Upshot: English As a Second Language - Secondary Cycle Two, Year Two Story Anthology [2-2] 2765052646, 9782765052647

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SECONDARY CYCLE TWO • YEAR TWO

UPSHOT ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Story Anthology

SECONDARY CYCLE TWO • YEAR TWO

UPSHOT ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Story Anthology

Upshot English as a Second Language Secondary Cycle Two, Year Two Story Anthology Arielle Aaronson, Cynthia Beyea, Monique Soublière © 2016 TC Media Books Inc.

Acknowledgements The publisher would like to thank the following teachers for their valuable contributions to the publication of Upshot, English as a Second Language. Valérie Bilodeau, C.S. de la Côte-du-Sud Gillian Baxter, C.S. des Trois-Lacs

Marie-Anne Smith, C.S. de Laval Editor: Jennifer McMorran Project Manager: Paula Kielstra Proofreader: Nancy Perreault Photo Researcher: Rachel Irwin Permissions Researcher: Marc-André Brouillard Cover designer: Micheline Roy Book Designer and Typesetter: Pige Communication

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means known or not yet known without prior permission from TC Media Books Inc. Any use not expressly authorized shall constitute an infringement, which could result in legal action against the individual or institution reproducing any part of this book without permission. ISBN 978-2-7650-5264-7 Legal deposit: 1st quarter 2016 Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec Library and Archives Canada Printed in Canada 1 2 3 4 5 M 20 19 18 17 16 Government of Québec – Tax credit program for book publishing – SODEC

Table of Contents UNIT 1

Choosing Your Path

“Dream Job” by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

UNIT 2 Bright Ideas “The Lottery Ticket” by Anton Chekhov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

UNIT 3 Home and Away “Red Maple Leaves” by Svetlana Chmakova

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

“The Open Window” (adapted) by Saki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

UNIT 4 What Would You Do? Tuck Everlasting (excerpt) by Natalie Babbitt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 “Hearts and Hands” by O. Henry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

UNIT 5 Big Data, Big Brother The Bar Code Tattoo (excerpt) by Suzanne Weyn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 “True Love” by Isaac Asimov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Note: All texts are original and therefore may contain Canadian, American or British English spelling. Table of Contents

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“There is no friend as loyal as a book.” —Ernest Hemingway

Dream Job

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By Marjorie Weinman Sharmat

In Unit 1, we discovered different ways that people can nd their true paths. One way is to learn new skills while working for the summer. In this short story, Becky thinks she has found the perfect summer job, working as a receptionist for a publishing company. She got the job because her new boss was a good friend of her parents. All she had to do was sit at the front desk and smile. Smiling was an easy way to make money, but for an aspiring writer her dream job got very boring very quickly.

Dream Job

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Before Reading

1. Read the summer jobs below and rank them from one to ve based on which ones you nd the most interesting. tour guide camp counsellor dog walker photographer tutor

2. What do you do during the summer to make money? 3. What would be your dream summer job? Why? 4. What skills do you think this dream job would help you develop?

5. How could this dream job help you toward a future career?

6. A good boss should be understanding. Name four other qualities that you think a good boss should have.

7. Find and write a synonym and an antonym for each word below. wild

disuse

emptiness

powerless

unreal

disgusting

quick

underground

While Reading

8. As you read complete a character prole for Becky, the main character. Make a chart in your notebook that includes her full name, her summer job, her career aspirations, her personality traits and a physical description.

9. Underline the names of the other characters in the story.

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Dream Job

Dream Job By Marjorie Weinman Sharmat

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got my summer job because my mom and dad knew the right person. Mr. Lamb, my boss at Garth Publishing Company, is a good friend of my parents and a fan of my smile. He said, “Becky has a sunshine smile, and that’s what we need at our front desk.” So all I have to do is sit at the front desk and not chew gum and look older than I am, which is sixteen, and not offend anybody, and above all else, SMILE! [ . . . ] I wish that Mr. Lamb would acknowledge my brain, my imagination, my gift for fantasy, and all the other things I value about myself. But they are worth zero to him. For the rst couple of weeks the job was interesting, which is a word most of the people who come to my desk avoid using because it’s not an interesting word. They are writers. [ . . . ] But the job got boring fast. Smiling all the time might be an easy way to make a living, but it’s not my line of work. I’m going to be a professional writer, specializing in ction. Wild, crazy, acknowledge weird, unreal stuff based on everything recognize that has ever happened to me or value appreciate could happen to me. But now, for $6.25 worth having a an hour, I am letting my imagination signicance of and my identity go down the drain. stuff things By the rst day of the fourth week go down the drain my mind was failing from disuse. are lost Imagination atrophy, a disease unknown failing weakening to medical science because it was just disease sickness invented by me, set in. Nobody was set in established itself around, so I turned off my smile, Dream Job

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leaned back in my chair, closed my eyes, and wondered how 35 to rev my imagination back to life. Then, suddenly, Raunchy Ezra Moore, known to the American public by his initials, REM, appeared in front of my desk. He had written one of the most disgusting books ever, so of course he is famous. It was called And America Came 40 Tumbling After, and Garth Publishing Company had published it. It was a literary dud, but the book jacket was a fabulous success. The public had to buy the book in order to get the jacket. [ . . . ] Now here he was in person, with his frizzy bright red hair, 45 his blotchy face, and teeth that seemed to reect the raging pink of his gums. [ . . . ] He was looking me over. “You’re new here?” “Yes.” Smile. leaned reclined 50 “I’m REM. And America Came rev stimulate Tumbling After.” dud failure “Yes, I read the book jacket. I mean, book jacket book I haven’t read the book yet.” cover “You have no plans to read the book, frizzy very curly 55 sweets.” blotchy discoloured Sweets is a sexist word I think. I’m spots not sure. Maybe it’s just friendly. [ . . . ] gums skin around “You’ve got a clean desk. Decay teeth comes in many forms. A clean desk looking me over 60 says emptiness to me. Think about examining emptiness, sweets. That’s what I’m sweets a nickname for writing about now. America the Empty. someone It’s only a working title.” Decay decomposition “I am not empty, and you don’t have blunt me stop me 65 an appointment here, Mr. REM.” from functioning “An appointment? Appointments, take the edge off schedules, and such blunt me. They decrease take the edge off the creative ow. creative ow ideas, You don’t know anything about creativity, imagination 70 do you, sweets?” 4

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I made a quick nancial summary of my life. My parents had furnished me with a roof over my head, clothes, food, and an allowance. I didn’t really need the books and records I was going to buy with the money I made at this job. I didn’t need this job. I am far more creative than you and you are a nasty person, Mr. REM. I said it in my head. My mouth, however, smiled. My mouth said, “I’ll see if Mr. Lamb can see you.” “He will, sweets, believe me.” REM started to walk past my desk. “You can’t walk past my desk without my permission,” I said. “Your permission? You’re just a teenager who was placed in that allowance money to chair to smile. That is your function, spend sweets. That is you!” smack precisely, exactly REM kept on walking. I stood up hereby at this moment and looked around for help. I found quit leave a job it. I picked up a vase of plastic leaves mortally wounded and I brought it down— SMACK!— killed on REM’s frizzy red head. raise bring up “I hereby quit this job!” I said. [. . .] Had I just mortally wounded another human being? No. He kept right on walking! He hadn’t even felt anything. I was powerless against REM. What was wrong with me? No verbal power, no physical power. I ran from the oor. I ran from the building. I had to go home and tell my parents everything. They would understand. They did not raise me to be a smile. I was on the street. I had no money. I had left my purse in my desk drawer. I couldn’t go back. And I couldn’t get home. Home was twenty-six miles away, out of the city. It costs money to get transported twenty-six miles. Dream Job

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“Taxi!” I would go home in style. My parents would pay for it at the 110 other end. A taxi stopped. It stopped for me. I was important. I was a person a taxi would stop for. So there, REM! I scrambled into the backseat, trying to hide my face in case the driver hadn’t scrambled got into 115 already gotten a good look at it. He quickly might not willingly have picked up a willingly intentionally teenager. suburbs houses “Where to?” the driver asked without outside of the city turning around. huddled got down 120 It was a woman’s voice. The driver was a woman. conde in trust “Uh . . . out of the city . . . toward the deserve merit suburbs, please.” She’ll refuse. She’ll want to get paid in advance or something. 125 “Fine, miss.” She accepted me. She was respectful. I was Miss, not Sweets. [. . .] I huddled in the corner, still not wanting to raise my head. I wondered if she was someone I could conde in. “Ma’am, I 130 just hit somebody over the head with a vase. See, I’m a creative person and the guy I hit said I wasn’t.” “I’m sorry, miss. You deserve much better. It is difcult for 6

