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LESSON 1
Searching Out the Best in Others
Essential Understanding:
Narrative is a form of writing that gives an account of an event or happening. The effective and meaningful presentation of narrative details is anchored on a clear, colorful, and moving interplay of the basic features and elements of a story. Using the simple past tense correctly contributes a great deal in narrating past events clearly.
The Crystal Heart Vietnamese Legend
Long
ago,
in
a
palace by the Red River, there
lived
mandarin
a
great
and
his
daughter, Mi Nuong. Like
other
young
ladies of her position, Mi Nuong was kept indoors, away from the eyes of admiring men. She spent most of her time in her room at the top of a tower. There she would sit on a bench by a moon-shaped window,
reading
or
embroidering, chatting with her maid, and gazing out often at the garden and the river. Young Ji international School / College
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One day as she sat there, a song floated to her from the distance, in a voice deep and sweet. She looked out and saw a fishing boat coming up the river. ―Do you hear it?‖ she asked her maid. ―How beautifully he sings!‖ She listened again as the voice drew nearer. My love is like a blossom in the breeze. My love is like a moonbeam on the waves. ―He must be young and very handsome,‖ said Mi Nuong. She felt a sudden thrill. ―Perhaps he knows I am here and sings it just for me!‖ The maid‘s eyes lit up. ―My lady, perhaps he‘s a mandarin‘s son in disguise— the man you are destined to marry!‖ Mi Nuong felt a flush on her face and a stirring in her heart. She tried to make out the man‘s features, but he was too far off to see clearly. The boat and the song glided slowly up the river and away. ―Yes,‖ she said softly. ―Perhaps he is.‖ All day long, Mi Nuong waited by the window, hoping to hear the singer again. The next day she waited too, and the next. But the voice did not return. ―Why doesn‘t he come?‖ she asked her maid sadly. As the days passed, Mi Nuong grew pale and weak. At last she went to her bed and stayed there. The mandarin came to her. ―Daughter, what‘s wrong?‖ ―It‘s nothing, Father,‖ she said faintly. The mandarin sent for the doctor. But after seeing Mi Nuong, the doctor told him, ―I can find no illness. And without an illness, I can offer no cure.‖ The weeks passed, and Mi Nuong grew no better. Then one day her maid came before the mandarin. ―My lord, I know what ails your daughter. Mi Nuong is sick for love. To cure her, you must find the handsome young man who sings this song.‖ And she sang it for him. ―It will be done,‖ said the mandarin, and he sent out a messenger at once. Days later, the messenger returned.
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―Lord, in no great house of this province does any young man know the song. But in a nearby village I found a man who sings it, a fisherman named Truong Chi. I have brought him to the palace.‖ ―A fisherman?‖ said the mandarin in disbelief. ―Let me see him.‖ The messenger brought him in. The fisherman stood uneasily, his eyes wide as they cast about the richly furnished room. For a moment, the mandarin was too astounded to speak. The man was neither young nor handsome. His clothes were ragged and he stank of fish. Certainly no match for my daughter thought the mandarin. Somehow, she must not realize .... He gave his order to the messenger. ―Bring the fisherman to my daughter‘s door and have him sing his song.‖ Soon Truong Chi stood anxiously outside the young lady‘s room. He could not understand why they‘d brought him here. What could they want? He was just a fisherman, wishing only to make an honest living. He had hurt no one, done nothing wrong! At the messenger‘s signal, he nervously started to sing. My love is like a blossom in the breeze. My love is like a moonbeam on the waves. In the room beyond the door, Mi Nuong‘s eyes flew open. ―He‘s here!‖ she cried to her maid. ―How can that be? Oh, quickly, help me dress!‖ Mi Nuong jumped from her bed. Never had she so swiftly clothed herself, put up her hair, made herself up. By the time the song drew to a close, she looked like a heavenly vision in flowing robes. ―Now, open the door!‖ she said, trying to calm her wildly beating heart. She forced herself to stand shyly, casting her eyes down in the manner proper to a modest young lady. As the door pulled open, Truong Chi shrank back, not knowing what to expect. Then all at once he found himself gazing on the greatest beauty he had ever known. He felt his heart leap, and in that moment, he fell deeply, hopelessly, desperately in love.
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Mi Nuong could not wait a moment longer. She lifted her eyes to look upon her beloved. And in that moment, her eyes grew wide and she burst out laughing. A mandarin‘s son? Her destined love? Why, he was nothing but a common fisherman! How terribly, terribly silly she‘d been! Shaking with mirth at her folly, she turned her head away and whispered, ―Close the door.‖ The door shut in Truong Chi‘s face. He stood there frozen, the young lady‘s laughter ringing in his ears. He felt his heart grow cold and hard. Truong Chi was sent home. But he could not go on as before. Hardly eating or sleeping, he grew pale and ill. He no longer cared if he lived or died. And so he died. The villagers found him on the sleeping mat in his hut. On his chest sat a large crystal. ―What is it?‖ a man asked. ―It is his heart,‖ said a wise old woman. ―The laugh of the mandarin‘s daughter wounded it so deeply, it turned hard to stop the pain.‖ ―What do we do with it?‖ asked a young woman. ―It is very lovely. Like one of his songs!‖ ―We should put it in his boat,‖ said another young man, ―and let it float down to the sea.‖ At sundown, they set the crystal in the fisherman‘s boat. Then they pushed the boat from its mooring and watched in sorrow as it drifted down the river and out of sight. But the boat did not drift to the sea. It came to shore by the mandarin‘s palace. And so it was that the mandarin found it at sunrise as he strolled along the bank. ―What have we here?‖ he said, reaching in to pick up the crystal. He turned it over in his hand, examining and admiring it. ―What a splendid gift the river has brought!‖ A few days later, when no one had claimed it, the mandarin sent it to a turner to be made into a teacup. He brought the cup one evening to Mi Nuong‘s room. ―A gift for my lovely daughter,‖ he said. ―Oh, Father, it‘s beautiful! I can hardly wait to drink from it!‖
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When the mandarin left, she told her maid, ―It‘s late, so you can go to bed. But first make me some tea, so I can drink from my cup.‖ The maid finished her task and went off. Mi Nuong poured the tea, blew out the candles on the table, and carried the cup to her window seat. A full moon shone into the room, and looking out, she watched the moonlight play upon the river. The scent of blossoms drifted from the garden. Mi Nuong lifted the cup to her lips. But just as she was about to drink, she cried out in surprise and fear. She quickly set the cup down on the bench. On the surface of the tea was the face of Truong Chi, gazing at her with eyes filled with love. And now his sweet song filled the room, familiar but a little changed. Mi Nuong is like a blossom in the breeze. Mi Nuong is like a moonbeam on the waves. And Mi Nuong remembered those eyes she had seen so briefly through the open door, and she remembered her laugh. ―What have I done? I was so cruel! I didn‘t mean to hurt you. I didn‘t know. . . . I‘m sorry. So very, very sorry!‖ Her eyes filled with tears. A single tear dropped into the cup. It was enough. The crystal melted away, releasing the spirit of Truong Chi. Then Mi Nuong heard the song one last time, floating off over the river. Mi Nuong is like a blossom in the breeze. Mi Nuong is like a moonbeam on the waves. ―Good-bye,‖ said Mi Nuong softly. ―Goodbye.‖ * It was not many months more when Mi Nuong was given in marriage to the son of a great mandarin. He was young and handsome, and she felt that her dreams had come true. Yet now, as she gazed on a different garden and a different view of the river, she often still heard the song of the fisherman echo softly in her heart. Young Ji international School / College
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Exercises 1 Read the sentences below. Replace the underlined word/s with a synonym taken from the Word Pool. ails
drift
mandarin
modest
astounded
faintly
glided
nonsense
anxiously
gazed
mirth
ragged
1.
Mi Nuong‘s father was a high official under the empire.
2.
His daughter stared indoors but always stared at the garden and the river outside.
3.
One night, Mi Nuong heard a man singing in a boat that moved smoothly and easily on the river.
4.
Having missed the song, she became ill and she spoke very weakly.
5.
But she was surprised when she heard the song again after sometime.
6.
The fisherman‘s clothes were shaggy and unkempt and he smelled of fish.
7.
The young man waited eagerly at the official‘s order.
8.
Her great amusement vanished when she saw the fisherman face to face.
9.
How she regretted her foolishness!
10. had
Being a young and shy lady Mi Nuong asked Truong Chi his forgiveness for what she done to him.
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Exercises 2 REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION 1. What is a legend? Recall any legend you have heard or read in the past and tell the class about it. ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 2. Who was Mi Nuong? Truong Chi? Characterize them. Cite lines in the story to justify your descriptions. ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 3. Why did the Mandarin order his servant to bring Truong Chi to the palace? Describe the meeting between the fisherman and the mandarin‘s daughter in the palace. ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 4. What factors influenced Mi Nuong to change her feelings toward Truong Chi? What effect did the change have on him? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
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5. What lesson did you learn from Mi Nuong and Truong Chi? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 6. Explain: ―Appearances can deceive, but the heart speaks true.‖ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
GRAMMAR NOTES Past and present tenses should not be mixed in the narration of past events. We should be extra careful changing verbs to their simple past tense since not all the verbs form their past of past participle by adding –d or –ed to simple form as in the case of regular verbs. Irregular verbs follow varied ways of forming their past or past participle. Examples: BASE FORM
PAST FORM
PAST PARTICIPLE FORM
begin
began
begun
do
did
done
catch
caught
caught
cut
cut
cut
set
set
set
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Exercise 1 Rewrite each sentence below. Change the other verb to be consistent with the underline one. 1.
Zenkai, the son of Samurai, journeyed to Edo and there becomes the retainer of the high official. ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________
2.
He fell in love with the official‘s wife and is discovered. ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________
3.
In self-defense, he slays the official; then he ran away with the official‘s wife. ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________
4.
In their new life, the woman became so greedy that Zenkai grows disgusted with her. ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________
5.
This he digs at night for thirty years until he met the son of the slain official. ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________
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Exercises 3 Write the present participle, the past, and the past participle of each verb. BASE FORM
PAST
PAST PARTICIPLE
1. build 2. find 3. get 4. hold 5. drink 6. do 7. bring 8. burst 9. fly 10. teach 11. go 12. sing 13. catch 14. choose 15. swing 16. sit 17. eat 18. freeze 19. shrink 20. wind
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LESSON 2
Hurdling Life’s Obstacles
Dahong Palay Arturo Belleza Rotor Many young people, regardless of their being Americans, Asians, or Europeans, are haunted by the feeling that their skills, intellectual abilities and more so their physical attributes do not measure up to those of their peers. Because of this, they become shy and withdrawn and they spend a lot of time daydreaming. Just like them, you may find yourself muttering, ―It‘s just no good.‖ Remember not to give in to the feeling of hopelessness, instead, do everything you can to overcome.
The big ax sang its way through the large arc and then came down on the block of wood with a mighty crash. It neatly cleaved in two formidable mass, the pieces flying for a long distance in opposite directions. Surveying his feat with glowing pride, Sebio felt a ripple run down the muscles of his arms, forearms, shoulders. He dropped the heavy ax and wiped the perspiration from his brow, from his bare brown arms, letting his fingers rest caressingly on each muscle. Small were his muscles and flat and flabby when relaxed. But how hard and powerful they became when he tensed them! As hard as seasoned, knotted yantok! Triumphantly he raised his arms above his head and, facing the afternoon sun, he thrust out his chest and made every muscle of his body tense. He was quite tall, above the height of the ordinary native, but he had paid for this increased height in diminished breadth. His chest was flat, his neck long, his legs thin. He was one of those boys who, the village people said, ―grew too fast.‖ ―He will become bigger and stouter when he reaches his twenty-fifth year,‖ his mother had always told solicitous friends and relatives. How deceptive his figure was, Sebio thought! No wonder those who knew him called him Sebiong Pasmado (Sebio the weakling) because of his slight figure, his spindle-shanks, his timidity. None of them would believe that he could lift two Socony cans full of water with either hand and raise them shoulder-high, or that he could Young Ji international School / College
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carry three sacks of rice on those narrow shoulders. As he thought of them he snorted scornfully. The snake is the most slender, the most timid creature of the field, and yet people are afraid of it. ―Sebio, what are you staring at?‖ a querulous voice came from the nipa hut. ―Nothing, Nanay. I was just stretching my cramped arms,‖ came the sheepish answer. ―Well, it is going late. How do you expect me to cook rice without firewood?‖ ―Yes, yes, Nanay.‖ With renewed vigor he seized the axe and hewed away. The thick blade fairly sang as it swung back and forth over his shoulder. He paused and, for a while, was lost in thought. If he could only summon such strength in those foolish games of strength and skill! He had always failed there, miserably. Somehow his courage always ran out before a noisy, bantering crowd. ―What strength can there be in those puny arms, in that flat chest?‖ He would hear people say around him. And, most unbearable of all, his friends pitied him. The men said, ―You have no strength.‖ The women, ―You have no fighting heart.‖ ―Thunder and lightning Name of Satan. . . !‖ he muttered. Those memories angered him. Once more he savagely attacked the wood before him. Perspiration blinded his eyes; his unruly hair got into them every time he bent down; but he minded not. In a last tremendous swing he put every ounce of energy in his arms and brought down the ax. The eager blade passed through the entire thickness of the block, through the stone prop, and sank into the soft earth beneath. For a moment he regarded the result with a feeling of satisfaction; than gathering together the chips, he went into the house. That evening, as his mother sat in front of him at their humble table, he was strangely silent.
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―Are you thinking of going to Tia Binay‘s tonight?‖ she asked. ―Yes, Nanay.‖ He didn‘t add that he had been thinking of almost nothing else all day. ―When you go, take with you our whetstone. One of her workers came over and told me she wanted to borrow it. Tell her also that the herbs she used for her uncle‘s rheumatism did me good too, and thank her for me, Sebio.‖ The way to Tia Binay‘s led through recently harvested rice fields. A few weeks before, the grain had lain mellow and golden in the all-enveloping light of the full moon. Now only short, thick stubble, wisps of straw and traces of the delicate, elusive fragrance of the ripe palay remained to remind one of the hectares of slender, heavy laden stalks of grain that had once rippled in graceful undulation with each breath of the harvest wind. There was scarcely any beaten path across these fields; but with hardly a glance about him, Sebio made his way through them, avoiding each stalk of sharp stubble or the holes where the carabao‘s feet had sunk heavily during the rainy season and which had caked since then in the hot sun. The lovely night was full of the sounds and odors of life. The slender, swaying bamboos whispered to each other eternal secrets of the night, and from the distance came the dying croak of a frog caught in the jaws of a snake. When he reached Tia Binay‘s place, he saw that the evening‘s work had already begun. All about the moonlit clearing that stood at a distance from the house were grouped young men and women whose gay laughter and voices carried far into the distance. In the center was a square of concrete where the golden grains of palay had been laid to dry. On one side were five wooden mortars, around each of which three persons, two men and a girl, stood pounding grain. Each individual brought down his pestle in definite rhythm and succession. One first and then, just as he has lifted his pestle, the next would bring his down, and so on. Every now and then the gifted voice of someone in the group would break into song, and the notes of a haunting kundiman would be wafted into the breeze to add sweetness to the silence of the countryside. At intervals, however, a sleepy cock perched aloft in a tree nearby would let out an obstreperous crow as if he disapproved of so much gaiety and lightness of spirit.
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Sometimes, to vary the monotony, the men pounding palay would show off tricks with the pestle. One of a group would make the heavy tool stand on the tip of the little finger or on the nose, toss it in the air, whisk it between the fingers of one hand, and bring it down on the palay without upsetting the regular rhythm of his companions‘ pounding. Such demonstration of approval from the onlookers, and repeated applause would encourage more difficult stunts. Around the inclosure was a sort of bench built by tying together several strips of bamboo. Here many sat and, while waiting their turn at the mortar and pestle, laughed and joked and ate unsparingly of the suman and bibingka of Tia Binay. ―Ho, there, Sebio!‖ ―Good evening to all of you. Good evening, Tia Binay!‖ Tia Binay peered at him. She was getting old and with her failing eyes unable to see well even in the daytime, was finding it difficult to recognize her guests at once. ―Who is this?‖ She asked kindly. ―It‘s Sebio, Tia Binay.‖ ―Sebio?‖ she could not place the name. ―Sebiong Pasmado!‖ roared someone from a group close to him. ―Ah — yes, now I know.‖ There was a hilarious outburst from the group and, with blazing eyes, Sebio turned to the cruel joker. But he saw only what seemed to him a surging sea of sneering faces. His face smarted as if from a slap. He turned again to Tia Binay. ―Nanay told me to give this to you and to thank you for those herbs.‖ The old woman gave a grunt of satisfaction. ―Of course they would do her good. Why, my grandmother used them before I did, and so did her great-grand uncle before her.‖ He found a seat in the farthest and darkest corner.
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After a while, so lost was he in his thoughts that he did not see a package done up in banana leaf which a small white hand held out to him — not until a voice spoke: ―Here, Sebio, never mind those people. They are idlers. Try this suman. I made it myself.‖ Not until she spoke did he recognize Merci. Dumbly he took the package, tore open the wrapper, and tasted the contents. Slowly he became his old self again. ―Merci, you must have flavored this with your kisses,‖ he boldly ventured. The gratified girl blushed to the roots of her hair. ―Give me back that suman,‖ she demanded. Sebio laughed. He was again his likeable self. He tried to catch the outstretched hand, but like lightning it was withdrawn, and when he stood up the girl was gone. He sat down again. Oh, for a throne and a crown and a universe to lay at the foot of Merci! Now he had fully recovered his composure, and he could study the crowd better. There was Ambo and others. How strangely beautiful the moonlight made everything! He saw the play of moonbeams on the matchless hair of Carmeling and wondered if its fragrance was more soul-satisfying than the champaka-scented breeze that ever and anon caressed the cheeks of Lourdes. And then he remembered the starlight that he saw in the dark eyes of Merci, and he wondered no more. He became aware that the workers were being changed. The second shift was ready. He got up. ―Here, Milio, you and Kiko work here. Anita, go to that mortar with Tonio. You, Sebio, come here — and you too, Pacio.‖ Tia Binay was assigning each to his place. Sebio found himself with Pacio and — wonder of wonders — Merci was with them to complete the group of three. For a moment he could hardly contain his joy, and then he remembered that he was also with Pacio, the bully, the braggart.
