Read the exerpt A Good Place for Maggie

by Ofelia Dumas Lachtman (excerpt)

The old man’s words stayed with her as she drove up into the mountains. She began to feel shaky. This was the first time she had driven outside of Los Angeles. Still, last night she had poured over maps and written everything down; she knew exactly where she was going. So far, everything had been all right.

Even getting away from home this morning hadn’t been too bad. It was spring vacation, and her mom and stepfather were away on business. The only person she had to explain to was the neighbor woman who looked in on her. The hard part had been figuring what to say to her mother. She had sat staring at a blank sheet of paper for a long time.

She knew what she wanted to write: “Dear Mother, It was bad enough after the divorce, being without Dad, I mean. After a of couple years I got used to seeing him mostly on weekends, but now it’s worse. Because he’s dead. Three whole months and I still can’t believe it. Maybe you can’t help being away so much, but with both of you gone it’s awfully lonely. Sure, there’s been school, and I did have dinner at Mim’s house and a move with Lorena on Saturday. But the good things are missing. Dad. Dad. Dad. I don’t feel that I’m part of a family anymore. Jase is a good enough stepfather, but I told you both how I felt about that condo in downtown L. A. and you guys went ahead and bought it. It’s a terrible place. All there is to breathe inside is processed air and outside, car exhaust. My vote doesn’t count, does it, Mom?”
Select the correct answer from each drop-down menu.
Read the excerpt. Then choose the correct way to complete the sentence.

The underlined sentence in the excerpt has the effect of setting up (pacing, or foreshadowing, or a flashback) to show why (the narrator wants to seek out other characters, or the narrator chose to leave her home in los Angeles, or the narrator is nervous about driving
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