The Westing Game

Westing Game

Section 1: Chapters 1-8

Vocabulary
  1. executor: a person or institution appointed to carry out the terms of a will
  2. hassock: an upholstered footstool or ottoman
  3. inscrutable: impossible to understand or interpret
  4. poise: graceful and elegant bearing in a person
  5. trifle: a thing of little value or importance
  6. trousseau: the clothes, household linens, and other belongings collected by a bride for her marriage
  7. vigil: a period of keeping awake during the time usually spent asleep to keep watch or pray
Comprehension Questions
  1. Six people are invited to view the apartments at Sunset Tower. (pg. 2)
  2. Turtle takes on a dare to be paid $2 for every minute she spends in the Westing house. (pg. 14)
  3. Sydelle Pulaski hopes that in moving to Sunset Towers she will meet elegant people. (pg. 15)
  4. Mr. Westing had made his fortune by saving his laborer’s wages and buying a paper mill that became Westing Paper Products. (pg. 18)
  5. In his later years Mr. Westing experienced many tragedies such as the death of his daughter, divorce, sued over rights to a disposable paper diaper and finally a near fatal car accident. (pg. 19)
  6. In order to claim Mr. Westing’s fortune the heirs need to play and win the Westing Game. (pg. 32)
  7. Each team’s set of clues is different. (pg. 36)
  8. The pair of Sydelle Pulaski and Angela Wexler do not immediately look at their clues as they watch and listen to the other teams to guess their clues. (pg. 37)
  9. In regards to the clues Theo tells his partner that they must get everyone’s clues as all the clues together form a single message. (pg. 46)
  10. J. J. Ford concludes that the death and will of Mr. Westing is a ploy to exact revenge upon one of the tenants for something they had done to him. (pg. 48)

Section 2: Chapters 9-16

Vocabulary
    1. adjourn: to break off a meeting, with the intention of resuming it later
    2. alibi: a claim or piece of evidence that one was elsewhere when an act, typically a criminal one, is alleged to have taken place
    3. coiffure: a person’s hairstyle, typically an elaborate one
    4. larceny: the theft of personal property
    5. opt: make a choice from a range of options
    6. paraphernalia: miscellaneous articles, especially equipment needed for a particular activity

scornful: feeling or expressing contempt or derision

Comprehension Questions
  1. The information that the newspaperman gives the judge is that Mr. Hoo had sued Mr. Westing claiming he had stolen his invention of a disposable paper diaper. (pg. 57)
  2. In the elevator Chris see’s a message from the judge and notices her last name Ford could also mean 4D her apartment number and he suspects this may be a clue. (pg. 64)
  3. Turtle makes a comment that all adults are obvious and easy to read and that Angela and Sydelle are particularly obvious. (pg. 70)
  4. According to the judge’s information the people that are connected with Mr. Westing are James Hoo, Theo’s father, her partner Sandy McSouthers and herself. (pg. 71)
  5. While visiting Sydelle in hospital Angela finds a letter in her bag with the clues, “THY” and “BEAUTIFUL” taped onto the bottom. (pg. 87)
  6. Mrs. Baumbach finds a clue Chris dropped and it has nothing to do with stocks, but she keeps this to herself. (pg. 88)
  7. Otis Amber breaks up the discussion whether or not Mr. Westing was murdered with his opinion that Mr. Westing was a madman. (pg. 89)
  8. Sandy reveals to the judge that Violet Westing had not wanted to marry her fiancé a senator, but had loved George Theodorakis. (pg. 93)
  9. In the discussion of the bomber’s identity only Chris and Angela are not suspected. (pg. 98)
  10. Sydelle realizes that her partner, Angela is the bomber. (pg. 98)

Section 3: Chapters 17-24

Vocabulary
    1. coy: making a pretense of shyness or modesty
    2. cull: to select from a large quantity; to reduce the population of
    3. derisive: expressing contempt or ridicule
    4. incinerator: an apparatus for burning waste material
    5. malady: a disease or ailment
    6. neurologist: a specialist in the anatomy, functions, and organic disorders of nerves and the nervous system
    7. vengeance: punishment inflicted or retribution exacted for an injury or wrong
Comprehension Questions
  1. Based on his clues Theo comes up with the theory that the clues hold a formula for a bomb and the name of the bomber, Otis. (pg. 102)
  2. After looking at Sydelle Pulaski’s bio material, that she has a suspicious malady and no Westing connection the judge comes to the conclusion that she did not seem to fit the group. (pg. 108)
  3. Mrs. Baumbach gives Chris one of her clues, mountain because she felt guilty over seeing the clue Chris had dropped. (pg. 111)
  4. Dr. Deere proposes that Chris go to the hospital for tests by neurologist that might be able to help his condition. (pg. 111)
  5. At first Crow thinks that Mr. Hoo is the bomber, but then changes her mind when he gives her a complimentary pair of paper shoe insoles that ease her feet. No-one that kind could be a bomber. (pg. 115)
  6. Chris reveals one of Turtle’s clues to Angela because Turtle had kicked his partner. (pg. 115)
  7. The judge has the revelation that Mrs. Wexler and Crow are related because they both have the maiden name Windkloppel. (pg. 117)
  8. It is revealed that the judge and Mr. Westing have a connection, her parents worked for Mr Westing and they lived at the Westing house. Also Mr. Westing paid for the judge’seducation. (pg. 125/126)
  9. Turtle tries to convince everyone that she is the bomber because she doesn’t want the truth to be known that Angela is the bomber. (pg. 128)
  10. While talking to the judge Turtle reveals that she was at the Westing house on the night he was murdered and that his body had looked like a wax dummy. (pg. 129)

Section 4: Chapters 25-30

Vocabulary
  1. accomplice: a person who helps another commit a crime
  2. brittle: hard but liable to break or shatter easily
  3. stenographer: a person whose job it is to transcribe speech in shorthand
  4. stoolie: short for stool pigeon, a police informer
  5. bequeath: to leave a personal estate to a person by means of a will
  6. nape: the back of a person’s neck
  7. taut: stretched or pulled tight
Comprehension Questions
  1. Theo reveals that Sandy had been his chess opponent. (pg. 155)
  2. The judge asks Theo if he had checkmated his opponent because if Sandy had been checkmated he couldn’t be Mr. Westing as Westing had never lost a chess game. (pg. 156)
  3. When it is established that Crow was Mr. Westing’s first wife and that her birthday was November 15th, Turtle remembers Sandy had bought her last candle for his wife’s birthday, and she realizes that the game is still being played. (pg. 159)
  4. Turtle holds a trial in hopes that she can establish that both Mr. Westing and Sam McSouthers are dead, but Crow did not kill them. (pg. 159)
  5. The appearance of the receipt at the trial reveals that the judge’s outstanding debt to Mr. Westing for her education had been paid when she signed over the checks given by Mr. Westing to Sandy, thus Sandy was Mr.Westing. pg 166)
  6. In her closing arguments Turtle reveals that Mr. Westing was a dying sick man who used the game to see his friends and family before he died. (pg. 167)
  7. Mr. Westing bequeaths to each of the heirs equal shares in the deeds to the Sunset Towers. (pg. 171)
  8. The purpose of the great winter fireworks display was to destroy the Westing house. (pg. 172)
  9. Turtle finally solves the whole puzzle when she realizes that the heir is the person who can determine the fourth disguise of Mr. Westing and that person is Mr. Eastman, the new chairman of the board of Westing Paper Products Corporation. (pg. 173)
  10. The significance of Angela naming her daughter Alice is that Turtle had used the name Alice as a child and honoring her by naming her daughter Alice. (pg. 181)