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The Westing Game · Garden Heights
Part 8
for The Westing Game · Part 8 · Chapters 28–30
8 Parts40 min
What Happens in Part 8
The mystery is solved; these chapters pay out the winnings. Crow and Otis are married at the Hoos’ restaurant — Jake gives the bride away, Mr. Hoo stands as best man, and Flora has sewn the gown — while Angela quietly returns Denton’s ring and goes back to school on the long road to medicine, and Judge Ford sells her apartment to pay for Chris’s education, repaying an old debt the way it was once paid for her. Then the book leaps ahead. Five years on, the heirs crowd the Hoos’ lakefront house to toast Doug’s Olympic gold; Theo is a cub reporter, Sydelle is engaged, and no one knows that eighteen-year-old T.R. has just won her first chess match against her “Uncle Sam.” Decades later she keeps watch at the deathbed of eighty-five-year-old Julian Eastman, reporting how every player’s life turned out. When he dies, all four of his names die with him and the secret stays hers — and on the Saturday of the funeral, she hurries from the cemetery to teach chess to her niece Alice.
Denouement, the double time jump, and the final image
Cross-Curricular
Compound growth: how patience builds fortunes and careers
Chapter Summary
Ch.
What happens
28
And Then… — Crow and Otis are married at the Hoos’ restaurant with the heirs gathered: Jake escorts the bride, Mr. Hoo stands as best man, Angela and Sydelle are bridesmaids, and Flora made the gown. Angela has returned Denton’s ring and gone back to school on the road to medicine, and Judge Ford arranges to sell her apartment so that Chris’s education is paid for.
29
Five Years Pass — the heirs gather at the Hoos’ new lakefront home to celebrate Doug’s Olympic gold. Theo is a cub reporter fresh from journalism school, Sydelle is engaged to the president of Schultz Sausages, Grace runs a chain of restaurants, Jake chairs the state gambling commission, and a new medication steadies Chris. Theo fails to recognize eighteen-year-old T.R. — who, earlier that day, won her first chess match against Sam Westing.
30
The End? — decades later T.R., now a lawyer with a business degree and counsel to Westing Paper Products, keeps watch at the deathbed of eighty-five-year-old Julian Eastman and reports every heir’s fate: Angela a surgeon married to Dr. Deere, their daughter named Alice; Judge Ford on the nation’s highest court; T.R. herself married to Theo. When Eastman dies, all four of his names die with him and no one ever learns her secret. After the funeral she hurries to a chess game with Alice.
Part 1
Vocabulary
Study 10 key words from Chapters 28–30, then answer each question.
💰Knowledge Bank · Words for Money That Grows
Finance · Compound Growth LanguageMoney that grows has a grammar of its own. The amount first set aside is the principal, and the payment it earns for sitting still is interest. When that interest is left in place so the next payment is figured on a larger pile, the growth is said to compound, and compounding is the quiet engine behind almost every fortune that lasts. A person who commits money to something expecting a return will invest; a person who chases a fast price jump and accepts the risk of losing it all has chosen to speculate instead. The collection of everything one investor holds — stocks, bonds, savings — is a portfolio, and spreading it across many different holdings is called diversification, the plain defense against any single disaster. One more word matters in these chapters: a share of a company’s profit paid out to its owners is a dividend. Notice that every term rewards the same habit. The vocabulary of wealth is, at bottom, a vocabulary of patience.
aspirev.Ch.28
To aim steadily at a goal that takes years to reach
“Angela aspires to finish medical school.”
benefactorn.Ch.28
A person who gives money so someone else can succeed
“A quiet benefactor paid for the education.”
discreetadj.Ch.28
Careful to keep a matter quiet and private
“She stayed discreet about her Saturday visits.”
milestonen.Ch.29
An event that marks major progress toward a goal
“An Olympic medal is a rare milestone.”
professionn.Ch.29
A career that requires long training and study
“Medicine is a demanding profession.”
shrewdadj.Ch.29
Sharp and clever in practical judgment
“A shrewd player trades a pawn for position.”
investv.Ch.30
To put money into something hoping to earn more later
“She invests her allowance instead of spending it.”
compoundv.Ch.30
To grow faster as gains earn gains of their own
“Savings compound when the interest earns interest.”
speculatev.Ch.30
To risk money on a quick, uncertain bet
“Planners wait, but gamblers speculate.”
legacyn.Ch.30
What a person leaves behind for the future
“His true legacy was the people he taught.”
