Question

A nurse at the reception desk gave me directions --my grandmother was in East Three. I made my way down the tiled corridor and was glad to see that the walls were painted with cheerful colors like yellow and pink. A wheelchair suddenly shot around a corner, self-propelled by an old man, white-haired and toothless, who cackled merrily as he barely missed me. I jumped aside --here I was, almost getting wiped out by a two-mile-an-hour wheelchair after doing seventy-five on the pike. As I walked through the corridor seeking East Three, I couldn't help glancing into the rooms, and it was like some kind of wax museum --all these figures in various stances and attitudes, sitting in begs or chairs, standing at windows, as if they were frozen forever in these postures. To tell the truth, I began to hurry because I was getting depressed. Finally, I saw a beautiful girl approaching, dressed in white, a nurse or an attendant, and I was so happy to see someone young, someone walking and acting normally, that I gave her a wide smile and a big
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Check-In (page 9): Read paragraph 16 of “The Moustache.” Use what you have learned about connotative and figurative meanings to answer the questions.
Question Answer
1. To whom does Mike compare his grandmother?
2. How does this comparison relate to Mike’s culture?
3. What similes are used to compare Mike’s grandmother and the actress?
4. How do the figurative meanings of the similes help readers to better understand Mike’s grandmother?
5. What is the connotative meaning of the word girlish? How does this meaning reflect how Mike sees and thinks about his grandmother at that moment?

Additional Notes (OPTIONAL)




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Unit 5 Lesson 8: Rhyme and Alliteration
Video Link: Alliteration, Assonance, and Onomatopoeia | Style | Grammar
Key words: define the following in your own words.
Words Definition
alliteration
repetition
rhyme
rhythm

Check-In (page 3): Use what you have learned about rhyme and repetition to answer these questions. Highlight or underline the correct answer.
1. Which line of poetry has the clearest example of alliteration?
a. With sorrow, he cried; with sorrow, he fought.
b. His whispers flew like the wings of wrens.
c. When the child grew sad, she also became mad.
d. They toiled all night, and into the day.

2. In which lines of poetry does the author use rhyme to connect words and emphasize their meanings?
a. Fiona fretted and paced, and feared for the future.
b. Nathan was a man of his word, and a man who came through.
c. Tanya climbed each rung of the corporate ladder, while those around her grew anxious and madder.
d. Lin watched and he listened until his senses were sharp, like dogs at the airport trained for special security.

3. Which lines of poetry use repetition to emphasize an emotion that the speaker feels about love?
a. I wrote him my letter; I wrote my heart through my pen.
b. We talked every night in calls lasting hours and in texts that rained in like warm April showers.
c. I’ll offer my love like a feather pure white, And hope that my offer is met with delight.
d. My heart broke in anguish, And in anguish my love shattered.

Practice (page 7): Read paragraph 18 of “The Moustache,” a short story by Robert Cormier. Use what you have learned about alliteration and the repetition of sounds to answer the following prompts using the provided spaces below.
Prompt Answer
a. Identify all the examples of alliteration in the paragraph.

b. How does this alliteration reinforce the narrator’s feelings about the woman?

c. What do you notice about the rhythm of the sentences?

d. How do the sound devices affect you as a reader?


Rewrite the paragraph, using different words to express an experience of holding someone’s hands. Be sure to include alliteration, repetition, and rhyme where possible. Write your revision in the provided space below.






Additional Notes (OPTIONAL)

Answer 1

I can answer the multiple-choice and help with the tasks that don’t require seeing paragraph 16 or 18. For the questions that refer to specific lines in the story, please paste those paragraphs (or tell me you want me to use the excerpt you already included) and I will give exact answers. Below I’ve done what I can now and given a model paragraph for the rewrite task.

If you want me to fill in the paragraph-specific answers exactly, please paste paragraph 16 and paragraph 18 from “The Moustache.”

Answers I can complete now

1) Key-word definitions (in plain words)
- Alliteration: Repeating the same initial consonant sound in neighboring words (e.g., “wild winds”).
- Repetition: Repeating words, phrases, or structures to create emphasis or rhythm.
- Rhyme: Words that share similar ending sounds, used to connect ideas or make lines memorable.
- Rhythm: The pattern of stressed and unstressed sounds or beats in a line or sentence.

2) Check-In (page 3) — multiple choice
1. Best example of alliteration: b. “His whispers flew like the wings of wrens.” (repeated w/wr sounds)
2. Lines that use rhyme to connect words: c. “Tanya…ladder…madder.” (ladder/madder rhyme)
3. Lines that use repetition to emphasize an emotion about love: d. “My heart broke in anguish, / And in anguish my love shattered.” (repeats “in anguish” to stress the emotion)

Guidance for the paragraph-based questions (need the paragraphs for exact answers)
- To whom does Mike compare his grandmother? — Look for a simile or explicit comparison (starts with like/as or “she was…”). Copy that comparison exactly, then paraphrase it.
- How does this comparison relate to Mike’s culture? — Consider Mike’s background, values, expectations about age and family. Does the comparison reflect respect, embarrassment, distance, pride, or another culturally influenced reaction? Explain briefly.
- What similes are used to compare Mike’s grandmother and the actress? — Find each simile (look for “like” or “as”) that mentions the actress and the grandmother and list them.
- How do the figurative meanings help readers understand the grandmother? — Explain what the comparison suggests (e.g., youthful, glamorous, faded beauty, fragile, theatrical) and how that deepens characterization.
- Connotative meaning of “girlish” — Explain the emotional or cultural associations (youthful, playful, innocent, maybe inexperienced). Then say how Mike’s use of “girlish” reveals his perception in that moment (admiration, surprise, seeing her as youthful rather than frail, etc.).

Paragraph-18 practice prompts (how to answer once you paste paragraph 18)
a. Identify alliteration examples — underline repeated initial sounds (e.g., “softly she sighed,” “busy bees buzz”).
b. How does the alliteration reinforce the narrator’s feelings? — Explain how sound mirrors mood: gentle alliteration can soften a scene; harsh consonant clusters can create tension.
c. What about the rhythm of the sentences? — Note short choppy sentences vs. long flowing ones, and how that tempo matches emotion.
d. How do the sound devices affect you as a reader? — Say whether they make the passage more vivid, musical, tense, or intimate.

Model rewrite (holding someone’s hands) — includes alliteration, repetition, and rhyme
Here is a short paragraph you can use or adapt for the rewrite task. It expresses holding hands and deliberately uses alliteration, repetition, and rhyme:

I held her hands—warm and worn—wandering through wrinkles like waves. I held them once, I held them twice; I held them tight as if to stitch time into something safe. Fingers folded, familiar and firm, they fit like pieces of a poem: soft and slow, glow and know, rhyme for time. Again and again I felt the same steady beat, a steady beat that soothed and sweetened the silence.

(Notes: “warm and worn” and “wandering…wrinkles…waves” are alliteration; “I held them once, I held them twice” is repetition; “soft and slow, glow and know, rhyme for time” includes rhyme.)

If you want fully specific answers for paragraph 16 and paragraph 18 questions, please paste those paragraphs and I’ll complete everything exactly.