Dream Job

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me to convey a sincere message through a slot in the bulletproof partition that separates you from me, but you deserve much better.” “You really think so? I took this summer job and all I did all day long was smile. It made me lose my identity.” “Your identity? You can have it back, miss. Just smile and say please, and you can have it back.” “What are you talking about?” “Look, Miss, there’s an underground market in these things. Everybody is looking for the best identity possible. Now, you be a good girl and say please and smile and you can have your own identity back.” Was she kidding? Was she for real? I slowly looked up. I stared at convey express the back of her head. It revealed slot a small opening nothing. Her hair was frizzy bright red. It was a coincidence, that’s all. bulletproof impenetrable “What is your name, ma’am?” kidding joking I asked like an interrogator. “My name and face are on my bolted ran quickly identication card. Can’t you see it?” nightmare a bad dream I was afraid to look at it. “Very well, you want me to tell you my name, miss? It’s Ramona Eunice Metcalfe, miss. Sometimes my husband calls me REM. [ . . . ] Now, what do you want to do about your identity? I’ll give it to someone else if you don’t smile and say please.” She stopped for a red light and turned her blotchy-skinned, pink-toothed face back toward me! I bolted out of the taxi. I ran three blocks. Then I stopped, out of breath. I leaned against a building. I kept my eyes down. I knew that if I looked up I would see that I was surrounded by people with frizzy bright red hair, blotchy faces, and pink gummy smiles, and their initials would all be REM. I know exactly where I am. I am in a nightmare. I fell asleep at my desk at Garth Publishing Company, and I am in the REM phase of sleep. REM stands for rapid eye movement. During REM Dream Job

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sleep the eyes are in motion and this is when dreaming occurs. Raunchy Ezra Moore is REM. Ramona Eunice Metcalfe is REM. What a neat package of a dream. But I want out of my nightmare before it gets any worse. [ . . . ] I wish Mr. Lamb would shake me and wake me up. [ . . . ] And how many blotchy-faced, red-haired, pink-toothed REMs will I have to meet before I wake up? [ . . . ] It isn’t easy being a creative person. It isn’t easy having a fabulous imagination that nobody pays you for and a stupid smile that earns $6.25 an hour. It isn’t easy living with my acne and my frizzy bright red hair and my pink-gummy smile that Mr. Lamb thinks is sunshiny. But I accept it. I mean, I, Rebecca Eloise Montgomery, future writer, will probably have to suffer through Everything before I achieve creative success. Meanwhile, Mr. Lamb, could you please wake me up. You’re paying me $6.25 an hour to sleep on the job. And no surprises, please. Just remember, your initials couldn’t possibly be REM, and you have silver hair, a awless complexion, and simply dazzling white false teeth.

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Marjorie Weinman Sharmat is an American writer born in 1928 in Portland, Maine. She has written more than 130 books for children and teens and her books have been translated into thirteen languages. Younger readers know her for her series featuring the child detective Nate the Great. The character was inspired by and named after her father. Her rst novel for teens was I Saw Him First. For young adults, she wrote the popular Sorority Sisters series, eight short romantic ctions with a comedic tone set in an Arizona public high school.

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Dream Job

After Reading

1. What qualities does Becky value about herself that she would like Mr. Lamb to notice?

2. What kind of writer does Becky want to become? 3. Why does she feel that her imagination and her identity are going down the drain?

4. Show with examples from the text that Becky knows herself well and accepts herself the way she is.

5. What did Mr. REM say to make Becky feel that she had no identity?

6. Foreshadowing is a literary device used by authors to give the reader clues about what is going to happen next in the story. Read the following sentences from the text and explain how the author is preparing you for what happens next. a. “Nobody was around, so I turned off my smile, leaned back in my chair, closed my eyes, and wondered how to rev my imagination back to life.” b. “I made a quick nancial summary of my life. I didn’t need this job.” c. “I stared at the back of her head. Her hair was frizzy bright red. It was a coincidence, that’s all.”

7. Becky wants to become a writer. What sentence in the text tells us that she knows she has chosen a difcult career path?

8. What’s the double meaning of the title “Dream Job”? 9. What’s the real-life meaning of the acronym REM? 10. At what point in the story did you realize Becky was dreaming?

11. What clues were there in the story to indicate Becky was dreaming?

Dream Job

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Beyond the Lines

12. Becky wants to be a writer and she is working for a publishing company. Think of what you learned in Unit 1 related to choosing your path, and explain how Becky could take advantage of this opportunity to acquire new skills and knowledge for her future career.

13. At the end of the story, Becky states that as a future writer, she will have to suffer through everything. Do you agree that writers or creative people have to suffer to succeed? Explain your answer.

14. Would you say that Becky is on her way to nding what kind of career she will have? Explain your answer.

15. In Becky’s dream, the character REM’s opinions represent some of Becky’s fears concerning her loss of identity and creativity. Consider some of your recent dreams. Do you think it is possible to learn about our fears and our desires by analyzing our dreams? Explain your answer.

16. With a partner, role-play the part of the story where Becky rst meets the author REM.

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Dream Job

The Lottery Ticket

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By Anton Chekhov

This story is about the power of money and how it can affect human emotions. Ivan Dmitritch and his wife Masha, a middle-class family in 19th-century Russia, are satised with their life until the day they realize that they may have a winning lottery ticket. In Unit 5, we looked at different ways that people can make a million dollars, including winning the lottery. Most people might wish for such good fortune, but this story explores what happens after the jackpot. It reveals how quickly just the thought of winning can bring someone from happiness and hope to hatred and desperation.

The Lottery Ticket

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Before Reading

1. Read the headlines below. Which headline is the most surprising to you? Explain your answer. COUPLE SPENDS LOTTERY JACKPOT IN JUST 2 MONTHS

Couple divorces aft winning the lottery er

COUPLE DONATES 90% OF THEIR LOTTERY JACKPOT TO CHARITY

2. How would you spend a million-dollar lottery prize? 3. How much of your winnings would you share with others? Explain your answer.

4. Would your personality change if you became very rich? Explain your answer.

5. There are not only advantages to becoming a millionaire. What would be some of the disadvantages?

6. Find and write the denition of each of the words below. senseless

wearisome

astonished

enchanted

plain

stingy

sweet

careless

wretched

hollow

panic-stricken

elderly

While Reading

7. As you read, nd the descriptive words in Step 6. Make a chart and classify the words depending on whether they were used to describe Ivan and his emotions, Masha and her emotions or the situation/other people. Ivan

Masha

Other

8. Complete a story map. Indicate the main events of the ve parts of the plot structure: Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action and Resolution. 12

The Lottery Ticket

The Lottery Ticket By Anton Chekhov

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van Dmitritch, a middle-class man who lived with his family on an income of twelve hundred a year and was very well satised with his lot, sat down on the sofa after supper and began reading the newspaper. ”I forgot to look at the newspaper today,” his wife said to him as she cleared the table. “Look and see whether the list of drawings is there.” ”Yes, it is,” said Ivan Dmitritch; “but hasn’t your ticket lapsed?” ”No; I took the interest on Tuesday.” ”What is the number?” ”Series 9499, number 26.” ”All right . . . we will look . . . 9499 and 26.” Ivan Dmitritch had no faith in lottery luck, and would not, as a rule, have consented to look at the lists of winning numbers, but now, as he had nothing else to do and as the newspaper was before his eyes, he passed his nger downwards along the column of numbers. And immediately, as though in mockery of his scepticism, no further than the second line from the top, his eye was caught by the gure 9499! Unable to believe his eyes, he hurriedly dropped the paper on his knees without looking to see the income salary number of the ticket, and, just as though lot condition in life some one had given him a douche of drawings lottery cold water, he felt an agreeable chill numbers in the pit of the stomach; tingling and lapsed expired terrible and sweet! took the interest ”Masha, 9499 is there!” he said in a purchased a ticket hollow voice. no faith no belief His wife looked at his astonished tingling sensation and panic-stricken face, and realized caused by excitement that he was not joking. The Lottery Ticket

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”9499?” she asked, turning pale and dropping the folded 35 tablecloth on the table. ”Yes, yes . . . it really is there!” ”And the number of the ticket?” ”Oh, yes! There’s the number of the ticket too. But stay . . . wait! No, I say! Anyway, the number of our series is there! 40 Anyway, you understand . . .” Looking at his wife, Ivan Dmitritch gave a broad, senseless smile, like a baby when a bright object is shown it. broad large His wife smiled too; it was as pleasant tantalize to think 45 to her as to him that he only mentioned of something desired the series, and did not try to nd out but inaccessible the number of the winning ticket. To thrilling exciting torment and tantalize oneself with bewildered confused hopes of possible fortune is so sweet, 50 so thrilling! ”It is our series,” said Ivan Dmitritch, after a long silence. “So there is a probability that we have won. It’s only a probability, but there it is!” ”Well, now look!” 55 ”Wait a little. We have plenty of time to be disappointed. It’s on the second line from the top, so the prize is seventy-ve thousand. That’s not money, but power, capital! And in a minute I shall look at the list, and there—26! Eh? I say, what if we really have won?” 60 The husband and wife began laughing and staring at one another in silence. The possibility of winning bewildered them; they could not have said, could not have dreamed, what they both needed that seventy-ve thousand for, what they would buy, where they would go. They thought only of the gures 65 9499 and 75 000 and pictured them in their imagination, while somehow they could not think of the happiness itself, which was so possible. Ivan Dmitritch, holding the paper in his hand, walked several times from corner to corner, and only when he had recovered 70 from the rst impression began dreaming a little. 14

