The phrase from paragraph 20 that most helps the reader understand the meaning of the word proximity is:
"...reigned so near..."
This phrase indicates closeness or nearness, which aligns with the meaning of "proximity."
Read the passage. Then answer the questions.
from "Magnus - Part 1"
by Sara Rajan
1 We had just sat down to dinner when our mother made the announcement.
2 I remember it was a frigid evening in January. Icicles shivered on the eaves, and the wind blew in a tantrum, curling white belts of snow through the naked limbs of the old oak in our backyard.
3 My brother, Bat, who is five years younger than I am, was dumping gravy over his potatoes, and I was scrolling through a playlist of music on my phone, when Mom said, "I've accepted a job offer in Everett."
4 She then picked up her knife and fork and quietly cut into her chicken breast, waiting for this initial transaction of information to sink in. When neither I nor Bat responded, she went on. "We won't be living in Everett, of course, but in Granite Falls. It's a small town away from the hustle and bustle of the city, and the commute isn't bad, half an hour at the most."
5 I set my phone down on the table and reached for the bowl of cranberry sauce in front of me. "Where's Granite Falls?" I asked. I hadn't heard of the town before and wondered if it was anywhere near Chippewa Falls, which was more than a three-hour drive from Milwaukee, where we lived and had lived all our lives.
6 Mom dabbed her mouth with her napkin, then gingerly folded it in half on the table. As she smoothed it down with her fingers, she answered softly, "In the Pacific Northwest, Washington."
7 I glanced up in dismay. Bat dropped his fork. "Washington?" he choked, his face almost as white as the frozen outside. "We're mov—we're moving to Washington?"
8 I snatched up my phone and quickly searched the distance between Milwaukee and Granite Falls—two thousand miles!
9 "Gretal, Bat, I'm sorry if this seems so sudden, but I hardly knew the certainty of it myself until today. It was an auspicious offer. I had to take it."
10 Our mother, an aerospace engineer by trade, proceeded to divulge all the details of this new opportunity and, when she had finished, looked from me to Bat. . . .
11 "We move at the end of May," she went on, tucking a loose strand of blond hair behind her ear. "That gives you the entire summer to get acquainted with the place before you start school."
12 School.
13 My heart sank at the word.
14 I'd be starting high school in the fall, and without the luxury of one familiar face or friend.
15 I glanced over at Bat, who no longer tackled his food with his usual ravenous appetite but stared down at his plate as if it were tainted with poison.
16 "Hey, it might be fun," I said, assuming an encouraging tone. "You never know, it could be the adventure of a lifetime."
17 Those subsequent months came and went like a daydream, and before we knew it, the last of the boxes were loaded into the trailer hitched to the back of the truck, and our old life, left in the rearview mirror.
18 It was a three-day drive from Milwaukee to Granite Falls. Mom drove the entire way, stopping overnight once in Bismarck and once in Missoula. The trip was a tedious and uneventful one, and hardly a word passed between the three of us.
19 We arrived sometime in the early afternoon on the first of June.
20 I was fast asleep when Mom announced we had just crossed into town. I scrambled upright in the passenger seat and looked out the window. The first thing that struck me was the vivid, budding green landscape dominated by the Cascade Mountains to the east. There were trees and shrubs everywhere: rhododendrons exploding with scarlet blooms, sky-blue hydrangeas, and magnificent stands of evergreens that grew indefinitely skyward. But what I found most surprising was the proximity of the mountains, which rose against a sharp blue sky and reigned so near that I could trace, with my naked eye, the contours of the craggy peaks. It was within the shadows of these mountains that we would begin our new life.
21 The GPS soon directed Mom to take a left turn. She carefully navigated the truck and trailer down a narrow, sylvan road where the houses were shaded by dense groves of trees. Despite the golden shafts of light slanting through the thick green cover, this road seemed as if it always existed on the verge of dusk.
22 I rolled down my window and let fresh air filter through the truck.
Adapted from "Magnus - Part 1" by Sara Rajan, from Cricket Magazine, October 2018. Copyright © 2018 by Carus Publishing d/b/a Cricket Media.
Question
Select the phrase from paragraph 20 that most helps the reader understand the meaning of the word proximity.
Responses
"...Mom announced..."
"... StartFragment Mom announced..." EndFragment
"...green landscape dominated..."
"... StartFragment green landscape dominated..." EndFragment
"...I found most surprising..."
"...I StartFragment found most surprising..." EndFragment
"...reigned so near..."
"... StartFragment reigned so near..." EndFragment
1 answer