revise Sentences to Heighten Interest

Playwrights, such as Israel Horovitz, typically use a variety of sentence
structures in their writing to create interesting dialogue and effective
stage directions. Use the following strategies to revise your sentences to
create variety:
• Combine short, choppy sentences.
• Combine sentences that repeat ideas.
• Combine sentences to clarify the connections among ideas.

As you apply these strategies, use a variety of sentence structures.

Read It Punctuation
Use dashes to indicate a
These sentences from the Launch Text show how the author revised quick break in thought and
sentences to create variety by using the strategies listed. a return to that thought.
(I know—and I’m sure I’m
PROBLEM BEFORE REVISION SOLUTION AND REVISION right—who the culprit is.)

short, choppy He had a good Combine ideas into one

sentences income. He had a simple sentence by using a
house. He had a conjunction: He had a good
new car. He had a income, a house, a new car,
new motorcycle. and a new motorcycle.

two sentences By society’s Use a compound sentence  STANDARDS

that repeat an standards he to combine sentences: By Writing
Write informative/explanatory texts
idea should have been society’s standards he should
to examine a topic and convey ideas,
happy. He wasn’t have been happy—but he concepts, and information through
happy. wasn’t. the selection, organization, and
analysis of relevant content.
two sentences In the towns and Use a complex sentence to d. Use precise language and
domain-specific vocabulary to
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

that lack a clear cities, he slept on clarify connections: In the inform about or explain the topic.
connection the street. He knew towns and cities, he slept on Language
between ideas people would help the street, where he knew • Demonstrate command of the
him out. that there were people to conventions of standard English
grammar and usage when writing or
help him out. speaking.
b. Choose among simple,
compound, complex, and
Write It compound-complex sentences
to signal differing relationships
As you draft your essay, use a variety of sentence structures to heighten among ideas.
readers’ interest. Revise sentences, using the chart as a reference. • Use knowledge of language and its
conventions when writing, speaking,
reading, or listening.
a. Choose language that expresses
ideas precisely and concisely,
recognizing and eliminating
wordiness and redundancy.

Performance Task: Write an Explanatory Essay 307

 PERFORMANCE TASK: WRITING FOCUS

Revising
Evaluating Your Draft
Use the following checklist to evaluate your first draft. Then, use your
evaluation and the instruction on this page to guide your revision.

FOCUS and Organization Evidence and Elaboration Conventions

Provides an engaging Provides detailed analysis and Attends to the norms and
introduction and an factual explanations of events conventions of the discipline,
insightful conclusion. and experiences. especially the correct use of a
variety of sentence structures.
Contains a clear Supports analysis and
statement of the central explanations with a variety of Establishes and maintains
idea as well as the context evidence. a formal style and
surrounding it. objective tone.
Uses precise language that is
Uses a clear organization appropriate to audience and
with effective transitions purpose.
that show causes and
effects.

 WORD NETWORK Revising for Focus and Organization

Include interesting words Review Your Conclusion In a cause-and-effect essay, an effective
from your Word Network in conclusion not only summarizes the central idea, but it also provides
your essay. new insight into the relationship between the causes and effects. The
concluding section should suggest to readers how the ideas in your essay
might deepen their understanding of the topic. Review your conclusion
to be sure that it addresses the prompt, summarizes your central idea,
and provides new insight into the subject matter.
Use Domain-Specific Vocabulary To express your thoughts as precisely

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

as possible in your writing, it is important to choose the right words. You
can use signal words and phrases to indicate your certainty of the validity
of a particular cause or effect, or to show how important specific causes
and effects are in relation to each other. Use signal words, such as the
ones shown, to make your explanation clear and precise.
 STANDARDS
Writing
Write informative/explanatory texts SIGNAL WORDS
to examine a topic and convey ideas,
concepts, and information through may, certainly, probably, necessarily, perhaps,
DEGREES OF
the selection, organization, and definitely, without a doubt, conclusively,
analysis of relevant content. CERTAINTY
possibly, in some way
d. Use precise language and
domain-specific vocabulary to primarily, most important, equally relevant,
inform about or explain the topic. LEVELS OF
fundamentally, of greater concern, meaningless,
f. Provide a concluding statement IMPORTANCE
or section that follows from insignificant, secondary, lesser
and supports the information or
explanation presented.

308 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 ESSENTIAL QUESTION : What can cause a sudden change in someone’s life?

Peer Review

Exchange essays with a classmate. Use the checklist to evaluate your classmate’s essay and
provide supportive feedback.
1. Is there an engaging introduction and an insightful conclusion?
yes no If no, suggest that the writer add these elements.

2. Is there support from the selections for the writer’s analysis and explanation?
yes no If no, point out where the writer should provide support.

3. Is the essay logically organized so that the relationships between causes and effects
are clear?
yes no If no, point out where the writer should make these connections
clearer.

4. What is the strongest part of your classmate’s essay? Why?

Editing and Proofreading

Edit for Conventions Reread your draft for accuracy and consistency.
Correct errors in grammar and word usage. Be sure you have maintained
a formal style and an objective tone in your writing by identifying and
replacing any slang terms, abbreviations, and casual expressions. Your
essay should use academic language and vocabulary that conveys
knowledge and credibility.

Proofread for Accuracy Read your draft carefully, looking for errors
in spelling and punctuation. Pay careful attention to the punctuation,  STANDARDS
indentation, and capitalization of quotations. Use quotation marks to Writing
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

• Write informative/explanatory texts

set off short quotations. Longer quotations of four or more lines should to examine a topic and convey ideas,
begin on a new line, be indented, and appear without quotation marks. concepts, and information through
the selection, organization, and
analysis of relevant content.
Publishing and Presenting e. Establish and maintain a formal
style.
Create a final version of your essay and share it with your class by posting
• With some guidance and support
it on a class or school Web site. Then, review several classmates’ essays, from peers and adults, develop and
and respond online by leaving comments and suggestions. Remember to strengthen writing as needed by
be respectful and polite when offering feedback. planning, revising, editing, rewriting,
or trying a new approach, focusing
on how well purpose and audience
Reflecting have been addressed.
• Use technology, including the
Reflect on what you learned as you wrote your essay. How did writing Internet, to produce and publish
writing and link to and cite sources
about the events and experiences that caused Scrooge’s transformation
as well as to interact and collaborate
help to deepen your understanding of what defines a turning point in a with others, including linking to and
person’s life? citing sources.

Performance Task: Write an Explanatory Essay 309

 OVERVIEW: SMALL-GROUP LEARNING

ESSENTIAL QUESTION:

What can cause a sudden

change in someone’s life?
Can someone’s life change in the course of a day or even an hour or even a
minute? Is it possible to wake up the next day and be a different person? You
will read selections that talk about changes, both big and small. You will work in
a group to continue your exploration of turning points.

Small-Group Learning Strategies

Throughout your life, in school, in your community, and in your career, you will
continue to learn and work with others.

Look at these strategies and the actions you can take to practice them as you
work in teams. Add ideas of your own for each step. Use these strategies during
Small-Group Learning.

STRATEGY ACTION PLAN

Prepare • Complete your assignments so that you are prepared for group work.
• Organize your thinking so you can contribute to your group’s discussion.

Participate fully • Make eye contact to signal that you are listening and taking in what is being said.
• Use text evidence when making a point.

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Support others • Build off ideas from others in your group.
• Invite others who have not yet spoken to do so.

Clarify • Paraphrase the ideas of others to ensure that your understanding is correct.
• Ask follow-up questions.

310 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 CONTENTS
SHORT STORY

Thank You, M’am

Langston Hughes

A chance encounter has a powerful impact.

MEMOIR

from An American Childhood

Annie Dillard

Some people suddenly realize that they are

ready to grow up.

MEDIA: PHOTO GALLERY

Urban Farming Is Growing a

Greener Future
Hillary Schwei

How can changes in our surroundings produce

changes in ourselves?
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

PERFORMANCE TASK
SPEAKING AND LISTENING FOCUS
Present an Explanatory Essay
The Small-Group readings feature different turning points that have caused sudden
changes—big and small—in people’s thinking and their lives in general. After
reading the selections, your group will plan and deliver a multimedia presentation
about turning points.

Overview: Small-Group Learning 311

 OVERVIEW: SMALL-GROUP LEARNING

Working as a Team
1. Take a Position In your group, discuss the following question:
Can people truly change?
As you take turns sharing your positions, be sure to provide reasons
for your choice. After all group members have shared, discuss the
personality traits that would be necessary to realize such a genuine
change.

2. List Your Rules As a group, decide on the rules that you will follow
as you work together. Two samples are provided. Add two more of
your own. You may add or revise rules based on your experience
together.
• Everyone should participate in group discussions.
• People should not interrupt.

3. Apply the Rules Share what you have learned about turning points.
Make sure each person in the group contributes. Take notes, and
be prepared to share with the class one thing that you heard from
another member of your group.

4. Name Your Group Choose a name that reflects the unit topic.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Our group’s name:

5. Create a Communication Plan Decide how you want to

communicate with one another. For example, you might use online
collaboration tools, email, or instant messaging.

Our group’s decision:

312 UNIT 3 • Turning Points

 ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What can cause a sudden change in someone’s life?

Making a Schedule
First, find out the due dates for the small-group activities. Then, preview
the texts and activities with your group, and make a schedule for
completing the tasks.

SELECTION ACTIVITIES DUE DATE

Thank You, M’am

from An American Childhood

Urban Farming Is Growing

a Greener Future

Working on Group Projects

As your group works together, you’ll find it more effective if each person
has a specific role. Different projects require different roles. Before
beginning a project, discuss the necessary roles and choose one for each
group member. Here are some possible roles; add your own ideas.

Project Manager: monitors the schedule and keeps everyone on task

Researcher: organizes research activities
Recorder: takes notes during group meetings
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Overview: Small-Group Learning 313

 MAKING MEANING

About the Author

Thank You, M’am
Concept Vocabulary
As you perform your first read of “Thank You, M’am,” you will encounter
these words.

permit   release   contact
Langston Hughes
(1902–1967) published his Context Clues If these words are unfamiliar to you, try using context
first work just a year after clues to help you determine their meanings. There are various types of
his high school graduation. context clues that you may encounter as you read.
Though he wrote in many
genres, Hughes is best Synonyms: The thieves purloined the letter and hid it. The police
known for his poetry. He could not find the stolen item for months.
was one of the main figures
in the Harlem Renaissance, Restatement of an Idea: The woman showed largesse when she
a creative movement among donated a large sum of money to the charity.
African Americans that took
place during the 1920s in Contrast of Ideas: I did not like the view of the barren mountaintop
Harlem, an area in New because I am used to being surrounded by lush greenery.
York City.
Apply your knowledge of context clues and other vocabulary strategies to
determine the meanings of unfamiliar words you encounter during your
first read.

First Read FICTION

Apply these strategies as you conduct your first read. You will have an
opportunity to complete a close read after your first read.

NOTICE whom the story ANNOTATE by marking

is about, what happens, vocabulary and key passages
where and when it happens, you want to revisit.
and why those involved react Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
as they do.

CONNECT ideas within RESPOND by completing

the selection to what you the Comprehension Check.
 STANDARDS already know and what you
Reading Literature have already read.
By the end of the year, read and
comprehend literature, including
stories, dramas, and poems, in the
grades 6–8 text complexity band
proficiently, with scaffolding as
needed at the high end of the range.
Language
Use context as a clue to the meaning
of a word or phrase.

314 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 SHORT STORY

Thank You,
M’am
Langston Hughes

BACKGROUND
In this story, published in 1958, Roger, the protagonist, really wants a
pair of blue suede shoes. This particular fashion item became popular
after Carl Perkins released his hit song “Blue Suede Shoes” in 1956.
Elvis Presley also famously covered the song in the same year.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

S he was a large woman with a large purse that had everything

in it but hammer and nails. It had a long strap, and she carried
it slung across her shoulder. It was about eleven o’clock at night,
NOTES

dark, and she was walking alone, when a boy ran up behind her
and tried to snatch her purse. The strap broke with the sudden
single tug the boy gave it from behind. But the boy’s weight and
the weight of the purse combined caused him to lose his balance.
Instead of taking off full blast as he had hoped, the boy fell on
his back on the sidewalk and his legs flew up. The large woman
simply turned around and kicked him right square in his blue-
jeaned sitter. Then she reached down, picked the boy up by his
shirt front, and shook him until his teeth rattled.

