1a. What does Eleonora Randolph Sears say that women will do?
2a. What happens around Gertrude Ederle as she rides in the ticker tape parade?
3a. According to Gretel Bergmann's father, what does Hitler want all the German Jewish athletes to do?
4a. Identify places in the story where women are assumed to be the weaker sex. Using examples from the play, how do the women continue to break this stereotype?
5a. Evaluate the effectiveness of using one actor to play all six characters in the play. Would it be more or less effective to use six actors?
1b. How does she regard the physical strength and abilities of women?
2b. Why will Ederle never forget those people?
3b. What might Hitler gain by achieving this?
4b. What would these women think about women in sports today? What advice might they give to young female athletes?
5b. Find an example of a play in which there is more than one actor. Would this play be effective using only one actor to play all the roles? Why, or why not? What elements would a play require to allow one actor to play all the characters?
Dialect. Find three examples of dialect used by three different characters in the play. What does the dialect tell you about the character?
Stage Directions. Using the graphic organizer below, give examples of stage directions from How She Played the Game that describe character, how something should be performed, and movements of characters. Then get together with a partner. Suppose that each of you is the director of this play, each putting on your own production. Compare your list of stage directions with those of your partner. How do the stage directions force your plays to be the same? What kinds of things are left out of the stage directions that could make your plays different?
1. Pretend you are Eleonora Randolph Sears. Write a short note to your favorite female athlete who tried to make a special mark in sports.
2. Write an additional paragraph to the end of Sonia Henie's story. What does she do now that she spins no more?
3. Imagine you have written a play. You are now sitting in the audience and the curtain rises. What does the stage look like? Write the stage directions that describe the setting of the opening scene in your play.
Synonyms. Review the Words for Everyday Use from How She Played the Game. Then select the letter of the word that is most nearly the same in meaning as the word in capital letters.
1. Extravaganza click to select answer a. ordeal b. event c. fabric d. mission
2. Immaculate click to select answer a. filthy b. stingy c. pleasant d. clean
3. Fanfare click to select answer a. disapproval b. silence c. display d. volume
4. Delirious click to select answer a. confused b. happy c. hungry d. angry
5. Inadequate click to select answer a. baffling b. generous c. insufficient d. messy
6. Naivety click to select answer a. simplicity b. sophistication c. cleverness d. hostility
7. Incense click to select answer a. forgive b. disgust c. pacify d. anger
8. Revert click to select answer a. divide b. proceed c. return d. begin
9. Phenomenal click to select answer a. remarkable b. terrible c. embarrassing d. agreeable
10. Egotism click to select answer a. humility b. self-centeredness c. compassion d. courage
Working with Negatives. When working with negatives, make sure to use only one negative in each sentence. Check your writing to be sure that you have not used a negative word such as not, nobody, none, nothing, hardly, barely, can't, doesn't, won't, isn't, or aren't with another negative word. Change double negatives by replacing one of the negative words in the sentence with a positive word. For more information, see the Language Arts Survey 3.25, "Working with Negatives."
Check each of the sentences below to see whether it uses negatives correctly. If the sentence is correct, write Correct space provided below each sentence. If it is incorrect, write the sentence so that it uses negatives correctly.
1. Eleonora Randolph Sears hardly never relaxed or sat still.
2. Nobody could never say nothing to criticize Babe Didrikson's golf game.
3. It didn't make no difference to Gertrude Ederle that the English Channel was so cold.
4. No one had ever heard of Althea Gibson when she started playing tennis.
5. Sonja Henie wasn't about to let anyone outperform her on the ice.
6. Gretel Bergmann didn't never get to compete in the Olympics in 1936 because she was banned from the German team.
7. There won't be no rematch because of bad weather.
8. Why didn't these athletes never get the recognition they deserved?
9. It amazed me that swimming the Channel wasn't no more exhausting than that.
10. Wouldn't you ever like to take on such a challenge?
Analyzing an Article. Find at least two magazine or newspaper articles about an athlete who broke a major record. Compare and contrast the articles. Examine the focus of each article, the points the authors emphasize, the tone of the authors' writing, and the mood the articles create. How do the articles differ? How are they similar? Share your findings with the class.