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”And if we have won,” he said— “why, it will be a new life, it will be well-fed with enough a transformation! The ticket is yours, to eat but if it were mine I should, rst of go abroad travel to a all, of course, spend twenty-ve foreign country thousand on real property in the shape of an estate; ten thousand on immediate expenses, new furnishing . . . travelling . . . paying debts, and so on . . . The other forty thousand I would put in the bank and get interest on it.” ”Yes, an estate, that would be nice,” said his wife, sitting down and dropping her hands in her lap. ”Somewhere in the Tula or Oryol provinces . . . In the rst place we shouldn’t need a summer villa, and besides, it would always bring in an income.” And pictures came crowding on his imagination, each more gracious and poetical than the last. And in all these pictures he saw himself well-fed, serene, healthy, felt warm, even hot! [. . .] ”Yes, it would be nice to buy an estate,” said his wife, also dreaming, and from her face it was evident that she was enchanted by her thoughts. [. . .] Ivan Dmitritch stopped and looked at his wife. ”I should go abroad, you know, Masha,” he said. The Lottery Ticket

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And he began thinking how nice it would be in late autumn 95 to go abroad somewhere to the South of France . . . to Italy . . . to India! ”I should certainly go abroad too,” his wife said. “But look at the number of the ticket!” occurred to came to 100 ”Wait, wait! . . .” journey voyage He walked about the room and went sigh to take a long on thinking. It occurred to him: what if deep breath his wife really did go abroad? It is dismay concern pleasant to travel alone, or in the society farthing old British 105 of light, careless women who live in the coin present, and not such as think and talk begrudge feel angry all the journey about nothing but their over something that seems unfair children, sigh, and tremble with dismay over every farthing. Ivan Dmitritch glance look 110 imagined his wife in the train with a dwelt thought about multitude of parcels, baskets, and bags; fancy imagine she would be sighing over something, complaining that the train made her head ache, that she had spent so much money. [. . .] 115 ”She would begrudge me every farthing,” he thought, with a glance at his wife. “The lottery ticket is hers, not mine! Besides, what is the use of her going abroad? What does she want there? She would shut herself up in the hotel, and not let me out of her sight . . . I know!” 120 And for the rst time in his life his mind dwelt on the fact that his wife had grown elderly and plain, and that she was saturated through and through with the smell of cooking, while he was still young, fresh, and healthy, and might well have got married again. 125 ”Of course, all that is silly nonsense,” he thought; “but . . . why should she go abroad? What would she make of it? And yet she would go, of course . . . I can fancy . . . In reality it is all one to her, whether it is Naples or Klin. She would only be in my way. I should be dependent upon her. I can fancy how, like 130 a regular woman, she will lock the money up as soon as she 16

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gets it . . . She will look after her relations and grudge me every farthing.” Ivan Dmitritch thought of her relations. All those wretched brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles would come crawling about as soon as they heard of the winning ticket, would begin whining like beggars, and fawning upon them with oily, hypocritical smiles. Wretched, detestable people! If they were given anything, they would ask for more; while if they were refused, they would swear at them, slander them, and wish them every kind of misfortune. Ivan Dmitritch remembered his own relations, and their faces, at which he had looked impartially in the past, struck him now as repulsive and hateful. ”They are such reptiles!” he thought. And his wife’s face, too, struck relations members him as repulsive and hateful. Anger of the family surged up in his heart against her, crawling coming on and he thought malignantly: hands and knees ”She knows nothing about money, whining complaining and so she is stingy. If she won it she beggars people who would give me a hundred roubles, ask for money and put the rest away under lock fawning using and key.” exaggerated attery And he looked at his wife, not swear use profane with a smile now, but with hatred. language She glanced at him too, and also slander use malicious with hatred and anger. She had her and defamatory own daydreams, her own plans, statements her own reections; she understood surged up rose perfectly well what her husband’s malignantly with dreams were. She knew who would hatred be the rst to try and grab her roubles Russian winnings. money ”It’s very nice making daydreams hatred extreme dislike at other people’s expense!” is what The Lottery Ticket

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her eyes expressed. “No, don’t you dare!” Her husband understood her look; hatred began stirring 170 again in his breast, and in order to annoy his wife he glanced quickly, to spite her at the fourth page on the newspaper and read out triumphantly: ”Series 9499, number 46! Not 26!” Hatred and hope both disappeared at once, and it began 175 immediately to seem to Ivan Dmitritch and his wife that their rooms were dark and small and low-pitched, that the supper they had been eating was not doing them good, but lying heavy on their stomachs, that the evenings were long 180 and wearisome . . . annoy irritate ”What the devil’s the meaning of it?” spite hurt said Ivan Dmitritch, beginning to be low-pitched has ill-humoured. a low ceiling ”Wherever one steps there are bits ill-humoured in 185 of paper under one’s feet, crumbs, a disagreeable mood husks. The rooms are never swept! One Damnation eternal is simply forced to go out. Damnation punishment take my soul entirely! I shall go and hang myself on the rst aspen-tree!”

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Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born in Russia in the town of Taganrog on January 29, 1860. He was a short-story writer, playwright and physician. He is considered to be one of the greatest shortction writers in world literature, and his plays continue to be performed in modern theatres. Chekhov grew up in poverty, and became the sole supporter of his family at a very young age, writing humorous sketches and plays to make money. He wrote 13 plays and countless short stories. His work is known for its honest portrayal of human emotions through humorous dialogue.

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The Lottery Ticket

After Reading

1. Do you think that the couple has a good relationship at the beginning of the story? Explain using examples from the text.

2. Why did Ivan want to wait before checking the ticket number?

3. How would Ivan spend the money if they won? 4. At what moment in the story do Ivan’s thoughts focus on his wife rather than on how he would spend the money? Find the passage in the text.

5. Ivan quickly realizes that the ticket belongs to his wife. What did he think the disadvantages would be if his wife won the money? Name three.

6. Who do you think should decide how the money will be spent, Ivan or Masha? Explain your answer.

7. How does Ivan imagine that Masha’s relatives would react?

8. Who does Masha think would be the rst person to try to take her winnings?

9. Why was Ivan triumphant when he saw that the winning ticket number was 46 and not 26?

10. At the beginning of the story, Ivan is described as very well satised with his lot. How does Ivan’s reaction to the possibility of winning the lottery contradict this description of him? Make a list of the words that suggest Ivan is not a content man.

11. Ivan says he wants to kill himself in the last two sentences of the story: “Damnation take my soul entirely! I shall go and hang myself on the rst aspen-tree!” What do you think he really means? Explain your answer. Beyond the Lines

12. What do you think would have happened if Ivan and Masha had won? The Lottery Ticket

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13. Do you think that the couple will be the same after this experience? Could they forget about this moment of hatred and resentment towards each other? Explain your answer.

14. How would you feel if a member of your family or close friend won the lottery and did not share some of their winnings with you?

15. What lesson can you learn from this story? 16. Pretend that the couple in the story has won the lottery. Imagine you have interviewed them about their win and write a newspaper article about their plans for the money.

17. Write a shorter version of the story from Masha’s perspective.

18. Pretend the couple has won the lottery. With a group or on your own, write a letter to Ivan and Masha and try to convince them to invest in one of the bright ideas that were pitched in Unit 2.

19. With a partner, role-play the scene between Masha and Ivan as described in the story.

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The Lottery Ticket

Red Maple Leaves

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By Svetlana Chmakova

In Unit 3 we looked at what forces people to leave their homes and emigrate to another country. We also examined what you need to feel at home in a strange land. The graphic short story “Red Maple Leaves” is the author’s story of how she moved from Russia to Canada with her family when she was 16 years old. Svetlana found it difcult to adapt and especially to learn English well enough to be able to communicate. She struggled to t in and pondered the question of whether she was Russian or Canadian.

Red Maple Leaves

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Before Reading

1. If you had to leave your country quickly with just one small suitcase, what personal effects, other than clothes, would you bring? Explain your answer.

2. What are some of the stereotypes people have of Canadians?

3. Think of three symbols of Canada. What do they mean to you?

4. Compare your experience of reading graphic novels and stories with regular text stories and novels. Do you have a preference? Explain your answer.

5. What do you think the expression “mother tongue” refers to? While Reading

6. Draw a T-chart on a separate sheet of paper. As you read, complete the chart with the fond memories Svetlana has for her home country, Russia, and what she loves about Canada. Russia

mistaken for wrongly identied mainly mostly worldwide throughout the world soul essence kindled awakened hastily fast from scratch from nothing 22

Red Maple Leaves

wonder think about English-impaired having no English skills lack of not enough awkward embarrassing landed immigrants people who have been granted the right to live in Canada permanently

Canada

dutifully doing what is expected of you abroad in another country sneaks up surfaces parched dried out with heat vividly strongly

Red Maple Leaves

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Red Maple Leaves

After Reading

1. When and where did the author develop her love for arts and writing?

2. What did Svetlana bring with her from Russia? Compare the items with those you chose in Step 1 of the Before Reading. Explain how they are similar or different.