Thank You, M’am 315

 2 After that the woman said, “Pick up my pocketbook, boy, and
NOTES give it here.”
Mark context clues or indicate 3 She still held him tightly. But she bent down enough to permit
another strategy you used that
helped you determine meaning.
him to stoop and pick up her purse. Then she said, “Now ain’t
permit (puhr MIHT) v. you ashamed of yourself?”
MEANING:
4 Firmly gripped by his shirt front, the boy said, “Yes’m.”
5 The woman said, “What did you want to do it for?”
6 The boy said, “I didn’t aim to.”
7 She said, “You a lie!”
8 By that time two or three people passed, stopped, turned to
look, and some stood watching.
9 “If I turn you loose, will you run?” asked the woman.
10 “Yes’m,” said the boy.
11 “Then I won’t turn you loose,” said the woman. She did not
release (rih LEES) v. release him.
MEANING: 12 ”Lady, I’m sorry,” whispered the boy.
13 “Um-hum! Your face is dirty. I got a great mind to wash your
face for you. Ain’t you got nobody home to tell you to wash your
face?”
14 “No’m,” said the boy.
15 “Then it will get washed this evening,” said the large woman
starting up the street, dragging the frightened boy behind her.
16 He looked as if he were fourteen or fifteen, frail and
willow‑wild, in tennis shoes and blue jeans.
17 The woman said, “You ought to be my son. I would teach you
right from wrong. Least I can do right now is to wash your face.
Are you hungry?”
18 “No’m,” said the being-dragged boy. “I just want you to turn
me loose.”
19 “Was I bothering you when I turned that corner?” asked the
woman.
20 “No’m.”

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

contact (KON takt) n. 21 “But you put yourself in contact with me,” said the woman.
MEANING: “If you think that that contact is not going to last awhile, you got
another thought coming. When I get through with you, sir, you
are going to remember Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones.”
22 Sweat popped out on the boy’s face and he began to struggle.
Mrs. Jones stopped, jerked him around in front of her, put a half
nelson1 about his neck, and continued to drag him up the street.
When she got to her door, she dragged the boy inside, down a
hall, and into a large kitchenette-furnished room at the rear of
the house. She switched on the light and left the door open. The
boy could hear other roomers laughing and talking in the large
house. Some of their doors were open, too, so he knew he and the

1. half nelson wrestling hold in which an arm is placed under the opponent’s armpit from
behind with the palm of the hand pressed against the back of the neck.

316 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 woman were not alone. The woman still had him by the neck in
the middle of her room. NOTES

23 She said, “What is your name?”

24 “Roger,” answered the boy.
25 “Then, Roger, you go to that sink and wash your face,” said the
woman, whereupon she turned him loose—at last. Roger looked
at the door—looked at the woman—looked at the door—and went
to the sink.
26 “Let the water run until it gets warm,” she said. “Here’s a clean
towel.”
27 “You gonna take me to jail?” asked the boy, bending over
the sink.
28 “Not with that face, I would not take you nowhere,” said the
woman. “Here I am trying to get home to cook me a bite to eat
and you snatch my pocketbook! Maybe, you ain’t been to your
supper either, late as it be. Have you?”
29 “There’s nobody home at my house,” said the boy.
30 “Then we’ll eat,” said the woman, “I believe you’re hungry—or
been hungry—to try to snatch my pocketbook.”
31 “I wanted a pair of blue suede shoes,” said the boy.
32 “Well, you didn’t have to snatch my pocketbook to get some
suede shoes,” said Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones. “You
could of asked me.”
33 “M’am?”
34 The water dripping from his face, the boy looked at her. There
was a long pause. A very long pause. After he had dried his face
and not knowing what else to do dried it again, the boy turned
around, wondering what next. The door was open. He could make
a dash for it down the hall. He could run, run, run, run!
35 The woman was sitting on the day bed. After a while she said,
“I were young once and I wanted things I could not get.”
36 There was another long pause. The boy’s mouth opened. Then
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

he frowned, not knowing he frowned.

37 The woman said, “Um-hum! You thought I was going to say
but, didn’t you? You thought I was going to say, but I didn’t snatch
people’s pocketbooks. Well, I wasn’t going to say that.” Pause.
Silence. “I have done things, too, which I would not tell you,
son—neither tell God, if He didn’t already know. Everybody’s got
something in common. So you set down while I fix us something
to eat. You might run that comb through your hair so you will
look presentable.”
38 In another corner of the room behind a screen was a gas plate2
and an icebox. Mrs. Jones got up and went behind the screen. The
woman did not watch the boy to see if he was going to run now,
nor did she watch her purse, which she left behind her on the day

2. gas plate hot plate heated by gas that is used for cooking.

Thank You, M’am 317

 bed. But the boy took care to sit on the far side of the room, away
NOTES from her purse, where he thought she could easily see him out of
the corner of her eye if she wanted to. He did not trust the woman
not to trust him. And he did not want to be mistrusted now.
39 “Do you need somebody to go to the store,” asked the boy,
“maybe to get some milk or something?”
40 “Don’t believe I do,” said the woman, “unless you just want
sweet milk yourself. I was going to make cocoa out of this canned
milk I got here.”
41 “That will be fine,” said the boy.
42 She heated some lima beans and ham she had in the icebox,
made the cocoa, and set the table. The woman did not ask the
boy anything about where he lived, or his folks, or anything else
that would embarrass him. Instead, as they ate, she told him
about her job in a hotel beauty-shop that stayed open late, what
the work was like, and how all kinds of women came in and out,
blondes, redheads, and Spanish. Then she cut him a half of her
ten-cent cake.
43 “Eat some more, son,” she said.
44 When they were finished eating she got up and said, “Now,
here, take this ten dollars and buy yourself some blue suede
shoes. And next time, do not make the mistake of latching onto my
pocketbook nor nobody else’s—because shoes got by devilish ways
will burn your feet. I got to get my rest now. But from here on in,
son, I hope you will behave yourself.”
45 She led him down the hall to the front door and opened it.
“Good night! Behave yourself, boy!” she said, looking out into the
street.
46 The boy wanted to say something else other than “Thank you,
m’am” to Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones, but although his
lips moved, he couldn’t even say that as he turned at the foot of
the barren stoop and looked up at the large woman in the door.

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Then she shut the door. ❧

318 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 Comprehension Check
Complete the following items after you finish your first read. Review and clarify
details with your group.

1. How do Mrs. Jones and Roger meet?

2. What does Roger expect Mrs. Jones to do?

3. What does Mrs. Jones do instead?

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

4. Notebook Confirm your understanding of the story by drawing a storyboard

of key events.

RESEARCH
Research to Clarify Research a topic that you think will help you better understand
this story. For instance, you might want to learn more about its author, Langston
Hughes. In what way does the information you learned shed light on the story? Share
your findings with your group.

Thank You, M’am 319

 MAKING MEANING

Close Read the Text

With your group, revisit sections of the text you marked
during your first read. Annotate details that you notice.
What questions do you have? What can you conclude?
THANK YOU, M’AM

Cite textual evidence

Analyze the Text to support your answers.

Complete the activities.

1. Review and Clarify With your group, reread paragraph 38 of the
GROUP DISCUSSION story. Why doesn’t Roger want to be mistrusted?
When you work in your
group to answer the 2. Present and Discuss Now, work with your group to share the
Analyze the Text questions, passages from the text that you found especially important. Take turns
be sure to direct listeners to presenting your passages. Discuss what you noticed in the text, the
specific words, sentences, questions you asked, and the conclusions you reached.
and paragraphs in the story.
3. Essential Question: What can cause a sudden change in
someone’s life? What has this story taught you about the kinds of
events, actions, and people that can cause a change in someone’s life?
Discuss with your group.

language development

Concept Vocabulary
 WORD NETWORK permit   release   contact
Add interesting words
related to turning points Why These Words? The concept vocabulary words from the text are
from the text to your Word related. With your group, determine what the words have in common.
Network.
Record your ideas, and add another word that fits the category.

Practice
Notebook Confirm your understanding of these words by Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

 Standards using each word in a sentence. Be sure to use context clues that hint at
Language each word’s meaning. Use a dictionary to verify your understanding of
Determine or clarify the meaning each word.
of unknown and multiple-meaning
words and phrases based on
grade 7 reading and content,
choosing flexibly from a range of
Word Study
strategies. Multiple-Meaning Words Many words have more than one meaning.
c. Consult general and
specialized reference materials, If you are not sure of the meaning of a multiple-meaning word, use
both print and digital, to find context clues to make an educated guess. Then, confirm the word’s
the pronunciation of a word or meaning in a dictionary.
determine or clarify its precise
meaning or its part
of speech. All three concept vocabulary words are multiple-meaning words. First,
d.Verify the preliminary write the meaning of each word as it is used in the story. Then, use a
determination of the meaning of dictionary to find at least two other meanings for each word.
a word or phrase.

320 UNIT 3 • Turning Points

 essential question: What can cause a change in someone’s life?

Analyze Craft and Structure

Elements of a Short Story: Plot Plot is the related sequence of events
in a story. Each event in the plot moves the story forward. A plot has the
following elements:

• Exposition: introduction of the characters, the setting, and the basic

situation
• Rising Action: events that introduce a conflict, or struggle, and
increase the tension; may also include events that explain characters’
past actions
• Climax: the story’s high point, or moment of greatest intensity;
often a turning point in the story at which the eventual outcome
becomes clear
• Falling Action: events that follow the climax
• Resolution: the story’s final outcome and tying up of loose ends  Standards
Reading Literature
This diagram will help you to visualize the sequence of plot elements. • Cite several pieces of textual
evidence to support analysis of
what the text says explicitly as
Climax well as inferences drawn from
the text.
Rising Action Falling Action • Analyze how particular elements
of a story or drama interact.

Exposition Resolution

CITE TEXTUAL EVIDENCE

Practice to support your answers.

Work with your group to fill in this graphic organizer by identifying the
elements of plot in “Thank You, M’am.”

PLOT ELEMENT LOCATION IN “THANK YOU, M’AM”

Exposition

Rising Action
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Climax

Falling Action

Resolution

Notebook As a group, respond to the following questions.

1. (a) Identify two plot events that increase the tension between
Mrs. Jones and Roger. (b) How does this tension contribute to the
rising action in the story?
2. What clues in the story enabled you to identify the climax, or
turning point?
3. Do you think the story’s resolution provides a sense of satisfaction
for the reader? Why or why not?

Thank You, M’am 321

 Language Development

Conventions
Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases A preposition relates a noun
or a pronoun that follows it to another word in the sentence. Some
commonly used prepositions include at, after, between, for, in, of, on, to,
THANK YOU, M’AM
through, and with.

Example: The book is on the table.

The preposition on relates the noun table to another word in the
sentence, book.

A prepositional phrase begins with a preposition and ends with a noun

or pronoun—called the object of the preposition.

Example: The book is on the table.

The prepositional phrase on the table begins with the preposition on
and ends with the noun table, which is the object of the preposition.

Read It
Work with your group to identify examples of prepositions and
prepositional phrases in “Thank You, M’am.” Write your examples in
the chart. Mark the prepositional phrases, as shown in Example 1.

Example 1 She was a large woman with a large purse that had
everything in it but hammer and nails.

Example 2

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Example 3

Example 4

 Standards
Language Write It
Demonstrate command of the
conventions of standard English Notebook Write a paragraph in which you describe someone
grammar and usage when writing or who has had a positive impact on your life. Correctly use at least
speaking.
a. Explain the function of phrases three prepositional phrases in your paragraph. Mark the object of the
and clauses in general and their preposition in each phrase.
function in specific sentences.

322 UNIT 3 • Turning Points

 Effective Expression

Writing to Sources
In real life, you can often understand a situation better by putting
yourself in someone else’s shoes. Similarly, when reading a work of
fiction, you can often deepen your understanding of the work by
considering the points of view of different characters.

Assignment
Use your imagination and details from “Thank You, M’am” to write a  evidence log
journal entry about events in the story from the point of view of one
Before moving on to a
of the characters, either Roger or Mrs. Jones. In your journal entry, new selection, go to your
focus on one of the following: Evidence and record what
Mrs. Jones’s perspective on meeting Roger you learned from “Thank
You M’am.”
Roger’s perspective on meeting Mrs. Jones

Consider the following questions as you write: What feelings would

he or she be likely to express in a journal entry about the experience?
What words would he or she use? Refer to details in the story to
accurately convey the point of view and personality of the character
you chose.

Project Plan Before you begin, decide as a group whether you want to  Standards
Writing
write a journal entry from the point of view of Roger or Mrs. Jones. Make Write narratives to develop real
a list of the tasks you will need to complete to fulfill the assignment. or imagined experiences or events
Decide how you will organize the work. Then, appoint individual group using effective technique, relevant
descriptive details, and well-
members to each task. structured event sequences.
a. Engage and orient the reader by
Clarifying Ideas and Evidence Brainstorm your impressions of establishing a context and point
Mrs. Jones or Roger. What are they thinking? What are their impressions of view and introducing a narrator
and/or characters; organize an
of each other? What sensory details do you want to include? Use your event sequence that unfolds
own imagination and evidence from the text to support your ideas. naturally and logically.
c. Use a variety of transition
Use Transitions Use transitions to show shifts in time or setting in your words, phrases, and clauses to
convey sequence and signal shifts
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

journal entry. Transition words, phrases, and clauses, such as meanwhile, from one time frame or setting to
while Roger waited, afterwards, and all of a sudden, will help to show another.
the connection between the events you describe as well as the differences d. Use precise words and phrases,
relevant descriptive details, and
between your memories of events and your current reflections on them. sensory language to capture the
action and convey experiences and
Present After you have completed your journal entry, present your events.
finished work to the class. Make sure all group members have a role to Speaking and Listening
play in the presentation. Engage effectively in a range of
collaborative discussions with diverse
partners on grade 7 topics, texts, and
Discuss and Reflect Pay close attention and take notes as you listen
issues, building on others’ ideas and
to the presentations of other groups. When all the groups are done expressing their own clearly.
presenting, briefly discuss your thoughts with your group. Are there any b. Follow rules for collegial
discussions, track progress toward
ideas that were used by multiple groups? Are there any ideas from other specific goals and deadlines, and
groups’ presentations that impressed you? Is there anything you would define individual roles as needed.
do differently next time? d. Acknowledge new information
expressed by others and, when
warranted, modify their own views.

