Opening Questions: Anne of Green Gables

Help your readers get “into” Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. By the time they’ve read the first chapter and answered these questions, they’ll be on their way to joining Anne in her experience with the Cuthberts.

Getting Started

1. Is “Mrs. Rachel Lynde” married?
2. What does it mean to “dip into a little hollow”?
3. What does it mean to be “fringed” by something?
4. What does it mean that something “traversed” something?
5. What does “by way of” mean?
6. What is “reputed”?
7. What is “intricate”?
8. What is “headlong”?
9. What is a “brook”?
10. What is a “course through” something?
11. What is a “cascade”?
12. What is “due regard”?
13. What is “decency and decorum”?
14. What is “ferreted”?
15. What does it mean to “attend closely”?
16. What is “by dint”?
17. What does “by dint of neglecting one’s own business” mean?
18. What is “capable”?
19. What does “concerns” mean?
20. What does “into the bargain” mean?
21. What is a “notable housewife”?
22. What is “abundant”?
23. What is “awe”?
24. What does it mean to “keep a sharp eye”?
25. What is an “unseen gauntlet”?
26. Why does everyone have to pass Mrs. Rachel’s house?
27. What sort of person is Mrs. Rachel?
28. What is an “orchard”?
29. What is a “slope”?
30. What is a “bridal flush”?
31. What is a “myriad”?
32. What does it mean to “sow” seeds?
33. What does it mean that “Matthew Cuthbert had never been known to volunteer information about anything in his whole life”?
34. What is “placidly”?
35. What is a “buggy with the sorrel mare”?
36. What is a “considerable distance”?
37. What is “deftly”?
38. What is “something pressing”?
39. What does it mean to “ponder”?
40. What does it mean to be “clean puzzled”?
41. What reasons can Mrs. Rachel think of that Matthew might have come to her?
42. What is “scant”?
43. What is a “homestead”?
44. What is “situated”?
45. What is “contented”?
46. What are “patriarchal willows” and “prim Lombardies”?
47. Is the Cuthbert yard tidy or messy?
48. What is “proverbial”?
49. What does it mean to “rap smartly”?
50. What is “distrustful”?
51. What does it mean that the table was “laid for supper”?
52. What is a “mental note”?
53. What does it mean that Marilla was “a tall, thin woman, with angles and without curves”?
54. What does it mean to have “narrow experience and rigid conscience”?
55. What does it mean that there is “something saving about her mouth”?
56. What does it mean that something “might have been considered indicative of a sense of humor”?
57. What does it mean that Marilla’s “lips twitched understandingly”?
58. What is “jaunting”?
59. What is “unaccountable”?
60. Has Marilla been expecting Mrs. Rachel?
61. What does Marilla tell Mrs. Rachel?
62. What does it mean that “Mrs. Rachel prided herself on always speaking her mind”?
63. What is Mrs. Rachel’s reaction?
64. How can you tell that Marilla is a bit unsure?
65. How does Matthew feel about the decision he and Marilla have made?
66. What is a “sensation”?
67. What does it mean that “Mrs. Rachel dearly loved to make a sensation”?
68. What is “pessimism”?
69. What is “uncanny”?
70. What is an “orphan”?
71. What is the “fulness of her heart”?
72. What is “profound”?

What Do You Think?

Is Mrs. Rachel a nosy person who is into everyone else’s business?

Is Mrs. Rachel an unkind person?

How did Marilla know that Mrs. Rachel would come to visit that morning?

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