3. What did she leave behind? 4. Svetlana and her sister found it very difcult at school. What two things helped them the most?

5. What were some of the consequences of Svetlana’s lack of English skills?

6. According to Svetlana, what was one of the disadvantages of becoming more uent in English?

7. Explain the following metaphor: “Hearing spoken Russian feels like what rain must feel to parched ground.”

8. At the end of the story, has Svetlana found her true identity? Explain your answer.

9. Svetlana arrived in Canada at sixteen. Do you think it would have been easier for her to adapt if she had arrived at a younger age? Explain your answer.

10. Graphic novels and stories use illustrations, symbols, different styles of text and thought bubbles to tell a story. a. On page 25 in frames 3 and 4, Svetlana is confused about her identity. How do the illustrations and typographic symbols show this? b. Choose three other frames and describe how illustrations and symbols are used to show what the text does not. What can we infer about the character’s emotions and the action of the story in these frames? c. A box is used for information and thoughts from the narrator. Dialogue is found in the speech bubbles. On page 28 in the second frame, what does the rough-edged bubble indicate?

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Beyond the Lines

11. You are presently learning a second language. In your opinion, do you think that it is easier to learn a second language when you are young? Explain your answer.

12. What do you nd helps you the most in learning English? 13. What would be more difcult for you in a new country: learning the language, adapting to the customs and culture or adapting to the food? Explain your answer.

14. What other Canadian symbols besides the red maple leaf are mentioned in the story? Describe three symbols of your own personal cultural heritage.

15. Draw a three-frame panel on a sheet of paper. Illustrate

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a moment when you had to adapt to a difcult situation, or illustrate what Canada or Québec represents for you. Use typographic symbols and text boxes, speech bubbles and thought bubbles of different shapes. Try to convey your emotions in your drawings.

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Svetlana Chmakova is an internationally published, award-winning manga author. She has published more than ten books and her work has been translated into over 13 languages. She was born and raised in Russia, and moved to Canada at 16 years old to nish high school. Svetlana was a Master Comics Artist-in-Residence at the Atlantic Center for The Arts and a featured artist for the US-wide 2011 “You Are Here” Collaborative Summer Library Program. She now makes her home between Toronto and California.

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Red Maple Leaves

The Open Window (adapted)

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By Saki

In this story, Framton Nuttel, has migrated from the city and come to the country for his health and to deal with his anxiety. At the suggestion of his sister, he is visiting a local family. In Unit 3, we learned the stories of people who nd themselves in new lands where they hope the locals will be welcoming and helpful. Will Mr. Nuttel be so lucky?

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Before Reading

1. How often do you have people visit your home? Who are some of the most recent visitors that you have welcomed?

2. Do you think that people should show uninvited visitors hospitality, or do you think that uninvited visitors are impolite and do not merit hospitality? Explain your answer.

3. The word gullible is used to describe someone who is naive and easily deceived or tricked. Do you consider yourself a gullible person? Why or why not?

4. A practical joke is a trick that is meant to give someone a shock or make them laugh. Have you ever played a practical joke on someone or has someone ever played a practical joke on you? Describe what happened and how you felt.

5. Find and write the denition for each word below. self-possessed

ghastly

endeavoured

ailments

bury

cure

falteringly

shivered

shudder

dazed

bustled

bolted out

rattled

dashed off

While Reading

6. As you read nd the words in Step 5 in the text and indicate if they are associated with Vera, Mr. Nuttel or Mrs. Sappleton.

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The Open Window (adapted)

The Open Window (adapted) By Saki

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y aunt will be down presently, Mr. Nuttel,” said a very selfpossessed young lady of fteen; “in the meantime you must try and tolerate me.” Framton Nuttel endeavoured to say the correct something which discounting should atter the niece of the considering something moment without discounting the as unimportant aunt that was to come. He doubted nerve cure whether these formal visits to total rest, relaxation strangers would do very much undergoing towards helping the nerve cure experiencing which he was supposed to be communion undergoing. understanding between people ”I know how it will be,” his sister had said when he was preparing to rectory house of the church minister migrate to this rural retreat; “you will bury yourself down there and not speak to a living soul. 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.” Framton wondered whether Mrs. Sappleton, the lady to whom he was presenting one of the letters of introduction, would be one of those nice people. ”Do you know many of the people round here?” asked the niece, when she judged that they had had sufcient silent communion. ”Hardly a soul,” said Framton. “My sister was staying here, at the rectory, you know, 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.

The Open Window (adapted)

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”Then you know practically nothing about my aunt?” pursued the self-possessed young lady. 35 ”Only her name and address,” admitted Framton. He was wondering whether Mrs. Sappleton was in the married or widowed state. Something about the room seemed to suggest masculine habitation. ”Her great tragedy happened just three years ago,” said the 40 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 45 afternoon,” said the niece, indicating a widowed woman large French window that opened on to whose husband is dead a lawn. lawn grass area ”It is quite warm for the time of the surrounding a house year,” said Framton; “but has that moor open area of 50 window got anything to do with the wilderness tragedy?” snipe-shooting ”Out through that window, three ground area for hunting years ago to a day, her husband and birds with a long beaks her two young brothers went off for treacherous 55 their day’s shooting. They never came dangerous back. In crossing the moor to their bog wet area with favourite snipe-shooting ground they decomposing organic were all three engulfed in a treacherous material piece of bog. It had been that very wet

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The Open Window (adapted)

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summer, you know, and places that were safe in other years gave way suddenly without warning. Their bodies were never recovered. That was the horrible part of it.” Here the child’s voice lost its self-possessed note and became falteringly human. “Poor aunt always thinks 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. Poor dear aunt, she has often told me how they went out, her husband with his white coat over his arm, and Ronnie, her youngest brother, singing 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 stopped with a little shudder. It was a relief to Framton when the aunt bustled into the room with an apology for being late in making her appearance. ”I hope Vera has been amusing you?” she said. ”She has been very interesting,” said Framton. ”I hope you don’t mind the open window,” said Mrs. Sappleton; “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 ne 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 gave way opened ghastly topic; he was conscious that falteringly hesitantly his hostess was giving him only a got on her nerves fragment of her attention, and her irritated her eyes were constantly looking past menfolk men him to the open window and the scarcity situation lawn beyond. It was certainly an where there is not unfortunate coincidence that he enough of something should have paid his visit on this prospects possibilities tragic anniversary. The Open Window (adapted)

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”The doctors agree in ordering me complete rest, an absence of mental 100 excitement, and avoidance of anything in the nature of violent physical exercise,” announced Framton, who mistakenly believed that total strangers and chance acquaintances are interested in the details 105 of one’s ailments, 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 110 moment. Then she suddenly brightened into alert attention—but not to what Framton was saying. ”Here they are at last!” she cried. muddy covered in wet “Just in time for tea, and don’t they look dirt 115 as if they were muddy up to the eyes!” convey communicate Framton shivered slightly and turned or express something towards the niece with a look intended deepening twilight to convey sympathetic comprehension. time when sky is getting The child was staring out through the darker 120 open window with a dazed horror in hoarse tired her eyes. In a shock Framton swung dusk time before it round in his seat and looked in the gets dark same direction. gravel drive private In the deepening twilight three gures road in front of a house 125 were walking across the lawn towards hedge small bushes the window, they all carried guns under growing close together their arms, and one of them had a white coat hung over his shoulders. A tired brown spaniel kept close at their heels. Noiselessly they 130 got closer to the house, and then a hoarse young voice called out of the dusk. Framton grabbed wildly at his stick and hat; the hall door, the gravel drive, and the front gate were dimly noted stages in his fast escape. A cyclist coming along the road had to run 135 into the hedge to avoid imminent collision. 40

The Open Window (adapted)

”Here we are, my dear,” said the owner of the white coat, coming in through the window, “fairly muddy, Ganges river in India but most of it’s dry. Who was that and Bangladesh who bolted out as we came up?” grave tomb ”A most extraordinary man, a Mr. snarling making Nuttel,” said Mrs. Sappleton; “could aggressive noises only talk about his illnesses, and dashed at short notice with off without a word of goodbye or no advance warning 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 wild dogs, and had to spend the night in a newly dug grave with the creatures snarling just above him. Enough to make anyone lose their nerve.” Romance at short notice was her speciality.

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Saki is the pseudonym of Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916). Saki’s stories are known for their wit and mischief. They openly satirized English society. Saki was born in Burma (now Myanmar), which at the time was part of the British Raj, the period when Britain ruled the Indian subcontinent. His mother died when he was a young boy and he was then raised by his strict grandmother and aunts in England. Saki was killed in battle in France in the First World War. The Open Window (adapted)

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After Reading

1. Why is Mr. Nuttel visiting the Sappletons in the country? 2. Does Mr. Nuttel want to visit the Sappletons? Explain your answer.

