Name __________________________________ Date _______________________
On Cat’s dresser was a picture of our father who had gone away somewhere a long time ago. He was young in the picture, laughing, his eyes looking past the camera, past the place, past me. When I was little, I carried that picture around, trying to remember him, trying to place the picture so the eyes would look into mine. But they never did. His face was like carved stone, not flesh and blood. And the picture never told me things I wanted to know. Did he think about Cat and me? Where was he? Would I know him if I saw him?
Journey – pages 4-5
o Who is “me” in the passage above? ___________
o How do you think this person feels about their father? Explain your thinking using text-support.
Define the following word using both textual clues and a dictionary. As always, the purpose of vocabulary work is to develop an understanding of what the word means. Many times you will come across a definition in a dictionary that doesn’t exactly make sense to you. In this case, you should do a couple of things:
- Use the dictionary to help you understand unfamiliar words in the definition?
- Look up the vocabulary word using a different dictionary.
- Consider each definition listed because some words have multiple meanings. So, identifying the one that matches the context can make all the difference in your understanding.
“I turned and the camera clicked: Grandfather’s first picture of me. I stared at him angrily, and slowly he lowered the camera and looked at me with a surprised and dismayed expression as if he’d seen something through the lens that he hadn’t expected.”
Journey – page 5
o Based on the context, what do you think “dismayed” means?
o Using a dictionary, define “dismayed” in a way that MAKES SENSE to YOU.
o Now that you understand what “dismayed” means, create your own sentence that incorporates (uses) the word correctly.
