Before Reading
BEFORE READING ACTIVITIES (PAGE 93)
ACTIVITY 1 BEFORE READING
1 Rose 5 Julian
2 Edward 6 Muriel
3 Sarah 7 Macon
4 Charles and Porter 8 Ethan
ACTIVITY 2 BEFORE READING
Encourage students to speculate and to make
guesses, but do not tell them the answers. They will
find out as they read that the answers are 2, 3, and
5.
While Reading
CHAPTERS 1 AND 2 WHILE READING
Suggested additional answers.
1 Sarah. She married Macon when they were both very
young, but she no longer finds him mysterious. She
has become tired of Macon’s systems.
2 Rose. She has always cared for someone in the
family, and has never had a job outside the home.
3 Edward. He once bit someone on the ankle, and is
scared of strange noises in the basement.
4 Julian. He is Macon’s boss, and is younger than
Macon.
5 Muriel. She is helpful and quick to make contact
with people.
BEFORE READING CHAPTER 3
Encourage discussion and speculation. Do not tell
students the answer to question 2 (which is ‘Rose’).
CHAPTERS 3 TO 5 WHILE READING
Encourage discussion. Possible answers:
1 Further apart. Macon’s dinner with Sarah shows
that she is not intending to come back to him.
2 Closer together. In spite of the argument about
Edward, when the training lessons begin again,
Macon kisses Muriel, and feels differently towards
her because he knows now she has a son.
3 Closer together. Rose and Julian are slowly and
shyly getting to know each other.
4 Further apart. Rose’s relationship with Julian is
becoming more important to her than her brothers.
BEFORE READING CHAPTER 6
Encourage students to speculate and to make
guesses, but do not tell them the answers. They will
find out as they read that the answer is number 4.
CHAPTERS 6 TO 9 WHILE READING
Suggested answers:
1 Macon talking to Muriel, after he has tried to leave a
note giving his excuse for not coming to dinner with
her. It shows how lonely and isolated Macon feels.
2 Macon talking to Julian, having just seen the ring
Julian intends to give Rose when he asks her to
marry him. Macon’s surprise is probably because
he is not used to thinking of Rose as a person in her
own right.
3 Macon talking to Muriel, about teaching Alexander
to fix a faucet. It shows Macon’s interest in practical
things, and perhaps also his instinct as a father to
teach skills to a son – something he might once have
done with Ethan.
4 Macon thinking about Alexander, who has just
put his hand into Macon’s after an unpleasant
experience he had with some nasty children in the
street. This little sign of trust and dependence shows
what an anxious, worried kind of person Macon is;
he now feels he must worry about all the things and
events that might affect Alexander as he grows up.
5 Muriel talking on the phone to her mother
about Alexander. It shows that the relationship
between Muriel and her mother is not very good,
and Muriel’s mother shows little interest in her
grandson’s poor health.
6 Muriel talking to Macon, after Christmas dinner
with Muriel’s family, when her mother made tactless
and critical remarks about Muriel’s failure to
find herself a husband. It shows Muriel’s anxiety
about the effect these remarks had on Macon, her
uncertainty about Macon’s feelings for her, and her
need for reassurance.
7 Muriel talking on the phone to her sister Claire,
who has been having trouble with her parents.
This shows Muriel’s fighting spirit in that she is
encouraging her sister to be free and independent,
and to pay no attention to parental controls.
BEFORE READING CHAPTER 10
Encourage discussion of the choices open to
Macon, and which choice it would be best for him
to make.