📝Page 74

Oral Comprehension Check 

Q1. What did Mr Petronski’s letter say?
Answer: Mr Petronski’s letter said that Wanda and her brother Jake were moving to a big city and would no longer be coming to school.

Q2. Is Miss Mason angry with the class, or is she unhappy and upset?
Answer: Miss Mason is not angry but is unhappy and upset. She tells the class that what happened was a “very unfortunate thing.”

Q3. How does Maddie feel after listening to the note from Wanda’s father?
Answer: Maddie feels a sick feeling in her stomach. She feels guilty and like a coward for not having said anything to Peggy.

Q4. What does Maddie want to do?
Answer: Maddie wants to find Wanda and apologize and tell her that she won the contest.

📝Page 76

Oral Comprehension Check 

Q1. What excuses does Peggy think up for her behaviour? Why?
Answer: Peggy tries to excuse her behaviour by saying that she never called Wanda a “foreigner” and that she thought Wanda was “too dumb” to know she was being made fun of. She makes these excuses to ease her own guilt.

Q2. What are Maddie’s thoughts as they go to Boggins Heights?
Answer: Maddie’s thoughts are filled with hope. She hopes they will find Wanda so she can apologize and make things right.

Q3. Why does Wanda’s house remind Maddie of Wanda’s blue dress?
Answer: Wanda’s house reminds Maddie of Wanda’s blue dress because both were shabby but clean, showing the simple life she lived.

Q4. What does Maddie think hard about? What important decision does she come to?
Answer: Maddie thinks hard about her own behavior and silence. She decides that she will never stand by and say nothing again if she sees someone being picked on, even if it means losing Peggy’s friendship.

📝Page 79

Oral Comprehension Check 

Q1. What did the girls write to Wanda?
Answer: The girls wrote a friendly letter telling Wanda that she had won the drawing contest and how beautiful her drawings were.

Q2. Did they get a reply? Who was more anxious for a reply, Peggy or Maddie? How do you know?
Answer: They did not get a reply for a long time. Maddie was more anxious. The text says that “Maddie put herself to sleep at night making speeches about Wanda…”

Q3. How did the girls know that Wanda liked them even though they had teased her?
Answer: They knew because Wanda gave the drawings of the green and blue dresses to Peggy and Maddie in her letter to Miss Mason.

Thinking about the Text

Q1. Why do you think Wanda’s family moved to a different city? Do you think life there was going to be different for their family?
Answer: Wanda’s family moved because they were tired of the teasing and discrimination. Life in the new city would likely be different because, as her father said, there would be “plenty of funny names,” so they would not be singled out.

Q2. Maddie thought her silence was as bad as Peggy’s teasing. Was she right?
Answer: Yes, Maddie was right. Her silence was a form of supporting the unkind behaviour, which made Wanda feel even more hurt.

Q3. Peggy says, “I never thought she had the sense to know we were making fun of her anyway. I thought she was too dumb. And gee, look how she can draw!” What led Peggy to believe that Wanda was dumb? Did she change her opinion later?
Answer: Peggy believed Wanda was dumb because Wanda was so quiet and always wore the same dress. She changed her opinion when she saw Wanda’s hundred beautiful drawings and realized she had great talent.

Q4. What important decision did Maddie make? Why did she have to think hard to do so?
Answer: Maddie made the important decision to never stand by silently again. She had to think hard because it meant standing up to her popular friend, Peggy, and risking her social status.

Q5. Why do you think Wanda gave Maddie and Peggy the drawings of the dresses? Why are they surprised?
Answer: Wanda gave them the drawings to show that she had no hard feelings. She was a kind and generous person. They were surprised because they expected her to be angry and not forgiving.

Q6. Do you think Wanda really thought the girls were teasing her? Why or Why not?
Answer: Yes, Wanda knew she was being teased. She was “stolid” when asked about her dresses, which suggests she was hiding her hurt. Her father’s letter also confirms that the teasing was a serious problem for her.

Thinking about Language

I. Word Webs

• Positive qualities: kind, courteous, placid, zealous, intrepid, sensitive, compassionate, cheerful, contented, friendly, generous, talented, determined, creative.
• Negative qualities: sarcastic, arrogant, insipid, timid, cruel, haughty, thoughtless, vain, unforgiving, lonely, miserable, introverted, stolid, proud, fashionable, complacent.

II. Adjectives for Characters

• Peggy: haughty, fashionable, creative, proud, arrogant, thoughtless.
• Wanda: talented, introverted, lonely, quiet, unassuming, imaginative, generous.
• Maddie: timid, sensitive, compassionate, miserable, worried.

III. Phrasal Verbs

1. lined up: “There must have been a hundred of them, all lined up.”
2. thought up: “Peggy, who had thought up this game, and Maddie, her inseparable friend, were always the last to leave.”
3. took off: “Miss Mason took off her glasses, blew on them and wiped them on her soft white handkerchief.”
4. stood by: “She had stood by silently, and that was just as bad as what Peggy had done.”

Other meanings and examples:

• lined up: The students lined up for lunch.
• thought up: He thought up a brilliant plan.
• took off: The plane took off at 8:00 a.m.
• stood by: His friends stood by him during the hard times.

Sentences:

1. The soldiers lined up in perfect formation.
2. She thought up a great idea for the project.
3. The airplane took off from the runway on time.
4. I will always stand by my friends, no matter what.
5. You should not have stood by while they were teasing him.

IV. Colour Expressions

1. the Monday morning blues → sadness or depression after a weekend of fun
2. go red in the face → feel embarrassed/angry/ashamed
3. look green → feel very sick, as if about to vomit
4. the red carpet → a special welcome
5. blue-blooded → of noble birth or from a royal family
6. a green belt → land around a town or city where construction is prohibited by law
7. a blackguard → a dishonest person with no sense of right or wrong
8. a grey area → an area of a subject or a situation where matters are not very clear
9. a white flag → a sign of surrender or acceptance of defeat
10. a blueprint → a detailed plan or scheme
11. red-handed → in an unlawful act; while doing something wrong
12. the green light → the sign or permission to begin an action