Thank You, M’am 323

 MAKING MEANING

About the Author

from An American Childhood
Technical Vocabulary
You will encounter the following words as you read the excerpt from An
American Childhood.

tissue   enlarged   amoeba
Annie Dillard (b.1945)
published her memoir, Base Words If these words are unfamiliar to you, analyze each one to
An American Childhood, see whether it contains a base word, or “inside” word, that you know.
in 1987. Dillard’s memoir Then, use your knowledge of the “inside” word, along with context,
describes her experiences to determine the meaning of the technical vocabulary word. Here is an
growing up in Pittsburgh,
example of how to apply the strategy.
Pennsylvania, during the
1950s. A Pulitzer Prize Unfamiliar Word: research
winner, Dillard received the
National Humanities Award Familiar “Inside” Word: search
from President Barack
Obama in 2015. Context: The scientist was celebrated for her research in microscopic
organisms.

Conclusion: Scientists study how things work. Because “search”

is in the word research, the scientist may have been celebrated for
the information she “searched for,” or found out, about microscopic
organisms.

Apply your knowledge of base words and other vocabulary strategies to

determine the meanings of unfamiliar words you encounter during your
first read.

First Read NONFICTION

Apply these strategies as you conduct your first read. You will have an
opportunity to complete a close read after your first read.

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

NOTICE the general ideas of ANNOTATE by marking
the text. What is it about? vocabulary and key passages
Who is involved? you want to revisit.

 STANDARDS
Reading Informational Text
By the end of the year, read and CONNECT ideas within RESPOND by completing
comprehend literary nonfiction in the selection to what you the Comprehension Check and
the grades 6–8 text complexity band
already know and what you by writing a brief summary of
proficiently, with scaffolding as
needed at the high end of the range. have already read. the selection.
Language
Use the relationship between
particular words to better understand
each of the words.

324 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 MEMOIR

from
An American
Childhood
Annie Dillard

BACKGROUND
In the beginning of the excerpt, Annie Dillard mentions The Field Book
of Ponds and Streams, which sparked her curiosity in microscopes and
science. Published in 1930, this text became an important resource for
anyone interested in learning about plants and animals in freshwater
environments. The book is typically praised for the instructive
photographs and drawings it contains, and remains popular today.

A fter I read The Field Book of Ponds and Streams several times,
I longed for a microscope. Everybody needed a microscope.
Detectives used microscopes, both for the FBI and at Scotland
NOTES

Yard. Although usually I had to save my tiny allowance for

things I wanted, that year for Christmas my parents gave me a
microscope kit.
2 In a dark basement corner, on a white enamel table, I set up the
microscope kit. I supplied a chair, a lamp, a batch of jars, a candle,
Mark base words or indicate
and a pile of library books. The microscope kit supplied a blunt another strategy you used that
black three-speed microscope, a booklet, a scalpel, a dropper, an helped you determine meaning.
ingenious device for cutting thin segments of fragile tissue, a pile tissue (TIHSH oo) n.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

of clean slides and cover slips, and a dandy array of corked test MEANING:

tubes.
3 One of the test tubes contained “hay infusion.” Hay infusion
was a wee brown chip of grass blade. You added water to it,
and after a week it became a jungle in a drop, full of one-celled
animals. This did not work for me. All I saw in the microscope
after a week was a wet chip of dried grass, much enlarged. enlarged (ehn LAHRJD) adj.
4 Another test tube contained “diatomaceous earth.” This MEANING:

was, I believed, an actual pinch of the white cliffs of Dover. On

my palm it was an airy, friable1 chalk. The booklet said it was
composed of the silicaceous2 bodies of diatoms—one-celled
creatures that lived in, as it were, small glass jewelry boxes with
fitted lids. Diatoms, I read, come in a variety of transparent

1. friable (FRY uh buhl) adj. easy to crumble.

2. silicaceous (sihl ih KAY shee uhs) adj. made of silica, like sand.

from An American Childhood 325

 geometrical shapes. Broken and dead and dug out of geological
NOTES deposits, they made chalk, and a fine abrasive used in silver
polish and toothpaste. What I saw in the microscope must have
been the fine abrasive—grit enlarged. It was years before I saw
a recognizable, whole diatom. The kit’s diatomaceous earth was
a bust.
5 All that winter I played with the microscope. I prepared slides
from things at hand, as the books suggested. I looked at the
transparent membrane inside an onion’s skin and saw the cells.
I looked at a section of cork and saw the cells, and at scrapings
from the inside of my cheek, ditto. I looked at my blood and saw
not much; I looked at my urine and saw long iridescent crystals,
Mark base words or indicate
another strategy you used that
for the drop had dried.
helped you determine meaning. 6 All this was very well, but I wanted to see the wildlife I had
amoeba (uh MEE buh) n. read about. I wanted especially to see the famous amoeba, who
MEANING: had eluded me. He was supposed to live in the hay infusion, but
I hadn’t found him there. He lived outside in warm ponds and
streams, too, but I lived in Pittsburgh, and it had been a cold winter.
7 Finally late that spring I saw an amoeba. The week before, I had
gathered puddle water from Frick Park; it had been festering
in a jar in the basement. This June night after dinner I figured
I had waited long enough. In the basement at my microscope
table I spread a scummy drop of Frick Park puddle water on a
slide, peeked in, and lo, there was the famous amoeba. He was
as blobby and grainy as his picture; I would have known him
anywhere.
8 Before I had watched him at all, I ran upstairs. My parents
were still at the table, drinking coffee. They, too, could see the
famous amoeba. I told them, bursting, that he was all set up, that
they should hurry before his water dried. It was the chance of a
lifetime.
9 Father had stretched out his long legs and was tilting back

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

in his chair. Mother sat with her knees crossed, in blue slacks,
smoking a Chesterfield. The dessert dishes were still on the table.
My sisters were nowhere in evidence. It was a warm evening; the
big dining-room windows gave onto blooming rhododendrons.
10 Mother regarded me warmly. She gave me to understand that
she was glad I had found what I had been looking for, but that she
and Father were happy to sit with their coffee, and would not be
coming down.
11 She did not say, but I understood at once, that they had their
pursuits (coffee?) and I had mine. She did not say, but I began to
understand then, that you do what you do out of your private
passion for the thing itself.
12 I had essentially been handed my own life. In subsequent years
my parents would praise my drawings and poems, and supply

326 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 me with books, art supplies, and sports equipment, and listen
to my troubles and enthusiasms, and supervise my hours, and NOTES

discuss and inform, but they would not get involved with my
detective work, nor hear about my reading, nor inquire about my
homework or term papers or exams, nor visit the salamanders I
caught, nor listen to me play the piano, nor attend my field hockey
games, nor fuss over my insect collection with me, or my poetry
collection or stamp collection or rock collection. My days and
nights were my own to plan and fill.
13 When I left the dining room that evening and started down
the dark basement stairs, I had a life. I sat with my wonderful
amoeba, and there he was, rolling his grains more slowly now,
extending an arc of his edge for a foot and drawing himself along
by that foot, and absorbing it again and rolling on. I gave him
some more pond water.
14 I had hit pay dirt. For all I knew, there were paramecia, too,
in that pond water, or daphniae, or stentors, or any of the many
other creatures I had read about and never seen: volvox, the
spherical algal colony; euglena with its one red eye; the elusive,
glassy diatom; hydra, rotifers, water bears, worms. Anything was
possible. The sky was the limit. ❧

Comprehension Check
Complete the following items after you finish your first read. Review and clarify
details with your group.

1. What does Dillard most want to see through her microscope?

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

2. How do Dillard’s parents react when she tells them what she discovered when
looking through her microscope?

3. Notebook Confirm your understanding of the text by writing a summary. Your

summary should include Dillard’s main points, but it should not include your own
opinions of the memoir.

RESEARCH
Research to Clarify Choose at least one unfamiliar scientific detail mentioned in the
memoir. Briefly research that detail, and share your findings with your group.

from An American Childhood 327

 MAKING MEANING

Close Read the Text

With your group, revisit sections of the text you marked
during your first read. What do you notice? What
questions do you have? What can you conclude?
from An American
Childhood
Cite textual evidence
Analyze the Text to support your answers.

Complete the activities.

1. Review and Clarify With your group, reread paragraphs 7–14 of the
GROUP DISCUSSION excerpt. What happens that leads the narrator to a realization about
When you work in your life? What does she realize? How does this realization affect her?
group to answer the
Analyze the Text questions, 2. Present and Discuss Now, work with your group to share the
be sure to support your passages from the text that you found especially important.
opinions and ideas with
evidence from the text. 3. Essential Question: What can cause a sudden change in
someone’s life? What does the memoir reveal about the ways in
which a experience can change someone’s life? Discuss.

language development

Technical Vocabulary
tissue    enlarged    amoeba
 WORD NETWORK
Add interesting words Why These Words? The technical vocabulary words from the text are
related to turning points related. With your group, determine what the words have in common.
from the text to your Word Write your ideas, and add another word that fits the category.
Network.

Practice
Notebook Confirm your understanding of these words by verifying

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

their meanings in a dictionary. Then, use each word in a sentence. Be
sure to include context clues that reveal the words’ meanings in your
 Standards sentences.
Language
• Determine or clarify the meaning
of unknown and multiple-meaning Word Study
words and phrases based on
grade 7 reading and content, Prefix: en- The prefix en- is often used to turn nouns or adjectives
choosing flexibly from a range of into verbs. In the memoir, Annie Dillard writes about how she used her
strategies.
d. Verify the preliminary microscope to see small organisms enlarged, or “made larger.” The word
determination of the meaning of large is an adjective used to describe the size of something. Adding the
a word or phrase. prefix en- to the word large creates the verb enlarge, which means “to
• Demonstrate understanding
of figurative language, word make larger or bigger.” For each of the following words, determine how
relationships, and nuances in word the prefix en- turns the base word into a verb, and write a definition for
meanings. each verb based on your understanding of the meaning of the adjective
b. Use the relationship between
particular words to better or noun: enable, enact, endanger.
understand each of the words.

328 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What can cause a sudden change in someone’s life?

Analyze Craft and Structure

Reflective Writing A reflective essay is a short work of nonfiction that
expresses an author’s thoughts and feelings—or reflections—about an
experience or idea. The purpose of reflective writing is to spark readers to
respond to the author’s ideas with thoughts and feelings of their own.

In a reflective essay, an author typically develops his or her central ideas,  Standards
or most important points, through details about individuals, events, Reading Informational Text
and ideas. Although an author may sometimes state his or her central • Cite several pieces of textual
evidence to support analysis of
ideas directly, often the reader must make inferences, or educated what the text says explicitly as
guesses, based on the details in the text. To do so, notice how the author well as inferences drawn from
groups details, and look for sentences or passages that pull these details the text.
• Determine two or more central
together. ideas in a text and analyze their
development over the course of
As you read a reflective essay, think about the thoughts and feelings the text; provide an objective
the author shares and analyze interactions among individuals, events, summary of the text.
• Analyze the interactions
and ideas. Use the details you notice in your analysis to determine the between individuals, events, and
central ideas. ideas in a text.

Cite textual evidence

Practice to support your answers.

Notebook Reread the excerpt from An American Childhood, and

work with your group to analyze the memoir. Use a chart, such as the
one shown, to guide your analysis and record your ideas. Then, answer
the questions that follow.

DILLARD’S Thoughts My Thoughts and

Paragraphs Interactions
and Feelings Feelings

1–7
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

8–11

12–14

1. (a) Based on your analysis, what is one of the central ideas in the
excerpt from An American Childhood? (b) What might be another
central idea Dillard explores in the excerpt? (c) What specific details
helped you to identify the central ideas?
2. After analyzing the excerpt, do you feel that Dillard achieved her
purpose in writing a reflective piece? Why or why not?

from An American Childhood 329

 Language development

Conventions
Appositives and Appositive Phrases An appositive is a noun or
pronoun placed next to another noun or pronoun to identify, rename, or
explain it.
from An American An appositive phrase is an appositive with modifiers, such as adjectives.
Childhood
Appositive Appositive Phrase

Our cat, Midnight, likes to sleep Karina—a talented violinist­—

on my bed. played a solo.

