Reading Assignment #1

       But now tonight, he slowed almost to a stop. His inner mind, reaching out to turn the corner for him, had heard the faintest whisper. Breathing? Or was the atmosphere compressed merely by someone standing very quietly there, waiting?
He turned the corner.

Question 1 (A&B) – What does ‘faintest whisper’ mean?
Question 2 (A&B) – Why did Montag almost slowed to a stop?
Question 3 (A&B) – Draw a picture of what Montag thinks is around the corner.

       The autumn leaves blew over the moonlit pavement in such a way as to make the girl who was moving there seem fixed to a sliding walk (la muchacha que se movía allí pareciese estar andando sin desplazarse), letting the motion of the wind and the leaves carry her forward.

Question 4 (A&B) – Define ‘autumn leaves’, ‘blew over’, and ‘moonlit pavement’.
Question 5 (A&B) – Draw that scene.

Group B can stop reading.

Her head was half bent to watch her shoes stir the circling leaves. Her face was slender and milk-white, and in it was a kind of gentle hunger that touched over everything with tireless curiosity. It was a look, almost, of pale surprise; the dark eyes were so fixed to the world that no move escaped them. Her dress was white and it whispered. He almost thought he heard the motion of her hands as she walked, and the infinitely small sound now, the white stir of her face turning when she discovered she was a moment away from a man who stood in the middle of the pavement waiting.

Question 6 (A) – ‘Hunger’ means “the feeling of needing to eat”, but how does the author use ‘hunger’ in the story? “The feeling of needing to ____________.”
Question 7 (A) – What doesn’t escape?
Question 8 (A) – What does “[her dress] whispered” mean (personification)?
Question 9 (A) – What does ‘motion’, ‘stir’, ‘pavement’, and ‘waiting’ mean?
Question 10 (A) – What does the last sentence mean?