by Joseph Bruchac
The next thing I knew, I was on an alligator rumbling over the reef. I could hear the roar of the LVT’s engines, the whap-whap-whap of small waves hitting the metal side of the boat, and the coral being crushed by the treads, sort of like the sound sugar cubes make when they are crushed between teeth.
But I don’t even remember hearing the whistle and the order to land the landing party. Once again, I had that familiar, unsettling feeling of being in a movie where the film has been broken and then spliced together a whole scene later. All of a sudden sand was churning under my feet as I sprinted across the beach. It was easier for me to run now because all us code talkers had the new lighter portable radio units. But it was not just because the new unit on my back was lighter that I ran so much faster. I no longer had forty pounds of TBX radio to hide behind and I needed to get to cover as fast as I could.
Excerpt(s) from CODE TALKER: A NOVEL ABOUT THE NAVAJO MARINES OF WORLD WAR TWO by Joseph Bruchac, copyright © 2005 by Joseph Bruchac. Used by permission of Dial Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Question
Use the passage to answer the question.
What action does the description of “churning” evoke?
(1 point)
Responses
Bullets are striking the sand around the narrator.
Bullets are striking the sand around the narrator.
The narrator is running over a soft beach.
The narrator is running over a soft beach.
The tide has come in and he is running through the water.
The tide has come in and he is running through the water.
An earthquake has struck the island, complicating the attack.
1 answer
The action that the description of “churning” evokes is:
The narrator is running over a soft beach.
This response aligns best with the context provided in the passage, which focuses on the narrator's experience of sprinting across the beach and the impact of his movement on the sand.