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Bog-bog-bog! Every pestle fell with a dull thud each time. First he, then Merci, then Pacio, in strict rhythm. Pacio, as sure as death, would soon show off his prowess before the world, before Merci. Sebio would have to compete with him, which he knew would be another trial before a mocking, unsympathetic crowd — another effort doomed to failure. Merci, conscious of the strain under which Sebio had begun to labor, endeavored to relieve it. ―This morning we chased a big snake across the yard, but it escaped.‖ ―They say that nothing can prevent death from the bite of some snakes.‖ ―If you are bitten on the arm, you may have to cut it off.‖ ―Or burn it,‖ volunteered Pacio sneeringly. ―Here, Sebio,‖ suddenly said Pacio in a tone that carried to everybody. ―Try this one.‖ He tossed up the heavy pestle, causing it to describe the figure ―8‖ in id-air, caught it and brought it down just as Merci had lifted hers up. It was well timed. ―Wonderful,‖ everyone said. Sebio felt himself growing hot all over. Pablo had challenged him; everybody had heard the challenge. Although his eyes were intent on his work he could feel everybody looking at him. ―See how industriously Sebio works. He does not even see us. Tia Binay, you really ought to consider him for a son-in-law.‖ The taunt was flung by a heartless rival. What a noise they made! He dared not raise his eyes lest they see the light in them or he sees Merci‘s own. ―Nanay does not need any son-in-law. I am still strong enough to do work at home,‖ came the surprising retort from Merci. At this they all laughed and teased her about her proud mouth, her delicate hands, and her duty to sex, to her country. To Pacio, the joke was too good to cut short. Young Ji international School / College
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―Tia Binay,‖ he asked with a confident smile, ―what must your son-in-law be like?‖ But Tia Binay refrained from answering after a long look at her daughter, so somebody answered for her: ―He must have many rice fields!‖ ―No, first of all, he must be industrious,‖ another put in. ―Above all, he must be handsome.‖ ―You are all wrong,‖ cried the exasperated Merci. ―My mother‘s son-in-law must first be my husband.‖ That seemed to silence them — for a while. ―Well, well — your husband then — he must be kind and obedient and loving, eh?‖ ―And fleet of foot and strong of arm?‖ ―Here then, you beautiful men, can anybody do this?‖ It was Milio, the village clown. He seemed to be holding a short rod that looked like iron. He was trying to bend it and, in his apparent efforts to do so, his whole body was contorted in the most ludicrous way. Suddenly it cracked into splinters and by the sound they knew that it was only a cleverly painted piece of bamboo. While they were still holding their sides and slapping their thighs, Pacio stood up. He stepped up to one of the mortars and took from it a horseshoe that was nailed there for good luck. ―Here, Milio, is an imitation of your feat,‖ he said, attempting to inject a modest note in his tone. He seized each end and gripped hard. In that light no one could see Pacio very well, and they felt rather than saw the bulging lines of his muscles as he
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strained them convulsively. What they actually saw was the curved piece of iron being slowly straightened out by Pacio‘s hands. A murmur of admiration rose from the crowd. ―Bravo!‖ ―Unheard of!‖ ―Incomparable!‖ ―Try that, Milio. But don‘t crack it!‖ and Pacio laughingly tossed the piece of iron to him. ―No, thanks. Suppose I vomit blood!‖ And Milio tossed it to Sebio. For a moment the young man did not know what to do. Somehow he felt that this was his chance, that he could bend back that thing into the likeness of a horseshoe, easily. Suddenly he got up with a bound and seized it. Shouts of derision immediately followed. Even those few who wished him well stared at him with doubt on their faces. ―Aba, what is he going to do?‖ ―Hey, Sebio, drop that! That‘s iron — not bamboo!‖ He could feel the heat mounting to his cheeks as he gripped the two ends and strained. His lips clamped together, his face went pale, His eyes bulged. He held strained and his breath during the effort. An eternity — it seemed — passed. He thought he felt the iron give way, and he opened his eyes. He saw that it had bent only a little. ―Ho, my strong man, what now?‖ ―I told you it was not a bamboo!‖ ―Sebio would be a strong man and do mighty deeds if only he would eat more.‖ And yet Sebio knew for a certainty that he could have done it. He cursed himself as, like a whipped dog, he sought for a place to hide the horseshoe.
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―No trength,‖ said the men. ―No fighting heart,‖ whispered the women. Shamed face, Sebio retired to a corner. He wanted to leave, to be alone with an ax and some logs on which he could give vent to all the bitterness that was in him. But to leave now, he realized, would be an admission of his desperation, his hopelessness. ―Sebio,‖ whispered Merci, who, unnoticed, had approached him when his tormentors had left him alone, ―I want to make a fire so we can roast some corn. Will you help me get some hay?‖ Like a drowning man who suddenly found a floating object to cling to, he eagerly followed Merci to the hay pile. Here was someone who understood him. ―How could I do anything with that crowd?‖ he murmured a little apologetically. Then his disgust at himself rising, he kicked the pile of hay. This eased his feelings somewhat. ―Yes I know,‖ she sympathized, as she pulled out an armful. ―Just let me try again!‖ and again he struck savagely at the hay pile. They dropped their burden at the center of the clearing. And then as he turned away a bloodcurdling scream from Merci pierced the noise being made by the merry-makers. He turned around to see what had frightened the girl. From the bundle that Merci dropped, had emerged, rearing its head like some fantastic toy, its slender, green body poised to strike, — a snake! And Merci stood and stared like one hypnotized! Sebio knew that it would strike, strike before his next breath. There was no time to plan what to do, to will what part of the body to move. Instinctively, however, he made a move to place himself between the girl and the danger. As he did this he struck at the bundle of hay on which the snake lay poised to strike. The effort was so ill executed, however, that he missed it entirely. He fell on his face and before he could recover the serpent had bitten him on the calf of the leg, and then was gone.
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Sebio staggered up and looked at his leg. From twin spots on the skin, blood was beginning to ooze. A momentary sense of faintness came over him and he closed his eyes. Already he seemed to feel the searing course of the deadly poison to his thigh, to his heart. He felt an impulse to run, to dance about, to do anything. The faces around him were becoming hazy. Only the excited voices of those crowding around him prevented his mind from becoming completely numbed. ―The deadly dahong palay!‖ ―Get some vinegar!‖ ―Sebio is dying!‖ wailed someone. His thoughts whirled crazily, his breath became convulsive. Over and over he rolled in the dust, clutching widely at the air, at the earth around him as if he sought for something solid, some divine support that would bolster up his nerve. He came up violently against one of the mortars, and something heavy fell in the dust almost on his face. He seized it. It was a horseshoe. It was as if out of a dark hole a stalwart hand had lifted him, so clear and so sharply did he see light. He waved the babbling group away. ―A fire here, quickly!‖ he muttered in an agonizing voice. It was Merci, obeying uncomprehendingly, who scooped a handful of hay and husk, and in no time at all had a blazing fire. It was she who tore a piece of her skirt and bound up his leg tightly above the wound. It was her delicate hands now suddenly grown powerful that had tightened the ligature above the wound on the leg of the dying man. The others were paralyzed to inaction. ―A knife, for the love of Christ!‖ Sebio again muttered convulsively. Several sped to get a knife and several moments — eternities — passed. He could feel his foot becoming cramped and cold. Then a large knife was handed to him. And now the crowd witnessed the act that they were to relate to their children in after-years. With a low cry, Sebio seized the horseshoe and, before the same faces that had frequently taunted him, he straightened it as if it were a slender hairpin. Then he wrapped a piece of cloth around one end and thrust the other end Young Ji international School / College
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into the fire. There was no applause from the onlookers, just heavy labored breathing. They could only stare and stare, now at the colorless face of Sebio, grim and twisted as if by some terrible resolution, now at the piece of iron turning an angry, luminous red. ―What is he going to do?‖ ―Merciful God!‖ For Sebio had taken the sharp knife and had slashed across the two pin pricks. Dark blood oozed out slowly. Then he grasped the red-hot iron and before their horrified gaze plunged it into the wound. The glowing point sizzled drawing the blood out of the wound. The smell of burning flesh filled the air. The women shrieked. Several of them who could no longer stand the sight fainted. Then, calmly, Sebio laid aside the iron, and his frothy lips relaxed into the semblance of a smile. Slowly his eyes closed. Somebody held him up. But before unconsciousness came he had seen their eyes. And they told him that never again would he be called ―Sebiong Pasmado.‖
Exercise 1 Unlock the meaning of the following italicized words through context clues. Encircle the letter of the correct answer. 1.
The lion savagely attacked its prey. a. b.
2. of
c.
hungrily d. quietly
The heavy-laden stalks of grain rippled in graceful undulation with each breath the harvest wind. a. b.
3.
angrily fiercely
atmosphere aroma
c. d.
motion sensation
Can there be strength in those puny arms and flat chest? a. b.
long robust
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c. d.
undeveloped well-built Page 22
4.
His muscles are small, flat, and flabby when relaxed. a. b.
5.
fatty and fleshy firm and hard
c. d.
limp and soft thin and lean
Shouts of derision from the onlookers followed when Sebio failed to straighten the horseshoe. a. b.
approval blame
c. d.
encouragement ridicule
Exercise 2 REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION 1. Who among the characters have you chosen? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 2. At what point in the story have you expressed such thoughts and feelings? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
3. What symbol/s did you relate with Sebiong Pasmado? Why did you choose such symbol/s for him? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
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______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
4. What characteristics did Sebio and the dahong palay have in common? If you were to give another symbol for Sebio, what would it be? Why? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
5. How about Merci? What thoughts or feelings did you have as you played her role? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
6. Why was the snake identified as the central figure in the story? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
GRAMMAR NOTES TRANSITION WORDS
When a word or expression causes you to reflect not only upon what to expect but also upon what has just transpired, that word or expression is functioning as TRANSITION.
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Examples:
(Indicates Time)
(Spatial Transitions)
now
today
then
when
here
beyond
later
soon
there
where
after
since
under
above
midnight
tomorrow
over
behind
in front
before
(Logical Sequence)
if
hence
furthermore
thus
therefore
finally
so
in conclusion
Exercise 3 Connect the following ideas, using the appropriate transition words. 1.
Television cartoons are fun. They are also violent.
2.
Cartoon characters are always doing crazy things to one another. Huge bumps swell up on their heads.
3.
Some characters even explode. No one is permanently injured in these cartoons.
4.
Wouldn‘t it be nice? People could get over things as easily as cartoon characters.
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5.
Last month my grandfather broke his legs. He hardly ever watches television or movies.
Exercise 4 Encircle the transitions found in the paragraph. Some psychiatrists believe that the different positions people assume during sleep reflect their personalities. For example, some people sleep face down, stretched across the bed, as if they were in control of their sleeping area. These people tend to be in control of their waking lives, too, usually through a careful structuring of their lives. Confident and secure individuals seem to sleep on their backs, with their arms placed slightly away from the body. On the other hand, the insecure or timid individuals often assume the fetal position, the curved position of a baby before it is born. Although theories relating to sleeping positions and personality have not been proven, studies that have been done make interesting reading. After all, everyone enjoys learning about themselves.
LESSON 3
Reaping What One Sows
Karma Khushwant Singh Ladda In literature, irony is the contrast between what is expected and what actually occurs. In the story ―Karma‖, the author sets up the ironic twist when two soldiers gave Sir Mohan Lal a dose of his own medicine. Despite his efforts to be so much like them or give them a good impression of him, they still did not think of him as an equal because of his physical appearance. The intriguing irony is that it was his wife,
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not he, who had a safe and comfortable journey in a secluded compartment intended for women.
Sir Mohan Lal looked at himself in the mirror of a first class waiting room at the railway station. The mirror was obviously made in India. The red oxide at its back had come off at several places and long lines of translucent glass cut across its surface. Sir Mohan smiled at the mirror with an air of pity and patronage. 'You are so very much like everything else in this country, inefficient, dirty, indifferent,' he murmured. The mirror smiled back at Sir Mohan. 'You are a bit of all right, old chap,' it said. 'Distinguished, efficient - even handsome. That neatly-trimmed moustache - the suit from Saville Row with the carnation in the buttonhole - the aroma of eau de cologne, talcum powder and scented soap all about you ! Yes, old fellow, you are a bit of all right.' Sir Mohan threw out his chest, smoothed his Balliol tie for the umpteenth time and waved a goodbye to the mirror. He glanced at his watch. There was still time for a quick one. 'Koi Hai !' A bearer in white livery appeared through a wire gauze door. 'Ek Chota,' ordered Sir Mohan, and sank into a large cane chair to drink and ruminate. Outside the waiting room, Sir Mohan Lal's luggage lay piled along the wall. On a small grey steel trunk, Lachmi, Lady Mohan Lal, sat chewing a betel leaf and fanning herself with a newspaper. She was short and fat and in her middle forties. She wore a dirty white sari with a red border. On one side of her nose glistened a diamond nose-ring, and she had several gold bangles on her arms. She had been talking to the bearer until Sir Mohan had summoned him inside. As soon as he had gone, she hailed a passing railway coolie. 'Where does the zenana stop ?' 'Right at the end of the platform.' The coolie flattened his turban to make a cushion, hoisted the steel trunk on his head, and moved down the platform. Lady Lal picked up her brass tiffin carrier and ambled along behind him. On the way she stopped by a hawker's stall to replenish
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her silver betel leaf case, and then joined the coolie. She sat down on her steel trunk (which the coolie had put down) and started talking to him. "Are the trains very crowded on these lines ?" 'These days all trains are crowded, but you'll find room in the zenana.' 'Then I might as well get over the bother of eating.' Lady Lal opened the brass carrier and took out a bundle of cramped chapatties and some mango pickle. While she ate, the coolie sat opposite her on his haunches, drawing lines in the gravel with his finger. 'Are you travelling alone, sister ?' 'No, I am with my master, brother. He is in the waiting room. He travels first class. He is a vizier and a barrister, and meets so many officers and Englishmen in the trains and I am only a native woman. I can't understand English and don't know their ways, so I keep to my zenana inter-class.' Lachmi chatted away merrily. She was fond of a little gossip and had no one to talk to at home. Her husband never had any time to spare for her. She lived in the upper storey of the house and he on the ground floor. He did not like her poor illiterate relatives hanging around his bungalow, so they never came. He came up to her once in a while at night and stayed for a few minutes. He just ordered her about in anglicised Hindustani, and she obeyed passively. These nocturnal visits had, however, borne no fruit. The signal came down and the clanging of the bell announced the approaching train. Lady Lal hurriedly finished off her meal. She got up, still licking the stone of the pickled mango. She emitted a long, loud belch as she went to the public tap to rinse her mouth and wash her hands. After washing she dried her mouth and hands with the loose end of her sari, and walked back to her steel trunk, belching and thanking the Gods for the favour of a filling meal. The train steamed in. Lachmi found herself facing an almost empty inter-class zenana compartment next to the guard's van, at the tail end of the train. The rest of the train was packed. She heaved her squat, bulky frame through the door and found a seat by the window. She produced a two-anna bit from a knot in her sari and dismissed the coolie. She then opened her betel case and made herself two betel leaves charged with a red and white paste, minced betelnuts and cardamoms. These she thrust into her mouth till her cheeks bulged on both sides. Then she rested her chin on her hands and sat gazing idly at the jostling crowd on the platform. The arrival of the train did not disturb Sir Mohan Lal's sang-froid. He continued to sip his scotch and ordered the bearer to tell him when he had moved the luggage to a first class compartment. Excitement, bustle and hurry were exhibitions of bad Young Ji international School / College
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breeding, and Sir Mohan was eminently well-bred. He wanted everything 'ticketyboo' and orderly. In his five years abroad, Sir Mohan had acquired the manners and attitudes of the upper classes. He rarely spoke Hindustani. When he did, it was like an Englishman's - only the very necessary words and properly anglicised. But he fancied his English, finished and refined at no less a place than the University of Oxford. He was fond of conversation, and like a cultured Englishman, he could talk on almost any subject - books, politics, people. How frequently had he heard English people say that he spoke like an Englishman ! Sir Mohan wondered if he would be travelling alone. It was a Cantonment and some English officers might be on the train. His heart warmed at the prospect of an impressive conversation. He never showed any sign of eagerness to talk to the English as most Indians did. Nor was he loud, aggressive and opinionated like them. He went about his business with an expressionless matter-of-factness. He would retire to his corner by the window and get out a copy of The Times. He would fold it in a way in which the name of the paper was visible to others while he did the crossword puzzle. The Times always attracted attention. Someone would like to borrow it when he put it aside with a gesture signifying 'I've finished with it.' Perhaps someone would recognize his Balliol tie which he always wore while travelling. That would open a vista leading to a fairy-land of Oxford colleges, masters, dons, tutors, boat-races and rugger matches. If both The Times and the tie failed, Sir Mohan would 'Koi Hai' his bearer to get the Scotch out. Whiskey never failed with Englishmen. Then followed Sir Mohan's handsome gold cigarette case filled with English cigarettes. English cigarettes in India ? How on earth did he get them ? Sure he didn't mind ? And Sir Mohan's understanding smile - of course he didn't. But could he use the Englishman as a medium to commune with his dear old England ? Those five years of grey bags and gowns, of sports blazers and mixed doubles, of dinners at the inns of Court and nights with Piccadilly prostitutes. Five years of a crowded glorious life. Worth far more than the forty-five in India with his dirty, vulgar countrymen, with sordid details of the road to success, of nocturnal visits to the upper storey and alltoo-brief sexual acts with obese old Lachmi, smelling of sweat and raw onions. Sir Mohan's thoughts were disturbed by the bearer announcing the installation of the Sahib's luggage in a first class coupe next to the engine. Sir Mohan walked to his coupe with a studied gait. He was dismayed. The compartment was empty. With a sigh he sat down in a corner and opened the copy of 'The Times', he had read several times before. Sir Mohan looked out of the window down the crowded platform. His face lit up as he saw two English soldiers trudging along, looking in all the compartments for room. They had their haversacks slung behind their backs and walked unsteadily. Sir Mohan decided to welcome them, even though they were entitled to travel only second class. He would speak to the guard. Young Ji international School / College
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One of the soldiers came up to the last compartment and stuck his face through the window. He surveyed the compartment and noticed the unoccupied berth. 'Ere, Bill, he shouted, 'one ere.' His companion came up, also looked in, and looked at Sir Mohan. 'Get the nigger out,' he muttered to his companion. They opened the door , and turned to the half-smiling, half-protesting Sir Mohan. 'Reserved !' yelled Bill. 'Janta - Reserved. Army - Fauj,' exclaimed Jim, pointing to his khaki shirt. 'Ek Dum jao - get out !" 'I say, I say, surely,' protested Sir Mohan in his Oxford accent. The soldiers paused. It almost sounded like English, but they knew better than to trust their inebriated ears. The engine whistled and the guard waved his green flag. They picked up Sir Mohan's suitcase and flung it on to the platform. Then followed his thermos flask, briefcase, bedding and The Times. Sir Mohan was livid with rage. 'Preposterous, preposterous,' he shouted, hoarse with anger. I'll have you arrested - guard, guard !' Bill and Jim paused again. It did sound like English, but it was too much of the King's for them. 'Keep yer ruddy mouth shut !' And Jim struck Sir Mohan flat on the face. The engine gave another short whistle and the train began to move. The soldiers caught Sir Mohan by the arms and flung him out of the train. He reeled backwards, tripped on his bedding, and landed on the suitcase. 'Toodle-oo !' Sir Mohan's feet were glued to the earth and he lost his speech. He stared at the lighted windows of the train going past him in quickening tempo. The tail-end of the train appeared with a red light and the guard standing in the open doorway with the flags in his hands. In the inter-class zenana compartment was Lachmi, fair and fat, on whose nose the diamond nose-ring glistened against the station lights. Her mouth was bloated with betel saliva which she had been storing up to spit as soon as the train had cleared the station. As the train sped past the lighted part of the platform, Lady Lal spat and sent a jet of red dribble flying across like a dart.