ⓘ The vocabulary words in this list are selected to help you understand and complete this workbook. Some may not appear verbatim in the original novel.
1To grow faster as gains earn gains of their own is to ___.Ch.30
2‘Discreet’ describes someone careful to keep a matter quiet and private.Ch.28
3A person who gives money so someone else can succeed is a ___.Ch.28
4To ‘speculate’ is to save money slowly in a protected account.Ch.30
5Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.29
Word choices:milestonelegacyaspireshrewd- some words will not be used
An Olympic medal is a rare .
His true was the people he taught.
6To put money into something hoping to earn more later is to ___.Ch.30
7A ‘profession’ is a career that requires long training and study.Ch.29
8Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.30
Word choices:compoundspeculateinvestdiscreet- some words will not be used
Savings when the interest earns interest.
Planners wait, but gamblers .
9To aim steadily at a goal that takes years to reach is to ___.Ch.28
10Sharp and clever in practical judgment is ___.Ch.29
Part 2
Comprehension
Show you understood what happens in Chapters 28–30.
🎓Knowledge Bank · How a Career Compounds
Careers · Training and CredentialsThe heirs’ later lives follow a pattern worth naming: careers compound the way savings do. Nearly every demanding profession is entered through a long sequence of small deposits — coursework, examinations, licenses, and early jobs that pay little but teach constantly. A doctor finishes college, then medical school, then a supervised training period called a residency before any hospital hands over real responsibility. A new journalist starts as a cub reporter, covering minor stories until the editors trust the byline. Business and law stack degrees the same way: a master’s in business plus a law degree can take seven years together, which is roughly the road T.R. walks before a corporation will call her its counsel. Economists call the payoff of all this training human capital — earning power stored inside a person rather than a bank. Like interest, it grows fastest late: the first years look like sacrifice, and the later years look like luck.
1Whose wedding brings the heirs together in Ch.28?Ch.28
2What has Angela done about her engagement by Ch.28?Ch.28
3Judge Ford sells her apartment to pay for Chris’s education.Ch.28
4Why do the heirs gather at the Hoos’ lakefront home in Ch.29?Ch.29
5Write the numbers 1–5 in the boxes to show the correct order of events in Chapters 28–30. Number 1 = what happens first.Ch.28–30
Doug wins an Olympic gold medal in track.
Crow and Otis are married as the gathered heirs toast them.
T.R. wins her first chess match against Sam Westing.
T.R. keeps watch at the dying Eastman’s bedside.
Judge Ford arranges to pay for Chris’s education.
6Five years after the game, Theo is already a famous doctor.Ch.29
7At the Ch.29 party, who fails to recognize the grown-up Turtle?Ch.29
8What role does the grown T.R. hold at Westing Paper Products?Ch.30
9When Eastman dies, the secret of his four names is finally published for everyone.Ch.30
10What does T.R. do on the Saturday of Eastman’s funeral?Ch.30
Part 3
Literary Elements
Understanding HOW and WHY Ellen Raskin tells the story across Chapters 28–30.
🧠Knowledge Bank · What a Time Jump Buys
Literary Craft · Denouement and Final ImagesMost mysteries stop at the solution. Raskin keeps going, because her real subject is not who Sam Westing was but what his game made of the players, and only time can report that. The winding-down after a puzzle is solved is the denouement: threads tied, couples paired, futures assigned. To deliver it she uses a double time jump — five years to show the heirs mid-climb, then decades to show them arrived — and each leap quietly tests whether the earlier chapters told the truth about these people. The craft risk is smugness: an ending that hands out rewards can feel like a prize table. Raskin avoids it in two ways. She keeps one secret sealed, so the winner’s triumph stays private, and she closes on an action rather than a summary — a woman hurrying from a funeral to teach a child chess. A final image, chosen well, outlasts any explanation, because it shows the theme still moving.
