PaginePaginepagineapp.comRead the story. Then answer using details from the text.
My father never spoke about the war. He spoke about weather, baseball, the price of gasoline. If a war film came on, he would rise without comment and go out to the garage, where we would hear him sanding wood long after the credits rolled.
I grew up thinking his silence was a wall. Only after his funeral, cleaning out that garage, did I understand it might have been a door he had kept closed so that we would not have to walk through it.
In a coffee can on the top shelf were letters — not his, but letters written to him, decades later, by men whose names I didn’t recognize. Each one thanked him for something: for carrying a wounded friend, for sharing his last canteen, for writing to a mother. None of them mentioned bravery. All of them mentioned kindness.
I sat on the cold concrete floor and read until the light failed, meeting my father for the first time.
Worksheets › Grade 11 English › Reading Literature › Reading Literature
Free Grade 11 English worksheet (Common Core RL.11-12.1): read "The Inheritance of Silence" and answer questions about key details, characters and theme. Skill: Key ideas and details in literature. Level: Grade 11 — also suits Year 12 (UK).
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It is designed for Grade 11 (ages 16–17), but use it with any child who is ready.
Key ideas and details in literature.
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All 5 reading literature sheets → · Grade 11 English: all 10 skills → · All Common Core grades
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