1.
2. Vocabulary:
- Hecatomb: any great slaughter
- primordial: giving origin to something derived or developed
- neutron star: an iron core that implodes into a ball of neutrons about the size of an asteroid
- accretion: an increase by natural growth or by gradual external addition
3. Tone: Inquisitive, Familiar
- Imagery: “They followed a rad along the ridge, past scrub oaks and chokecherry bushes. Small flocks of birds flew in the wind. The air smelled of dead leaves and carried an edge of cold. A flicker of white and blue burst out of the underbrush, a blue jay took off with a chokecherry in its beak. “
- Syntax: “Twilight had eased off, and the black rift in Cygnus— a lane of dust in the Milky Way— was beginning to stand out.”
- Personification: “The cold began to bite.”
- Anecdote: “Her restlessness came from something deep, probably the American need to pile everything in a wagon and go look for Eden. Her father, Leonard Spellman, had tried silver mining in Colorado…”
- Listing: “Somewhere between Mars and Jupiter float the worlds of Fanny, Piccolo, Wu, Photographica, Requiem, O’Higgins, Lucifer, Tolkien, Echo, Zulu, d’Hotel, Fantasia, Limpopo, Valentine, Ultrajectum, Panacea, Geisha, Beethoven, Academia, Dudu, Felix, Bach, Chaucer, Einstein, Dali, Scabiosa, Nemu, and Mr. Spock.”
5. Discussion Questions
-
-
-
6. “A gold wedding ring begins with the death of a star.”