Denouement
The winding-down after the mystery is solved — weddings, careers, goodbyes: the story showing what its solution was worth.
Time jump
Raskin skips five years, then decades, so the reader can watch slow promises pay out — something no single scene could show.
Final image
The book closes on an action, not a summary: a woman hurrying from a funeral to a chessboard where a child named Alice waits.
1Chapters 28–30 mainly work to ___.Ch.28–30
2Fill in each blank with the correct literary term.Ch.28–30
Word choices:denouementclimaxflashbackprologue- some words will not be used
The winding-down after the mystery is solved is the .
The story’s most intense turning point is its .
3Raskin jumps five years, then decades, because ___.Ch.29
4The last chapters form a denouement: the puzzle is already solved, and the story shows what follows from it.Ch.28–30
5Ending on Alice at the chessboard matters because ___.Ch.30
6Keeping T.R.’s secret sealed to the very end lets Raskin ___.Ch.30
7A mystery must end the moment its puzzle is solved, with no room for aftermath.Ch.28–30
8Fill in the blank with the correct literary term.Ch.30
Word choices:circularlinearsymbolcliffhanger- some words will not be used
An ending that returns to where the story began is .
9Theo’s failure to recognize the grown-up Turtle is a small detail showing how much time has passed.Ch.29
10Raskin closes on a game beginning, not a fortune counted, because ___.Ch.30
Part 4
Think Deeper
Four deeper challenges — no single-word recall. Read, weigh the evidence, and reason it out.
💡Knowledge Bank · The Tortoise and the Ticker
Finance & Ethics · Patience vs. SpeculationT.R.’s money story is told in one line — a million made, a million lost, five million made — and the order matters. Markets can reward a gambler quickly, which is precisely why speculation is dangerous: early wins teach exactly the wrong lesson, and the bet that finally fails is usually the biggest one. Disciplined investors defend themselves with rules. They spread money across many holdings so that no single collapse is fatal, a practice called diversification; they keep adding on a schedule instead of guessing at perfect timing; and they treat a loss as tuition rather than a reason to double the next bet. The ethical question underneath is honesty with oneself: a streak of luck and a record of skill look identical from the inside for years. Critical readers should ask what evidence could separate them. The passage of time is the only reliable test — which is why the novel’s richest character measures her life in decades and keeps her scorecard private.
Think back over the ending. A restaurant fills with the smell of a wedding feast as a dressmaker straightens the gown she sewed herself, and a bride who once scrubbed the tower’s floors walks toward a beaming deliveryman. Five years later a lakefront house holds the same faces, older and easier, toasting a gold medal — while the youngest of them keeps a chess victory entirely to herself. Decades on, a quiet room holds an old man who has worn four names and the one player who found them all, talking through the night about how everyone turned out. And on the Saturday of a funeral, a woman hurries from the cemetery to a chessboard, where a little girl named Alice is waiting to learn the long game.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1Claim: “The last chapters argue that the real Westing inheritance is the long game, not the cash.” — choose the two details that best prove it.Claim & Evidence
2The long game, or The quick bet? Tap each detail to send it left or right.Sort into two
◄ The long gameThe quick bet ►
3Match each cause to its result. For each cause, pick its result.Cause & Effect
Judge Ford sells her apartment→
T.R. studies business and corporate law for years→
Theo finishes journalism school→
Eastman dies with his secret unshared→
4Fill both blanks to complete the reasoning.Build the Argument
Raskin gives T.R. a lost million on the road to five million more — not an unbroken winning streak — because , which shows that .