If the information in an appositive or appositive phrase is essential to

understanding the sentence, do not set it off with commas or dashes.
Example: Have you read the story “Fish Cheeks”?

If the sentence is clear without the information in the appositive or

appositive phrase, do use commas or dashes to set it off.
Example: The author of that story, Amy Tan, is one of my favorites.

Read It
Work with your group to identify examples of appositives and appositive
phrases in the selection. Then, discuss Annie Dillard’s purpose for
including them. Did the appositives and appositive phrases provide
useful information to help you understand unfamiliar words or technical
terms? Did the information add to your understanding of the excerpt
as a whole?

Appositive or Appositive Phrase Noun or Pronoun It Identifies,

From the Selection Renames, or Explains

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

 Standards
Language Write It
• Demonstrate command of the
conventions of standard English Notebook Write a paragraph about something in which you
grammar and usage when writing or are an expert. It could be a type of music, a sport, or a hobby. In your
speaking.
paragraph, use appositives and appositive phrases to help readers
a. Explain the function of phrases
and clauses in general and their understand unfamiliar or technical words, as well as specific references to
function in specific sentences. books or Web sites with which they may be unfamiliar. Use commas or
• Demonstrate command of the dashes as necessary.
conventions of standard English
capitalization, punctuation, and
spelling when writing.

330 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 Effective Expression

Speaking and Listening

Assignment
With your group, engage in a collaborative discussion in response
to one of these questions:
What are the advantages and disadvantages of pursuing an interest on
your own, without supervision?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of sharing hobbies and
interests with family or friends?

Project Plan Assign a role to each member of your group. Roles can
include a group leader, who keeps the discussion on topic; a timekeeper,
who makes sure that the discussion stays within the time alloted by your
teacher; and a note taker to record the group’s ideas.

Gather Support Work with your group to identify evidence from the  evidence log
excerpt as well as examples from your own experience that support
Before moving on to
your responses to the question your group chose to discuss. Create a a new selection, go to
T-chart to list the pros and cons, or advantages and disadvantages, for your Evidence Log and
your topic. record what you learned
from the excerpt from
Discuss Here are some things to keep in mind as you hold your An American Childhood.
group discussion.

• Use the information you noted in the T-chart as well as your own
experiences to support your ideas during the discussion.
• Consider the strength of each pro and con. Just because one position
 Standards
has more items does not necessarily mean it is better supported. Speaking and Listening
• During the discussion, be respectful of others’ opinions even if they Engage effectively in a range of
collaborative discussions with diverse
are different from your own. Express disagreement respectfully by partners on grade 7 topics, texts, and
offering constructive criticism, or well-reasoned opinions that issues, building on others’ ideas and
include both the positive and negative aspects of another group expressing their own clearly.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

member’s contributions. This type of criticism is most likely to a. Come to discussions prepared,
having read or researched material
persuade another person to adopt your viewpoint, or opinion. under study; explicitly draw on
• If a group member provides new information or insights, consider that preparation by referring to
evidence on the topic, text, or issue
whether this new knowledge changes your views and opinions on to probe and reflect on ideas under
the topic. discussion.
b. Follow rules for collegial
• Ensure every group member has an opportunity to contribute to discussions, track progress toward
the discussion. If you don’t fully understand the ideas another specific goals and deadlines, and
group member expresses, ask a question that will help that person define individual roles as needed.
c. Pose questions that elicit
elaborate on the ideas he or she expressed. elaboration and respond to others’
questions and comments with
relevant observations and ideas
that bring the discussion back on
topic as needed.
d. Acknowledge new information
expressed by others and, when
warranted, modify their own views.

from An American Childhood 331

 Making Meaning

About the Author

Urban Farming Is Growing a
Greener Future
Concept Vocabulary
These words will be useful to you as you analyze, discuss, and write about
the photographs.
Hillary Schwei (b. 1980)
studied Sustainable Food rural: characteristic of the country; of or pertaining to agriculture
and Farming at Rutgers
University and the University Example: The family moved from a busy city to a quiet rural neighborhood
of Montana–Missoula and surrounded by farms.
has worked on various urban
gardening and farming
agricultural: related to the science and art of farming
programs, both in the United Example: A lot of the agricultural land that used to surround the town has
States and abroad. Schwei’s
been turned from cornfields into houses and stores.
belief that sustainable food
production reconnects us localizing: gathering, collecting, or concentrating in a particular place
to our environment and our
communities informs her work Example: Localizing food production helps to provide consumers with
with urban youth. She strives fresher produce because the produce comes from places near where
to educate young people about they live.
the benefits that urban, local
food production can provide
to the communities in which
they live. First Review MEDIA: ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY
Study the photographs using these strategies.

LOOK at each photograph. NOTE elements in each photo

What is it about? Who is that you find interesting and
involved? want to revisit.

CONNECT details in the RESPOND by completing the Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
photos to texts you’ve read or Comprehension Check.
other images you’ve seen.

 STANDARDS
Reading Informational Text
By the end of the year, read and
comprehend literary nonfiction in
the grades 6–8 text complexity band
proficiently, with scaffolding as
needed at the high end of the range.
Language
Acquire and use accurately grade-
appropriate general academic and
domain-specific words and phrases;
gather vocabulary knowledge
when considering a word or phrase
important to comprehension or
expression.

332 UNIT 3 • Turning Points

 MEDIA | PHOTO GALLERY

Urban Farming Is
Growing a Greener Future
Hillary Schwei

BACKGROUND
The year 2008 marked the first time that more people on Earth lived in cities
than in rural areas. One significant consequence of this turning point is
that most people no longer live in the agricultural areas that provide them
with food.
Some city dwellers are transforming their with fresh, seasonal produce, but it also
concrete environments by establishing farms, strengthens local economies by supporting
often in the most unlikely locations. These family farmers and other local businesses.
urban farms create a new landscape that Farming in urban areas reduces the need to
adapts the man-made structures of the city to transport food over long distances to reach
the purposes of sustainable food production. the consumer. The decrease in transportation
Localizing food production through creates environmental advantages such as lower
urban farming provides aesthetic, health, levels of pollution and decreased fossil fuel use.
environmental, and economic benefits. This photo gallery provides a glimpse at unique
Locally grown food not only supplies people and innovative urban farming projects.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

PHOTO 1: Urban farms are not a new idea. During both world wars, the government encouraged
Americans to plant Victory Gardens where they could grow their own food. Here, in 1943, children work
in a garden in New York City.

Urban Farming Is Growing a Greener Future 333

 PHOTO 2: Urban farms can make use of vacant
NOTES
city lots that are often considered eyesores, or
ugly, unpleasant sights in public places. The farms
become not only a source of food and beauty, but
provide a location for members of the community to
gather. An area of neglected, polluted land next to
a railway station in Perth, Australia, has been revived
as an organic farm.

PHOTO 3: New York City will never

completely return to its long-lost
agricultural origins, but in 2011,
this midtown hotel began growing

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

fruit, vegetables, and herbs on
the building’s roof to supply the
hotel’s kitchen. The hotel also keeps
honeybees, which roam for miles
pollinating city plants.

NOTES

334 UNIT 3 • Turning Points

 PHOTO 4: Only 12 percent of Japan’s
land is suitable for agriculture, but in
this company’s headquarters in Tokyo,
office workers can take time to cultivate
produce. One-fifth of the nine-story
building is devoted to farming.

NOTES
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

PHOTO 5: Urban farming, like traditional

farming, is a year-round operation. The NOTES
greenhouses at this farm in Chicago have
to be maintained regardless of the season.
Each acre of the farm produces 20,000
pounds of produce annually.

Urban Farming Is Growing a Greener Future 335

 PHOTO 6: This 30-year-old pickup truck is a mobile farm and travels around giving students in city
schools a chance to experience how food grows. The farmers who own the truck made a film about
their exploits and strive to support others who grow produce in creative ways.

NOTES

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

NOTES

336 UNIT 3 • Turning Points

 Comprehension Check
The selection uses both words and photographs to provide information about
urban farming. Use the chart below to note specific details about each photo.
Then, describe how each photo relates to the text that accompanies it.

PHOTO WHAT THE PHOTO SHOWS HOW THE PHOTO RELATES TO THE TEXT
PHOTO 1
PHOTO 2
PHOTO 3
PHOTO 4
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

PHOTO 5
PHOTO 6

Urban Farming Is Growing a Greener Future 337

 MAKING MEANING

Close Review
With your group, revisit the selection and your first-review
notes. Write any new observations that seem important.
What questions do you have? What can you conclude?
URBAN FARMING IS GROWING A
GREENER FUTURE

Cite textual evidence

Analyze the Media to support your answers.

Notebook Complete the activities.

1. Present and Discuss Choose the photo you found most interesting
or powerful. Explain what you noticed in the photo, the questions it
raised for you, and the conclusions you reached about it.

2. Review and Synthesize With your group, review all the photos. In
what ways do they increase your understanding of the information
communicated in the text?

3. Essential Question: What can cause a sudden change in

someone’s life? What has this selection taught you about turning
points? Discuss with your group.
 WORD NETWORK
Add interesting words
related to turning points language development
from the text to your Word
Network. Concept Vocabulary
 STANDARDS Use the concept vocabulary words in your responses to the
Writing following questions.
• Use technology, including the
Internet, to produce and publish
writing and link to and cite sources rural     agricultural     localizing
as well as to interact and collaborate
with others, including linking to and
citing sources.
• Conduct short research projects 1. What turning point is described in the background information for
to answer a question, drawing on this selection?

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

several sources and generating
additional related, focused questions
for further research and investigation.
• Gather relevant information from
multiple print and digital sources,
using search terms effectively; assess
the credibility and accuracy of each
source; and quote or paraphrase the
2. Identify at least one thing that all of the images have in common.
data and conclusions of others while
avoiding plagiarism and following a
standard format for citation.
Speaking and Listening
• Analyze the main ideas and
supporting details presented in
diverse media and formats and 3. Did the photo gallery change your views on what types of changes
explain how the ideas clarify a topic, can be considered “turning points”? Why or why not? Explain the
text, or issue under study. reasons for your response.
• Include multimedia components
and visual displays in presentations
to clarify claims and findings and
emphasize salient points.

338 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 EFFECTIVE EXPRESSION

Research
Assignment GROUP DISCUSSION
Work in your group to research and create a digital multimedia With your group, consider
presentation on one of the following topics: the relationships among
your visuals. Should they
 urban farms and community gardens in your area have a similar look or can
 how to start an urban farm or community garden they differ? If you decide
they should be uniform,
 the health and environmental benefits of urban farming
how can you achieve that?
 where the food used in your school cafeteria comes from and
how many “food miles” it travels (“Food miles” is the distance
food travels from where it is grown to where it is consumed.)

Focus Your Research Begin by working with your group to formulate a  evidence log
research question to guide and focus your search for sources. A focused
Before moving on to
research question will also help you avoid sources that are not useful to a new selection, go to
your topic. Consider the following example: your Evidence Log and
topic: turning points in modern American literature record what you learned
from “Urban Farming
vague research question: What are works of American literature Is Growing a Greener
that discuss turning points? Future.”
revised research question: What new American short stories explore
the theme of turning points?

Plan the Project Use the questions in the chart to prepare your
presentation. Record your notes in the right column of the chart.

What relevant, reliable print, digital, and

multimedia sources can you use in your research?
Take notes on the information you obtain from
each source. Your final presentation should
include a digital Works-Cited list with electronic
links to Internet sources.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

What information will be better conveyed

by text?

What information will be better conveyed

by images?

What information will be better conveyed by

spoken word, music, or sound?

Urban Farming Is Growing a Greener Future 339

 Performance Task: SPEAKING AND LISTENING FOCUS

SOURCES

• Thank You, M’AM

Present an Explanatory Essay
• from An American Assignment
Childhood With your group, review the selections you have read in this section,
and consider the ways the different turning points are described in
• Urban Farming Is
the selections. Then, present an explanatory essay in the form of a
Growing a Greener
multimedia presentation in response to the following prompt:
Future
How are the turning points in the selections similar to
and different from each other?
Use images and other multimedia to emphasize and clarify key points
in your presentation.

Plan With Your Group

Analyze the Text With your group, analyze the ways in which the
turning points in the selections are similar to and different from each
other. Use this chart to organize your ideas about what each text says
about turning points and their significance.
What led to the Details that describe the What was the significance
SELECTION
turning point? turning point of the turning point?

Thank You, M’am

from An American
Childhood

Urban Farming Is
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Growing a Greener
Future

Gather Details and Media Each group member should then choose
one selection on which he or she will focus for the presentation. Work
individually to gather details and information about the turning point
in the selection you chose. Next, organize your ideas and draft a brief
explanatory essay for your section of the presentation. Your essay should
compare and contrast the turning point in the selection you chose to
the turning points in the other selections in this section. Then, conduct
 Standards
Writing research to find relevant multimedia to include in your presentation.
Write informative/explanatory texts
Organize Your Ideas As a group, organize the sections of the
to examine a topic and convey ideas,
concepts, and information through presentation and decide how you will transition smoothly from one
the selection, organization, and section to the next and one speaker to the next. How will you tie all the
analysis of relevant content.
information and ideas back together at the end of your presentation?

