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The Beaded Moccasins: Prereading Exercise
Chapter 13: Deluge

	I dig with my bare hands again, pushing wet earth out as fast as the water slides in to replace it.  My palms and the tips of my fingers begin to bleed.  Everything is blurry because of all of the water in my face.  I pry rocks and stones out of the mud and throw them along the edges of my canal, thinking they might make a barrier.  I push against the earth so hard, I slide into the mud again and again.
	Coated with mud, my hair is heavy against my neck.  More mud slides down my forehead into my mouth and eyes.  I'm crying even though I know that crying won't help us in the least.  The last thing we need is more water.
	Thunder blasts overhead, so loud I feel it roll through my bones.  The sky is a purplish-yellow bruise as lightning tears through the gorge.  I can see smoke and great tongues of fire leaping from tree to tree.  How can trees be on fire in this torrential rain?  
	A mighty westerly wind pulls the flames higher and higher.  I sit up in time to see a black funnel cloud on the northern horizon, twisting like a great coiled snake, the tops of burning trees spinning in its wake.   The wind whips my muddy hair clear off my shoulders.  For one terrifying moment, my knees and feet leave the ground.
	A tornado.  

Answer 3 of the following questions in complete sentences:
1. Why do you think Mary is digging?

2.  What is a metaphor?  Define the word, then circle all of the metaphors in the passages above.

3. What is a similie?  Define the word, then underline all of the similies in the passages above.

4.  What is suspense?   What words create imagery that enhances the suspense?