The First Day- a short story

Where were the author and her mother going on the "unremarkable September morning?"

• to church

• to the beauty salon

• to a restaurant for breakfast

• to school

What does the author say she will learn to do?

• read and write

• be ashamed of her mother

• play with other children

• walk home on her own

Where is the author's father?

• disappeared into a memory

• at work

• at home with her sisters

• meeting them at the school

Which word means "to braid" and fills in the sentence below?

My mother has uncharacteristically spent nearly an hour on my hair that morning, ____________ and re_________ so that now my scalp tingles

• timeworn

• teeming

• plait

• envelop

• faint

Which word means "to be full or swarming" as in the sentence below:

All the way down New Jersey Avenue, the sidewalks are ________________ with children

• teeming

• speckle

• insistent

• envelop

Which word means "barely perceptible of sight or smell" and completes the sentence below?

Whenever I turn my head quickly, my nose fills with the ___________ smell of Dixie Peach hair grease.

• stingy

• persistant

• palint

• speckle

• faint

Which word means "unwilling to give or spend" and completes the sentence below?

Behind my ears, my mother, to stop my whining, has dabbed the _____________ bit of her gardenia perfume, the last present my father gave her before he disappeared into memory

• stingy

• soothing

• speckle

• insistent

• precious

Which word means" damaged or impaired" and completes the sentence below: "At I Street, between New Jersey Avenue and Third Street, we enter Seaton Elementary School, a _____________, sadfaced building across the street from my mother’s church, Mt. Carmel Baptist."

• stingy

• insistant

• precious

• timeworn

• faint

Which word means "demanding" and completes the sentence below?

"My mother does not believe that a girl in kindergarten needs such things, so I am taking them only because of my __________________ whining and because they are presents from our neighbors, Mary Keith and Blondelle Harris."

• soothing

• plait

• insistent

• stingy

• timeworn

Which word means "having a gently calming effect" and completes the sentence below:

"The smell is somehow a ______________ one now and I will reach for it time- and time again before the morning ends"

• envelop

• precious

• teeming

• speckle

• soothing