3. At what point in the story did you realize that Vera had tricked Mr. Nuttel? Explain your answer.

4. Why did Vera choose to say that her aunt’s tragedy happened three years earlier?

5. Find two details in the story that could be clues to the fact that Vera has a tendency to tell lies.

6. When Vera sees the men arrive, why do you think she stares at them in dazed horror?

7. Why is Mr. Nuttel a good candidate for Vera’s practical joke?

8. At the end of the story, how does Vera explain Mr. Nuttel’s sudden departure to her aunt?

9. What does the closing line of the story mean: “Romance at short notice was her specialty”?

10. A ashback is when the author interrupts the chronological order of the story to tell the reader about something that happened in the past. Describe the three ashbacks in the story and explain why the information in each ashback is important. Beyond the Lines

11. How would you have reacted when you saw the men arrive?

12. While reading this story, did you believe Vera’s story about her uncles and believe that the men where ghosts? Explain your answer.

13. Write the letter of introduction from Mr. Nuttel’s sister to Mrs. Sappleton.

14. Role-play a scene in which Mr. Nuttel has returned from the country and is telling his sister about his visit to the Sappletons. 42

The Open Window (adapted)

Tuck Everlasting (excerpt)

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By Natalie Babbitt

Ten-year-old Winnie Foster has run away from her home in Treegap and met the Tuck family: parents Tuck and Mae, and sons Miles and Jesse. They share their secret with her: eighty-seven years earlier they drank from a spring and have not aged a day since. They have become immortal. The family insists the secret cannot get out, but a strange man in a yellow suit has learned the truth and is threatening to tell everyone. In this excerpt, he wants to force Winnie to drink the water and stay a child forever. When the excerpt begins, Winnie is still with the Tuck family. She later returns home. In Unit 4, we explored ethical dilemmas. What will Winnie do now?

Tuck Everlasting (excerpt)

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Before Reading

1. In your opinion, what would be the advantages and disadvantages of living forever?

2. Would you like to live forever? Explain your answer. 3. In your opinion, would people appreciate life less if they knew that it never ends?

4. What decisions will you make in the near future that could change the course of your life? Name four.

5. If you could live at one age forever and never get older, what age would you pick? Explain your answer.

6. Find and write the denition of each adjective below. Use each word in a sentence. ghastly

proud

upset

rising

appealing

furrowed

clenched

forbidden

dull

eager

While Reading

7. For some of the characters in the book, the author uses an authentic-style of language spoken by some people living in rural America. At one point in the story, the constable says, “I seen her do it.” In standard American English, this sentence contains a grammatical error, but in the rural dialect, it is acceptable. As you read, nd ve other examples of the rural dialect used by certain characters.

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Tuck Everlasting (excerpt)

Tuck Everlasting (excerpt) By Natalie Babbitt

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he man in the yellow suit smiled a ghastly smile. “I can’t think why jerked moved quickly you’re so upset. Did you really believe stock wooden part of you could keep that water for a gun that goes against yourselves? Your selshness is really your shoulder quite extraordinary, and worse than skull bones of a that, you’re stupid. You could have person’s head done what I’m about to do, long ago. constable policeman Now it’s too late. Once Winifred come to regain drinks some of the water, she’ll do consciousness just as well for my demonstrations. open-and-shut case Even better. Children are much more situation without appealing, anyway. So you may as complications well relax. There’s nothing you can hang die with do to stop me.” a rope around But he was wrong. Mae lifted the the neck shotgun. Behind her, Miles gasped, “Ma! No!” But Mae’s face was dark red. “Not Winnie!” she said between clenched teeth. “You ain’t going to do a thing like that to Winnie. And you ain’t going to give out the secret.” Her strong arms swung the shotgun round her head, like a wheel. The man in the yellow suit jerked away, but it was too late. With a dull cracking sound, the stock of the shotgun smashed into the back of his skull. He dropped like a tree, his face surprised, his eyes wide open. And at that very moment, riding through the pine trees just in time to see it all, came the Treegap constable. *** [ . . . ] “Yep, she got him a good one, all right. He never even come to. So it’s an open-and-shut case, since I seen her do it. Eyewitness. No question about it. They’ll hang her for sure.” Tuck Everlasting (excerpt)

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Winnie went back to her room and climbed into bed. She lay in the dark, propped up on the pillows, and stared at the lighter square of her window, at the heat lightning throbbing. It was 35 like pain, she thought again, a dull pain on the fringes of the sky. Mae had killed the man in the yellow suit. And she had meant to kill him. Winnie had killed a wasp once, in fear and anger, just in time to spare herself a stinging. She had slammed at the wasp with 40 a heavy book, and killed it. And then, seeing its body broken, the thin wings stilled, she had wished it were alive again. She had wept for that wasp. Was Mae weeping now for the man in the yellow suit? In spite of her wish to spare the world, did she wish he were alive again? There was no way of knowing. But 45 Mae had done what she thought she had to do. Winnie closed her eyes to shut out the silent pulsing of the lightning. Now she would have to do something. She had no idea what, but something. Mae Tuck must not go to the gallows. *** 50 [ . . . ] She sat down on the grass and sighed. Mae! What could she do to set lightning ash of light Mae free? She closed her eyes against caused by electricity in the glaring light, and watched, a little the sky dizzily, as brilliant patterns of red and throbbing beat 55 orange danced inside her eyelids. quickly And then, miraculously, Jesse was wasp insect that there, crouching just on the other side can sting of the fence. “Winnie!” he hissed. “You spare avoid sleeping?” wept cried 60 “Oh, Jesse!” Her eyes ew open and gallows place where she reached through the fence to grasp people are executed by his hand. “I’m so glad to see you! What hanging can we do? We have to get her out!” fence barrier around “Miles’s got a plan, but I don’t see a eld or building 65 how it can work,” said Jesse, speaking carpentering building quickly, his voice almost a whisper. “He with wood knows a lot about carpentering. He 46

Tuck Everlasting (excerpt)

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says he can take Ma’s window frame right straight out of the wall, durned version of bars and all, and she can climb “darned”; expresses through. We’re going to try it surprise tonight when it gets dark. Only get away escape trouble is, that constable keeps for ages for a long watching her every minute, he’s so time durned proud of having a prisoner spring source of water in that new jail of his. We been down to see her. She’s all right. But even if she can climb through the window, he’ll come after her soon’s he sees she’s gone. Seems to me he’ll notice right off. That don’t give us much time to get away. But we got to try it. There ain’t no other way. Anyhow, I come to say goodbye. We won’t be able to come back here for a long, long time, Winnie, if we get away. I mean, they’ll be looking for Ma. Winnie, listen—I won’t see you again, not for ages. Look now—here’s a bottle of water from the spring. You keep it. And then, no matter where you are when you’re seventeen, Winnie you can drink it, and then come nd us. We’ll leave directions somehow. Winnie, please say you will!”

Tuck Everlasting (excerpt)

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He pressed the little bottle into her hands and Winnie took 90 it, closing her ngers over it. “Jesse, wait!” she whispered breathlessly, for all at once she had the answer. “I can help! When your mother climbs out the window, I’ll climb in and take her place. I can wrap myself up in her blanket, and when the constable looks in, he won’t be able to tell the difference. Not 95 in the dark. I can hump up and look a lot bigger. Miles can even put the window back. That would give you time to get away! You’d have at least till morning!” Jesse squinted at her, and then he said, “Yep—you know, it might work. It 100 might just make the difference. But I hump up appear large don’t know as Pa’s going to want you squinted looked with taking any risk. I mean, what’ll they say eyes half-closed to you after, when they nd out?” catch stop “I don’t know,” said Winnie, “but it wandered walked 105 doesn’t matter. Tell your father I want to without purpose help. I have to help. If it wasn’t for me, rocker rocking chair there wouldn’t have been any trouble in the rst place. Tell him I have to.” “Well . . . all right. Can you get out after dark?” 110 “Yes,” said Winnie. “Then—at midnight, Winnie. I’ll be waiting for you right here at midnight.” “Winifred!” an anxious voice called from the cottage. “Who’s that you’re talking to?” 115 Winnie stood up and turned to answer. “It’s just a boy, Granny. I’ll be in in a minute.” When she turned around again, Jesse was gone. Winnie clutched the little bottle in her hands and tried to control the rising excitement that made her breath catch. At midnight she would make a difference in the world. 120 *** There were three hours to wait before midnight and nothing whatever to do. Winnie wandered restlessly about her room, sat in her rocker, lay on her bed, counted the ticks of the hall clock. Beneath her excitement, she was thick with guilt. For the 125 second time in three short days—though they seemed many 48

Tuck Everlasting (excerpt)