340 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 essential question : What can cause a sudden change in someone’s life?

Rehearse With Your Group

Practice With Your Group Before you deliver your presentation,
rehearse the presentation as a group. Plan the ways in which you will
present your multimedia elements: Will you hold up images or prop them
against something, or will you present your information digitally? Practice
delivering the presentation using a formal tone, appropriate eye contact,
adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.
As you deliver your portion of the presentation, use this checklist to
evaluate the effectiveness of your group’s rehearsal. Then, use your
evaluation and the instruction here to guide your revisions to the
presentation.

PRESENTATION
CONTENT USE OF MEDIA
TECHNIQUES

The presentation The presentation The speaker

clearly responds to includes a uses a formal
the prompt. variety of tone and speaks
multimedia. with adequate
The presentation volume and clear
includes relevant The multimedia pronunciation.
details from emphasizes
the text. and clarifies key The speaker
The presentation points. maintains eye
effectively contact with the
compares and audience.
contrasts the
turning points in
the selections.

 Standards
Speaking and Listening
Fine-Tune the Content Put yourself in the position of a person hearing • Engage effectively in a range of
the presentation for the first time. Is there anything he or she might not collaborative discussions with diverse
understand? If so, try restating unclear ideas in several ways to see what partners on grade 7 topics, texts, and
issues, building on others’ ideas and
way works best.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

expressing their own clearly.

• Analyze the main ideas and
Improve Your Use of Media Be sure to sequence your multimedia supporting details presented in
elements in a way that emphasizes your key points. Each piece of diverse media and formats and
multimedia should relate directly to a key point in your presentation and explain how the ideas clarify a topic,
text, or issue under study.
should help your audience to better understand the information. • Present claims and findings,
emphasizing salient points in a
Brush Up on Your Presentation Techniques Take turns presenting focused, coherent manner with
with your group members. Point out places where the speaker may pertinent descriptions, facts, details,
sound flat, be too quiet, or lack clarity. and examples; use appropriate eye
contact, adequate volume, and clear
pronunciation.
• Include multimedia components
Present and Evaluate and visual displays in presentations
to clarify claims and findings and
As you listen to other groups, consider their content, use of media, and emphasize salient points.
presentation techniques. Be ready to ask questions, and discuss the ways • Adapt speech to a variety of
contexts and tasks, demonstrating
in which other groups’ presentations helped deepen your understanding command of formal English when
of the ways in which turning points impact people’s lives. indicated or appropriate.

Performance Task: Present an Explanatory Essay 341

 OVERVIEW: INDEPENDENT LEARNING

ESSENTIAL QUESTION:

What can cause a sudden

change in someone’s life?
A sudden change in a person’s life may come from an inner realization or it may
be a result of external forces, such as the actions of others or the environment
that surrounds that person. In this section, you will complete your study of
turning points by exploring an additional selection related to the topic. You’ll
then share what you learn with classmates. To choose a text, follow these steps.
Look Back Think about the selections you have already studied. What most
interests you about the topic of turning points?

Look Ahead Preview the texts by reading the descriptions. Which one seems
most interesting and appealing to you?

Look Inside Take a few minutes to scan through the text you chose. Choose a
different one if this text doesn’t meet your needs.

Independent Learning Strategies

Throughout your life, in school, in your community, and in your career, you will
need to rely on yourself to learn and work on your own. Review these strategies
and the actions you can take to practice them during Independent Learning.
Add ideas of your own for each category.

STRATEGY ACTION PLAN

Create a schedule • Understand your goals and deadlines.
• Make a plan for what to do each day.

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Practice what you • Use first-read and close-read strategies to deepen your understanding.
have learned • After you read, evaluate the usefulness of the evidence to help you understand
the topic.
• Consider the quality and reliability of the source.

Take notes • Record important ideas and information.

• Review notes before preparing to share with a group.

342 UNIT 3 • TURNING POINTS

 CONTENTS
Choose one selection. Selections are available online only.
REFLECTIVE ESSAY

Little Things Are Big

Jesús Colón

Can one subway ride change a person forever?

NEWS ARTICLE

Profile: Malala Yousafzai

BBC

One small girl changes the way millions of people see the world.

BIOGRAPHY

Noor Inayat Khan

from Women Heroes of WWII
Kathryn J. Atwood

One brave woman steps forward and becomes an unlikely hero.

SHORT STORY
A Retrieved Reformation
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

O. Henry

Jimmy Valentine finally proves himself in a matter of life or death.

PERFORMANCE-BASED ASSESSMENT PREP

Review Evidence for an Explanatory Essay
Complete your Evidence Log for the unit by evaluating what you’ve learned and
synthesizing the information you’ve recorded.

Overview: Independent Learning 343

 INDEPENDENT LEARNING

First-Read Guide Tool Kit

First-Read Guide and
Model Annotation
Use this page to record your first-read ideas.

Selection Title:

NOTICE new information or ideas you learn ANNOTATE by marking vocabulary and key
about the unit topic as you first read this passages you want to revisit.
text.

CONNECT ideas within the selection to RESPOND by writing a brief summary of

other knowledge and the selections you the selection.
have read.

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

 STANDARD
Reading Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

344 UNIT 3 • Turning Points

 ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What can cause a sudden change in someone’s life?

Close-Read Guide Tool Kit

Close-Read Guide and
Model Annotation
Use this page to record your close-read ideas.

Selection Title:

Close Read the Text Analyze the Text

Revisit sections of the text you marked during Think about the author’s choices of patterns,
your first read. Read these sections closely structure, techniques, and ideas included in
and annotate what you notice. Ask yourself the text. Select one, and record your thoughts
questions about the text. What can you about what this choice conveys.
conclude? Write down your ideas.

QuickWrite
Pick a paragraph from the text that grabbed your interest. Explain the power of this passage.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

 STANDARD
Reading Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

Independent Learning 345

 INDEPENDENT learning

Share Your Independent Learning

 evidence log Prepare to Share
Go to your Evidence Log What can cause a sudden change in someone’s life?
and record what you learned Even when you read or learn something independently, your
from the text you read. understanding continues to grow when you share what you’ve learned
with others. Reflect on the text you explored independently, and write
notes about its connections to the unit topic and Essential Question. In
your notes, explain why this text belongs in this unit.

Learn From Your Classmates

Discuss It Share your ideas about the text you explored on your
own. As you talk with your classmates, jot down ideas that you learn
from them.

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Reflect
Review your notes, and underline the most important insight you gained
from these writing and discussion activities. Explain how this idea adds to
your understanding of the topic of turning points.

346 UNIT 3 • Turning Points

 PERFORMANCE-BASED ASSESSMENT prep

Review Evidence for an Explanatory Essay

At the beginning of this unit, you expressed your ideas about the
following question:
What can cause a significant change in someone’s life?

 evidence log
Review your Evidence Log and your QuickWrite from the beginning of the unit.
Did you learn anything new?

NOTES
Identify three things you learned about that can cause a sudden change in someone’s life.

1.

2.

3.

Identify a real-life experience that illustrates one of your ideas about

turning points.

Develop your thoughts into a topic sentence for an explanatory essay.

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Complete this sentence starter:  Standards

Writing
As details in Write informative/explanatory texts
show, significant changes in someone’s life can be caused by to examine a topic and convey ideas,
concepts, and information through
the selection, organization, and
analysis of relevant content.
a. Introduce a topic clearly,
previewing what is to follow;
organize ideas, concepts, and
information, using strategies
such as definition, classification,
Evaluate Your Evidence Consider your ideas about turning points. comparison/contrast, and cause/
How did the texts you read affect your ideas? effect; include formatting, graphics,
and multimedia when useful to
aiding comprehension.
b. Develop the topic with relevant
facts, definitions, concrete details,
quotations, or other information
and examples.

Performance-Based Assessment Prep 347

 performance-based assessment

sources Part 1
• WHOLE-CLASS SELECTIONS Writing to Sources: Explanatory Essay
• SMALL-GROUP SELECTIONS In this unit, you read about different examples of turning points. Write
an informative essay in which you explain what can cause a significant
• INDEPENDENT-LEARNING
SELECTION
change in someone’s life, how it might have a lasting effect, and what
it tells you about someone who has undergone a meaningful change.
Develop your topic with relevant facts, details, and information from
the texts.

Assignment
Write an explanatory essay in response to the following question:
What can cause a significant change in
someone’s life?
Develop a clear thesis, or controlling idea, in response to the prompt.
Then, use sufficient examples and quotations from the selections that
you read in this unit to support your response. Your essay should be
logically organized and include transitions to show the relationships
between ideas. Be sure to maintain a formal style and tone in your
writing.

 Word Network Reread the Assignment Review the assignment to be sure you fully
understand it. The assignment may reference some of the academic
As you write and revise your
words presented at the beginning of the unit. Be sure you understand
explanation, use your Word
each of the words given below in order to complete the assignment
Network to help vary your
word choices. correctly.

Academic Vocabulary
contribute consistent maintain
observation sufficient
 Standards Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Writing
• Write informative/explanatory texts Review the Elements of an Effective Explanatory Essay Before
to examine a topic and convey ideas, you begin writing, read the Explanatory Essay Rubric. Once you have
concepts, and information through completed your first draft, check it against the rubric. If one or more of
the selection, organization, and
analysis of relevant content. the elements is missing or not as strong as it could be, revise your essay
• Produce clear and coherent to add or strengthen that component.
writing in which the development,
organization, and style are
appropriate to task, purpose, and
audience.
• Draw evidence from literary or
informational texts to support
analysis, reflection, and research.
• Write routinely over extended time
frames and shorter time frames for
a range of discipline-specific tasks,
purposes, and audiences.

348 UNIT 3 • Turning Points

 essential question: What can cause a sudden change in someone’s life?

Explanatory Essay Rubric

Focus and Organization Evidence and Elaboration Conventions
The introduction is engaging and Details, examples, and The essay intentionally follows
includes a clear thesis. quotations from the selections standard English conventions
are specific and relevant. of usage and mechanics.
The thesis is supported by specific
details, examples, and quotations from The style and tone are formal
the selections. and objective.

Ideas are logically organized so that Words are carefully chosen

4
the information is easy to follow. and suited to purpose and
audience.
Transitions clearly show the
relationships among ideas.

The conclusion supports the

information in the essay and offers
fresh insight into the topic.

The introduction includes a clear Details, examples, and The essay follows standard
thesis. quotations are relevant. English conventions of usage
and mechanics.
The thesis is supported by details, The style and tone are mostly
examples, and quotations from the formal and objective.
selections.
Words are generally suited to
3 Ideas are organized so that the purpose and audience.
information is easy to follow.

Transitions show the relationships

among ideas.

The conclusion supports the

information in the essay.

The introduction states the thesis. Some details and examples The essay sometimes follows
are relevant. standard English conventions
The thesis is supported by some of usage and mechanics.
details, examples, and quotations from The style and tone are
the selections. occasionally formal and
objective.
2 Ideas are vaguely organized, with a few
transitions to orient readers. Words are somewhat suited to
purpose and audience.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

The conclusion relates to the

information in the essay.

The thesis is not clearly stated in the There is little or no relevant The essay contains many
introduction. support. mistakes in standard English
conventions of usage and
The thesis is not supported by details, The style and tone are mechanics.
examples, and quotations. informal.
1
Ideas are disorganized and the Words are not appropriate to
information is difficult to follow. purpose or audience.

The conclusion does not include

relevant information.

Performance-Based Assessment 349

 performance-based assessment

Part 2
Speaking and Listening:
Oral Presentation
Assignment
After completing the final draft of your explanatory essay, use it as the
foundation for a brief oral presentation.

 Standards
Do not simply read your essay aloud. Take the following steps to make
Speaking and Listening
• Present claims and findings, your presentation lively and engaging.
emphasizing salient points in a
focused, coherent manner with • Review your explanation and annotate the most important ideas and
pertinent descriptions, facts, details, supporting details.
and examples; use appropriate eye
contact, adequate volume, and clear • Choose multimedia elements that add interest to your presentation.
pronunciation.
• Include multimedia components Review the Rubric Before you deliver your presentation, check your
and visual displays in presentations
to clarify claims and findings and plans against this rubric.
emphasize salient points.

Content Organization Presentation Techniques

The introduction is engaging The speaker uses time effectively, The speaker maintains
and states the thesis in a spending the right amount on effective eye contact and
compelling way. each part. speaks clearly and with
adequate volume.
The presentation includes specific Ideas progress logically, with clear
3 examples, quotations, and transition among ideas so the
multimedia elements to support information is easy for listeners to
the thesis. follow.

