Answer Key-
“Big Things Come in Small Packages” assessment (Close Read workbook story)
UNDERSTANDING VOCABULARY
Directions: Answer each question completely citing evidence from the text and using complete sentences.
1. Why does the author use the word “posthumously” (line 271) when discussing the awards given to the Pea Island
surfmen?
The surfmen were only recognized for their service many years after their death.
2. List the qualifications Richard described that a good crewman should have. Explain how each qualification would
have helped Richard in his career in the Lifesaving Service. (Student’s answers to this part will vary.)
Richard said a good crewman had to be strong; this help Richard in his career by______
an excellent swimmer; this help Richard in his career by ______
a quick thinker; this help Richard in his career by ______
in good physical health; this help Richard in his career by ______
have good eyesight; this help Richard in his career by ______
understand how dangerous the sea can be; this help Richard in his career by ______
3. What does the narrator’s mother mean when she says that the spirits “don’t want to be disturbed”? (line 67)
They’ll be singing and celebrating and shouting and praising, and they don’t want to be disturbed.
Unless you wanna join in with ‘em.”
After I got grown I understood that Momma told me that story to try to help me stay out of trouble.
She was worried I’d drown or get into some kind of foolishness. Well, it worked. I knew that it was
easy to get into trouble when you’re out someplace where you’re not supposed to be.
4. What impact does the setting of the pier have in the story?
“We talked about the things kids called us, especially when we went fishing. He especially liked to fish
his folks’ little pier alongside their house. Sometimes we’d fish together on his pier, and I wouldn’t
catch diddlysquat, not even a pinfish, not even a lizard fish, nothing. But ole Tootsie Roll could catch
‘em.” (Shows how Tucker is good at fishing/ LaShana is not; Shows opportunities and location for two
characters to bond; Tucker has a pier that his family owns, so he can go there anytime)
“Tucker was on his pier trying to catch a flounder. He noticed a man standing on the Moten Motel dock
just a few yards from him.” (Gave a location where Tucker meets Richard and they bond through
conversations about fishing, which eventually shapes Tucker’s whole future.)
“When he glanced back at the [Atlantic Beach] pier, guess who he saw? His new friend, Richard, on
the pier, clapping for him.” (This is where Tucker saves the drowning man with Richard’s help.)
5. How does the Morehead City Port Terminal help Tucker better relate to Richard’s concept of a tugboat?
Setting- By Tucker living near the Terminal, he can see how the tugboats work to bring the large ships into the port
terminal. This helps Tucker understand how important a tugboat is and the strength it has to gentle guide those large
important ships into their port.
SHORT RESPONSES
Directions: Answer the writing prompts completely citing evidence from the text and using complete sentences.
6. Reread lines 100-116. Explain the significance of Richard’s statement that “Tucker would make a good tugboat and
one day might even grow to be a big ship.” Cite specific text evidence to support your explanation.
“Richard told him it wasn’t the size of a person that got the job done. It was how bad the person wanted
to do it. How were those huge ships two and more stories high able to move into the Morehead City
port and back out to sea? Most couldn’t do it without little tugboats pushing and pulling them in,
Richard said. A tugboat could bring in a ship many times its size.” (Tucker even though he was small
could do great things if he really wanted to do it. This is true because he was able to save the man
drowning. And later he was successful “Tucker grew to be six feet five. He played on the North
Carolina Central University Eagles basketball team, joined the U.S. Coast Guard, and lives in Kill
Devil Hills, North Carolina, on the Outer Banks.”)
7. Was Tucker the hero that everyone thought him to be, or was Richard mostly responsible for the rescue? Cite text
evidence to support your opinion.
Richard because of his history “History of the Pea Island Lifesaving Service. Captain Richard Etheridge
was Keeper of the Pea Island Lifesaving Service, a forerunner of part of what is now the U.S. Coast
Guard. This unique, all African American, courageous lifesaving crew, and those who followed, saved
hundreds of shipwrecked passengers’ lives by plunging into the stormy seas and bringing their charges
back to safety.”
Richard also because if he hadn’t encouraged Tucker, Tucker never would have had the courage to try to save the man.
Tucker because Richard was just a ghost. “Richard Etheridge had been dead for almost one hundred
years.”