Name: ___________________________________________________ Date: __________________
Close Reading
NONFICTION: “Attack at Sea,” pages 4-10
December 2015/January 2016
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Close-Reading Questions
“Attack at Sea”
1. Read the introduction of the article. How does the last paragraph differ from the first three?
(text structure, mood)
2. When Lewis writes that the German U-boat, U-20, “could creep up on any ship,” she is
personifying the U-boat—that is, assigning it a human characteristic. Where else in the
article does Lewis personify U-boats? What effect does this use of personification create?
(figurative language)
3. Lewis never explicitly writes that Schwieger decided to fire a torpedo at the Lusitania, yet
it’s clear that he did. How does the author let the reader know this? Why might she have
chosen to deliver the information in this way? (author’s craft)
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