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Exercise 1 REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION 1. What purpose or purposes does the title of the story serve? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 2. How did Sir Mohan regard India as the place of his birth and England as colonizer of his land? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
3. Prove that Sir Mohan was culturally enslaved by the British way of life. ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 4. Why did two British soldiers feel enraged when they heard Sir Mohan‘s English accent? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
5. Did Sir Mohan get what he truly deserved at the end? Be able to support your answer. Young Ji international School / College
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______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
6. In what way did Lachmi endear herself to the readers? How did she get even with her husband at the end of the story? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
GRAMMAR NOTES SINGLE-WORD ADJECTIVES
Adjectives are words that describe or modify a noun. An adjective gives specific details about a noun or pronoun by telling what kind, how many, or which one? Adjectives are placed before the words they modify. Adjectives can be formed from certain words when the suffixes –ful, -able, -less, and –ish are added to them.
WORD
+
-SUFFIX
=
ADJECTIVE
Beauty
-ful
beautiful
Manage
-able
manageable
Count
-less
countless
Self
-ish
selfish
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Exercise 2 Fill in the blank with appropriate adjective.
1.
Like the Philippines, Indonesia is rich with ________________________ resources.
2.
It boasts of its _________________ scenic spots.
3.
There, you can find lots of _______________ wonder.
4.
The Asian region has ____________________ cultures and beliefs.
5.
Our roots can be traced to our _____________________ heroes.
Exercise 3 Make an arrow modified by each underlined adjective. 1. A strange creature crept out of the murky water. 2. A steady diet of any food will not provide sufficient nutrients. 3. The winner, weary by happy, gave us a broad grin. 4. The big game was played on a raw, cold day. 5. A long drive lined with stately, old oaks lead to an old mansion. 6. Many people watched as a new record was set. 7. You were generous to give me the larger piece. 8. Alice wasted the first wish because she had not given the matter enough thought. 9. Dana tried a third time, and then she was successful. 10. The pale and wintry sun gave little warmth.
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LESSON 4
Resolving Conflicts
Death of a Tsotsi Alan Paton
There are certain conflicts among people that are not reconcilable and cannot be settled between or among individuals. When laws are broken, people are injured; or when property is stolen, a price must be paid. But will the punishment breed more criminal action or will it reform the offender? This story from South Africa examines human nature through the choices of a young man who tries to change his life.
Exercise 1 Match the words in Column A with their meanings in Column B. write the letters on the line. COLUMN A ______1. adders ______2. asperity ______3. chasm ______4. devoid ______5. enigmatic ______6. impassively ______7. mollified ______8. morose ______9. plausible ______10. sullen
COLUMN B a. credible b. empty c. gloomy disposition d. harshness e. hated f. mysterious g. offenders h. poisonous African snakes i. separation j. showing no sign of emotion k. soothed l. unsociable
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GRAMMAR NOTES
As a general rule, since adjective phrases serve as modifiers of nouns or pronouns, they should be placed near the words they modify. Almost all adjective phrases directly follow the nouns or pronouns they modify.
Exercise 2 Underline the adjective phrases in the following sentences. Draw an arrow from each descriptive phrase to the word it describes. 1.
One of the adults was willing to help the boy.
2.
A reformatory is a kind of reform school where young offenders are sent for corrective training.
3.
The school principal overseas the building beside the high school.
4.
The talk about Spike‘s freedom spread like wild fire.
5.
South African way of life changes constantly.
LESSON 5
Living for Others
The Mulberry Tree and the Children Sim Hun
It is an excerpt from the award-winning novel The Evergreen. This fictional story is based on the true story of Ch‘oe Yongsin (1909-1935), a Korean student who moved to Hwasong, Kyonggi, Korea in 1931. Ms. Yongsin became a member of YWCA ―rural enlightenment‖ project to teach young children to read and write in remote villages where their parents raised silkworms. During that time, Korea was Young Ji international School / College
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under Japanese control. In some schools, Japanese was the official classroom language. Keeping their own language alive was important to the people of Korea. Though the Japanese controlled Korea for more than 35 years, the Koreans kept their language and most aspects of their culture intact.
Exercise 1 Choose a word from the list to complete each statement that follows. dejected
withered
persevere
intimated
immobilize
insignia
tenaciously
interference painstaking scribbled
1.
Our ability to ______________ is put to a test in times of trouble.
2.
Because Richie was in a hurry to leave, he simply ______________ his name and address in a piece of paper.
3.
The speech of the President was not clear to us because of some _________________ on the radio signal.
4.
Each member of our organization was given a gold __________________ bearing the school motto and seal.
5.
We should not feel ___________________ in case we experience rejection.
6.
The doctors tried to ___________________ the patient when he became recklessly defiant.
7.
Painting is considered a ____________________ job for one who does it with
extreme
care.
8.
The giant octopus held on to its prey __________________ before disappearing in
the
bottom of the sea.
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9.
All the plants and flowers have___________________ because of the
scarcity of 10.
water.
He _______________ to everyone his forthcoming wedding.
GRAMMAR NOTES
ASKING INFORMATIVE/INFORMATION QUESTIONS AND RESPONDING TO THEM
Questions that are signaled by such words as how, when, where, what, who, whose, which, and why are called informative/information questions.
QUESTION WORDS
INFORMATION NEEDED
What
naming response
Where
location response
Who
naming response of a person
Whose
possession response
Which
multiple choice response
Why When How
cause-effect response time response explanation response
Informative/Information questions follow this order:
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QW (question word) + Aux. V + Subject + Main Verb + Rest of the Sentence Examples: Who knocked on my door? When did you go to Europe? What does the teacher need?
Exercise 2 Transform the following sentences to informative/information questions answerable by the underlined words.
1.
His poverty did not dampen his spirit.
2.
The quest does not end today.
3.
Until now, his mentor still remains a secret.
4.
In these trying times, we need to brace ourselves.
5.
Other great men and women champion noble causes.
LESSON 6
IDENTIFYING THE TRUTH
The Open Window Hector H. Munro Young Ji international School / College
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"My aunt will be down presently, Mr. Nuttel," said a very self-possessed young lady of fifteen; "in the meantime you must try and put up with me." Framton Nuttel endeavoured to say the correct something which should duly flatter the niece of the moment without unduly discounting the aunt that was to come. Privately he doubted more than ever whether these formal visits on a succession of total strangers would do much towards helping the nerve cure which he was supposed to be undergoing. "I know how it will be," his sister had said when he was preparing to migrate to this rural retreat; "you will bury yourself down there and not speak to a living soul,
and your nerves will be worse than ever from moping. I shall just give you letters of introduction to all the people I know there. Some of them, as far as I can remember, were quite nice."
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Framton wondered whether Mrs. Sappleton, the lady to whom he was presenting one of the letters of introduction came into the nice division. "Do you know many of the people round here?" asked the niece, when she judged that they had had sufficient silent communion. "Hardly a soul," said Framton. "My sister was staying here, at the rectory, you know, some four years ago, and she gave me letters of introduction to some of the people here." He made the last statement in a tone of distinct regret. "Then you know practically nothing about my aunt?" pursued the self-possessed young lady. "Only her name and address," admitted the caller. He was wondering whether Mrs. Sappleton was in the married or widowed state. An undefinable something about the room seemed to suggest masculine habitation. "Her great tragedy happened just three years ago," said the child; "that would be since your sister's time." "Her tragedy?" asked Framton; somehow in this restful country spot tragedies seemed out of place. "You may wonder why we keep that window wide open on an October afternoon," said the niece, indicating a large French window that opened on to a lawn. "It is quite warm for the time of the year," said Framton; "but has that window got anything to do with the tragedy?" "Out through that window, three years ago to a day, her husband and her two young brothers went off for their day's shooting. They never came back. In crossing the moor to their favourite snipe-shooting ground they were all three engulfed in a treacherous piece of bog. It had been that dreadful wet summer, you know, and places that were safe in other years gave way suddenly without warning. Their bodies were never recovered. That was the dreadful part of it." Here the child's voice lost its self-possessed note and became falteringly human. "Poor aunt always thinks Young Ji international School / College
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that they will come back someday, they and the little brown spaniel that was lost with them, and walk in at that window just as they used to do. That is why the window is kept open every evening till it is quite dusk. Poor dear aunt, she has often told me how they went out, her husband with his white waterproof coat over his arm, and Ronnie, her youngest brother, singing 'Bertie, why do you bound?' as he always did to tease her, because she said it got on her nerves. Do you know, sometimes on still, quiet evenings like this, I almost get a creepy feeling that they will all walk in through that window - "
She broke off with a little shudder. It was a relief to Framton when the aunt bustled into the room with a whirl of apologies for being late in making her appearance. "I hope Vera has been amusing you?" she said. "She has been very interesting," said Framton. Young Ji international School / College
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"I hope you don't mind the open window," said Mrs. Sappleton briskly; "my husband and brothers will be home directly from shooting, and they always come in this way. They've been out for snipe in the marshes today, so they'll make a fine mess over my poor carpets. So like you menfolk, isn't it?" She rattled on cheerfully about the shooting and the scarcity of birds, and the prospects for duck in the winter. To Framton it was all purely horrible. He made a desperate but only partially successful effort to turn the talk on to a less ghastly topic, he was conscious that his hostess was giving him only a fragment of her attention, and her eyes were constantly straying past him to the open window and the lawn beyond. It was certainly an unfortunate coincidence that he should have paid his visit on this tragic anniversary. "The doctors agree in ordering me complete rest, an absence of mental excitement, and avoidance of anything in the nature of violent physical exercise," announced Framton, who laboured under the tolerably widespread delusion that total strangers and chance acquaintances are hungry for the least detail of one's ailments and infirmities, their cause and cure. "On the matter of diet they are not so much in agreement," he continued. "No?" said Mrs. Sappleton, in a voice which only replaced a yawn at the last moment. Then she suddenly brightened into alert attention - but not to what Framton was saying. "Here they are at last!" she cried. "Just in time for tea, and don't they look as if they were muddy up to the eyes!" Framton shivered slightly and turned towards the niece with a look intended to convey sympathetic comprehension. The child was staring out through the open window with a dazed horror in her eyes. In a chill shock of nameless fear Framton swung round in his seat and looked in the same direction.
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In the deepening twilight three figures were walking across the lawn towards the window, they all carried guns under their arms, and one of them was additionally burdened with a white coat hung over his shoulders. A tired brown spaniel kept close at their heels. Noiselessly they neared the house, and then a hoarse young voice chanted out of the dusk: "I said, Bertie, why do you bound?"
Framton grabbed wildly at his stick and hat; the hall door, the gravel drive, and the front gate were dimly noted stages in his headlong retreat. A cyclist coming along the road had to run into the hedge to avoid imminent collision. "Here we are, my dear," said the bearer of the white mackintosh, coming in through the window, "fairly muddy, but most of it's dry. Who was that who bolted out as we came up?"
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"A most extraordinary man, a Mr. Nuttel," said Mrs. Sappleton; "could only talk about his illnesses, and dashed off without a word of goodby or apology when you arrived. One would think he had seen a ghost." "I expect it was the spaniel," said the niece calmly; "he told me he had a horror of dogs. He was once hunted into a cemetery somewhere on the banks of the Ganges by a pack of pariah dogs, and had to spend the night in a newly dug grave with the creatures snarling and grinning and foaming just above him. Enough to make anyone lose their nerve." Romance at short notice was her speciality.
REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION 1. Who is Framton Nuttel? Why did he leave the city for the countryside? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
2. Describe the meeting between Mr. Nuttel and Vera. How did Vera entertain Mr. Nuttel? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 3. Relate the ―great tragedy‖ that befell Mrs. Sappleton‘s husband and her two younger brothers three years ago as narrated by the young girl. ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
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______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
4. How was the conflict between reality and imagination dramatized in the story? Cite situations in the story to prove your answer. ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 5. Account for the story ending. What impact did it have on you? On the readers? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
6. Is it probable for Mr. Nuttel to get cured from his ailment? Support your answer. ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
7. Infer the kind of child Vera was. Do you consider her storytelling an act of malice? Explain the last line of the story: ―Romance at short was her specialty.‖ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
8. Often, writers use surprise endings to add an interesting twist to the story. The point is to trick readers, to show strange behavior s of human beings, to
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amuse or to untangle the plot cleverly. How did the author‘s use of surprise ending add an interesting twist to the story? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
Direct and Indirect Course GRAMMAR NOTES A direct speech or direct course is composed of the explanatory part and quoted part. The explanatory part identifies who the speaker is while the quoted part indicated the speaker‘s exact words or actual utterance.
Examples: Marie says, ―There‘s too much violence in movies these days.‖ Marie quipped, ―No, I‘m not.‖ Remember too that quotation marks always come in pairs. Do not leave out one of the marks. Use a comma to set off a direct quotation from the rest of the sentence. When the quotation is a question or an exclamation, use a question mark or an exclamation point at the end, not a comma or a period. Always capitalize the first word of a direct quotation.
We often have to give information about what people say or think. In order to do this you can use direct or quoted speech, or indirect or reported speech.
Direct Speech / Quoted Speech
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Saying exactly what someone has said is called direct speech (sometimes called quoted speech) Here what a person says appears within quotation marks ("...") and should be word for word. For example: She said, "Today's lesson is on presentations." or "Today's lesson is on presentations", she said.
Indirect Speech / Reported Speech Indirect speech (sometimes called reported speech), doesn't use quotation marks to enclose what the person said and it doesn't have to be word for word. When reporting speech the tense usually changes. This is because when we use reported speech, we are usually talking about a time in the past (because obviously the person who spoke originally spoke in the past). The verbs therefore usually have to be in the past too. For example: Direct speech
Indirect speech
"I'm going to the cinema", he said.
He said he was going to the cinema.
Tense change As a rule when you report something someone has said you go back a tense: (the tense on the left changes to the tense on the right): Young Ji international School / College
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Direct speech Present simple She said, "It's cold."
Indirect speech
›
Past simple She said it was cold.
Present continuous She said, "I'm teaching English
›
Past continuous She said she was teaching English online.
online." Present perfect simple She said, "I've been on the web since
Past perfect simple
›
She said she had been on the web since
1999."
1999.
Present perfect continuous
Past perfect continuous
She said, "I've been teaching English
›
for seven years." Past simple
seven years.
›
She said, "I taught online yesterday." Past continuous
She said she had been teaching English for
Past perfect She said she had taught online yesterday.
›
Past perfect continuous
She said, "I was teaching earlier."
She said she had been teaching earlier.
Past perfect
Past perfect
She said, "The lesson had already
›
started when he arrived." Past perfect continuous She said, "I'd already been teaching Young Ji international School / College
NO CHANGE - She said the lesson had already started when he arrived.
›
Past perfect continuous NO CHANGE - She said she'd already been Page 48
for five minutes."
teaching for five minutes.
Modal verb forms also sometimes change: Direct speech
Indirect speech
will
would
›She said she would teach English online
She said, "I'll teach English online tomorrow."
tomorrow.
can She said, "I can teach English online."
›
must
could She said she could teach English online. had to
She said, "I must have a computer to
›She said she had to have a computer to
teach English online."
teach English online.
shall She said, "What shall we learn today?" may She said, "May I open a new browser?"
›
should
›
might
She asked what we should learn today.
She asked if she might open a new browser.
Note - There is no change to; could, would, should, might and ought to. Direct speech
Indirect speech
"I might go to the cinema", he said.
He said he might go to the cinema.
You can use the present tense in reported speech if you want to say that something is still true i.e. my name has always been and will always be Lynne so:Direct speech
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Indirect speech
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She said her name was Lynne. or
"My name is Lynne", she said.
She said her name is Lynne. You can also use the present tense if you are talking about a future event. Direct speech (exact quote)
Indirect speech (not exact)
"Next week's lesson is on
She said next week's lesson will be on
reported speech", she said.
reported speech.
Time change If the reported sentence contains an expression of time, you must change it to fit in with the time of reporting. For example we need to change words like here and yesterday if they have different meanings at the time and place of reporting. Now
+ 24 hours - Indirect speech She said yesterday's lesson was on presentations. "Today's lesson is on
or
presentations." She said yesterday's lesson would be on presentations.
Expressions of time if reported on a different day
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this (evening)
›
that (evening)
today
›
yesterday ...
these (days)
›
those (days)
now
›
then
(a week) ago
›
(a week) before
last weekend
›
here
›
there
next (week)
›
the following (week)
tomorrow
›
the next/following day
the weekend before last / the previous weekend
In addition if you report something that someone said in a different place to where you heard it you must change the place (here) to the place (there). For example:At work
At home
"How long have you worked
She asked me how long I'd worked
here?"
there.
Pronoun change In reported speech, the pronoun often changes.
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For example: Me
You Direct Speech She said, "I teach English online." "I teach English online", she said. Reported Speech
"I teach English online."
She said she teaches English online. or She said she taught English online.
Reporting Verbs Said, told and asked are the most common verbs used in indirect speech. We use asked to report questions:For example: I asked Lynne what time the lesson started. We use told with an object. For example: Lynne told me she felt tired.
Note - Here me is the object.
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We usually use said without an object. For example: Lynne said she was going to teach online. If said is used with an object we must include to ; For example: Lynne said to me that she'd never been to China. !Note - We usually use told. For example: Lynne told me (that) she'd never been to China. There are many other verbs we can use apart from said, told and asked. These include:accused, admitted, advised, alleged, agreed, apologised, begged, boasted, complained, denied, explained, implied, invited, offered, ordered, promised, replied, suggested and thought. Using them properly can make what you say much more interesting and informative. For example: He asked me to come to the party:He invited me to the party. He begged me to come to the party. He ordered me to come to the party. He advised me to come to the party. He suggested I should come to the
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party.
Use of 'That' in reported speech In reported speech, the word that is often used. For example: He told me that he lived in Greenwich. However, that is optional. For example: He told me he lived in Greenwich. Note - That is never used in questions, instead we often use if. For example: He asked me if I would come to the party.
The sneaky comma I'm British, so I only tend to place the comma inside quotation marks when it's part of the sentence being quoted. "I didn't notice that the comma was inside the quotation marks," Lynne said, "but Hekner did." That said, I read so much American literature, that even I tuck them away sometimes. Really, no one has set in stone what the rules of the English language are. It's a diverse language, and the rules that exist have arisen through usage, and they can change in exactly the same way, so maybe it doesn't matter, but it's best to be consistent. See more http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/reportedspeech.html#Tense
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at:
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Exercises 1 Transform the following to reported speech. Assume that the reporting took place at a different time and place. 1. A child exclaimed in wonder, ―It‘s a beautiful day we have today.‖ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ 2. ―This is the most ridiculous remark I have ever heard in my entire life,‖ said another. ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ 3. The teacher asked Carlo, ―Are you determined to suffer the consequences?‖ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ 4. Carlo responded, ―Yes, I am.‖ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ 5. Julius insists, ―I want to study here.‖ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________
Exercise 2 Punctuate the following utterances correctly to produce the desired direct speech. Use a capital letter when it is necessary.
1. hi Ron remember me asked Dave 2. of course exclaimed Ron I remember you Dave Young Ji international School / College
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3. Dave continued what a pleasant surprise do you study here 4. Yes I do Ron emphasized 5. It‘s good to hear that does that mean we‘re together again he added with a big smile
Exercise 3 A sentence has been given in direct speech. Out of the four alternatives, select the one which best expresses the same sentence in indirect speech.
1. Rahul asked me, ‗Did you see the cricket match on TV last night?‘ a) Rahul asked me if I had seen the cricket match on TV the previous night. b) Rahul asked me if I saw the cricket match on TV the previous night. c) Rahul asked me did I see the cricket match on TV last night. d) Rahul asked me whether I had seen the cricket match on TV last night.
