Name: ______________________________________________

Period: ______

Due date: ___________________

Close Reading from Tending To Grace by Kimberly Newton Fusco (ch. 5, pg. 6-7)
DIRECTIONS: Read the following passage. While reading, underline, summarize, label, define, question and record
inferences and other literary devices in the margins. Then, answer the questions on the reverse side completely.
No one likes the new girl. Her name is Ruth. She wears the goofiest glasses I've ever seen. But I
like her. I like the way she looks me in the eye when I tell her something. She is kind
underneath those glasses and she smiles when I joke around. I want to tell her my whole life
story in ten minutes, quicklike so the words tumble down, fast and furious, like my mother's
promises. But I don't know how to begin, so we talk about books, which is the second-favorite
reason why I like her so much.
We have just read Oliver Twist, me for the second time, and we are trying to figure out how
Oliver survived on the gruel they made him eat at the workhouse. We made a pact to live on
gruel for one day, cold and without sugar, but unlike Oliver, our portions are un-limited. Ruth
brought Cream of Wheat. I brought oatmeal and it sits like cold clotted gravy on my tongue.
The girls in the lunch line point to us. The empty seats beside us are magnets. I concentrate on
my spoon. I wonder if they'll notice our lunch. How disgusting. How odd. How much of a loser
can you be, Cornelia Thornhill?
I stuff my bowl into my bag and push it into my backpack.
"Hey, we're not done," Ruth says. Her back is to the girls; she hasn't noticed. I nod toward
them. She turns and hides her bowl in her notebook and stands up to leave. She is sturdier than
I, more of an eggplant to my celery stick. I am so hungry.
"Oh, don't go on account of us," says Eleanor, the tallest of the three breezing toward us. She
has had a perfect mouth from the beginning of time, one that never has--and never will--need
braces. I stare absently into the crowded lunchroom.
"How are you today, Cornelia?" Eleanor takes her napkin, puts it on her lap, and ignores Ruth. I
take my napkin and wipe my mouth.
I smile quickly and sip my milk.
"Did you get the last answer on the test?" Eleanor asks.
I shake my head. The other girls are snickering behind their napkins.

She tries again. "You didn't read again today. How come?"
I take another sip and shrug. Eleanor is waiting for me to answer. I take another sip and wipe
my mouth. I start wiping my lips with each sip now, afraid something else horrible will fall out
of my mouth. Seven, eight, nine times, I mop my mouth.
Eleanor laughs and then her friends laugh and when I can't listen anymore, I stand up and run
out the side door of the cafeteria. The lunch aide hollers and the force of it follows me all the
way to the street, where my tears mix with rain.

COMPLETELY answer the following question, using text evidence and a COMPLETE RAISE format response.
Which levels from the Pyramid of Hate are present in the passage above? Explain your answer. (RL7.1, 7.3, RI7.3, W7.4)
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