Three+Skeleton+Key

**Suspense and Foreshadowing**
===The writer of this story hooks our interest with his opening sentence: “My most terrifying experience?” Once a question like this is asked in a story, we want to know the answer. We want to know what happens next. This feeling of anxious curiosity is called **suspense.** Writers often intensify suspense by dropping clues that hint at what might happen later in the story. This use of clues is called **foreshadowing.** Reading Skills **Making Predictions** Part of the fun of following any **story** is trying to guess what will happen next. That process is called **making** **predictions.** Here’s how to make predictions on your own as you read a text: ===


 * • || Look for clues that seem to **foreshadow** something that will happen. ||
 * • || As the **suspense** builds, think about possible outcomes. ||
 * • || Ask yourself questions as you read. Revise your predictions as you go. ||

**Literature and Geography** The title of this story is the name of a //key,// or low-lying island, off the coast of French Guiana, in South America. At the time the story was written, French Guiana was a colony of France. Cayenne, the capital, was the site of one of the prisons that France maintained there until 1945. ||
 * Background

Pay attention to these words as you read the story: //receding waters.//
 * Vocabulary Development**
 * hordes** //n.:// large, moving crowds. //The rats swam ashore in hordes.//
 * receding** //v.// used as //adj.:// moving back. //At first the ship came// //toward us, but then it drifted off in the//
 * fathom** //v.:// understand. //The lighthouse keepers couldn’t fathom the// //rats’ nasty reaction.//
 * edible** //adj.:// fit to be eaten. //The// //rats thought the men were edible.//
 * derisive** //adj.:// scornful and ridiculing. //The rats peered with derisive// //eyes at the terrified men.//

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