2. James said to his mother, ‗I am leaving for New York tomorrow.‘ a) James told his mother that he was leaving for New York tomorrow. b) James told his mother he is leaving for New York tomorrow. c) James told his mother that he was leaving for New York the next day. d) James told his mother he would be leaving for New York the next day.
3. I said to him, ‗Why don‘t you work hard?‘ a) I asked him why didn‘t you work hard. b) I asked him why he didn‘t work hard. Young Ji international School / College
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c) I asked him why he wouldn‘t work hard. d) I asked him why he wasn‘t working hard.
4. He said to her, ‗What a hot day!‘ a) He exclaimed sorrowfully that it was hot day. b) He told her that it was a hot day. c) He exclaimed that it was a hot day. d) He said that it was a hot day.
5. The priest said, ‗Be quiet and listen to my words.‘ a) The priest said them to be quiet and listen to his words. b) The priest told them that they should be quiet and listen to his words. c) The priest urged them to be quiet and to listen to his words. d) The priest said they should be quiet and listen to him.
Exercise 4 Change the following sentences into indirect speech. 1.
The stranger said to me, ‗Could you help me?‘
2.
The clerk said to the officer, ‗Can I go?‘
3.
The officer said to the clerk, ‗Do it immediately.‘
4.
The doctor said to the patient, ‗Come in, please.‘
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5.
The master said to the boy, ‗Post this letter at once.‘
6.
The teacher said to the boys, ‗Do not make a noise.‘
7.
The teacher said to the boys, ‗Work hard if you want to pass the exam.‘
8.
I said to the child, ‗Do not look down into the well.‘
WRITING A PERSONAL NARRATIVE USING NARRATIVE SCAFFOLDS Purpose: What is a narrative?
A narrative text tells an imaginative story, although some narratives may be based on facts. Narratives are written in many forms and each form has distinctive characteristics. The main purpose of a narrative is to entertain and engage the audience. Examples of Narrative Texts:
Traditional tales
Fairytales
Fables
Films
Song lyrics
Plays
Structure: What goes into a narrative? There are four essential components of a narrative, they are as follows: Young Ji international School / College
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1. Orientation 2. Complication 3. Series of Events 4. Resolution
Text-type: Narrative Scaffold
Purpose: to tell a story
Structure:
Tells the reader: When, Where, Who, What and Why?
LANGUAGE FEATURES:
Orientation:
Gives some information about
the background
context
situation
characters
A. Subject Specific Terminology
B. Tense:
the setting (time/place) Present, past or future
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Complication:
Something happens that the character does not expect.
C. Person: First or third
The reader discovers the problem. The events are retold in the time order that they occurred.
D. Word Choice: Descriptive words to
Resolution:
The problem is solved.
give information about
The conflict / problem is not
who, what, where,
necessarily ‗resolved‘ but some
when, how and the
‗learning‘ should be seen. The characters‘ feelings about the event are given.
feelings of the people in the story. Sequence words to
Coda / Moral / Concluding Statement (optional)
show the order of events – example: First, then, next Words showing time – to help show the order This is an optional section.
of events – example: At 10
A concluding statement about some lessons learnt may be given.
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o‘ clock, in the evening, etc.
E. Specifications:
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LESSON 7
Keeping Relationships
The Jewels of the Shrine James Ene Henshaw
James Ene Henshaw, (born-Aug. 29, 1924, Calabar, Nigeria—died Aug. 16, 2007, Calabar), Nigerian playwright of Efik affiliation whose simple and popular plays treating various aspects of African culture and tradition have been widely read and acted in Nigeria. His style has been much imitated by other writers. A physician by profession, Henshaw was educated at Christ the King College, Onitsha, and received his medical degree from the National University of Ireland, Dublin, before taking up playwriting. One of his first plays, The Jewels of the Shrine, was published in the collection This Is Our Chance: Plays from West Africa (1957). His second collection,Children of the Goddess, and Other Plays (1964), treated such themes as the inefficiency of a local village court because of the drunkenness of its members and the struggle between local authorities and missionaries over the spread of Christianity in a 19th-century Nigerian village. Medicine for Love: A Comedy in Three Acts (1964) is a satire with serious overtones on such matters as a politician‘s attempt to bribe his way into power and his difficulties with the three prospective wives sent to him by relatives. The comedy Dinner for Promotion (1967) centres on an ambitious young man, a newly rich businessman, and a quarrelsome sister-in-law. Henshaw‘s later plays include Enough Is Enough: A Play of the Nigerian Civil War (produced 1975) and A Song to Mary Charles (Irish Sister of Charity) (1984).
The Jewels of the Shrine is written in the form of a play. A play usually refers to a drama acted out on a stage by a group of actors or performers before an audience. The term ―drama‖ is derived from the Greek word ―dran‖ which means ―to do‖ or ―to perform‖. As such action becomes the essence of drama.
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Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" (Classical Greek: δρᾶμα, drama), which is derived from the verb meaning "to do" or "to act" (Classical Greek: δράω, draō). The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a collective form of reception. The structure of dramatic texts, unlike other forms of literature, is directly influenced by this collaborative production and collective reception. The early modern tragedy Hamlet (1601) by Shakespeare and the classical Athenian tragedy Oedipus the King (c. 429 BC) by Sophocles are among the masterpieces of the art of drama. A modern example is Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O‘Neill (1956). The two masks associated with drama represent the traditional generic division between comedy and tragedy. They are symbols of the ancient Greek Muses, Thalia and Melpomene. Thalia was the Muse of comedy (the laughing face), while Melpomene was the Muse of tragedy (the weeping face). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been contrasted with the epic and the lyrical modes ever since Aristotle's Poetics (c. 335 BC)—the earliest work of dramatic theory. The use of "drama" in the narrow sense to designate a specific type of play dates from the 19th century. Drama in this sense refers to a play that is neither a comedy nor a tragedy—for example, Zola's Thérèse Raquin (1873) or Chekhov's Ivanov (1887). It is this narrow sense that the film and television industry and film studies adopted to describe "drama" as a genre within their respective media. "Radio drama" has been used in both senses—originally transmitted in a live performance, it has also been used to describe the more high-brow and serious end of the dramatic output of radio. Drama is often combined with music and dance: the drama in opera is generally sung throughout; musicals generally include both spoken dialogue and songs; and some forms of drama have incidental music or musical accompaniment underscoring the dialogue (melodrama and Japanese Nō, for example). In certain periods of history (the ancient Roman and modern Romantic) some dramas have been written to be read rather than performed. In improvisation, the drama does not Young Ji international School / College
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pre-exist the moment of performance; performers devise a dramatic script spontaneously before an audience. RARE is the human being, immature or mature, who has never felt an impulse to pretend he is someone or something else. The human being who has never felt pleasure in seeing such a pretending is rarer still. Back through the ages of barbarism and civilization, in all tongues, we find this instinctive pleasure in the imitative action that is the very essence of all drama. The instinct to impersonate produces the actor; the desire to provide pleasure by impersonations produces the playwright; the desire to provide this pleasure with adequate characterization and dialogue memorable in itself produces dramatic literature. Though dramatic literature has been sporadic, dramatic entertainment by imitative action has been going steadily on since we first hear of it in connection with the Bacchic festivals of early Greece; and the dramatic instinct has been uninterruptedly alive since man‘s creation. We do not kill the drama, we do not really limit its appeal by failing to encourage the best in it; but we do thereby foster the weakest and poorest elements. In 1642 the English Parliament, facing war, closed the theatres and forbade all plays. Yet, though the years following were so troublous as not to favor drama, it was necessary in 1647 to repeal the edict, because surreptitious and garbled performances of plays formerly popular had been given, and because vulgarized excerpts from comic portions of past plays had been given at fairs and other public gatherings. Clearly, so strong was the instinct, the craving for drama, that if the public could not get new plays, or even its old plays as wholes, it would accept far less worthy entertainment rather than go without. Even in this country, far more recently, in many communities where theatres were regarded at least with hesitation, the panorama was popular, and local branches of the G. A. R. gave to enthusiastic audiences ―The Drummer Boy of Shiloh.‖ To-day, many who will not attend the theatre do attend the moving-picture show. One cannot annihilate an instinct of the races old as time: to legislate against it is to risk repressing only the better part; what is necessary is to make the undesirable unattractive. THE DRAMA AND PUBLIC TASTE The only sound basis for this result is a widespread taste in the public for good drama. While it is not true, as George Farquhar wrote, that ―Plays are like Young Ji international School / College
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suppers, poets are the cooks,‖ there is yet truth in Samuel Johnson‘s saying that ―The drama‘s laws the drama‘s patrons give.‖ He who serves his dramatic meal, cooked and seasoned exactly for what he takes to be the tastes of his public, merely writes plays: he does not create drama. To try to hit public taste in the drama is like trying to hit the bull‘s-eye of a rapidly shifting target on a very foggy day. On the other hand, the public speaker who should try to present his subject to a public knowing nothing of it, and to a public of which he knows nothing, must skillfully interest them by finding in his subject some appeal of a general nature. In similar fashion works the dramatist. He cannot write comedies and farces for a community lacking in humor. He can do little in grim story play or tragedy with a laughter-loving public. Granted a public fond of the theatre, he is sure of a hearing and probably an appreciative one; but the fuller and the more accurate his public‘s knowledge of good drama in the past, the greater his chance for an attentive and comprehending hearing when he writes what should be good drama to-day.
2
HOW TO READ A PLAY In reading plays, however, it should always be remembered that any play, however great, loses much when not seen in action. As John Marston wrote in 1606: ―Comedies are writ to be spoken, not read; remember the life of these things consists in action‖; or, as Molière put it: ―Comedies are made to be played, not to be read.‖ Any play is so planned that it can produce its exact effect only with its required scenery, lighting, and acting. And that acting means the gesture, movement, and voice of the actor. Above all, it means the voice, the instrument which conveys to the audience the exact shade of meaning of the author and, like music, opens up the emotions. Drama read to oneself is never drama at its best, and is not even drama as it should be. Usually, too, just because readers do not recognize the difference between drama and other forms of fiction, they lose the effects they might gain even in reading. Closer attention than with a novel or short story is required. The dramatist does not guide us by explanations, analysis, and comment in our visualizing of his figures. Instead, he depends on a few stage directions as to their movements, and on the rightness of his chosen words in the dialogue. Unfortunately, many a reader, accustomed to hasty reading of the sketchy stories so common in the magazines, does not piece out what is given him but sees only just what the words of the text force him to see with no effort on his part. He is not active and cooperative. No play Young Ji international School / College
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read in this way yields its real value. First, see in your mind the setting as described. Then, reading sympathetically, thoughtfully, and slowly if need be, visualize the figures as they come and go. The lines of any good play mean more than appears at a hasty glance. They have been chosen not simply because they say what the character might have said, but because what is said will advance the plot, and, because better than some half dozen other phrases considered by the author, they will rouse the emotions of the audience. Keep the sympathetic, not the critical mood, to the fore. Reading to visualize, feel because you visualize, and feel as fully as you can. Then when you close the book, moved and admiring, and then only, let your critical training tell you whether you have done well to admire. Don‘t let prejudices, moral or artistic, cause prejudgments: keep an open mind as you read. A writer may so treat a subject for which you have never cared as to make you care for it. He may so treat a subject you have regarded as taboo as to make it acceptable and helpful. Don‘t assume because a play is different from the plays you have known that it is bad. As the general editor has said: ―It is precisely this encounter with the mental states of other generations which enlarges the outlook and sympathies of the cultivated man.‖ When a play of a different nation or period at first proves unattractive, don‘t assume that it will remain so. Rather, study the conditions of stage and audience which gave it being. Usually this will transmute a seemingly dull play into a living, appealing work of art. In any case, when you have finished reading, judge with discretion. Say, if you like, ―This play is not for me—for a person of my tastes,‖ but not, ―This is a bad play for all,‖ unless you are able to explain why what is poison for you should be poison for the general public. In all the great periods of the drama perfect freedom of choice and subject, perfect freedom of individual treatment, and an audience eager to give itself to sympathetic listening, even if instruction be involved, have brought the great results. If a public widely read in the drama of the past and judging it as suggested would come to the acting drama of today in exactly that spirit, almost anything would become possible for our dramatists. 3 THE ESSENTIALS OF DRAMA But what is drama? Broadly speaking, it is whatever by imitative action rouses interest or gives pleasure. The earliest of the mediæval plays, the trope of the church in which the three Marys go to the tomb to find that Christ has risen, and make their Young Ji international School / College
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way thence rejoicing, does not differentiate one Mary from another. The words, which were given to music, have only an expository value. Here, as through the ages succeeding, it is action, not characterization, however good, not dialogue for the sake of characterization or for its own sake, which counts. Of course, this very early drama is too bald and too simple to have value as literature. As the trope in the tenth to the thirteenth centuries adds to the episode of the Resurrection or the Nativity preliminary or continuing Biblical material, so story develops around the original episode. Almost inevitably, in order to make these differing episodes convincing, characterization appears, for, unless the people are unlike, some of the episodes could not occur. The dialogue ceases to be merely expository and begins to characterize each speaker. Later it comes to have charm, amusingness, wit, that is, quality of its own. When the drama attains a characterization which makes the play a revelation of human conduct and a dialogue which characterizes yet pleases for itself, we reach dramatic literature.
4
So, too, as time goes on, there develop the play of story, the play mainly of characterization, the play in which dialogue counts almost as much as plot or character, and the great masterpieces in which all these interests, plot, character, and dialogue are blended into a perfect whole. ―The Duchess of Malfi‖ 1 of Webster is a story play which illustrates a change in public taste. For a modern reader, probably more interested in the character of the Duchess than in the story itself, the last act doubtless lacks the interest it had for its own public. In Johnson‘s ―Alchemist‖ 2 it is character mainly which interests us. In Sheridan‘s ―School for Scandal,‖ 3 as in Congreve‘s ―Way of the World,‖ dialogue counts as much as character. In ―Hamlet,‖ ―Lear,‖ and ―Macbeth‖ 4 there is a perfect union of story, characterization, and dialogue.
5
THE NATURE OF TRAGEDY Once the idea was widespread that tragedy and comedy differ essentially in material. Dryden maintained that tragedy must deal with people of exalted rank in extraordinary
situations,
expressing
themselves
in
speech
befitting
their
extraordinary circumstances. This idea, first stated by Aristotle in his ―Poetics‖ as a result of his observation of the Greek Tragedy—which the definition perfectly fits— was fostered and expanded by critical students of dramatic theory till it found Young Ji international School / College
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expression in the exaggeration of the Heroic Drama in England and the dignified if somewhat cold tragedies of Corneille and Racine. 5 The coming of the Sentimental Comedy in England in the first thirty years of the eighteenth century, the related ―Drame Larmoyante‖ of France, and the ―Bürgerliche Drama‖ in Germany, showed that tragedy may exist in all ranks from high to low, from educated to uneducated. 6 What then is tragedy? In the Elizabethan period it was assumed that a play ending in death was a tragedy, but in recent years we have come to understand that to live on is sometimes far more tragic than death. Nor is the presence of tragic incidents in a play sufficient reason for calling it a tragedy, for many plays that end happily have in them profoundly moving episodes. Why, then, is it that we are so agreed in calling ―Hamlet,‖ ―The Duchess of Malfi‖ and ―The Cenci‖ 6 tragedies? Because in them character clashing with itself, with environment, or with other temperaments, moves through tragic episodes to a final catastrophe that is the logical outcome of what we have observed. By ―logical‖ I mean that the ending is seen to grow from the preceding events in accordance with the characters. That is, it conforms with human experience as known to us or as revealed to us by the dramatist in question.
7
MELODRAMA Suppose, however, that we have tragic circumstance not justified by the characterization of the figures concerned. For instance, in some play on Cleopatra the special scenes may move us even if they do not put before us a character whose willfulness and exacting love seem great enough to bring about the final catastrophe. Then what have we? Melodrama in the broadest sense of the word. Melodrama in this sense of plays insufficiently motivated in characterization has existed from the beginning of drama. Technically, the word came into England early in the nineteenth century to designate an importation from France of sensational scenes with frequent musical accompaniment. As this particular combination disappeared, the name remained for plays of sensational incident and inadequate characterization.
8
THE STORY PLAY
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Between the two—melodrama and tragedy—both perhaps sensational in episode, but only the second justifying its episodes by perfectly motivated character, lies the story play. In this the light and the serious, the comic and the tragic, mingle, though the ending is cheerful. ―The Merchant of Venice,‖ regarded as Shakespeare regarded it as the story of Portia and Bassanio, is clearly not a tragedy but a story play. If, however, we sympathize with Shylock as modern actors, especially by their rearrangement of the scenes, often make us, is it not a tragedy? There lies the important distinction. There is no essential difference between the material of comedy and tragedy. All depends on the point of view of the dramatist, which, by clever emphasis, he tries to make the point of view of his audience. The trial scene of Shylock perfectly illustrates the idea: to the friends of Bassanio, as to most of the Elizabethan audience, this Jew-baiting was highly delightful; to Shylock it was torture and heartbreak. The dramatist who presents such material so as to emphasize in it what would appeal to the friends of Bassanio, writes comedy. He who presents it to an audience likely to feel as Shylock felt, writes tragedy. HIGH COMEDY, LOW COMEDY, AND FARCE Comedy divides into higher and lower. Low comedy concerns itself directly or indirectly with manners. ―The Alchemist‖ of Jonson busies itself directly with manners by means of characters varying from types of a single aspect to well-individualized figures. Comedy of intrigue, centering about a love story, deals in complicated situations arising therefrom, but indirectly paints manners as it characterizes. ―The Shoemaker‘s Holiday‖ 7 may perhaps stand as a specimen of this type, though Fletcher‘s ―The Wild-Goose Chase‖ is a better example. High comedy, as George Meredith pointed out in his masterly ―Essay on Comedy,‖ deals in thoughtful laughter. This laughter comes from the recognition, made instantaneously by the author, of the comic value of a comparison or contrast. For instance, in ―Much Ado About Nothing‖ it is high comedy at which we laugh when from moment to moment we contrast Benedick and Beatrice as they see themselves and as we see them in the revelatory touches of the dramatist.