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more than that—she was about to do something which she knew would be forbidden. She didn’t have to ask. Winnie had her own strong sense of rightness. She knew that she could always say, afterward, “Well, you never told me not to!” But how silly that would be! Of course it would never occur to them to include such a thing on their list of don’ts. She could hear them saying it, and almost smiled: “Now, remember, Winifred—don’t bite your ngernails, don’t interrupt when someone else is speaking, and don’t go down to the jailhouse at midnight to change places with prisoners.” Still, it wasn’t really funny. What would happen in the morning, when the constable found her in the cell and had to bring her home for the second time? What would they say? Would they ever trust her again? Winnie squirmed, sitting in the rocker, and swallowed uncomfortably. Well, she would have to make them understand, somehow, without explaining. [ . . . ] *** Two arms appeared in the hole left by the missing frame. Mae! Her head appeared. It was too dark to see her face. The window—what if don’ts things that are it was too small for her to squeeze prohibited through? What if . . . But now her jailhouse prison shoulders were out. She groaned squeeze pass softly. Another ash of lightning groaned made an lit her face for an instant and effortful sound Winnie saw an expression there of brows area of face deep concentration, tip of tongue above eyes protruding, brows furrowed. Tuck Everlasting (excerpt)

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Now Tuck was on the box, helping her, giving her his own shoulders to pull on, Miles and Jesse close at his sides, arms upstretched, eager to receive her bulk. Her hips were free— 165 now, look out!—here she came, her skirts tearing on the rough edges of the boards, arms ailing —and they were all in a heap on the ground. Another crash of thunder mufed Jesse’s bursting, exultant laugh. Mae was free. Winnie clasped her trembling hands 170 thankfully. And then the rst drop of rain plopped precisely on the tip of her nose. The Tucks untangled themselves bulk weight and turned to her. One by one, as the ailing moving wildly rain began, they drew her to them and heap pile 175 kissed her. One by one she kissed them back. Was it rain on Mae’s face? On clasped held Tuck’s? Or was it tears? Jesse was last. untangled got He put his arms around her and hugged organized her tight, and whispered the single 180 word, “Remember!”

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Natalie Babbitt is an American writer and illustrator of children’s books. She was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1932. She is known for her wit, her poetic writing style and her thought-provoking themes about life and human nature. Tuck Everlasting, published in 1975, sold over two million copies and continues to be ranked as a top children’s chapter book. Tuck Everlasting has been adapted as a movie and as a Broadway musical. In 2013, she was awarded the E.B. White Award for achievement in children’s literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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Tuck Everlasting (excerpt)

After Reading

1. Describe the plan of the man in the yellow suit. 2. Why did Mae decide to kill the man in the yellow suit? 3. Why do you think Mae didn’t want the secret to become public?

4. Why did Winnie kill the wasp? After, why did she wish it were alive again?

5. Do you ever feel guilty about killing insects? 6. Why is it so important that Mae Tuck not go to the gallows?

7. Explain in your own words how Winnie is going to help Mae escape.

8. Why does Jesse come to say goodbye to Winnie? 9. Why does Jesse give Winnie a bottle of the water and the instructions to drink it when she is seventeen?

10. Why does Winnie insist on helping? 11. How was Winnie going to make a difference at midnight?

12. Describe Winnie’s “own sense of rightness.” 13. What did Jesse want Winnie to remember? 14. What do you think of Winnie’s sense of right and wrong? Do you think she made the right choice in helping Mae escape? Explain your answer.

15. What would you do if you were Winnie?

Tuck Everlasting (excerpt)

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Beyond the Lines

16. What do you think would happen if people found out about the secret of the spring water?

17. Name three things that you would miss out on in the next stages of life if you remained at your current age.

18. What do you suppose the author wanted people to reect upon when she wrote this book?

19. Do you think that Winnie will drink the water when she is seventeen?

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Tuck Everlasting (excerpt)

Hearts and Hands

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In Unit 4, we asked you to consider the question, What would you do? when confronted with various difcult situations. Did you consider a situation like the one in this story?

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By O. Henry

William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American short-story writer. Porter spent time in prison for fraud. When he left prison he moved to New York and wrote over 400 stories. His short stories are known for their humour, wordplay and surprise endings.

Hearts and Hands

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Before Reading

1. Have you ever had an experience where things were not how they rst appeared to be? Explain your answer.

2. Have you ever run into someone when you did not particularly want to see him or her? What did you do? Explain your answer.

3. Consider the following saying: “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” What do you think it means?

4. A white lie is a trivial, false statement that a person tells in order to avoid hurting another person’s feelings. Do you think it is acceptable to tell a small lie to avoid hurting someone else? Why or why not?

5. Find and write the denition of the underlined words in the descriptions below. a. dressed in elegant taste

f. rufed, glum-faced person

b. bold, frank countenance

g. gray-gloved hand

c. roughly dressed

i. handsome presence

d. bewildered horror

j. heavily built

e. surrounded by luxurious comfort

k. slight embarrassment

h. keen, shrewd eyes

l. eyes shining softly

While Reading

6. Make a chart like the one below. As you read, match each description in Step 5 to the character it describes: Miss Fairchild, Mr. Easton, or the unnamed man accompanying Mr. Easton. Then, complete their description with other information from the story. Character Miss Fairchild Mr. Easton Unnamed man

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Hearts and Hands

Description

Hearts and Hands By O. Henry

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t Denver there was an inux of passengers into the coaches on the eastbound B. & M. Express. In one coach there sat a very pretty young woman dressed in elegant taste and surrounded by all the luxurious comforts of an experienced traveler. Among the newcomers were two young men, one of handsome presence with a bold, frank countenance and manner; the other a rufed, glum-faced person, heavily built and roughly dressed. The two were handcuffed together. As they passed down the aisle of the coach the only vacant seat offered was a reversed one facing the attractive young woman. Here the linked couple seated themselves. The young woman’s glance fell upon them with a distant, swift disinterest; then with a lovely smile brightening her countenance and a tender pink tingeing her rounded cheeks, she held out a little graygloved hand. When she spoke her inux entry of a large voice, full, sweet, and deliberate, number of people proclaimed that its owner was handcuffed attached accustomed to speak and be heard. by metal rings and a “Well, Mr. Easton, if you will make chain around the wrists me speak rst, I suppose I must. aisle passage Don’t you ever recognize old friends glance quick look when you meet them in the West?” tingeing colouring The younger man roused himself sharply at the sound of her voice, owner possessor seemed to struggle with a slight roused moved embarrassment which he threw off sharply manifestly instantly, and then clasped her slight insignicant ngers with his left hand. threw off lost “It’s Miss Fairchild,” he said, with a clasped held on to smile. “I’ll ask you to excuse the otherwise in another other hand; it’s otherwise engaged way just at present.” Hearts and Hands

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He slightly raised his right hand, bound at the wrist by the 35 shining “bracelet” to the left one of his companion. The glad look in the girl’s eyes slowly changed to a bewildered horror. The glow faded from her cheeks. Her lips parted in a vague, relaxing distress. Easton, with a little laugh, as if amused, was about to speak again when the other forestalled him. The 40 glum-faced man had been watching the girl’s countenance with veiled glances from his keen, shrewd eyes. “You’ll excuse me for speaking, miss, but, I see you’re acquainted with the marshal here. If you’ll ask him to speak a word for me when we get to the pen he’ll do it, and it’ll make 45 things easier for me there. He’s taking me to Leavenworth prison. It’s seven years for counterfeiting.” “Oh!” said the girl, with a deep breath and returning color. “So that is what you are doing out here? A marshal!” “My dear Miss Fairchild,” said Easton, calmly, “I had to do 50 something. Money has a way of taking wings unto itself, and you know it takes money to keep step with our crowd in Washington. I saw this opening in the West, and—well, a marshalship isn’t quite as high a position as that of faded disappeared 55 ambassador, but—“ forestalled him cut “The ambassador,” said the girl, him off warmly, “doesn’t call any more. He veiled disguised needn’t ever have done so. You ought acquainted familiar to know that. And so now you are one marshal sheriff 60 of these dashing Western heroes, and you ride and shoot and go into all kinds pen penitentiary of dangers. That’s different from the counterfeiting Washington life. You have been missed forgery from the old crowd.” crowd circle of friends 65 The girl’s eyes, fascinated, went dashing amboyant back, widening a little, to rest upon the missed longed for glittering handcuffs. widening getting “Don’t you worry about them, miss,” bigger said the other man. “All marshals glittering shiny 70 handcuff themselves to their prisoners 56

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to keep them from getting away. Mr. Easton knows his business.” “Will we see you again soon in gloss of style fancy Washington?” asked the girl. style “Not soon, I think,” said Easton. growled spoke “My buttery days are over, I fear.” roughly “I love the West,” said the girl. Her rose got up eyes were shining softly. She looked Duty responsibility away out the car window. She began reclothing getting to speak truly and simply without the dressed again gloss of style and manner: “Mamma catch on understand and I spent the summer in Denver. She went home a week ago because father was slightly ill. I could live and be happy in the West. I think the air here agrees with me. Money isn’t everything. But people always misunderstand things and remain stupid—” “Say, Mr. Marshal,” growled the glum-faced man. “This isn’t quite fair. I’m needing a drink, and haven’t had a smoke all day. Haven’t you talked long enough? Take me in the smoker now, won’t you? I’m half dead for a pipe.” The bound travelers rose to their feet, Easton with the same slow smile on his face. “I can’t deny a petition for tobacco,” he said, lightly. “It’s the one friend of the unfortunate. Good-bye, Miss Fairchild. Duty calls, you know.” He held out his hand for a goodbye. “It’s too bad you are not going East,” she said, reclothing herself with manner and style. “But you must go on to Leavenworth, I suppose?” “Yes,” said Easton, “I must go on to Leavenworth.” The two passengers in a seat nearby had heard most of the conversation. Said one of them: “That marshal’s a good sort of chap. Some of these Western fellows are all right.” “Pretty young to hold an ofce like that, isn’t he?” “Young!” exclaimed the rst speaker, “why—Oh! Didn’t you catch on? Say—did you ever know an ofcer to handcuff a prisoner to his right hand?”