The conclusion offers fresh insight The timing of the images matches
into the topic. the timing of the explanation.

The introduction states a thesis. The speaker uses time effectively, The speaker sometimes
spending the right amount of time maintains effective eye
The presentation includes on most parts. contact and speaks somewhat
examples, quotations, and clearly and with adequate

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

multimedia elements to support Ideas progress logically with some volume.
2
the thesis. transitions among ideas. Listeners
can mostly follow the speaker’s
The conclusion offers some information.
insight and restates important
information.

The introduction does not clearly The speaker does not use time The speaker does not
state a thesis. effectively and focuses too much maintain effective eye contact
time on some parts and too little on or speak clearly with adequate
The presentation does not others. volume.
include examples, quotations, or
1
multimedia elements. Ideas do not progress logically.
Listeners have trouble following the
The conclusion does not restate information.
important information.

350 UNIT 3 • Turning Points

 UNIT
3 REFLECTION

Reflect on the Unit

Now that you’ve completed the unit, take a few moments to reflect on
your learning.

Reflect on the Unit Goals

Look back at the goals at the beginning of the unit. Use a different
colored pen to rate yourself again. Think about readings and activities
that contributed the most to the growth of your understanding. Record
your thoughts.

Reflect on the Learning Strategies

Discuss It Write a reflection on whether you were able to improve
your learning based on your Action Plans. Think about what worked,
what didn’t, and what you might do to keep working on these strategies.
Record your ideas before a class discussion.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Reflect on the Text

Choose a selection that you found challenging and explain what made
it difficult.

Explain something that surprised you about a text in the unit.

Which activity taught you the most about turning points?

What did you learn?

Unit Reflection 351

REFLECTIVE ESSAY

Little Things
Are Big
Jesus Colon

About the Author

Jesus Colon (1901–1974) arrived in New York City from his birthplace,
Cayey, Puerto Rico, in 1918. Puerto Ricans had been made American
citizens earlier that year. Colon’s earliest education came from listening to
people hired to inform and entertain the cigar rollers at a factory behind
his family’s hotel. He went on to write for several papers in New York and
Puerto Rico, publishing over 400 pieces in his lifetime.

BACKGROUND
While Jesus Colon migrated to New York City much earlier, many Puerto
Ricans arrived in the late 1940s. This selection, which describes events
that take place around 1956, highlights some of the difficulties faced by
Puerto Ricans in mainland United States society.

NOTES
1

I t was very late at night on the eve of Memorial Day. She came
into the subway at the 34th Street Pennsylvania Station. I am
still trying to remember how she managed to push herself in
with a baby on her right arm, a valise1 in her left hand, and two Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

children, a boy and a girl about three and five years old, trailing
after her. She was a nice looking white lady in her early twenties.
2 At Nevins Street, Brooklyn, we saw her preparing to get off at
the next station—Atlantic Avenue—which happened to be the
place where I too had to get off. Just as it was a problem for her to
get on, it was going to be a problem for her to get off the subway
with two small children to be taken care of, a baby on her right
arm, and a medium-sized valise in her left hand.
3 And there I was, also preparing to get off at Atlantic Avenue, with
no bundles to take care of—not even the customary book under my
arm without which I feel that I am not completely dressed.

1. valise (vuh LEES) n. small suitcase.

IL1 UNIT 3 Independent Learning • Little Things Are Big

 4 As the train was entering the Atlantic Avenue station, some
white man stood up from his seat and helped her out, placing NOTES

the children on the long, deserted platform. There were only two
adult persons on the long platform sometime after midnight on
the eve of last Memorial Day.
5 I could perceive the steep, long concrete stairs going down to
the Long Island Railroad or into the street. Should I offer my help
as the American white man did at the subway door, placing the
two children outside the subway car? Should I take care of the girl
and the boy, take them by their hands until they reached the end
of the steep long concrete stairs of the Atlantic Avenue station?
6 Courtesy is a characteristic of the Puerto Rican. And here I
was—a Puerto Rican—hours past midnight, a valise, two white
children, and a white lady with a baby on her arm palpably2
needing somebody to help her at least until she descended the
long concrete stairs.
7 But how could I, a black and a Puerto Rican, approach this
white lady who very likely might have preconceived prejudices
against blacks and everybody with foreign accents, in a deserted
subway station very late at night?
8 What would she say? What would be the first reaction of this
white American woman, perhaps coming from a small town with
a valise, two children, and a baby on her right arm? Would she
say: Yes, of course, you may help me. Or would she think that I
was just trying to get too familiar? Or would she think worse than
that perhaps? What would I do if she let out a scream as I went
toward her to offer my help?
9 Was I misjudging her? So many slanders are written every
day in the daily press against the blacks and Puerto Ricans. I
hesitated for a long, long minute. The ancestral manners that the
most illiterate Puerto Rican passes on from father to son were
struggling inside me. Here was I, way past midnight, face to face
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

with a situation that could very well explode into an outburst of

prejudices and chauvinistic3 conditioning of the “divide and rule”
policy of present day society.
10 It was a long minute. I passed on by her as if I saw nothing. As
if I was insensitive to her need. Like a rude animal walking on two
legs, I just moved on, half running by the long subway platform,
leaving the children and the valise and her with the baby on her
arm. I took the steps of the long concrete stairs in twos until I
reached the street above and the cold air slapped my warm face.
11 This is what racism and prejudice and chauvinism and official
artificial divisions can do to people and to a nation!

2. palpably (PAL puh blee) adv. obviously.

3. chauvinistic (shoh vuh NIHS tihk) adj. prejudiced and favoring a particular group.

UNIT 3 Independent Learning • Little Things Are Big IL2

 12 Perhaps the lady was not prejudiced after all. Or not prejudiced
NOTES enough to scream at the coming of a black man toward her in a
solitary subway station a few hours past midnight.
13 If you were not that prejudiced, I failed you, dear lady. I know
that there is a chance in a million that you will read these lines.
I am willing to take that millionth chance. If you were not that
prejudiced, I failed you, lady, I failed you, children. I failed myself
to myself.
14 I buried my courtesy early on Memorial Day morning. But
here is a promise that I make to myself here and now: if I am ever
faced with an occasion like that again, I am going to offer my help
regardless of how the offer is going to be received.
15 Then I will have my courtesy with me again. ❧

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

IL3 UNIT 3 Independent Learning • Little Things Are Big

 NEWS ARTICLE

Profile: Malala
Yousafzai
BBC

About the Author

T he British Broadcasting Corporation, or BBC, is a public broadcasting
network in Great Britain. Established as a private company in 1922, it
was turned into a public organization in 1927. While the BBC answers to
Parliament, it operates independently, led by a board of trustees appointed
by the British monarchy. Today the BBC produces radio, television, and
online news and entertainment.

BACKGROUND
The Nobel Peace Prize is a prestigious award granted to those who have
done the most to benefit humankind and promote peace. The 2014
Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Malala Yousafzai for her work to
promote the right of all children to an education. She received the prize
when she was 17, making her the youngest Nobel Laureate.

I t has only been five years since Pakistani schoolgirl Malala

NOTES
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Yousafzai wrote an anonymous diary about life under Taliban1

rule in northwest Pakistan.
2 Since then she has been shot in the head by the militants,
and has become the youngest person ever to win the Nobel
Peace Prize.
3 Accepting the award in Oslo2 on December 10, she said she
was “humbled” and proud to be the first Pashtun3 and the first
Pakistani to win the prize. She also joked that she was probably
the first winner who still fought with her younger brothers.

1. Taliban (TAL uh ban) ultraconservative political and religious faction that emerged in
Afghanistan.
2. Oslo (OZ loh) capital city of Norway.
3. Pashtun (push TOON) member of the Pashtun ethnic group, who are native to Pakistan
and Afghanistan.

UNIT 3 Independent Learning • Profile: Malala Yousafzai IL4

 4 Malala Yousafzai first came to public attention through that
NOTES heartfelt diary, published on BBC Urdu,4 which chronicled her
desire to remain in education and for girls to have the chance to be
educated.
5 When she was shot in the head in October 2012 by a Taliban
gunman, she was already well known in Pakistan, but that one
shocking act catapulted her to international fame.
6 She survived the dramatic assault, in which a militant boarded
her school bus in Pakistan’s northwestern Swat valley and opened
fire, wounding two of her school friends as well.
7 The story of her recovery—from delicate surgery at a Pakistani
military hospital to further operations and rehabilitation in the
UK, and afterwards as she took her campaign global—has been
closely tracked by the world’s media.
8 She was discharged from hospital in January 2013 and her
life now is unimaginably different to anything she may have
envisaged when she was an anonymous voice chronicling the
fears of schoolgirls under the shadow of the Taliban.
9 She was named one of TIME magazine’s most influential people
in 2013, put forward for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013, won the
European Parliament’s Sakharov prize for Freedom of Thought
and her autobiography I Am Malala was released last year, and
reversioned5 for younger audiences.
10 Malala was only 11 years old when her anonymous diary
captivated audiences. She wrote under a pseudonym—Gul Makai,
the name of a heroine from a Pashtun folk tale.
11 Militants destroyed scores of girls schools in the time the
Taliban wielded power over the valley. They had an implacable
attitude to female education and this was Malala’s primary
concern.
12 In January 2009, as the school was closing for winter holiday
she wrote: “The girls were not too excited about vacations because

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

they knew if the Taliban implemented their edict [banning girls’
education] they would not be able to come to school again. I am
of the view that the school will one day reopen but while leaving I
looked at the building as if I would not come here again.”
13 She documented the anxiety she and her friends felt as they saw
students dropping away from class for fear of being targeted by
militants, and as the girls began to attend school in plain clothes
not uniform, so as not to draw attention to themselves.
14 Eventually, Malala and her family, like many thousands of
other Swat residents, fled the valley when a government military
operation attempted to clear the region of militancy.

4. Urdu (OOR doo) official language of Pakistan.

5. reversioned v. remade in an updated or changed form.

IL5 UNIT 3 Independent Learning • Profile: Malala Yousafzai

 Passionate Campaigner
NOTES
15 Malala consistently received support and encouragement in her
activism from her parents. The idea for the blog was even that of
her father Ziauddin, who ran a local private school.
16 One teacher from Swat said that her father “encouraged Malala
to speak freely and learn everything she could.”
17 And her identity as the girl blogger from Swat eventually
became known as she became more vocal on the subject of the
right of girls to education. It is a subject she never ceased to be
passionate about even after she returned home once the militants
had been run out of Swat.
18 In 2009 a documentary film was even made about her.
Many more honors followed: in 2011 she was nominated for
the International Children’s Peace Prize by The KidsRights
Foundation and in 2012 the Pakistani government awarded her
the National Peace Award—subsequently renamed the National
Malala Peace Prize—for those under 18 years old.
19 She even confronted then U.S. special envoy to the region,
Richard Holbrooke, urging him to do something about the state of
affairs for women who want an education.
20 When she finally returned to Swat, Malala took advantage of
the improved security and went back to school. Malala and her
family were the subject of threats and it was on October 9, 2012,
that these were borne out.
21 The Taliban said that they targeted her for “promoting secular6
education” and threatened to attack her again.

Back at School
22 The bullet hit Malala’s left brow and instead of penetrating her
skull it traveled underneath the skin, the length of the side of her
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

head and into her shoulder.

23 Amid the outpouring of global support she was flown to the
UK and at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the city of Birmingham
she received specialist treatment and had a titanium plate fitted as
well as a cochlear implant in her skull to help her hear.
24 She began attending Edgbaston High School in March and
her father has been given a job with the Pakistani consulate7 in
Birmingham for three years.
25 But she has continued her campaign and taken it around
the world.

6. secular (SEHK yuh luhr) adj. not religious.

7. consulate (KON suh liht) n. building where the representative of a country lives in
another country.

UNIT 3 Independent Learning • Profile: Malala Yousafzai IL6

 26 A fund set up in her name helps children in education around
NOTES the world. Among other trips, she has traveled to Nigeria, meeting
President Goodluck Jonathan to press for action to free the 200
girls held by Boko Haram Islamist militants.
27 It is all a far cry from the girl who wrote in her diary only four
years ago: “Today, I also read my diary written for the BBC in
Urdu. My mother liked my pen name Gul Makai. I also like the
name because my real name means ‘grief stricken.’” ❧

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

IL7 UNIT 3 Independent Learning • Profile: Malala Yousafzai

 BIOGRAPHY

Noor Inayat Khan

from Women Heroes
of WWII
Kathryn J. Atwood

About the Author

Kathryn J. Atwood has written several historical books
about heroic women. She also blogs on subjects such as
the history of World War I and World War II, as well as
the history of pop music. She has contributed to the
Midwest Book Review, Women’s Independent Press,
and many other publications.

BACKGROUND
In Nazi-occupied regions, local Resistance movements fought to protect
victims of the occupying forces, and at the same time, damage or
weaken the Nazis by any means possible. The British, Americans, and
Soviets allied themselves to these movements by providing equipment
and support.