10
Farce treats the improbable as probable, the impossible as possible. In the second case it often passes into extravaganza or burlesque. ―The Frogs‖ 8 of Aristophanes illustrates farcical burlesque. In the best farce to-day we start with Young Ji international School / College
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some absurd premise as to character or situation, but if the premises be once granted we move logically enough to the ending. SOCIAL BACKGROUND OF DRAMA Yet, even if one understands these differences, one may find it difficult at first to appreciate the drama of a past time. Modern drama from 980 A. D. onward passes from the simple Latin trope, already described, by accumulation of incident, developing characterization, and a feeling for expression for its own sake, to similar work in the vernacular, be it English, French, or German. Then slowly it gains enormously in characterization till some of the miracle and morality plays of the late fifteenth century equal or surpass any English drama up to Marlowe. But what lay behind all this drama of miracle play and morality was an undivided church. With the coming of the Reformation and its insistence on the value and finality of individual judgment, the didactic drama gave way to the drama of entertainment—the interludes and the beginnings of the five-act plays. Yet, fine as are some of the plays of the days of Elizabeth and James I, we find in them a brutality of mood, a childish sense of the comic, a love of story for mere story‘s sake that make them oftentimes a little hard reading. Moreover, their technique—their frequent disregard of our ideas of unity, their methods of exposition by chorus, soliloquy, and aside—frequently appears to us antiquated. Except for the greatest of these plays—mainly by Shakespeare—the Elizabethan drama seems strange to us at a first reading. Only coming to know the conditions from which it sprang can give us its real values. 12 Even the great dramas of Æschylus, Sophocles, and to a less extent of Euripides, because he is more modern, are best read when we know something of the Greek life around these dramas and of the stage for which they were written. To these plays a great audience of perhaps 10,000 brought a common knowledge of the myths and stories represented, akin to our universal knowledge a generation ago of Biblical story. The audience brought also memories of successive and even recent treatments of the same myth by other dramatists, taking delight, not as we do in something because it seems new, but in the individual treatment of the old story by the new dramatist. The same attitude held for the Elizabethan public which delighted in successive versions of ―Romeo and Juliet,‖ ―Julius Cæsar,‖ and ―Hamlet.‖ In Young Ji international School / College
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judging the drama of Greece or Elizabethan England this fact must be kept constantly in mind. As one turns from Greek and Elizabethan drama, written for the delight and edification of the masses, to the work of Corneille and Racine, one faces plays written primarily for the cultivated, and worked out, not spontaneously by individual genius, but carefully according to critical theory derived not so much from study of classic drama as from commentators on a commentator on the Greek drama— Aristotle. From him, for instance, came the idea as to the essentiality of the unities of time, action, and place, themselves the result of physical conditions of the Greek stage. By contrast, then, this French tragedy of the seventeenth century is a drama of intellectuals.
14
Then as the spirit of humanitarianism spread and men shared more and more in Samuel Johnson‘s desire ―with extensive view‖ to ―survey mankind from China to Peru,‖ the drama reflected all this. No longer did the world laugh at the selfish complacency and indulgence of the rake and fop, but it began to sympathize with his wife, fiancée, or friend who suffered from this selfishness and complacency. Illustrating that the difference between tragedy and comedy lies only in emphasis, Restoration comedy turned from thoughtless laughter to sympathetic tears. But such psychology as the sentimental comedy shows is conventional and superficial. It is in the nineteenth century that the drama, ever sensitive to public moods and sentiment, undergoes great changes. In France and Germany it breaks the shackles of the pseudo classicism which had for centuries held the drama to empty speech and a dead level of characterization. Goethe, Schiller, Hugo, Dumas père, and Alfred de Vigny reveal a new world of dramatic romance and history. In turn this romance leads to realism with an underlying scientific spirit which takes nothing at its old values.
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MODERN PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY IN THE DRAMA This searching scrutiny of accepted ideas of personality, conduct, right, wrong, and even causation in general, is seen in Ibsen and all his followers. Planting themselves firmly on the new and developing science of psychology, guided by the most intense belief in individualism, demanding its passports from every accepted idea, the dramatists of the last half century have steadily enlarged the scope of their Young Ji international School / College
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art. From mere story-telling they passed to ethical drama. Convinced by practice that it is difficult for a play in its limited time—two and a half hours at the most—to do more than state a problem or paint a set of social conditions, they have taken to merely drawing pictures or raising questions rather than attempting even to suggest an answer. As we have seen, in the eighteenth century the writer of sentimental comedy painted social conditions, but with a psychology purely intuitional. To-day we have swung to the other extreme. Recognizing the limited space of the dramatist, confused by contrasting psychological theories, puzzled by the baffling intricacies of the human soul, convinced that the great questions raised cannot be settled in a breath, or with any ready-made panacea, many a dramatist to-day merely pictures an evil condition, waiting for others to find its exact significance or, better still, a solution. ―Justice‖ of Mr. Galsworthy, like ―La Robe Rouge‖ of M. Brieux, offers no solution, yet both led to changes in the conditions portrayed—in the former, conditions of prison life; in the latter, evils attending the life of the petty judiciary of France. THE MENACE OF VAUDEVILLE AND MOVING PICTURES A veritable passion for the theatre is shown by the younger generation to-day in the United States. It crowds the theatres—if we use the word to include not only places giving performances of legitimate drama but also vaudeville houses and picture shows—as in this country it never has crowded them before. To go to a theatre of the older type one must usually travel some distance and often one must save beforehand. Vaudeville and picture shows cheap enough for almost any purse are provided at our very doors. The difficulty is that what they offer is sometimes as low in art as in price. Yet surely, it may be said, there is good vaudeville, and surely proper legislation ought to dispose of what is poor or dangerous in it or the picture show. Granted, but there are inherent dangers which legislation cannot reach. In the first place, the balcony and galleries of our theatres are far less filled than they used to be before vaudeville and the picture show provided at much less expense and with greater comfort entertainment to many as satisfactory as the theatre itself. This decrease in attendance at the theatres naturally jeopardizes the chances of many a play which can be produced only if the manager feels reasonably sure of large houses or a public more general than usually frequents the orchestra. Vaudeville, too, like the collections of short stories we read in the train, is usually a mere time Young Ji international School / College
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killer, making the least possible demand on our application and attention. In vaudeville, if something grips our interest we pay attention; if one ―turn‖ does not interest us we simply wait for the next. Sooner or later, without any effort on our part, something will win our absorbed attention. Now drama that has literary value demands, when read, as I have pointed out, concentration, an effort to visualize. Acted drama requires surrender of one‘s self, sympathetic absorption in the play as it develops. These absolutely essential conditions grow less possible for the person trained by vaudeville. The moving picture show, too, is at best drama stripped of everything but motion. The greatest appeal of all, the voice, except in so far as the phonograph can reproduce it, is wanting. But can any combination of mechanical devices such as the cinematograph and the graphophone ever equal in human significance, in reality of effect, in persuasive power, the human being—most vividly seen and felt in drama at its best? A combination of the cinematograph and the phonograph can be at best only a dramatic Frankenstein‘s automaton. Dramatic literature is really threatened by the picture show and vaudeville. THE DRAMA IN MODERN EDUCATION All this would be discouraging were not these conditions somewhat counteracted by drama as we find it in our schools, colleges, and social settlements. As far back as the sixteenth century in England and on the Continent the value for pronunciation, enunciation, and deportment of acting by school children was recognized. Ralph Radcliffe, a schoolmaster of Hitchen in Hertfordshire, wrote many plays for his scholars. Nicholas Udall, successively a master of Eton and Westminster schools, left us one of the early landmarks of English drama, ―Ralph Roister Doister,‖ a mixture of early English dramatic practice and borrowings from the Latin comedy. On the Continent, fathers and mothers gathered often, fondly to watch their boys in similar Latin or vernacular plays. In like manner to-day, all over this country, in grammar and high schools, wise teachers are guiding their pupils in varied expression of their dramatic instinct. Many a high school to-day has, as part of its equipment, a small stage on which standard plays of the past, plays selected from the best written to-day, and, occasionally, even plays written by the students themselves are given. From participation in such performances more results than a mere gain in enunciation, pronunciation, and deportment. The standards of a youth who associates often with the best in dramatic literature must improve. Inculcate thus Young Ji international School / College
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pleasantly right standards of drama, and the lure of vaudeville and picture show is weakened. But the training must be broad: our youth must know the best—comedy, tragedy, farce, burlesque—in the drama of to-day and yesterday. No such training of our youth can ever be complete if in the home there is no real understanding, at least from reading, of what the best in drama has been. Otherwise how can the elders sympathize with this natural demand of the young, for probably they will not recognize either the worthiness or the permanence of the appeal which the drama properly makes. While youth inevitably seek entertainment in the theatre, their elders must see to the kind of entertainment provided. That is a fair and natural division. Year by year we receive at Ellis Island people from all over the world, people little fitted for the responsibilities of a citizenship that was planned for a people relatively homogeneous and trained for centuries in a growing political power which rested on the responsibility of the individual. How shall we reveal to this immigrant what this great varied American life means and thus assimilate him into the body politic? Seeking an answer to this problem, the settlement houses have found one of their most effective means in the drama. The southern or southeastern European, filled with emotion, loves to act. In the settlement house, through carefully selected plays, he learns our language and gains the ideals of the land in which he is to live.
HOW THE LEVEL OF DRAMATIC ART IS DETERMINED Responsive to all this widespread interest of the people at large, men and women all over the country are busied with the difficult art of the dramatist. In turn responsive to their needs, our colleges are developing courses in dramatic composition, though ten years ago not one existed. But to these playwrights comes sooner or later the question: ―Shall I write so as surely to make money, but pandering to the lower artistic and moral taste of my public; or shall I keep to my inculcated and self-discovered standards of dramatic art till I win my public to them?‖ For the latter result there must be a considerable part of the public which so understands and loves the best of the drama of the past that it can quickly discover promise in the drama to-day. Out of the past come the standards for judging the present; standards in turn to be shaped by the practice of present-day dramatists Young Ji international School / College
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into broader standards for the next generation. The drama possesses a great literature growing out of an eternal desire of the races. The drama is a great revealer of life. Potentially, it is a social educative force of the greatest possibilities, provided it be properly handled. You cannot annihilate it. Repressing it you bring its poorer qualities to the front. How, then, can any so-called educated man fail to try to understand it? But to understand it one must read closely, sympathetically, and above all widely. For such results a collection like this must be but the fillip that creates a craving for more. Here is only a little of all the Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. Here it is possible to represent only by a few masterpieces the vast stores of the drama in France, Germany, England, Scandinavia, Italy, Spain, and Russia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. To-day, English drama, with only a few exceptions better than any written since the seventeenth century, comes often to the stage. From month to month the drama is making history. In England and the United States to-day it is wonderfully alive, independent, ambitious, seeking new ways of expression on an infinite variety of subjects. Yet it is often crude, especially in this country. It will never know how crude till its public forces it to closer, finer thinking, more logical characterization, and stern avoidance of mere theatricality. Back of any such gains must stand a public with a love for the drama, gained not merely from seeing plays of to-day but from wide reading in the drama of different periods and different nations in the past.
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THE INFLUENCE OF THE STAGE ON THE DRAMA No drama, however great, is entirely independent of the stage on which it is given. In a great period the drama forces its stage to yield to its demands, however exacting, till that stage becomes plastic. At a time of secondary drama, plays yield to the rigidities of their stage, making life conform to the stage, not the stage to life. Consequently, just as different periods have seen different kinds of drama, they have seen different kinds of stage. In the trope the monks acted in the chancel near the high altar, to come out, as the form developed, to the space before the choir screen under the great dome of the cathedral where nave and transepts met. In that nave and in the adjoining aisles knelt or stood the rapt throng of worshipers. Forced by numbers who could not be accommodated in the cathedral and by other causes, the Young Ji international School / College
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monks, after some generations, brought their plays out into the square in front of the cathedral. That all might see them to the best advantage they were ultimately given on raised platforms. Certainly by the time these plays passed from the hands of the churchmen to the control of the trade guilds, they were on pageant cars, a construction not unlike our floats for trade processions except that they contained two stories, the lower high enough to use for a dressing room. These pageant cars the journeymen drew, between daylight and dark, from station to station across a city like York or Chester. At each station people filled the windows of the houses, the seats built up around the sides of the square, and even the roofs. The very nature of this platform stage forbade scenery, though elaborate properties seem to have been used. By contrast, on the Continent, especially in France, constructions resembling house fronts, city gates, or walls could be freely set up on the large, fixed stage for miracle plays which was built in some great square of the city. To this one place flocked all the would-be auditors. The point to remember is that down to the building of theatres the stage meant a platform, large or small, movable or stationary, in some public place. Simply treated, as was the case when it was movable, it would have a curtain at the back, shutting off a space where costumes could be changed and where the prompter could stand: scenery was out of the question. Elaborately treated, when it was stationary, constructions suggesting houses, ships, town walls, etc., might be shown at the back or side of the stage, but they seem never to have been shifted from the beginning to the end of the performance. Such houses, walls, etc., were used when needed, but when not in use were treated as non-existent. In the sixteenth century when playing passed from the hands of the guilds to groups of actors, the latter sought refuge from the noise and discomforts of the public square in the yards of inns. In those days galleries like the balconies of our theatres were on all four sides of such an inn yard, sometimes two and sometimes three. The players, erecting a rough platform opposite the entrance from the street, hung a curtain from the edge of the first gallery to their stage. In the room or rooms behind this they dressed. Thus they gained a front stage; a rear stage under the first gallery to be revealed when the curtain was drawn; an upper stage in the first balcony representing at will city walls, a balcony for Romeo and Juliet, or an upper room. High above all this one or more galleries rose which could be used for
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heavens in which gods and goddesses appeared. In the yard stood the pittites; in the side and end galleries sat the people who paid the higher prices. DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN STAGE When, in 1576, London saw its first theatre just outside Bishopsgate, it was circular, in imitation of existing bull-baiting arenas. So far as a stage projecting into the pit, the rear stage underneath the balcony, and the use of the first balcony itself were concerned, the actors merely duplicated conditions to which they had grown attached in the old inn yards. As under the older conditions, scenery was impossible except as painted cloths might be hung at the back of the balcony or under it. Hence the care of the Elizabethan dramatists to place their scene by some hint or description in the text. Moreover, a play lacking the stage settings of a century later must be given atmosphere, reality, and even charm from within. More and more, however, influenced by increasingly elaborate performances at court of the masks, the public pressed the theatre manager as far as possible to duplicate their gorgeous and illusory settings. But such settings at the court were on stages behind an arch like our modern proscenium. Consequently by 1660 the stage of 1590 to 1642 had shrunk behind a proscenium arch. Then follow two centuries of very elaborate staging by painted drops at the back, side flats set in grooves, and painted borders. It should be remembered that till the second half of the sixteenth century public performances were given by daylight, largely because of the difficulty in using flaring and unsteady links or cressets for artificial light. When evening performances became the vogue, candles gave the light till the discovery of illuminating gas made a revolution in theatrical lighting. About 1860, the so-called box set, a means of shutting in the whole stage, replaced for interiors a back drop and painted side flats. Undoubtedly, some of the splendid and imaginative settings of Macready, Charles Kean, and Sir Henry Irving, seemed the last word on the subject. Steadily, however, producer and dramatist have worked together to make the stage as illusive as possible. On the one hand, realism has strained it to the utmost; on the other, poetic and fantastic drama have forced it to visualize for us the realms of imagination. Responding to all this, modern science and invention have come to the aid of drama. Electricity has opened up ways of lighting not even yet fully explored. At present, particularly in Germany, most ingenious devices have been invented for shifting scenery as quickly as possible. There and elsewhere, especially in Russia and Young Ji international School / College
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England, skill and much artistry have been shown in quickening the imagination of the audience to the utmost by suggestion rather than by representation of minute and confusing detail. Frequently to-day the elaborate scenery of the past is improved upon by a stage hung about with curtains, with some properties here and there or a painted drop at the back to give all the suggestion needed. Alert and responsive, the stage of to-day at its best, in sharpest contrast with the bare stage of the sixteenth century, is calling on architects to make it flexible, on physicists and artists to light it elusively, on great designers to arrange its decorations. In brief, the stage throughout its history, longing always and trying always to adapt itself to the demands of the dramatist, is to-day, as never before, plastic. THE COSMOPOLITANISM OF MODERN DRAMA Nor has the drama changed merely in these respects. Once the drama was almost wholly national. Then just because a play smacked so of its soil, it could not be intelligently heard elsewhere. In the seventies, as far as the American public was concerned, this was true of the plays of Dumas fils and Augier. Now, increased travel and all the varied means of intercommunication between nations make for such swift interchange of ideas that the dramatic success of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Paris, London, or Madrid is known quickly the world over. With the drawing together of the nations more common interests have developed, so that intellectual and moral movements are not merely national but worldwide. All this makes any national treatment of a world question widely interesting: it even makes the world interested in local problems. Most marked change of all, this free intercommunication of ideas tends to make even the humor of one nation comprehensible by another. To-day, then, the drama has become cosmopolitan. Broadway sees Reinhardt‘s Berlin productions: Paris and Berlin see ―Kismet.‖ Broadway knows Gorki, Brieux, and Schnitzler; English and American plays have a hearing on the Continent. For two generations the drama has been fighting to take for its motto ―Nihil mihi alienum.‖ It has won that right. Sensitive, responsive, eagerly welcomed everywhere, the drama, holding the mirror up to nature, by laughter and by tears reveals to mankind the world of men.
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Elements of Drama Plot – the arrangement or series of events in a drama Character – classified as either the PROTAGONIST (central character) or ANTAGONIST (villain) Setting – time and place in which the action takes place Dialogue – exchange of words or lines between and among the characters in a play Theme – main idea of the literary work
Exercise 1
Make your own drama having the elements of the story.
Exercise 2 In two paragraphs – first explain what the old man Okorie meant in his words to Bassi: ―No reward or treasure is greater than a good marriage and a happy home.‖ Then, give your personal reaction to the passage. You may use expressions that show agreement or disagreement.
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LESSON 8
Forgiving One’s Enemy
Atsumori Zeami Motokiyo
Atsumori was one of several Noh dramas based on the 12th century wars between the Taira and Minamoto clans. The Taira had been attacked in their place of naval retreat at Suma Bay and Atsumori, the 17-year old nephew of their chief, had been killed by Kumagai, an old general who found a bamboo flute beside the dead body. Overcome with guilt at killing someone so young and inexperienced, Kumagai abandoned his warrior life to the priest Rensei.
PERSONS THE PRIEST RENSEI (formerly the warrior Kumagai). A YOUNG REAPER, who turns out to be the ghost of Atsumori. HIS COMPANION. CHORUS. PRIEST. Life is a lying dream, he only wakes Who casts the World aside. I am Kumagai no Naozane, a man of the country of Musashi. I have left my home and call myself the priest Rensei; this I have done because of my grief at the death of Atsumori, who fell in battle by my hand. Hence it comes that I am dressed in priestly guise. And now I am going down to Ichi-no-Tani to pray for the salvation of Atsumori's soul. (He walks slowly across the stage, singing a song descriptive of his journey.)
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I have come so fast that here I am already at Ichi-no-Tani, in the country of Tsu. Truly the past returns to my mind as though it were a thing of to-day. But listen! I hear the sound of a flute coming from a knoll of rising ground. I will wait here till the flute-player passes, and ask him to tell me the story of this place. REAPERS (together). To the music of the reaper's flute No song is sung But the sighing of wind in the fields. YOUNG REAPER. They that were reaping, Reaping on that hill,p. 37 Walk now through the fields Homeward, for it is dusk. REAPERS (together). Short is the way that leads 1 From the sea of Suma back to my home. This little journey, up to the hill And down to the shore again, and up to the hill,-This is my life, and the sum of hateful tasks. If one should ask me I too 2 would answer That on the shores of Suma I live in sadness. Yet if any guessed my name, Then might I too have friends. But now from my deep misery Even those that were dearest Are grown estranged. Here must I dwell abandoned To one thought's anguish: That I must dwell here. PRIEST. Hey, you reapers! I have a question to ask you.
