8th Grade English
Read the passage from "A Cub Pilot":
I was helpless. I did not know what in the world to do. I was quaking from head to foot, and I could have hung my hat on my eyes, they stuck out so far.
“Quarter twain! Quarter twain! Mark twain!”
We were drawing nine! My hands were in a nerveless flutter. I could not ring a bell intelligibly with them. I flew to the speaking-tube and shouted to the engineer,
“Oh, Ben, if you love me, back her! Quick, Ben! Oh, back the immortal soul out of her!”
I heard the door close gently. I looked around, and there stood Mr. Bixby, smiling a bland, sweet smile. Then the audience on the hurricane-deck sent up a thundergust of humiliating laughter. I saw it all now, and felt meaner than the meanest man in human history. I laid in the lead, set the boat in her marks, came ahead on the engines, and said,
“It was a fine trick to play on an orphan, wasn’t it? I suppose I’ll never hear the last of how I was stupid enough to heave the lead at the head of 66.”
“
Well, no, you won’t, maybe. In fact I hope you won’t; for I want you to learn something by that experience. Didn’t you know there was no bottom in that crossing?”
“Yes, sir, I did.”
You will write one well-developed paragraph of at least 7-8 sentences.
In your paragraph, identify one major idea in the memoir "A Cub Pilot." Then identify one sentence in the passage that directly develops or refines that main idea.
Explain how that sentence develops the main idea you identified.