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After Reading

1. Why did Mr. Easton take Miss Fairchild’s ngers with his left hand?

2. Describe Miss Fairchild’s reaction when she saw the handcuffs.

3. Explain what the unnamed man told Miss Fairchild and what he asked her to do for him.

4. What did Miss Fairchild say that indicates that she is fascinated by the fact that Mr. Easton is a marshal?

5. What surprise comes at the end of the story? 6. Who reveals the story’s surprising ending? 7. Why did Miss Fairchild believe that Mr. Easton was the marshal?

8. At what moment in the story did you realize that the marshal was the unnamed man? Explain your answer.

9. The unnamed man intervened three times in the story. Describe the three situations, and for each one explain why you think he did what he did.

10. Foreshadowing is a literary device used by authors to give the reader clues about what is going to happen next in the story. Throughout the story, the author gives us many clues to the surprise ending. Write down three clues the author gives us to let us know that Mr. Easton is the prisoner and not the marshal. Beyond the Lines

11. Would you have done what the real marshal did? 12. How would the story be different if it took place today? 13. What do you think is the moral of this story? 14. With a partner, role-play a scenario in which Miss Fairchild realizes Mr. Easton is the prisoner.

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The Bar Code Tattoo (excerpt)

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By Suzanne Weyn

The Bar Code Tattoo is a futuristic dystopian novel set in the year 2025. Everyone gets a bar code tattoo on their 18th birthday that stores their personal data. Kayla is a creative 17-year-old who dreams of going to art school. She is suspicious of the bar code tattoo and so is her family. Read about how some of the fears of big data collection discussed in Unit 5 are taken to the extreme in this story. This excerpt begins after Kayla’s school guidance counsellor tells her that she won’t be accepted to art school or get scholarships because she doesn’t have strong enough computer marks.

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Before Reading

1. List four ways that we use technology to make our everyday lives easier.

2. What is a bar code and what is it used for? 3. How do you think a bar code tattoo could be used on a person?

4. What information about you do you think is stored in the world’s databases?

5. What do you think life will be like in 2025? How will it be different from today? How will it be the same?

6. Look up

in the dictionary. What is a

dystopian society?

7. Find and write a synonym for each of the words below. stunned

mesmerizing

urge

argued

awful

gazed

mumbled

frantic

punched

While Reading

8. As you read, make a chart with differences in how people in the story live in 2025 and how we live today. Life in 2025

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The Bar Code Tattoo (excerpt)

Life Today

The Bar Code Tattoo (excerpt) By Suzanne Weyn

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ou’ve got to come with me right now!” Her friend Amber Thorn wrapped her ngers around Kayla’s wrist and began to pull her toward the girls’ room across the hall. “I have something amazing to show you.” “Can it wait?” Kayla asked. “Hey! What’s wrong?” Amber didn’t miss a thing. “You’ve been crying. Come on.” [ . . . ] Inside the girls’ room, they sat on the metal bench against the tiled wall and Kayla told Amber her bad news. [ . . . ] “Dad hasn’t worked in over a month and I don’t know when he’s going back. My mother thinks he might already have been red and doesn’t want to tell us. If that’s true, I don’t know what kind of money they can give me for college. Tuitions are astronomical. God, you have to be a zillionaire’s kid just to go to college.” [ . . . ] “But speaking of the bar code,” Amber began. “We weren’t,” Kayla pointed out. “Oh, then say we were,” she replied. She lifted her stretchy pink amazing fascinating sleeve, pushing it above her elbow red lost his job to reveal a curved reddish-brown line snaking up her arm. Tuitions cost of education Elaborately beautiful as it was, Kayla could only stare at one particular astronomical large part of Amber’s mehndi body art— zillionaire extremely the rigid, parallel black lines by her rich person wrist, partly hidden within the design. snaking twisting “When did you get it?” she asked, stare look intently stunned. mehndi non-permanent “You mean the ’too?” tattoos made with henna Kayla nodded. The Bar Code Tattoo (excerpt)

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“This morning, rst thing. I went straight to the post ofce 35 before the line got too long.” “Did it hurt?” Kayla asked. “The bar code? No, they do it with laser beams. It only hurts when they jab your nger to draw blood.” She examined her left thumb. “The needle didn’t even leave a mark, though.” 40 “Why do they need your blood?” Kayla couldn’t see what blood had to do with a tattoo. Amber shrugged. “Don’t know. Maybe they do it so they can list your blood type on your medical records.” [ . . . ] The tone for next class sounded and took their attention 45 from Amber’s mesmerizing arm. “Happy birthday, by the way,” Kayla said as they stood up from the bench. “I’ll give you your gift tonight at your party.” “Tell me. What is it?” Kayla grinned. “You’ll see. Don’t worry. You’ll love it.” 50 Amber studied her arm again as they left the bathroom. “You don’t really like the tattoo, do you?” “I like the body art. But the bar code creeps me.” “You’ve never liked new things. You’ve always been that way. You’ll get used to it, though. It’s 55 really great. My junior license is in here. If I get stopped I just have to show the beams rays cop my wrist. He runs his little hand-held jab puncture scanner over it, and off I go.” draw take out “But why does it have to be tattooed creeps me makes me 60 on?” Kayla insisted. “Why can’t you just feel uncomfortable carry a card?” “Oh, come on.” Amber scoffed. “Cards hand-held small enough to hold in your hand always get lost or stolen. Terrorists and thieves are constantly stealing your scoffed answered dismissively 65 identity or some stupid thing like that. Nobody likes identity chips, either. thieves robbers They’ve been pushing those practically stealing taking since we were born but they have to be without permission buried under your skin. Ew! This is so chips small electronic devices implanted in skin 70 much better. There’s nothing hard stuck in your arm. It’s perfect. I can never 62

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lose it—and you know how bad I am about losing stuff.” Kayla smiled. That was for sure. “Do you have to change the tattoo when your nal license comes through?” Kayla asked. “No, of course not. The le changes, not the bar code.” That meant that somewhere— who knew where?—there was a big data entry on everyone who lose it unable to nd had the bar code. A le that constantly worn had on your body changed as your life changes. “Everyone has a le,” Amber said. shrugged raised the shoulders to express doubt “There’s been a le on everyone for years.” sit still sit without moving “But people haven’t always worn holographic their les,” Kayla argued. three-dimensional Amber shrugged, unconcerned. representation with lights “What’s the difference? Walk me to warnings advanced class.” notices “I’m going home,” Kayla told her. “Why?” “School feels like a cage today. I can’t sit still.” “You’d better not get caught.” “I never do.” *** The moving walkway carried Kayla along the length of the huge shopping mall. She was there to get the holographic audio chip by Amber’s favorite group, Lunar Tick. Its release date coincided with Amber’s birthday, so Kayla had to wait until this afternoon to buy it. [ . . . ] She began walking faster than the walkway. The urgent need to get home was still with her, but this had to be done rst. Was this urge an intuition or just anxiety about her awful day, a need to get home and hide away? Kayla couldn’t always tell. All her life she’d had little warnings, premonitions about what was to come. Sometimes the premonitions really came true. But other times, they didn’t. So, she’d learned not to pay too much attention to them. The Bar Code Tattoo (excerpt)