YOUNG REAPER. Young Ji international School / College
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Is it to us you are speaking? What do you wish to know? PRIEST. Was it one of you who was playing on the flute just now? YOUNG REAPER. Yes, it was we who were playing. PRIEST. It was a pleasant sound and all the pleasanter because one does not look for such music from men of your condition. YOUNG REAPER. Unlocked for from men of our condition, you say! Have you not read:--"Do not envy what is above you nor despise what is below you"? Moreover the songs of woodmen and the flute-playing of herdsmen, Flute-playing even of reapers and songs of wood-fellers Through poets' verses are known to all the world. Wonder not to hear among us The sound of a bamboo-flute. PRIEST. You are right. Indeed it is as you have told me. Songs of woodmen and flute-playing of herdsmen . . . REAPER. Flute-playing of reapers . . . PRIEST. Songs of wood-fellers REAPERS. Guide us on our passage through this sad world. PRIEST. Song . . . Young Ji international School / College
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REAPER. And dance PRIEST. And the flute . . . And music of many instruments . . . REAPER. CHORUS. These are the pastimes that each chooses to his taste. Of floating bamboo-wood Many are the famous flutes that have been made; Little-Branch and Cicada-Cage, And as for the reaper's flute, Its name is Green-leaf; On the shore of Sumiyoshi The Corean flute they play.p. 39 And here on the shore of Suma On Stick of the Salt-kilns The fishers blow their tune. PRIEST. How strange it is! The other reapers have all gone home, but you alone stay loitering here. How is that? REAPER. How is it, you ask? I am seeking for a prayer in the voice of the evening waves. Perhaps you will pray the Ten Prayers for me? PRIEST. I can easily pray the Ten Prayers for you, if you will tell me who you are. REAPER. To tell you the truth--I am one of the family of Lord Atsumori.
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PRIEST. One of Atsumori's family? How glad I am! Then the priest joined his hands (he kneels down) and prayed:-NAMU AMIDABU. Praise to Amida Buddha! "If I attain to Buddhahood, In the whole world and its ten spheres Of all that dwell here none shall call on my name And be rejected or cast aside." CHORUS. "Oh, reject me not! One cry suffices for salvation, Yet day and night Your prayers will rise for me. Happy am I, for though you know not my name, Yet for my soul's deliverance At dawn and dusk henceforward I know that you will pray."
So he spoke. Then vanished and was seen no more. (Here follows the Interlude between the two Acts, in which a recitation concerning Atsumori's death takes place. These p. 40 interludes are subject to variation and are not considered part of the literary text of the play.) PRIEST. Since this is so, I will perform all night the rites of prayer for the dead, and calling upon Amida's name will pray again for the salvation of Atsumori. (The ghost of ATSUMORI appears, dressed as a young warrior.) ATSUMORI. Would you know who I am That like the watchmen at Suma Pass Young Ji international School / College
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Have wakened at the cry of sea-birds roaming Upon Awaji shore? Listen, Rensei. I am Atsumori. PRIEST. How strange! All this while I have never stopped beating my gong and performing the rites of the Law. I cannot for a moment have dozed, yet I thought that Atsumori was standing before me. Surely it was a dream. ATSUMORI. Why need it be a dream? It is to clear the karma of my waking life that I am come here in visible form before you. PRIEST. Is it not written that one prayer will wipe away ten thousand sins? Ceaselessly I have performed the ritual of the Holy Name that clears all sin away. After such prayers, what evil can be left? Though you should be sunk in sin as deep . . . ATSUMORI. As the sea by a rocky shore, Yet should I be salved by prayer. PRIEST. And that my prayers should save you . . . ATSUMORI. This too must spring p. 41 From kindness of a former life. 1 PRIEST. Once enemies . . . ATSUMORI. But now . . .
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PRIEST. In truth may we be named . . . ATSUMORI. Friends in Buddha's Law. CHORUS. There is a saying, "Put away from you a wicked friend; summon to your side a virtuous enemy." For you it was said, and you have proven it true. And now come tell with us the tale of your confession, while the night is still dark. CHORUS. He 2 bids the flowers of Spring Mount the tree-top that men may raise their eyes And walk on upward paths; He bids the moon in autumn waves be drowned In token that he visits laggard men And leads them out from valleys of despair. ATSUMORI. Now the clan of Taira, building wall to wall, Spread over the earth like the leafy branches of a great tree: CHORUS. Yet their prosperity lasted but for a day; It was like the flower of the convolvulus. There was none to tell them 3 p. 42 That glory flashes like sparks from flint-stone, And after,--darkness. Oh wretched, the life of men! ATSUMORI. When they were on high they afflicted the humble; When they were rich they were reckless in pride. And so for twenty years and more Young Ji international School / College
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They ruled this land. But truly a generation passes like the space of a dream. The leaves of the autumn of Juyei 1 Were tossed by the four winds; Scattered, scattered (like leaves too) floated their ships. And they, asleep on the heaving sea, not even in dream Went back to home. Caged birds longing for the clouds,-Wild geese were they rather, whose ranks are broken As they fly to southward on their doubtful journey. So days and months went by; Spring came again And for a little while Here dwelt they on the shore of Suma At the first valley. 2 From the mountain behind us the winds blew down Till the fields grew wintry again. Our ships lay by the shore, where night and day The sea-gulls cried and salt waves washed on our sleeves. We slept with fishers in their buts On pillows of sand. We knew none but the people of Suma. And when among the pine-trees The evening smoke was rising, Brushwood, as they call it, 3 Brushwood we gathered And spread for carpet. Sorrowful we lived On the wild shore of Suma, Till the clan Taira and all its princes Were but villagers of Suma. ATSUMORI. But on the night of the sixth day of the second month My father Tsunemori gathered us together. "To-morrow," he said, "we shall fight our last fight. To-night is all that is left us." We sang songs together, and danced. PRIEST. Yes, I remember; we in our siege-camp Heard the sound of music Echoing from your tents that night,; There was the music of a flute . . . Young Ji international School / College
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ATSUMORI. The bamboo-flute! I wore it when I died. PRIEST. We heard the singing . . . ATSUMORI. Songs and ballads . . . PRIEST. Many voices ATSUMORI. Singing to one measure. (ATSUMORI dances.) First comes the Royal Boat. CHORUS. The whole clan has put its boats to sea. He 1 will not be left behind; He runs to the shore. But the Royal Boat and the soldiers' boats Have sailed far away. ATSUMORI. What can he do? p. 44 He spurs his horse into the waves. He is full of perplexity. And then CHORUS. He looks behind him and sees That Kumagai pursues him; He cannot escape. Then Atsumori turns his horse Knee-deep in the lashing waves, And draws his sword. Young Ji international School / College
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Twice, three times he strikes; then, still saddled, In close fight they twine; roll headlong together Among the surf of the shore. So Atsumori fell and was slain, but now the Wheel of Fate Has turned and brought him back. (ATSUMORI rises from the ground and advances toward the PRIEST with uplifted sword.) "There is my enemy," he cries, and would strike, But the other is grown gentle And calling on Buddha's name Has obtained salvation for his foe; So that they shall be re-born together On one lotus-seat. "No, Rensei is not my enemy. Pray for me again, oh pray for me again."
Exercise 1 Unlock the meaning of the following italicized words through context clues. Encircle the letter of the correct answer. 1.
My folks work as reapers at Hacienda Arabella. a. b.
2.
miners tillers
fleshy sweet-smelling
c. d.
tubular twining
Manuel and Cita have been estranged for a year now. a. b.
4.
c. d.
Morning glory is a kind of a convolvulus plant. a. b.
3.
farmers harvesters
acting like strangers living apart from each other
c. d.
living in settling their marital problems
The interlude in the play pccurs between the two acts in the form of a prayer. a. b.
death scene intervening episode
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c. d.
intermission number invocation Page 88
5.
People in distress always pray for deliverance a. b.
forgiveness from sins rescue from bondage and danger
c. d.
strength of character twist of fate
GRAMMAR NOTES COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS A connector or conjunction is a word used to join words or groups of words. One main group of conjunctions is the coordinating conjunctions that join words, phrases, or clauses of equal rank, that is, elements not dependent in any way upon one another. To identify coordinating conjunctions easily, use the acronym FANBOYS as guide.
For
And
Nor
But
Or
Yet
So
Correlatives are conjunctions that come in pairs. They are the following: both…..and
neither…..nor
either…..or
whether…..or
not only…..but also
Exercises 2 Complete each sentence with the appropriate coordinating or correlative conjunction. 1. use
Do you use e-mail in communicating to your friends ________ do you only your mobile phone?
2.
_______ you send a soft copy _________ deliver the flash drive personally does not matter as long as the data is here before the office closes.
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3.
_________ Lucy ________ Jen are computer savvy.
4.
Young _______ old alike use such minimalist form of communication in this time and age.
5.
Father ___________ sends me text messages ___________ uses e-mail to communicate with me.
Exercises 2 1. Jaewon was cold,
he put on a coat.
2. Maria tried to read a novel in French,
it was too difficult.
3. To get from Vancouver to Victoria, you can fly, 4. I bought a bottle of wine,
you can ride the ferry.
we drank it together.
5. The waiter was not very nice, 6. I went to buy a Rolling Stones CD, 7. Anna needed some money,
the food was delicious. the shop didn't have it. she took a part-time job.
8. There's so much rain lately! Maybe it's because of El Nino, just
maybe it's
coincidence.
9. Julie has a guitar,
she plays it really well.
10. The concert was cancelled,
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we went to a nightclub instead.
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LESSON 9
Accepting One’s Limitations
Just Call Me Flory Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero ―Just Call Me Flory‖ is a satire that presents to us the weaknesses of the Filipinos after World War II. The author used humor and absurd situations to criticize or comment on certain personal behavior. By exposing social evils and foolishness, he intended to reform, to instruct, or entertain. In the play, he developed the character, Flory, as a foil who contrasts sharply with another character in the story. The contrast allows the audience to see clearly the personality traits of the main character.
Exercise 1 Choose from the Word Box below the word that means the same thing as the italicized word/s in each sentence. Write your answer on the blank.
WORD BOX aloof
collaborate
plebeian
_________________ 1.
evict
resent
sneaky
furious stale
haughtily suffocating
The landlady wanted to remove the boarders on her dormitory.
_________________ 2. the _________________ 3.
Some people feel cold and indifferent when they are in company of strangers. She peered over her thick glasses and scrutinized her visitors with arrogance.
_________________ 4.
Tom always plays tricks on people. He is so dishonest.
_________________ 5.
Father felt extremely angry after learning about the
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_________________ 6.
We almost got sick after we were served dry and
hardened
bread for breakfast.
_________________ 7. teachers
The boys should not feel or show displeasure when ask them to go haircut.
_________________ 8.
Some Filipinos volunteered to cooperate with the
Japanese
army during World War II.
_________________ 9.
The smell of burning tires caused difficulty in our
breathing. _________________ 10. During the Industrial Revolution the common people were treated unjustly.
GRAMMAR NOTES PARTICIPLES These are the verb forms that function as modifiers of nouns or pronouns. There are two forms of participles: the present participle which ends in –ing and the past participle which ends in –d, -ed, or –t if the verb is regular or by some other way if the verb is irregular. When a participle is written together with other modifiers to give more specific information in the sentence, a participial phrase is formed.
Examples:
We have to be careful with our spoken
words.
Pleased with the children’s good manners,
I
gave them a warm hug.
Here are some participles being used as adjectives:
The Verb
The Past Participle
To rise
the risen sun the rising sun
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The Present Participle
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To boil
the boiled water
the boiling water
To break
the broken news
the breaking news
To cook
the cooked ham
the cooking ham
Participle Phrases It is really common to see participles in participle phrases. A participle phrase also acts like an adjective. In the examples below, the participle phrases are shaded and the participles are in bold:
The man carrying the bricks is my father. (The participle phrase carrying the bricks describes the the man.)
She showed us a plate of scones crammed with cream. (The participle phrase crammed with cream describes the scones.)
Whistling the same tune as always, Ted touched the front of his cap with his forefinger as she dismounted. (The participle phrase Whistling the same tune as always describes Ted.)
Stunned by the blow, Mike quickly gathered his senses and searched frantically for the pepper spray. (The participle phrase Stunned by the blow describes Mike.)
Present Participles Present participles end in -ing.
Examples: boiling water
caring nature
deserving recipient
Exercise 1 In each sentence below, underline the participle/participial phrase and encircle the noun or pronoun it modifies. 1.
Looking around, I saw who was calling me.
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2.
The hand extended to me revealed her friendliness.
3.
The girl held out my lace hanky recovered from the dusty floor.
4.
Her smiling eyes, hidden partly by thick eyeglasses conveyed congeniality.
5.
I realized the start of a new friendship bounded by mutual love and respect.
Exercise 2 Type in the present participle. 1. (search)
for her gloves, she dug through the entire wardrobe.
2. (whistle)
a song, she danced through the house with the mop.
3. (sit)
in the shade, we ate cake and drank coffee.
4. The child sat at the desk (paint) 5. (run)
a picture.
to the bus stop, she lost her shoe.
Type in the past participle. 1. (blind) 2. (prepare) 3. (sing) 4. (misuse) 5. Though (bear)
by the sun, the driver didn‘t see the stop sign. by the chef himself, the dinner will be a real treat. by him, every song sounds just wonderful. as a refuse dump, the place became more and more shabby. in England, she spent most of her childhood in the United
States. Type in the present perfect participle. 1. (park)
the car, we searched for the ticket machine.
2. (drink)
one litre of water, she really needed to go to the toilet.
3. (leave)
the party too early, we couldn‘t see the fireworks anymore.
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4. (finish) 5. (lose)
her phone call, she went back to work. ten kilogrammes, Anne finally fit into her favourite dress again.
Turn the underlined part of the sentence into a participle clause. 1. We are lying in the sun and we are enjoying life. →
, we are enjoying life.
2. The boy had brushed his teeth. He was allowed to watch a few more minutes of television. →
, the boy was allowed to watch a few more minutes of television.
3. The children were sitting on their beds and watched the thunderstorm. → The children were sitting on their beds
.
4. They were surprised by a sudden storm and had to seek shelter under a tree. →
, they had to seek shelter under a tree.
5. When they had found the secret island, they started searching for the treasure. →
, they started searching for the treasure.
LESSON 10
Keeping One’s Vow
Shakuntala Kalidasa
Shakuntala is a story of a simple young woman who lives a secluded yet happy life away from the ―material world‖. But fate has it that she meets a man whose love she accepts and whom she vows to love forever. The drama depicts Shakuntala‘s happy love, her joys and pains as a mother, and her most cruel humiliation brought forth by a curse. Abhijñanashakuntala, or Shakuntala, is Kalidasa‘s best-known play, and, perhaps the best known play of the classical Sanskrit repertoire. The play takes its title from one of its central characters, a young woman raised in a forest hermitage. Young Ji international School / College
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Like others of Kalidasa‘s heroines, however, the young woman is not merely a hermit. Her forest life is temporary, and she comes into her real identity—an identity of which she is mostly unaware when the play begins—through her interaction with a king during the course of the play. Shakuntala reiterates other themes that are common to Kalidasa‘s other plays. Like Pururavas in Vikramorvashiya, Duhshanta spends a chunk of the play— most of Act Six—lamenting Shakuntala‘s absence and his part in it. In the end, the play demonstrates a consistent principle of Sanskrit drama. As opposed to the Aristotelian vision of dramatic characters to begin in a particular condition at a specific plot point and develop over the course of succeeding plot points so as to be different following the climactic culmination of plot points, the characters of Shakuntala have changed little in the end. The play does have a plot, and the events affect the characters greatly. But the conclusion of the play finds Duhshanta and Shakuntala and their son going to the palace to live with each other happily ever after, just as the ascetic in the hermitage promises in the first act. In Kalidasa‘s play, circumstances of plot may divert the characters from what they are as the play begins. But the characters are ultimately fixed entities who do not ―learn‖ through the play so as to become something else. Instead, characters must return to what they are.
CHARACTERS
Director: the director of the play, who appears in the prologue with the actress Actress: an actress in the troupe that performs the play, who appears in the prologue with the director
King Duhshanta: king of Hastinapura Shakuntala: a young hermit of divine parentage Madhavya: the play‘s obligatory vidushaka, or clown. King Duhshanta erstwhile companion Anasuya: a young woman who is Shakuntala‘s hermitage friend Priyamvada: a young woman who is Shakuntala‘s hermitage friend Kanva: Shakuntala‘s adoptive father in the forest hermitage Young Ji international School / College
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Gautami: presiding female hermit in the hermitage Sharngarava: a male hermit Sharadvata: a male hermit Durvasas: a traveling sage with a bad temper Vatayana: the king‘s chamberlain Somarata: chief priest of the palace Karabhaka: a royal messenger Vetravati: the principal female steward of the king‘s court Madhukarika: a maid Parabhrtika: a maid Chaturika: a servant Raivataka: steward of the king‘s chamber Hamsapadika: one of Duhshanta‘s wives (only her voice is heard) Charioteer General Two Bards Police Chief Suchaka: a policeman Januka: a policeman Fisherman
Maricha: keeper of the celestial hermitage Aditi: Maricha‘s wife Matali: Indra‘s charioteer Sanumati: a celestial nymph Boy: Duhshanta‘s and Shakuntala‘s son
SUMMARY OF THE PLAY
Act One: Following the nandi-prayer, the director and an actress appear in a prologue. The director and the actress discuss the audience and the appropriate play to perform for them. They decide upon Kalidasa‘s play Shakuntala, but the
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director is so caught away by a song that the actress sings that he forgets which play they‘ve decided on. The actress reminds him.
Duhshanta enters on a chariot, chasing a deer. A hermit stops him, pointing out that he has entered a hermitage in which the animal is protected. The king relents. The hermit blesses the king with the promise of a son.
Passing further into the
hermitage, King Duhshanta surreptitiously watches Shakuntala, Anusuya, and Priyamvada. When a bee troubles Shakuntala, Duhshanta leaves his hiding place, but does not reveal that he is the king, though he gives to Shakuntala a ring that suggests his identity. The king‘s soldiers disturb the hermitage and he leaves to draw them away.
Act Two: The clown Madhavya enters, complaining.
Madhavya and the king
conspire to get close to Shakuntala. Duhshanta sends Madhavya back to the palace to participate in his place at the ceremonies marking the end of the king‘s mother‘s fast.
Act Three: Having revealed his identity, King Duhshanta rests in the hermitage. The king spies on Anusuya, Priyamvada, and Shakuntala, talking obliquely of romance. He discerns that Shakuntala is smitten with him. When Shakuntala sings a love poem, the king steps out of hiding. They all speak obliquely of romance. Anusuya and Priyamvada slip away. Duhshanta and Shakuntala get close, but the king hides when Gautami appears. The king puzzles over his failure to take advantage of the moment, then leaves to protect the evening rites. Act Four: Anusuya and Priyamvada discuss Shakuntala‘s marriage to Duhshanta, which has been accomplished simply by the two lovers‘ common consent. They hear Durvasas‘s angry voice, chastising Shakuntala for not attending to him properly upon his arrival at the hermitage. Because she is distracted by thoughts of her lover, the sage imposes a curse that her lover will completely forget her. Priyamvada dashes offstage and returns to report that because she implored the sage to reconsider, Durvasas has allowed that although the king will forget Shakuntala, the glimpse of the ring the king gave to her will restore his memory.