N oor Inayat Khan, the daughter of an Indian-born father and

NOTES
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

an American mother, was born in Moscow, the capital city of

Imperial Russia, on New Year’s Day, 1914. It was fitting that Noor
should have been born within steps of the Kremlin, a building that
had been built for the royal tsars of Russia. Her great-great-great-
grandfather was the royal Tipu Sultan, called the Tiger of Mysore,
a Muslim ruler who had fought bravely for his lands and people.
2 Noor grew up in France, just a few miles from Paris, where she
lived in a house called Fazal Manzil, or the House of Blessings.
There she learned music, art, and poetry. She also learned a great
deal about Sufism, the religious and meditative philosophy that
her father and his friends followed.
3 After graduating from the University of Sorbonne, Noor began
to write and illustrate children’s stories. She was planning to
create an illustrated children’s newspaper, which would be called

UNIT 3 Independent Learning • Noor Inayat Khan IL8

 Bel Age—”the Beautiful Age”—when Hitler’s tanks rolled into
NOTES Poland on September 1, 1939, and the whole world changed.
4 Noor abhorred Hitler’s anti-Semitic1 ideals and was determined
to hinder him in some way. She joined the British Women’s
Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), an organization that provided
support to the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was here that she was
trained as a radio operator, communicating through a special
type of radio by Morse code. After a while, Noor realized that she
would not be content until she could be more directly involved in
the battle against Hitler. What she didn’t realize was that she had
already been noticed by an organization that was waging a very
different type of war.
5 The Special Operations Executive, or the SOE, was a Resistance
organization that sent its agents into many different Nazi-
occupied countries to fight a secret but deadly war. There was
always a need for a radio operator among the agents; that is,
someone to transmit messages via Morse code from France to
London. Noor was an excellent candidate for this type of work
since she had already been trained in radio transmission. And
because she was a native French speaker, she was perfect for work
for the F (French)-Section of the SOE, the section that worked
directly with Resistance workers in Nazi-occupied France.
6 Although Noor’s skills were impressive, some of her SOE
instructors had serious doubts about her personality. She
seemed very fragile, and she miserably failed her fake Gestapo2
interrogation in which she was woken in the middle of the night,
splashed with cold water, and roughly questioned. She didn’t
seem strong enough to withstand a real interrogation. What
would happen if she was caught by actual Gestapo agents? Would
she break under torture and give out important information?
7 Despite Noor’s apparent fragility, others in the SOE were
certain she would be a good agent. And even those who doubted

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

her knew that there was a desperate need for more radio operators
in France. They really had no choice but to send her in. So Noor
became the first female radio operator to be sent into Nazi-
occupied France.
8 She chose to work out of Paris, a dangerous place for any
member of the Resistance but especially for those doing radio
work. Teams of Germans, many of them dressed in plain clothes,
were using a device called a listening machine to locate and
capture radio operators. The German teams worked out of vans
that were disguised as laundry vans, bakers’ vans—anything to
hide who they really were. Because the radio operators traveled
from place to place to avoid being detected by the listening

1. anti-Semitic (AN tee suh MIHT ihk) hatred and prejudice against the Jewish people.
2. Gestapo (guh STAH poh) Nazi secret police.

IL9 UNIT 3 Independent Learning • Noor Inayat Khan

 teams, they had to carry their radios with them, which was very
dangerous: people were often stopped and searched by suspicious NOTES

Gestapo agents, especially on the busy streets of Paris.

9 Many of Noor’s new Parisian associates also thought that her
shy, naive personality seemed at odds with that of a successful
agent. But whatever doubts they may have had about Noor, they
soon had more pressing issues to worry about. Ten days after
Noor arrived in Paris, their whole circuit (Resistance group) fell
apart. Several agents had been arrested, and the information that
the Gestapo had found with them included names and, most
important, addresses of current French Resistance members.
Almost immediately, the Gestapo arrested hundreds of Resistance
workers including most of those involved with Noor’s circuit.
The SOE office in London, which found out about this catastrophe
from Noor’s radio transmissions, urgently asked her to return to
London for her own safety and told her that a plane would be sent
right away. She refused, believing that if she left, there wouldn’t
be a single radio operator left in Paris. All the others had been
arrested.
10 Officials at the SOE agreed, and when it was relatively safe
to resume operations, Noor began to transmit radio messages
again. Communication between the French Resistance, and the
SOE offices and French leader General Charles de Gaulle, both in
London, was absolutely critical at this time. The Allied invasion—
D-day—was less than one year away. Between July and October
1943, Noor sent and received messages that helped 30 Allied
airmen escape, arranged for four agents to obtain false identity
papers, pinpointed exact positions for airplane drops, helped
obtain weapons and money for members of the French Resistance,
and communicated the exact spot where the Nazis were hiding a
supply of torpedoes.
11 The Gestapo knew there was a radio operator in Paris, but for
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

months Noor successfully eluded them. They failed to track her

down because Noor was careful to transmit from many different
locations and because she was a very fast radio operator. She also
possessed a keen intuition that alerted her to the dangers of being
followed or the overtures of too-friendly strangers. Her fellow
agents knew that the Gestapo was closing in on Noor and urged
her return to London. But she was still hesitant to leave until the
SOE could send a replacement. Once she was assured that this
would happen, she would make plans to return to London.
12 One day when Noor opened her apartment door, a French man
named Pierre Cartaud, who was working for the Gestapo, was
there to meet her. A woman the Germans referred to as “Renée”
had contacted the Gestapo and agreed to betray a British agent she

UNIT 3 Independent Learning • Noor Inayat Khan IL10

 knew into their hands if they would pay her 100,000 francs. They
NOTES agreed.
12 If Cartaud thought it would be easy to arrest this slim, petite
woman, he was very wrong. She fought him violently, clawing
and biting at his wrists until he was bleeding heavily. Finally, he
pulled out a gun and threatened to kill her while he made a phone
call, asking for assistance. When help finally came, Cartaud was
standing as far away from Noor as possible. She was taken by car
to 84 Avenue Fochs, the Gestapo headquarters in Paris.
13 Housed in a cell in the headquarters, Noor was a difficult
prisoner. She demanded the privilege of taking a bath and
screamed at the guards when they wouldn’t allow her to close the
door. The Gestapo agent in charge of interrogating Noor thought
her request for a bath seemed suspicious, so he went into the
bathroom next to hers and looked out the window. There was
Noor, walking on the roof, trying to escape. He persuaded her
to come in, telling her that a slip off the roof would mean certain
death. She complied but was immediately angry with herself
for doing so. She then refused, throughout an entire month of
questioning, to betray her fellow resistance workers.
14 One day Noor decided to tap a Morse code message on the wall
of her cell to see if she would get a response. She discovered that
there were two SOE agents also imprisoned at the headquarters,
and together they planned a daring escape. They managed to get
a screwdriver and passed it between them until they had gotten
all the bars of their cells loosened. Eventually they all reached the
roof and were ready to let themselves down to the ground using
some sheets they had tied together.
15 Suddenly Allied planes flew overhead, and the air-raid siren
went off. Whenever that happened, the guards at 84 Avenue Fochs
would rush to check that the prisoners were still in their cells.
They also flashed searchlights all over the roof where Noor and

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

her fellow spies were lying flat, hoping that no one would see
them. Perhaps Noor and the others were not visible, but their cells
were found empty. The escapees looked down the road and saw
that it was closed off. Gestapo agents were everywhere. Desperate,
they made one last attempt by swinging down by the sheets and
crashing into a nearby house. The Gestapo burst in and captured
them.
16 Back inside her cell at 84 Avenue Fochs, Noor scratched a V
symbol (for victory) and an RAF symbol on her wall. She was
asked to sign a promise that she would never try to escape again.
She refused. It was her duty, she said, to try to escape if at all
possible. A call was made to Berlin, the German capital: Noor
was to be transferred to a high-security prison in Germany called
Pforzheim.

IL11 UNIT 3 Independent Learning • Noor Inayat Khan

 17 The Pforzheim warden was ordered to keep Noor in solitary
confinement, her feet and hands handcuffed and both sets of NOTES

cuffs chained together. She became quite depressed but tried to

encourage herself by meditating and thinking of her father. She
and several female prisoners exchanged messages by scratching
words onto the bottoms of their food bowls.
18 On September 11, 1944, after having been chained at Pforzheim
for nearly 10 months, Noor scratched one final message on her
bowl: “I am leaving.” She was taken from the prison that night
and moved to Dachau3 with three other female British agents.
They were all shot the next day and their bodies burned so that
there would be no trace of them.
19 But Noor was not forgotten. France awarded her the Croix
de Guerre (Cross of War), and Great Britain awarded her the
George Cross, Great Britain’s highest award for courage shown
somewhere other than on a battlefield. There are also many
plaques and memorials in Germany and Great Britain dedicated
to Noor and the other SOE agents who lost their lives during the
war. Just outside of Fazal Manzil, Noor’s happy childhood home,
is a plaque dedicated to Noor. And every Bastille Day, July 14,
a military band plays outside the house in honor of the artistic,
gentle woman who grew up there, a woman who turned out to be
one of the most courageous agents of the SOE. ❧

3. Dachau (DAH kow) Nazi concentration camp.

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

UNIT 3 Independent Learning • Noor Inayat Khan IL12

SHORT STORY

A Retrieved
Reformation
O. Henry

About the Author

O. Henry (1862–1910) was the pen name of William
Sydney Porter. Known for warm, witty short stories
featuring ordinary people, Porter wrote 300 stories all
together. In 1896, Porter was jailed for his involvement
in a bank scandal and began writing stories in prison. In
order to hide the fact that he had been in prison, he
adopted the pen name O. Henry. He soon developed
into one of America’s most celebrated short fiction writers.

BACKGROUND
This story’s main character is a thief who breaks into, or “cracks,” safes
in the early 1900s. At that time, the locks, dials, and levers of most safes
were located on the outside. Safecrackers developed special techniques
to punch out these parts. Today, safes are built with locks and bolts on
the inside, making them harder to “crack.”

NOTES
1

A guard came to the prison shoe-shop, where Jimmy Valentine

was assiduously1 stitching uppers, and escorted him to the
front office. There the warden handed Jimmy his pardon, which
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

had been signed that morning by the governor. Jimmy took it in a

tired kind of way. He had served nearly ten months of a
four-year sentence. He had expected to stay only about three
months, at the longest. When a man with as many friends on the
outside as Jimmy Valentine had is received in the “stir” it is hardly
worthwhile to cut his hair.
2 “Now, Valentine,” said the warden, “you’ll go out in the
morning. Brace up, and make a man of yourself. You’re not a bad
fellow at heart. Stop cracking safes, and live straight.”

1. assiduously (uh SIHJ oo uhs lee) adv. carefully and busily.

IL13 UNIT 3 Independent Learning • A Retrieved Reformation

 3 “Me?” said Jimmy, in surprise. “Why, I never cracked a safe in
my life.” NOTES

4 “Oh, no,” laughed the warden. “Of course not. Let’s see, now.
How was it you happened to get sent up on that Springfield
job? Was it because you wouldn’t prove an alibi for fear of
compromising somebody in extremely high-toned society? Or
was it simply a case of a mean old jury that had it in for you? It’s
always one or the other with you innocent victims.”
5 “Me?“ said Jimmy, still blankly virtuous. “Why, warden, I never
was in Springfield in my life!”
6 “Take him back, Cronin,” smiled the warden, “and fix him
up with outgoing clothes. Unlock him at seven in the morning,
and let him come to the bullpen.2 Better think over my advice,
Valentine.”
7 At a quarter past seven on the next morning Jimmy stood in the
warden’s outer office. He had on a suit of the villainously fitting,
ready-made clothes and a pair of the stiff, squeaky shoes that the
state furnishes to its discharged compulsory guests.
8 The clerk handed him a railroad ticket and the five-dollar bill
with which the law expected him to rehabilitate himself into
good citizenship and prosperity. The warden gave him a cigar,
and shook hands. Valentine, 9762, was chronicled on the books
“Pardoned by Governor,” and Mr. James Valentine walked out
into the sunshine.
9 Disregarding the song of the birds, the waving green trees, and
the smell of the flowers, Jimmy headed straight for a restaurant.
There he tasted the first sweet joys of liberty in the shape of a
chicken dinner. From there he proceeded leisurely to the depot
and boarded his train. Three hours set him down in a little town
near the state line. He went to the café of one Mike Dolan and
shook hands with Mike, who was alone behind the bar.
10 “Sorry we couldn’t make it sooner, Jimmy, me boy,” said Mike.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

“But we had that protest from Springfield to buck against, and the
governor nearly balked. Feeling all right?”
11 “Fine,” said Jimmy. “Got my key?”
12 He got his key and went upstairs, unlocking the door of a room
at the rear. Everything was just as he had left it. There on the
floor was still Ben Price’s collar-button that had been torn from
that eminent detective’s shirt-band when they had overpowered
Jimmy to arrest him.
13 Pulling out from the wall a folding-bed, Jimmy slid back a panel
in the wall and dragged out a dust-covered suitcase. He opened
this and gazed fondly at the finest set of burglar’s tools in the East.
It was a complete set, made of specially tempered steel, the latest

2. bullpen n. barred room in a jail where prisoners are held while waiting to be moved or
released.