Part 5
Standardized Test
Reading passage · Growing a Fortune Slowly · Compound Interest, Patience & Careers · SAT & TOEFL-style practice
🎯 You already have the skills from the sections above — this is just a fun way to meet real SAT & TOEFL-style questions. Read the passage (the highlighted words are tested below), then answer the questions below. Tap an answer to select it, then tap it again to confirm — you can change your choice until you confirm.
A fortune can be won in a single lucky night, but the fortunes that last are usually grown. The starting amount a saver sets aside is called the principal, and it earns interest, a small payment for leaving money in place. Compound interest is what happens when that interest is left alone: the next payment is figured on the principal plus everything already earned. For years the growth looks dull, and then, quite suddenly, it does not.
Pure speculation takes the opposite bet. A speculator buys something volatile — a stock, a coin, a rumor — hoping the price will jump quickly, and accepts a real chance of losing everything instead. Markets do reward some speculators for a while, which is exactly what makes the strategy dangerous, because a streak of wins feels like skill until the day it fails. Investors who spread their money widely and keep waiting measure success in decades, not evenings.
Careers obey the same arithmetic. Years of classes, examinations, and low-paid early jobs are deposits into credentials, the record of training that lets a profession trust someone with real responsibility. A surgeon, a judge, and a corporate lawyer all pay in for a decade before the position pays out. The patient path is slower than a lottery ticket and enormously more reliable, which is why financial writers repeat one plain rule: start early, keep adding, and let time do the compounding.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1What is the main idea of the passage?SAT · Central Ideas
2According to the passage, compound interest means ___.TOEFL · Factual Information
3In the passage, principal means ___.SAT · Words in Context
4The passage calls a streak of wins dangerous because it ___.TOEFL · Factual Information
5Insert Text (TOEFL). Look at the four squares [1]–[4] in the excerpt below. They show where this sentence could be added: “The bend comes because the pile itself, not just the original deposit, is now doing the earning.”
Compound growth follows a simple rule: each payment of interest joins the pile, and the next payment is figured on the larger pile. [1] For a long stretch the pile barely seems to move. [2] Then the curve bends upward, and the money begins earning more each year than the saver ever deposited. [3] That late surge is the reward for the dull decades before it. [4]
Where would the sentence fit best?TOEFL · Insert Text
6In the passage, speculation means ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary
7According to the passage, patient investors measure success in ___.TOEFL · Factual Information
8In the passage, credentials are ___.SAT · Words in Context
9The passage suggests a speculator’s early wins are ___.SAT · Inference
10Which saver BEST follows the passage’s closing rule?SAT · Inference
Part 6 · Optional
Creative Writing
A bonus challenge to practice your English. Take your time and have fun with it.
About This Section
This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!
Writing Task — Part 8 “The Long Game”
Raskin ends her mystery with a double jump in time, and every heir’s patient work quietly pays out — degrees, medals, courtrooms, a chessboard. Choose one goal of your own that would honestly take five years or more, and write about it like an investor: name the small weekly deposits (practice, study, saving) you would make, describe what the dull early years would look like, and explain what the payoff would be when the curve finally bends. 6–10 sentences. End with the first deposit you could make this week.
You can start with: “For the first year it would look like nothing was happening, but...”
0 / 40 words minimum
🗣 Teach It · Just for Fun (optional)
No right or wrong — tell someone nearby what happened in this part. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.
Part 8 Complete — You Finished the Book! 🎉
You finished Chapters 28–30 — the final part of The Westing Game.
Here are your auto-graded results — scroll down for your full Report Card across all parts:
-
points out of 100
Your Writing
Your writing was checked automatically for length, spelling, grammar, and whether you included the key parts of the scene. Scroll back to Part 5 anytime to read your feedback and improve your work.
Independent study guide by Garden Heights. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Ellen Raskin. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced. Reference text: This workbook follows Ellen Raskin’s classic text (the standard Puffin edition sold worldwide). Revised 2023 UK editions change some wording and may not match the vocabulary studied here.