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prepares to leave for the king‘s palace, escorted by Gautami, Sharngarava, and Saradvata. Shakuntala‘s departure from the hermitage is charged with emotion. Act Five: King Duhshanta sends Madhavya into the king‘s chambers to try to mollify Queen Hamsapadika, who is upset over the king‘s feelings for his other wives. The embassy from Kanva‘s hermitage is announced in the court. Shakuntala, Gautami, Sharngarava, and Saradvata enter. They all feel misgivings. Sharngarava informs the king that Shakuntala is pregnant, and requests that the king receive her as his wife. The king has forgotten Shakuntala entirely, and treats the request as a scam. Shakuntala discovers that Duhshanta‘s ring has disappeared from her finger. Gautami specualtes that Shakuntala lost it while bathing. Shakuntala accuses the king of exploiting her. The king responds with accusations of his own. Sharngarava repudiates Shakuntala and refuses to return her to the hermitage, though Gautami pleads otherwise. A court priest convinces the king to allow Shakuntala to stay in the palace until she gives birth so that her son can be examined for marks of royalty. The priest proposes to send her back to the hermitage if the child proves to have no such signs. The king consents to the priest‘s plan, but before it can be implemented, Shakuntala storms out, calling the earth to receive her. The report returns from offstage that a ray of light seized Shakuntala and carried her off. King Duhshanta is bewildered.
Act Six: Two policemen bring a fisherman to the chief of police with the accusation that the fisherman has stolen a royal signet ring the officers have found in his possession. The fisherman claims to have found it in the belly of a fish. The police chief goes to the palace and returns with the order to release the fisherman and with compensatory payment for the ring. The police chief reports that the sight of the ring disturbed the king.
Sanumati comes invisibly to check up on Duhshanta and
overhears two maids discussing the king‘s miserable condition with the royal chamberlain. Duhshanta has cancelled all celebrations. Sanumati comments to herself that Shakuntala is similarly miserable. Duhshanta and Madhavya talk of what has happened while Sanumati listens. Chaturika brings in the king‘s painting of Shakuntala.
The king loses himself in the painting.
Vasumati is on her way. shipwreck arrives.
Word comes that Queen
Madhavya takes the painting and flees.
A wealthy merchant is dead.
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merchant‘s wealth go to one of his surviving wives who is pregnant. Duhshanta hears a cry of distress. Matali appears and takes Duhshanta to fight off demons threatening Indra.
Act Seven: Having vanquished the demons, Matali and Duhshanta pass through heaven.
Duhshanta asks to visit Maricha‘s celestial hermitage.
Matali leaves
Duhshanta beneath a hermitage tree. The king hears a disturbance and finds a young boy wrestling with a lion cub. Duhshanta sees the marks of royalty on the boy.
The boy‘s armlet falls off and Duhshanta picks it up.
Two ascetics tell
Duhshanta that if anyone but the boy‘s parents pick up the armlet, it turns to a snake and strikes the perpetrator. Shakuntala arrives. She does not, at first, recognize Duhshanta, who recounts the manner in which the ring restored his memory. Matali, Maricha, and Aditi arrive. They explain Durvasas‘s curse. The family is reunited and returns to Duhshanta‘s palace.
Exercises 1 Complete the synonyms of the given words by supplying the missing letters. 1.
torment -
t __ __ t __ r __
2.
imperial -
__ a __ __ s __ i __
3.
perverse -
__ i __ o __ ed __ e __ t __
4.
mirage -
d __ __ u __ i __ n
5.
potent -
__ o __ e __ __ ul
GRAMMAR NOTES GERUNDS are –ing verb forms that function as nouns. Examples: Spending
walking
writing
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Gerund phrase is introduced by the gerund followed by its objects and all its modifiers. Example: Spending quality of time together is a means to build relationships with our loved ones.
Exercises 2 a
Tell whether the italicized –ing verb form in each sentence is used as a gerund or as verb.
1.
We were driving to Vigan when we discovered we were lost.
2.
One of our plans was taking a good night rest in Grandfather‘s Inn.
3.
Nilo, my brother, was shivering in the cold.
4.
Before we knew it, we were knocking at the door of the house.
5.
Someone was coming.
6.
Our hearts were pounding hard and fast.
7.
Our last recourse was stopping at an old house.
8. not.
Our problem was finding out if we could be accommodated in the house or
9.
The big front door was squeaking as it opened.
10. also
Lo and behold, our school rector was standing before us, for he, like us, was lost.
Exercise 3 Use gerunds in the following sentences: 1. Always check the oil, before you start the car 2. To praise all alike is to praise none 3. I cannot go on to do nothing 4. To amass wealth ruins health Young Ji international School / College
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5. To see is to believe 6. To give is better than to receive 7. To talk like this is foolish 8. She loves to sing songs 9. The miser hated to spend money 10. I am tired to wait 11. I like to read poetry 12. To walk is a good exercise 13. To teach grammar is very interesting 14. To talk loudly is bad maimers 15. He is glad to meet you 16. To read in poor light will affect the eyes 17. Rosy did not like to stay indoors during holidays 18. To say hundred words where none is called for is the mark of a successful politician 19. He is afraid to hurt your feelings 20. Nobody really loves to work
LESSON 11
Embracing Differences
The Madman on the Roof Kikuchi San Kikuchi San is actually the pen name of HIROSHI KIKUCHI, a known playwright, novelist, and journalist. He was a student of Mori Ogai, together with other writers, pioneered the literary magazine, Bungei Shunju in 1923. He received two prestigious awards: Akutagawa Ryunosuke Prize and the Naoki Sanjugo Prize.
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Exercise 1 Write TRUE if the statement is true; otherwise write FALSE. Refer to the italicized word as basis of your answer. ___________ 1.
People who are submissive feel bossy and dominant.
___________ 2.
A savage is cruel and pitiless.
___________ 3.
A beckoning signal intends to send someone away.
___________ 4.
A rift in the clouds indicated the parting of day and night.
___________ 5.
Crafty men have the tendency to fool or deceive people.
GRAMMAR NOTES INFINITIVE is another verbal structure that is used as a noun although it can be functioned as an adjective or an adverb. Like the gerund, it also takes the form of the verb: to + v (simple form). Be careful not to mistake the infinitive for the prepositional phrase (to + noun/pronoun).
Examples: To fly an airplane is my cousin‘s dream. (infinitive phrase)
He will offer his first flight to his parents. (prepositional phrase)
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Exercise 2 or
Complete each of the following sentences by adding the appropriate gerund infinitive phrase.
1.
In our family, we enjoy ___________________________________________.
2. Father and Mother hope __________________________________________. 3. Everyone of us prefers ____________________________________________. 4. Next week, we shall plan __________________________________________. 5. Would you like __________________________________________________?
Exercise 3 Underline the infinitive phrase in each sentence. Then indicate on the line before the sentence if the infinitive phrase is used as a noun (N), adjective (ADJ), or adverb (ADVB). 1. ____ Claudio left early to meet his brother. 2. ____ Haley's dream is to revisit Europe. 3. ____ To collect the entire series of presidential cards is my goal. 4. ____ All the students were excited to display their artwork. 5. ____ Kate's determination to teach well is quite obvious. 6. ____ Patsy likes to listen to Broadway tunes. 7. ____ We walked to the pizza parlor to buy some Italian hero sandwiches. 8. ____ My relatives were the most important people to invite to the ceremony. Young Ji international School / College
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9. ____ Eloise did try to call you last night. 10. ____ Sheilah was very excited to participate in the contest. 11. ____ The best way to improve your performance is no secret. 12. ____ Is this the proper way to hold the musical instrument? 13. ____ The finest way to memorize the poem is through practice. 14. ____ Lenka opened the book to find the correct answer. 15. ____ To do all of her illustrations well was Maureen's goal.
LESSON 11
Making Informed Choices
The Captive Word Elsa M. Coscolluela
We almost always have choices. Sometimes our peers or people around us try to pressure us to do something we know is wrong. In some situations we can choose to listen to our conscience or not. In the story, a group of young people try their very best to give the public information it deserves to know. Elsa Martinez De Coscolluela is an award-winning Filipina poet, short-story writer, and playwright from Bacolod City. She is married to Jose Orlando H. Coscolluela and has three sons, Jose Orlando Jr, John Paul Rupert, and Jacques Oscar Celerino. She finished her AB and MA for Creative Writing at the Silliman University,[1] a school noted for training writers in the Philippines, and also a doctorate in Language and Literature from the De La Salle University. Her career as a poet lasted between 1965 and 1973 and these poems are published in a book entitled "Katipunera and Other Poems" published in 1998. In 1973 she focused her writing efforts to writing plays and also to pursue an academic career. Her best known play that earned her great acclaim as a playwright is "In My Father's House" which staged production both in the University of the Philippines
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and the Cultural Center of the Philippines in the year 1988. This play was also the official Philippine entry to the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Drama Festival held in Singapore in 1989. In My Father's House was also staged in New York, San Francisco, Kyoto, and the Philippines. As an academician she held the position of Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod City and also manages annual Negros Summer Workshops for artists and writers with Peque Gallaga since 1991. She is also a multi-awarded writer. Her achievements include winning the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for more than twenty times, the prestigious Cultural Center Award in playwrighting, as well as the Philippine Free Press Award. In 1996 she was named National Fellow for Drama by the University of the Philippines Creative Writing Center. In 1999 she was instilled as a Hall of Famer in the Palanca Awards. Elsa Coscolluela is the only Filipina dramatist in Palanca's Hall of Fame. She has started as a poet, she wrote under Edith Tiempo and David Quemada. These poems are printed by her brother in two volumes, "Brown Glass" (1969), and "Becoming and other" (1970). She says that she's grateful for the training and exposure in poetry which has given her "depth and texture" to the way she writes plays. She considers poems as a preparation for plays, because it is pure and concise. She believes that poetry is strict in a way because it puts great ideas to tiny verses. At first she thought her poems to be seriously flawed and heavy-handed but soon discovered that poems worked out for themselves out in her mind and then become something else, something that is new again. That is why she submitted her collection to the Palanca Literary Contests, her collection "In Time Being and Other Poems" won second prize in 1993, and "Katipunera" won first prize in 1995. "Katipunera" also won in the Free Press Poetry Contest in 1996. However, Coscolluela is best known in the field of drama having won sixteen Palancas in that genre. Her best known play "In My Father's House" was first produced onstage in 1988, and submitted as an entry in the ASEAN Drama Festival in Singapore, 1989. The play popularity is not only in the Philippines, it has been restaged in San Francisco, New York, and Kyoto.
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Exercise 1 Research on the meaning of the following words/expressions, then use them in
sentences. Write your answers on the spaces provided.
1.
ad nauseam
___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________
2.
onion skin
___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________
3.
whitewash
___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________
4.
fink
___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________
GRAMMAR NOTES ADVERB is a word used to modify or qualify a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Although many adverbs end in ly, do not make the mistake of calling the –ly words adverbs. Curly, lonely, silly, lovely, lowly and kindly are adjectives. There are also many adverbs that do not end in –ly like now, well, rather, too, yesterday, etc. Young Ji international School / College
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Exercise 2 Fill in the blank with the appropriate adverb to complete each sentence. No two sentences should have the same answer.
1.
The speaker talks too ________________________.
2.
Sarah dresses __________________.
3.
Allan is a/an ____________________ good basketball player.
4.
That is a/an _________________ made box.
5.
The teacher looked at him ______________________.
6.
The contestant knew ______________________ that she was cheated.
7.
He does his work very ___________________.
8.
The participants are ______________________.
9.
He did his work ______________ fast.
10.
This roast chicken smells ______________________ delightful.
Exercises 3
Identify the adverbs in each sentence as well as the words they modify. 1.
Marcella, deposit the money safely in the most powerful vault.
2.
The recently found journal said Wallace was so lost that he just wandered aimlessly in circles.
3.
Running quickly for the endzone, the widely recruited fullback tripped.
4.
Lynne pushed the most talented students so they would finish the assignment quickly.
5.
The author was quite annoyed when she determined that the publisher was
very
dishonest.
6.
Wendy threw the garbage out, but the flies would not leave.
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7.
After she looked carefully in both directions, Amitabha sprinted across.
8.
Now that Royce has arrived safely, the group can settle down.
9.
Their most talented competitor still will not defeat our top contender.
10.
Always think positively when you are presented an opportunity to succeed.
11.
The CEO feels unusually tense today.
12.
Ginger spoke glowingly of Kyoko‘s extraordinary acting skills.
13.
The children‘s teacher announced that their class was the most highly rated in the district.
14.
Greg‘s mule accepted every task willingly.
15.
You should put that hibiscus inside.
16.
In the winter, New York is much colder than Florida.
17.
Hank waved enthusiastically at Steve.
18.
Speak softly into the microphone or we will suffer greatly.
19.
When Thomas pounded firmly on the door, he woke the sleeping baby.
20.
―Grammar is so difficult and quite boring,‖ the overworked student complained bitterly.
Exercises 4 Fill the gap with the adverb. 1. Joanne is happy. She smiles 2. The boy is loud. He shouts
. .
3. Her English is fluent. She speaks English 4. Our mum was angry. She spoke to us
. .
5. My neighbour is a careless driver. He drives 6. The painter is awful. He paints
.
.
7. Jim is a wonderful piano player. He plays the piano
.
8. This girl is very quiet. She often sneaks out of the house 9. She is a good dancer. She dances really Young Ji international School / College
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10. This exercise is simple. You
LESSON 10
have to put one word in each space.
Finding Hope
This is Everything Too Shu Ting
Not all giant trees Are broken by the storm; Not all seeds Find no soil to strike roots; Not all true feelings Vanish in the desert of man‘s heart; Not all dreams Allow their wings to be clipped. No, not everything Ends as you foretold! Not all flames Burn themselves out Without sparking off others; Not all stars Indicate the night Without predicting the dawn; Not all songs Brush past the ears Without remaining in the heart. No, not everything Ends as you foretold! Not all appeals Receive no response; Not all losses Are beyond retrieval; Not all abysses Mean destruction; Not all destruction Falls on the weak; Young Ji international School / College
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Not all souls Can be ground underfoot Ad turned into putrid mud; Not all consequences Are streaked with tears and blood And do not show a smiling face. Everything present is pregnant with the future, Everything future comes from the past. Have hope, struggle for it, Bear these on your shoulders. http://www.43things.com/entries/view/1717954
Exercises 1 REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION 1. What does the title of the poem imply? What does the author mean by the term everything? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 2. What comments does the friend of the author have about everything? Do they share the same feelings or sentiments about everything? Support your answer. ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
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3. ―No, not everything / Ends as you foretold.‖ reveals the poet‘s insight. How does Shu Ting regard the world? How does that contrast with what others have told her? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 4. Note the repetition in each stanza. What effect do the words ―not‖ and ―no‖ have in each line? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 5. How does the poem demonstrate or show a kind of bias? Whose bias? Why? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 6. Explain the last four lines of the poem. Cite real-life situations to prove your point. ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
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Exercise 2 Complete the sample matrix by giving the denotation and connotation of each word.
WORD DENOTATION
CONNOTATION
(meaning taken from
(loaded words or
dictionary)
suggested meanings)
WINGS
HEART ROOTS
FLAMES
TREES
SEEDS
DESERT
NIGHT
TEARS
FUTURE
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GRAMMAR NOTES
SUBJECT-INTRANSITIVE VERB (S-IV) PATTERN
Intransitive verbs are complete in themselves. They do not require an object to receive their actions. They do not direct the action toward anyone or anything named in the sentence. You have noticed that in this pattern, the intransitive verb is usually followed by adverbs as modifiers of the verb.
Example:
S
IV
The students spoke slowly.
(The subject is student and the verb is
spoke followed by
the adverb slowly.)
SUBJECT-TRANSITIVE VERB-DIRECT OBJECT (S-TV-DO) PATTERN Transitive verb needs a receiver of the action. It directs action toward someone or something named in the same sentence. This receiver of the action is called the direct object or object of the verb. You can determine whether a verb has an object by asking whom or what after the verb. Example: S
TV
DO
The school offers various opportunities to all students. (Offer what? Answer: Opportunities)
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Exercises 1 Complete the grid by supplying the elements from the sentences below.
SUBJECT
TRANSITIVE
INDIRECT
VERB
OBJECT
DIRECT OBJECT
1.
Ms. Fernandez promised the students free lunch.
2.
A parent volunteer will bring us snacks too.
3.
The trip gave everybody a wonderful experience.
4.
Lennie brought her mother a souvenir from the trip.
5.
Along the way, the students told each other interesting stories.
Exercises 2 Encircle the subject and underline the transitive verb in each sentence. 1.
The Student Council works for student welfare.
2.
We continuously assist in providing quality school activities.
3.
This fact remains despite your explanations.
4.
Our quest for progress begins now.
5.
We listen attentively to school announcements.
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LESSON 14
Acknowledging God’s Infinite Wonders
Gitanjali Rabindranath Tagore
The Gitanjali or Song Offering is a collection of 103 poems by Rabindranath Tagore, one of the greatest spiritual poets during the last century in India. Labeled as ―religious‖ poetry by critics, this poem became very famous in the West and was widely translated into other languages.
Purity Life of my life, I shall ever try to keep my body pure, knowing that thy living touch is upon all my limbs. I shall ever try to keep all untruths out from my thoughts, knowing that thou art that truth which has kindled the light of reason in my mind. I shall ever try to drive all evils away from my heart and keep my love in flower, knowing that thou hast thy seat in the inmost shrine of my heart. And it shall be my endeavor to reveal thee in my actions, knowing it is thy power gives me strength to act.
Strong Mercy My desires are many and my cry is pitiful, but ever didst thou save me by hard refusals; and this strong mercy has been wrought into my life through and through. Day by day thou art making me worthy of the simple, great gifts that thou gavest to me unasked---this sky and the light, this body and the life and the mind---saving me from perils of overmuch desire.
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There are times when I languidly linger and times when I awaken and hurry in search of my goal; but cruelly thou hidest thyself from before me. Day by day thou art making me worthy of thy full acceptance by refusing me ever and anon, saving me from perils of weak, uncertain desire.
When Day Is Done If the day is done, if birds sing no more, if the wind has flagged tired, then draw the veil of darkness thick upon me, even as thou hast wrapt the earth with the coverlet of sleep and tenderly closed the petals of the drooping lotus at dusk. From the traveler, whose sack of provisions is empty before the voyage is ended, whose garment is torn and dust-laden, whose strength is exhausted, remove shame and poverty, and renew his life like a flower under the cover of thy kindly night.
Give Me Strength This is my prayer to thee, my lord---strike, strike at the root of penury in my heart. Give me the strength lightly to bear my joys and sorrows. Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service. Give me the strength never to disown the poor or bend my knees before insolent might. Young Ji international School / College
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Give me the strength to raise my mind high above daily trifles. And give me the strength to surrender my strength to thy will with love.
Seashore On the seashore of endless worlds children meet. The infinite sky is motionless overhead and the restless water is boisterous. On the seashore of endless worlds the children meet with shouts and dances. They build their houses with sand and they play with empty shells. With withered leaves they weave their boats and smilingly float them on the vast deep. Children have their play on the seashore of worlds. They know not how to swim, they know not how to cast nets. Pearl fishers dive for pearls, merchants sail in their ships, while children gather pebbles and scatter them again. They seek not for hidden treasures, they know not how to cast nets. The sea surges up with laughter and pale gleams the smile of the sea beach. Death-dealing waves sing meaningless ballads to the children, even like a mother while rocking her baby's cradle. The sea plays with children, and pale gleams the smile of the sea beach. On the seashore of endless worlds children meet. Tempest roams in the pathless sky, ships get wrecked in the trackless water, Young Ji international School / College
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death is abroad and children play. On the seashore of endless worlds is the great meeting of children.