UNIT 3 Independent Learning • A Retrieved Reformation IL14

 designs in drills, punches, braces and bits, jimmies, clamps, and
NOTES augers,3 with two or three novelties invented by Jimmy himself, in
which he took pride. Over nine hundred dollars they had cost him
to have made at—, a place where they make such things for the
profession.
14 In half an hour, Jimmy went downstairs and through the café.
He was now dressed in tasteful and well-fitting clothes, and
carried his dusted and cleaned suitcase in his hand.
15 “Got anything on?” asked Mike Dolan, genially.
16 “Me?” said Jimmy, in a puzzled tone. “I don’t understand.
I’m representing the New York Amalgamated Short Snap Biscuit
Cracker and Frazzled Wheat Company.”
17 This statement delighted Mike to such an extent that Jimmy had
to take a seltzer-and-milk on the spot. He never touched “hard”
drinks.
18 A week after the release of Valentine, 9762, there was a neat job
of safe-burglary done in Richmond, Indiana, with no clue to the
author. A scant eight hundred dollars was all that was secured.
Two weeks after that a patented, improved, burglar-proof safe
in Logansport was opened like a cheese to the tune of fifteen
hundred dollars, currency; securities and silver untouched. That
began to interest the rogue-catchers.4 Then an old-fashioned
bank-safe in Jefferson City became active and threw out of its
crater an eruption of bank-notes amounting to five thousand
dollars. The losses were now high enough to bring the matter up
into Ben Price’s class of work. By comparing notes, a remarkable
similarity in the methods of the burglaries was noticed. Ben Price
investigated the scenes of the robberies, and was heard to remark:
19 “That’s Dandy Jim Valentine’s autograph. He’s resumed
business. Look at that combination knob—jerked out as easy as
pulling up a radish in wet weather. He’s got the only clamps that
can do it. And look how clean those tumblers were punched out!

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Jimmy never has to drill but one hole. Yes, I guess I want Mr.
Valentine. He’ll do his bit next time without any short-time or
clemency foolishness.”
20 Ben Price knew Jimmy’s habits. He had learned them while
working up the Springfield case. Long jumps, quick getaways,
no confederates,5 and a taste for good society—these ways had
helped Mr. Valentine to become noted as a successful dodger of
retribution. It was given out that Ben Price had taken up the trail
of the elusive cracksman, and other people with burglar-proof
safes felt more at ease.

3. drills . . . augers (AW guhrz) tools used to bore holes in metal.

4. rogue-catchers police.
5. confederates (kuhn FEHD uhr ihts) n. fellow criminals.

IL15 UNIT 3 Independent Learning • A Retrieved Reformation

 21 One afternoon, Jimmy Valentine and his suitcase climbed out
of the mail hack6 in Elmore, a little town five miles off the railroad NOTES

down in the blackjack country of Arkansas. Jimmy, looking like

an athletic young senior just home from college, went down the
board sidewalk toward the hotel.
22 A young lady crossed the street, passed him at the corner and
entered a door over which was the sign “The Elmore Bank.”
Jimmy Valentine looked into her eyes, forgot what he was, and
became another man. She lowered her eyes and colored slightly.
Young men of Jimmy’s style and looks were scarce in Elmore.
23 Jimmy collared a boy that was loafing on the steps of the
bank as if he were one of the stockholders, and began to ask him
questions about the town, feeding him dimes at intervals. By and
by the young lady came out, looking royally unconscious of the
young man with the suitcase, and went her way.
24 “Isn’t that young lady Miss Polly Simpson?” asked Jimmy, with
specious guile.7
25 “Naw,” said the boy. “She’s Annabel Adams. Her pa owns this
bank. What’d you come to Elmore for? Is that a gold watch chain?
I’m going to get a bulldog. Got any more dimes?”
26 Jimmy went to the Planters’ Hotel, registered as Ralph
D. Spencer, and engaged a room. He leaned on the desk and
declared his platform8 to the clerk. He said he had come to Elmore
to look for a location to go into business. How was the shoe
business, now, in the town? He had thought of the shoe business.
Was there an opening?
27 The clerk was impressed by the clothes and manner of Jimmy.
He, himself, was something of a pattern of fashion to the thinly
gilded youth of Elmore, but he now perceived his shortcomings.
While trying to figure out Jimmy’s manner of tying his
four-in-hand,9 he cordially gave information.
28 Yes, there ought to be a good opening in the shoe line. There
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

wasn’t an exclusive shoe store in the place. The dry-goods and

general stores handled them. Business in all lines was fairly good.
Hoped Mr. Spencer would decide to locate in Elmore. He would
find it a pleasant town to live in, and the people very sociable.
29 Mr. Spencer thought he would stop over in the town a few days
and look over the situation. No, the clerk needn’t call the boy. He
would carry up his suitcase, himself; it was rather heavy.
30 Mr. Ralph Spencer, the phoenix that arose from Jimmy
Valentine’s ashes—ashes left by the flame of a sudden and
alterative attack of love—remained in Elmore, and prospered. He
opened a shoe store and secured a good run of trade.

6. mail hack horse and carriage used to deliver mail.

7. specious guile (SPEE shuhs) (gyl) crafty, indirect way of obtaining information.
8. platform here, statement of his situation.
9. four-in-hand necktie.

UNIT 3 Independent Learning • A Retrieved Reformation IL16

 31 Socially he was also a success, and made many friends. And he
NOTES accomplished the wish of his heart. He met Miss Annabel Adams,
and became more and more captivated by her charms.
32 At the end of a year the situation of Mr. Ralph Spencer was
this: he had won the respect of the community, his shoe store was
flourishing, and he and Annabel were engaged to be married in
two weeks. Mr. Adams, the typical, plodding, country banker,
approved of Spencer. Annabel’s pride in him almost equaled her
affection. He was as much at home in the family of Mr. Adams
and that of Annabel’s married sister as if he were already a
member.
33 One day Jimmy sat down in his room and wrote this letter,
which he mailed to the safe address of one of his old friends in
St. Louis:

Dear Old Pal:

I want you to be at Sullivan’s place, in Little Rock, next

Wednesday night, at nine o’clock. I want you to wind up some
little matters for me. And, also, I want to make you a present of
my kit of tools. I know you’ll be glad to get them—you couldn’t
duplicate the lot for a thousand dollars. Say, Billy, I’ve quit the
old business—a year ago. I’ve got a nice store. I’m making an
honest living, and I’m going to marry the finest girl on earth
two weeks from now. It’s the only life, Billy—the straight one.
I wouldn’t touch a dollar of another man’s money now for a
million. After I get married I’m going to sell out and go West,
where there won’t be so much danger of having old scores
brought up against me. I tell you, Billy, she’s an angel. She
believes in me; and I wouldn’t do another crooked thing for the
whole world. Be sure to be at Sully’s, for I must see you. I’ll
bring along the tools with me.

Your old friend,

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Jimmy.
34 On the Monday night after Jimmy wrote this letter, Ben Price
jogged unobtrusively into Elmore in a livery buggy. He lounged
about town in his quiet way until he found out what he wanted
to know. From the drugstore across the street from Spencer’s shoe
store he got a good look at Ralph D. Spencer.
35 “Going to marry the banker’s daughter are you, Jimmy?” said
Ben to himself, softly. “Well, I don’t know!”
36 The next morning Jimmy took breakfast at the Adamses. He
was going to Little Rock that day to order his wedding suit and
buy something nice for Annabel. That would be the first time he
had left town since he came to Elmore. It had been more than a

IL17 UNIT 3 Independent Learning • A Retrieved Reformation

 year now since those last professional “jobs,” and he thought he
could safely venture out. NOTES

37 After breakfast quite a family party went downtown together—

Mr. Adams, Annabel, Jimmy, and Annabel’s married sister with
her two little girls, aged five and nine. They came by the hotel
where Jimmy still boarded, and he ran up to his room and brought
along his suitcase. Then they went on to the bank. There stood
Jimmy’s horse and buggy and Dolph Gibson, who was going to
drive him over to the railroad station.
38 All went inside the high, carved oak railings into the banking-
room—Jimmy included, for Mr. Adams’s future son-in-law was
welcome anywhere. The clerks were pleased to be greeted by the
good-looking, agreeable young man who was going to marry Miss
Annabel. Jimmy set his suitcase down. Annabel, whose heart was
bubbling with happiness and lively youth, put on Jimmy’s hat and
picked up the suitcase. “Wouldn’t I make a nice drummer?”10 said
Annabel. “My! Ralph, how heavy it is! Feels like it was full of gold
bricks.”
39 “Lot of nickel-plated shoehorns in there,” said Jimmy, coolly,
“that I’m going to return. Thought I’d save express charges by
taking them up. I’m getting awfully economical.”
40 The Elmore Bank had just put in a new safe and vault.
Mr. Adams was very proud of it, and insisted on an inspection
by everyone. The vault was a small one, but it had a new,
patented door. It fastened with three solid steel bolts thrown
simultaneously with a single handle, and had a time lock.
Mr. Adams beamingly explained its workings to Mr. Spencer,
who showed a courteous but not too intelligent interest. The two
children, May and Agatha, were delighted by the shining metal
and funny clock and knobs.
41 While they were thus engaged Ben Price sauntered in and
leaned on his elbow, looking casually inside between the railings.
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

He told the teller that he didn’t want anything; he was just waiting
for a man he knew.
42 Suddenly there was a scream or two from the women, and a
commotion. Unperceived by the elders, May, the nine-year-old
girl, in a spirit of play, had shut Agatha in the vault. She had then
shot the bolts and turned the knob of the combination as she had
seen Mr. Adams do.
43 The old banker sprang to the handle and tugged at it for a
moment. “The door can’t be opened,” he groaned. “The clock
hasn’t been wound nor the combination set.”
44 Agatha’s mother screamed again, hysterically.

10. drummer n. traveling salesman.

UNIT 3 Independent Learning • A Retrieved Reformation IL18

 45 “Hush!” said Mr. Adams, raising his trembling hand. “All be
NOTES quiet for a moment. Agatha!” he called as loudly as he could.
“Listen to me.” During the following silence they could just hear
the faint sound of the child wildly shrieking in the dark vault in a
panic of terror.
46 “My precious darling!” wailed the mother. “She will die of
fright! Open the door! Oh, break it open! Can’t you men do
something?”
47 “There isn’t a man nearer than Little Rock who can open that
door,” said Mr. Adams, in a shaky voice. “My God! Spencer, what
shall we do? That child—she can’t stand it long in there. There
isn’t enough air, and besides, she’ll go into convulsions from
fright.”
48 Agatha’s mother, frantic now, beat the door of the vault with
her hands. Somebody wildly suggested dynamite. Annabel turned
to Jimmy, her large eyes full of anguish, but not yet despairing.
To a woman nothing seems quite impossible to the powers of the
man she worships.
49 “Can’t you do something, Ralph—try, won’t you?”
50 He looked at her with a queer, soft smile on his lips and in his
keen eyes.
51 “Annabel,” he said, “give me that rose you are wearing,
will you?”
52 Hardly believing that she heard him aright, she unpinned the
bud from the bosom of her dress, and placed it in his hand. Jimmy
stuffed it into his vest pocket, threw off his coat and pulled up
his shirt sleeves. With that act Ralph D. Spencer passed away and
Jimmy Valentine took his place.
53 “Get away from the door, all of you,” he commanded, shortly.
54 He set his suitcase on the table, and opened it out flat. From
that time on he seemed to be unconscious of the presence of
anyone else. He laid out the shining, queer implements swiftly

Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

and orderly, whistling softly to himself as he always did when at
work. In a deep silence and immovable, the others watched him as
if under a spell.
55 In a minute Jimmy’s pet drill was biting smoothly into the steel
door. In ten minutes—breaking his own burglarious record—he
threw back the bolts and opened the door.
56 Agatha, almost collapsed, but safe, was gathered into her
mother’s arms.
57 Jimmy Valentine put on his coat, and walked outside the
railings toward the front door. As he went he thought he heard
a far-away voice that he once knew call “Ralph!” But he never
hesitated.

IL19 UNIT 3 Independent Learning • A Retrieved Reformation

 58 At the door a big man stood somewhat in his way.
59 “Hello, Ben!” said Jimmy, still with his strange smile. “Got NOTES

around at last, have you? Well, let’s go. I don’t know that it makes
much difference, now.”
60 And then Ben Price acted rather strangely.
61 “Guess you’re mistaken, Mr. Spencer,” he said. “Don’t believe I
recognize you. Your buggy’s waiting for you, ain’t it?”
62 And Ben Price turned and strolled down the street. ❧
Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

UNIT 3 Independent Learning • A Retrieved Reformation IL20