Lost Time On many an idle day have I grieved over lost time. But it is never lost, my lord. Thou hast taken every moment of my life in thine own hands. Hidden in the heart of things thou art nourishing seeds into sprouts, buds into blossoms, and ripening flowers into fruitfulness. I was tired and sleeping on my idle bed and imagined all work had ceased. In the morning I woke up and found my garden full with wonders of flowers.
Endless Time Time is endless in thy hands, my lord. There is none to count thy minutes. Days and nights pass and ages bloom and fade like flowers. Thou knowest how to wait. Thy centuries follow each other perfecting a small wild flower. We have no time to lose, and having no time we must scramble for a chance. We are too poor to be late. And thus it is that time goes by while I give it to every querulous man who claims it, and thine altar is empty of all offerings to the last. Young Ji international School / College
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At the end of the day I hasten in fear lest thy gate be shut; but I find that yet there is time.
Death O thou the last fulfillment of life, Death, my death, come and whisper to me! Day after day I have kept watch for thee; for thee have I borne the joys and pangs of life. All that I am, that I have, that I hope and all my love have ever flowed towards thee in depth of secrecy. One final glance from thine eyes and my life will be ever thine own. The flowers have been woven and the garland is ready for the bridegroom. After the wedding the bride shall leave her home and meet her lord alone in the solitude of night.
Ocean of Forms I dive down into the depth of the ocean of forms, hoping to gain the perfect pearl of the formless. No more sailing from harbor to harbor with this my weather-beaten boat. The days are long passed when my sport was to be tossed on waves. And now I am eager to die into the deathless. Into the audience hall by the fathomless abyss where swells up the music of toneless strings I shall take this harp of my life. I shall tune it to the notes of forever, Young Ji international School / College
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and when it has sobbed out its last utterance, lay down my silent harp at the feet of the silent.
Salutation In one salutation to thee, my God, let all my senses spread out and touch this world at thy feet. Like a rain-cloud of July hung low with its burden of unshed showers let all my mind bend down at thy door in one salutation to thee. Let all my songs gather together their diverse strains into a single current and flow to a sea of silence in one salutation to thee. Like a flock of homesick cranes flying night and day back to their mountain nests let all my life take its voyage to its eternal home in one salutation to thee FIGURES OF SPEECH 1.
Personification – speaking of an inanimate object
2.
Allusion – reference to any literary, Biblical, socio-political or mythological character for effect
3.
Apostrophe – addressing the dead as if they were alive
4.
Metonymy – substitute for the name of one thing the name of another that is associated with it
5.
Synecdoche – substituting a part for a whole
6.
Hyperbole – exaggeration for artistic effect
7.
Irony – use of a word to mean the exact opposite of its literal meaning
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Exercises 1 REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION 1. Why is Gitanjali considered a prose poem? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 2. Describe in details how Tagore regards God, death, purity and time as revealed in his poem. Cite lines to prove your answer. ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 3. Identify the figures of speech utilized in the poem. ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 4. Give the over-all theme of the poem. ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
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Exercises 2 Make at least 5 sentences of each Figure of Speech.
GRAMMAR NOTES TRANSFORMING S-LV-C STATEMENTS TO QUESTIONS Both yes/no questions begin with the forms of the verb –be, is and are. They are the same verb forms used in the original sentences. In transforming S-LV-C sentences to yes/no questions, follow this pattern. VERB –be + subject + complement + rest of the sentence?
Examples: Parents become our avid supporters. Do parents become our avid supporters?
My dog, Hachi, remained loyal to us until his death. Did your dog, Hachi, remain loyal to you until his death?
Exercises 3 Transform each S-LV-C statement to yes/no question. 1.
The worrier is always afraid of everything.
2.
Most teenagers are conscious of their physical appearance.
3.
They also become shy and withdrawn when they have problems.
4.
Problems are less difficult if you tackle them according to a well thought-out plan.
5.
I am a worrier of myself.
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LESSON 15
Promoting Equality
Telephone Conversation Wole Soyinka Discrimination, whether against a person‘s race, ethnic, or cultural background, age, handicap, or gender, is destructive and devastating. It yields negative results too. To be denied, a home or a job for which you are qualified, but for which you are the ―wrong‖ color or gender is the highest form of injustice. This is the absurdity and foolishness of discrimination. Wole Soyinka‘s poem addresses the foolishness of prejudice and shows how easily we can become caught up in its practice.
The price seemed reasonable, location Indifferent. The landlady swore she lived Off premises. Nothing remained But self-confession. "Madam" , I warned, "I hate a wasted journey - I am African." Silence. Silenced transmission of pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came, Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was, foully. "HOW DARK?"...I had not misheard...."ARE YOU LIGHT OR VERY DARK?" Button B. Button A. Stench Of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak. Red booth. Red pillar-box. Red double-tiered Omnibus squelching tar. It was real! Shamed By ill-mannered silence, surrender Pushed dumbfoundment to beg simplification. Considerate she was, varying the emphasis"ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT" Revelation came "You mean- like plain or milk chocolate?" Her accent was clinical, crushing in its light Young Ji international School / College
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Impersonality. Rapidly, wave-length adjusted I chose. "West African sepia"_ and as afterthought. "Down in my passport." Silence for spectroscopic Flight of fancy, till truthfulness chaged her accent Hard on the mouthpiece "WHAT'S THAT?" conceding "DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS." "Like brunette." "THAT'S DARK, ISN'T IT?" "Not altogether. Facially, I am brunette, but madam you should see the rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet. Are a peroxide blonde. Friction, causedFoolishly madam- by sitting down, has turned My bottom raven black- One moment madam! - sensing Her receiver rearing on the thunderclap About my ears- "Madam," I pleaded, "wouldn't you rather See for yourself?"
- See more at: http://allpoetry.com/poem/10379451-Telephone-Conversation-byWole-Soyinka#sthash.KAwmqlqa.dpuf
Exercises 1 REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION 1. Who is speaking in the poem? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ Young Ji international School / College
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2. How is the ridiculousness or absurdity of racism displayed in the poem? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 3. What does the repeated mention of the color ―red‖ symbolize in the poem? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 4. Did the two ever meet? Why made you think so? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
Exercises 2 Give the meaning of the underlines word. Check your answer from the given choices. 1.
2.
3.
4.
The stench coming from the pile of collected garbage is so disgusting. ________ dirty appearance ________ foul odor ________ unsightly view The phone smelled of rancid breath. ________ disagreeable odor ________ invigorating air ________ pleasant aroma His revelation about his feelings came when I least expected it. ________ apology ________ confession ________ disclosure She accepted her suitor‘s proposal as an afterthought. ________ added information to what has been said
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5.
________ conclusion made after weighing things over ________ reflection too late to be useful Cymbals are musical instruments that produce clanging sound. ________ clicking ________ muffled ________ ringing
GRAMMAR NOTES ADJECTIVE CLAUSES AS MOUN MODIFIERS
A noun may also be modified by a clause. A clause is a group of words with a subject and a predicate. A clause may be independent (main) or dependent (subordinate). A dependent clause, although it has a subject and a predicate, cannot stand by itself as a complete sentence unlike an independent clause. Like phrases, subordinate clauses function as single parts of speech in sentences.
Examples: searching for a
A dark West African Man, who is the speaker in the poem, is new apartment. ―Telephone Conversation‖ is a poem which depicts the absurdity of
racism. (The adjective clauses in the sentences are connected to the words they modify ( man and
poem in the two sentences ) by the relative pronouns who and which. Other
relative
pronouns that can be used to introduce adjectival clauses are that, whom, or
whose.)
An adjective clause is nonessential or nonrestrictive and is set off by commas if it merely gives additional information. If the clause is necessary to identify the noun modifies, it is an essential or restrictive adjective clause and is not set off commas.
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Exercises 3 Expand each sentence by adding an adjective clause. Do not forget to use the appropriate relative pronoun and to punctuate your adjective clause properly. 1.
In this fast-moving world of ours, much depends on people
____________________________ 2.
In times of extreme difficulty, we should call on God
_________________________________ 3.
A student ______________________________________ should never give up.
4.
Racism ______________________________________________ is a global
concern. 5.
Let us work towards equality
____________________________________________________
Exercises 4 In a paragraph consisting of about three sentences, provide the following information in your Thinking Logs. ―The main thing I‘ll remember is………….‖ ―My new sight or discovery is…………………‖ ―I really understood……….. but I‘m really confused about………‖ ―A learning I can use beyond school is………..‖ ―Connections I‘m making with other things I know are………‖
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LESSON 16
Valuing Freedom
Mactan-1521 Virginia B. Licuanan
The author is a newspaper columnist and historical writer. Author of awardwinning books, she started the first fashion magazine in the Philippines. She won the 1996 Best Book Award for Biography with her One Woman‘s Life, a biography of her own mother. The poem ―Mactan‖ that she made was about the heroism by the Philippine hero, Lapu-lapu, who fought against Spaniards.
A messenger from the Spaniards came That day in fifteen twenty-one; He came in Magellan's name To the island of Mactan. To Lapulapu who was the chief That on Mactan did reign He said ―I ask in our leader's name A tribute name for the king of Spain.‖ ―A tribute for a foreign king?‖ He heard proud Lapulapu say. ―Tell your leader not tell a thing Will the of this island pay. ―We and their fathers before Have on this island live: We owe no tribute to any king, And no tribute shall we give.‖ ―if you do not give what we ask‖ Was the messenger's reply ―The Spaniards will come with swords and guns Young Ji international School / College
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And you and your men shall die.‖ ―If they have guns,‖ Lapulapu said, ―So have we our weapons too; If the Spaniard to our island come, They shall see what bamboo spears can do. ―The Spaniards sword are made for steel And their armors are strong and bright Against all weapons we shall win While we are in the right.‖ Lapulapu's eyes flashed as he repeated , And his voice did proudly ring: ―We are freemen and will pay No tribute to a foreign king.‖ When Magellan heard Lapulapu words He said with all disdain ―How dare this little chief affront His Majesty of Spain. ―Our guns and this man's False pride will break, If he will not tribute give, Then tribute we will take. Well show this chief that our words We can follow with our deed Prepare three ships and sixty men And I myself will lead. For the island of Mactan The Spaniards did set sail, Their and swords are in great display To make the enemy quail. Young Ji international School / College
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Their ships and armor were glittering show Of military might Never had the peaceful Mactan waters, Mirror was a warlike sight And when they anchored dropped Off the palm-fringed Mactan shore , ―I'll teach this chief a lesson,: The Spanish leader swore He lead his soldier to the beach In full battle array. ―My men, for our king ' Magellan said ―Let us make this a proud day.‖ We have guns and armor Our enemy has none Our sword against those bamboo spears. The fight as good as won. But Lapulapu stood proudly As the Spanish drew near ―No Spaniards armor Will save them from my spears. ―Aim true !‖ he told his men ―when your spears fling Remember the freemen do not bow To any foreign king. Steel sword against bamboo spears It seemed an uneven fight And the Spanish armor Increased each Spaniard might. But Lapulapu and his brave men Young Ji international School / College
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Into the battle led And soon the blue-green Mactan waters With the Spaniard blow red ―Fight on my men ―Magellan cried ―Fight for gracious Majesty.......‖ ―Fight on ,men in Mactan.‖Lapulapu said, ―Fight for our liberty. : The Cause of the Liberty lent more strength Than the Spanish steel and lead And soon Magellan lay dying , And his soldiers all had fled. And Mactan is an island That lives in history Where man brave men died for a king And another lived for liberty.
―The story of our past would not be complete if we leave out the story of our struggle for freedom. The poem that followed shows vivid glimpse of our fight for liberty. The historical account of arrival of Magellan and Lapu-lapu fought to keep our country from foreign rule.‖ http://con-poetryliterature.blogspot.com/
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Exercises 1 REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION 1. What did their actions tell us about their character? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 2. Why did Magellan and his men set foot on the Philippines? How did Lapulapu and his men receive them? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 3. Why did the Filipino win over the Spaniards despite their inferior weapons? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 4. Was Magellan to be blamed for what had happened to him and his men in Mactan? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
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Exercises 2 Which of these qualities do you think a hero should possess? Check the five important ones. ______ charisma
______ selflessness
______ perseverance
______
integrity ______ endurance ______ humility ______ pride
______ discipline
______ talent
______ motivation ______ wealth
______optimism ______ education
______ valor
______ risk-taking
______ patience
GRAMMAR NOTES
ADVERB CLAUSES
Subordinate clauses may modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb by telling when, where, how, in what way, to what extent, under what condition, or why is called an adverb clause. It shows the relationship between ideas by telling more about the action of a sentence. Its meaning is dependent in the main clause, and just like adjective clauses, adverb clauses also introduced by subordinators.
Examples:
The opposing forces met where the historical battle was
fought.
The native were merrymaking when the enemies came.
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Exercises 3 Underline the adverb clause in each sentence. 1.
Ginger had been growing in the Philippines for hundreds of years before European
explorers 2.
arrived.
When Magellan saw that the island was rich in gold, he wanted to make it his
headquarters. 3.
The Spanish explorers failed in their mission because their leader had met his
death. 4.
As long as I am around, I will do my best to defend my country.
5.
The Philippines was under Spain for over 400 years until the Americans came.
Exercises 4 Complete each sentences by adding an adverb clause. Use a different subordinating 1.
conjunction in every sentence.
I felt
embarrassed______________________________________________________. 2.
__________________________________, do not leave the house.
3.
Study your lessons
_____________________________________________________. 4.
Mario read the test directions very carefully
__________________________________. 5.
_____________________________________ we shall push through with our plan.
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LESSON 17
Measuring True Loves
Taj Mahal Sahir Ludhianvi To you, my love, the Taj is a symbol of love. Fine. Fine too that you venerate this, the valley where it sits. But meet me somewhere else. The poor visiting the royal assembly? Absurd. What‘s the sense of lovers journeying on That road which bears the prints of royalty‘s contempt? Look at the emblems of arrogant majesty, The backgrounds to this sign of love Do dead kings‘ tombs delight you? If so, look into your dark home. In this world, countless people have loved. Who says their passions weren‘t true? They just couldn‘t afford a public display like this Because they were paupers – like us. These buildings and tombs, these abutments and forts Are a fort despot‘s pillar of majesty, Cancers upon the breast of earth, a chronic cancer Which sapped the blood of our ancestors Who, my love, must have loved too. It was the air that shaped this exquisite form. But their beloveds‘ tombs stand without name or fame; Until today, no one even lit a candle for them. This garden, this place on the riverbank, These carved doors and walls, this arch, this vault – what are they? The mocking of the love of our poor By an emperor propped upon his wealth My love, meet me somewhere else. Translated by Carlo Coppola and M.H.K. Quershi Young Ji international School / College
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Exercises 1 REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION 1. Who is speaking in the poem? To whom is the poet speaking? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 2. How does Sahir regard Taj Mahal? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 3. If you were to identify or name a universal symbol of love, what would it be? Why? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
Exercises 2 Answer the following questions.
1.
Who is speaking in the poem? To whom is the poet speaking?
2.
How does Sahir regard the Taj Mahal? Do you agree or disagree with his opinion? Support your answer.
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3.
Compare and contrast the royalty‘s display of wealth and the poverty of the laborer in the construction of the love monument.
4.
If you were to identify or name a universal symbol of love, what would it be? Why?
5.
Research on the historical background of Taj Mahal. Describe the regal
opulence that is reflected in every corner of the mausoleum.
GRAMMAR NOTES
When the subordinate clause is used as a noun in all its functions, it is called a noun clause. A noun clause may be used as subject, direct object, indirect object, object of the preposition, subjective complement and appositive. The most common word used at the beginning of a noun clause is that. Because its only use in the sentences is to introduce the noun clause, it is referred to as an expletive, unlike the other subordinators.
Exercise 3 React to the following statistics/data about the youths by beginning with ―I‘m surprised
1.
to know that‖ or ―I‘m not surprised to know that.‖
More than 100 million children of primary school age all over the world do not go to school anymore.
___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________
2.
Sixty-eight percent of married mothers work outside the home.
___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________
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3.
In the families where both parents work, women do most of the housework and child care.
___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________
4.
Thirty-one percent of the working wives earn more than their husband.
___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________
5.
Many children in Africa drop out before finishing Grade 5.
___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________
Exercises 4 Underline the noun clause used in each sentence.
1.
Many young people do not know whom they should approach in times of
trouble. 2.
A promise of good life is always given to whoever is loved.
3.
We can‘t understand why the rich become richer and the poor become poorer.
4.
Nobody can deny the fact that we cannot carry with us our wealth after death.
5.
It is evident that most evils in the world made possibly by humans‘ greed or selfishness.
6.
The truth is that we should use our natural wealth for the common good.
7.
When all these evils in the world will end is everybody‘s question.
8.
Human beings are bound by wait will satisfy them.
9.
The job is intended for whoever is ready to help.
10.
That there are people who cannot afford to dress or live well is a reality.
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LESSON 18
Seeing Beauty in the Ordinary
Haiku Matsuo Basho
HAIKU 1 Old pond . . . A frog leaps in Water‘s sound.
HAIKU 2 On a withered branch A crow has settled Autumn nightfall
HAIKU 3 The wind from Mt. Fuji I put it on the fan. Here, the souvenir from Edo.
HAIKU 4 A village where they ring No bells – Oh, what do they do? At dusk in spring?
HAIKU 5 Spring departs, Birds cry, Fishes‘ eyes are filled with tears.
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Exercise 1 REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION 1. What is the underlying theme of Basho‘s haiku? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 2. What images does Basho use in his haiku? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 3. How will you interpret each haiku? What does each one symbolize? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 4. How might visualizing and interpreting help you understand each haiku about a new subject? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 5. Prove the truth in the saying ―One can find beauty even in ordinary or simple things.‖ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
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GRAMMAR NOTES
SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT
Rules To Make Your Subjects Agree With Their Verbs
1.
Singular subjects take singular verbs; plural subjects take plural verb. When
the subject is in the third person singular, the action verb that goes with in the present tense ends in –s or –es.
Example: S (sing.) V (sing.) Globalization speeds up the development of world economy.
2.
Intervening expressions, like as well as, accompanied by, together with, in
addition to,
along with, and plus, do not affect the number of the subject although
they have a meaning similar to and. They are the part of a phrase that modifies the subject.
Example: S (sing.)
V (sing.)
World trade, as well as financial markets, becomes more and more integrated.
3.
When the sentences follow the S-LV-C pattern, the verb agrees with the
subject and not with the predicate noun as subjective complement.
4.
The verb agrees with the subject even when the normal word is inverted. This
is true in questions or in sentences beginning with here or there.
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Exercises 2 Supply the subject for each predicate to make a complete sentence.
1.
____________________________________ joins the outreach program of the
school.
2.
____________________________________ are at good heart.
3.
____________________________________ makes life worth living for everyone.
4.
____________________________________ have made him win the much-coveted award.
5.
____________________________________ does not give up easily.
Exercise 3 Supply the predicate for each subject to make a complement sentence.
1.
Both the rich and the poor _____________________________________
2.
The present economic situation in the country ________________________
3.
A boy and a girl ________________________________________________
4.
The school, as well as the other government institutions, _______________
5.
I_____________________________________________________________
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