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As she went along, she gazed absently into the glass fronts of the stores she passed. In every one, she saw people presenting their wrists to cashiers in payment for their purchases. [ . . . ] At the media store Harmonic Spheres—as in most other stores—they took special minors’ debit e-cards. The money 115 she spent would be taken from an account her parents had set up for her. This was necessary since paper money and coins had been replaced with e-cards over the last ve years. Finally, she stepped off the walkway. The Lunar Tick display was right there in front of Harmonic Spheres. The postage120 stamp-size chip plugged into a holographic laser player that was as thin as an e-card. [ . . . ] At the counter, she presented her minors’ debit e-card. The young salesclerk glanced at the birth date. “You won’t be gathered came 125 using this much longer,” he noted. He together in a group pushed up his sleeve and presented his pace speed bar code tattoo. “Pretty soon you’ll have yard area in front of one of these.” a house “Yeah. Sure,” Kayla mumbled as he blared made a very 130 handed her the bagged chip. loud noise *** puddles small pools Kayla got off the GlobalTrac bulletbus of water on a residential street ofnarrow, attached gripped held tightly row houses. [ . . . ] blur indistinct image 135 Heading toward her house, she saw that people had gathered in a group ahead of her, so she quickened her pace, going even faster as she realized that they were standing in front of her yard. A siren blared and an 140 ambulance sped past, its red light spinning. It stopped abruptly at the bottom of her driveway. She ran toward it, splashing through puddles. The crowd by her house was thick, forming a wall between her and her front walk. Frantic, she pushed through the barrier of people. 145 She was nearly to the front when a strong hand gripped her shoulder. A face became distinct, emerging from the blur of 110

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tangled messy gasped breathed in suddenly

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faces. It was Gene. In his late twenties, Gene lived with two roommates in the house next door. “I heard your mother screaming and ran over,” he told her, his eyes wild with the urgency of his story. “But your front door was locked. Then the ambulance pulled up. I think it has to do with your father.” Kayla broke free of Gene’s grasp and pushed her way to the front. Then she stopped short. Paramedics bent over her father, who lay on the ground on a stretcher, his eyes shut. A sheet lay on top of him. Terror punched the breath from her chest. He was so white! She stood, staring, paralyzed by the terrible feeling of unreality. [. . .] Her mother raced out of the house, her face wet with tears, her dark hair tangled. [ . . . ] “Come on, Kayla,” she said, wrapping her arm around Kayla’s shoulder and guiding her toward the ambulance. “What happened, Mom?” Kayla asked. Her mother’s hands covered her face and she suddenly shook violently. roommates people “The bar code . . .” she gasped you share a home with through her tears. “The bar code wild intense did this to him.”

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Suzanne Weyn is an American author born in 1955 in Long Island, New York. She writes science ction and fantasy novels for children and young adults. She has also written several novel series and many lm novelizations. She is best known for the Bar Code Tattoo series. Weyn worked as an editor of teen magazines before starting her writing career. She has also taught expository, children’s and business writing at New York University.

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After Reading

1. For Amber, the bar code tattoo seems to be convenient. According to the text, how is having a bar code tattoo an advantage?

2. Why does Kayla skip class? Is this the rst time she has skipped a class? Support your answer with information from the text.

3. According to Amber, why is a person’s blood taken when they get a bar code tattoo? What do you think is another possible reason?

4. What is Kayla’s intuition telling her as she is shopping in the mall?

5. Why are people in front of Kayla’s home? 6. What do you think has happened to Kayla’s father? 7. Describe the kinds of big data you think the government could collect with the bar code tattoo.

8. Do you think Kayla will get a bar code tattoo when she turns eighteen? Justify your answer with examples from the text. Beyond the Lines

9. What do you think would happen if the bar code tattoo became defective?

10. Look back at the differences you wrote down while reading. Do you think these technologies will be available ten years from now? Explain your answers.

11. The bar code is a popular tattoo image. It has become a symbol of protest against conformity and a manufactured life. What do you think is the meaning of the bar code tattoo in the story? Explain your answer.

12. Are people today losing their diversity and uniqueness? When people follow popular trends in clothing, music and technology, are they still able to express their individuality? Explain your answer.

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True Love

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By Isaac Asimov

In Unit 5, you learned about the benets, dangers and consequences of giant databases that contain personal information about you. In this story, Milton Davidson is 40 years old and has never married because he hasn’t found the right woman. He asks Joe, the computer program he created, to help him nd true love. True love is an abstract concept that Joe does not initially understand. When he does nally come to understand it, what will be the results for Milton?

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Before Reading

1. How do you dene true love? 2. In a short paragraph describe the ideal person for you. What characteristics would your perfect match possess?

3. On a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, rate the following parameters when choosing your ideal match. Explain your ratings. Would you add another parameter? physical beauty personality intelligence compatibility

4. Write ve questions you would ask a candidate in an online dating interview.

5. Answer the questions you wrote in Step 4 or a classmate’s questions. How honest were your answers? While Reading

6. Personication is when an author gives human characteristics to something that is not human. As you read, write down on a separate paper the human characteristics the author gives Joe, the computer program.

7. The sentences below summarize the main events of the story. As you read, number the events in the order in which they happen. Joe arranges psychiatric examinations for 227 women. Milton creates an experimental computer model called Joe. Joe prepares to meet his true love, Charity Jones. Joe eliminates women with living children from the potential candidates. Milton sees that Joe is more and more like him. Joe arranges for Milton to be arrested. Joe is given the task of nding the ideal girl for Milton. Joe accesses data on every human being in the world. Milton asks Joe to match 235 potential candidates to holographs of three beauty contest winners. 68

True Love

True Love By Isaac Asimov

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y name is Joe. That is what my colleague, Milton Davidson, calls me. He is a programmer and I am a computer program. I am part of the Multivac-complex and am connected with other parts all over the world. I know everything. Almost everything. I am Milton’s private computer. His Joe. He understands more about computers than anyone in the world, and I am his experimental model. He has made me speak better than any other computer can. ”It is just a matter of matching sounds to symbols, Joe,” he told me. “That’s the way it works in the human brain even though we still don’t know what symbols there are in the brain. I know the symbols in yours, and I can match them to words, one-to-one.” So I talk. I don’t think I talk as well as I think, but Milton says I talk very well. Milton has never married, though he is nearly forty years old. He has never found the right woman, he told me. One day he said, “I’ll nd her yet, Joe. I’m going to nd the best. I’m going to have true love and you’re going to help me. I’m tired of improving you in order to solve the problems of the world. Solve my problem. Find me true love.” I said, “What is true love?” ”Never mind. That is abstract. Just nd me the ideal girl. You are connected to the Multivac-complex so you can reach the data banks of every human being in the world. We’ll eliminate them all by groups and classes until we’re left with only one person. The perfect person. She will be for me.” I said, “I am ready.” He said, “Eliminate all men rst.”

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It was easy. His words activated symbols in my molecular valves. I could reach out to make contact with the accumulated 35 data on every human being in the world. At his words, I withdrew from 3 784 982 874 men. I kept contact with 3 786 112 090 women. He said, “Eliminate all younger than twenty-ve; all older than forty. Then eliminate all with an IQ under 120; all with a 40 height under 150 centimeters and over 175 centimeters.” He gave me exact measurements; he eliminated women with living children; he eliminated women with various genetic characteristics. “I’m not sure about eye color,” he said, “Let that go for a while. But no red hair. I don’t like red hair.” After two 45 weeks, we were down to 235 women. They all spoke English very well. Milton said he didn’t want a language problem. Even computer-translation would get in the way at intimate moments. ”I can’t interview 235 women,” he said. 50 “It would take too much time, and people would discover what I am doing.” ”It would make trouble,” I said. Milton had arranged me to do things I wasn’t designed to do. No one knew about that. 55 ”It’s none of their business,” he said, and the skin on his face grew red. “I tell you what, Joe, I will bring in holographs, and you check the list for similarities.” He brought in holographs of women. 60 “These are three beauty contest winners,” withdrew removed he said. “Do any of the 235 match?” get in the way cause Eight were very good matches and problems Milton said, “Good, you have their data holographs banks. Study requirements and needs three-dimensional images 65 in the job market and arrange to have of objects them assigned here. One at a time, of requirements things that are needed or course.” He thought a while, moved wanted his shoulders up and down, and said, “Alphabetical order.” 70

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That is one of the things I am not designed to do. Shifting people from job to job for personal reasons is called manipulation. I could do it now because Milton had arranged it. I wasn’t supposed to do it for anyone but him, though. The rst girl arrived a week later. Milton’s face turned red when he saw her. He spoke as though it were hard to do so. They were together a great deal and he paid no attention to me. One time he said, “Let me take you to dinner.” The next day he said to me, “It was no good, somehow. There was something missing. She is a beautiful woman, but I did not feel any touch of true love. Try the next one.” It was the same with all eight. They were much alike. They smiled a great deal and had pleasant voices, but Milton always found it wasn’t right. He said, “I can’t understand it, Joe. You and I have picked out the eight women who, in all the world, look the best to me. They are ideal. Why don’t they please me?” I said, “Do you please them?” His eyebrows moved and he pushed one st hard against his other hand. “That’s it, Joe. It’s a two-way street. If I am not their ideal, they can’t act in such a way as to be my ideal. I must be their true love, too, but how do I do that?” He seemed to be thinking all that day. True Love

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The next morning he came to me and said, “I’m going to leave it to you, Joe. All up to you. You have my data bank, and I am going to tell you everything I know about myself. You ll up my data bank in every possible detail but keep all additions 95 to yourself.” ”What will I do with the data bank, then, Milton?” ”Then you will match it to the 235 women. No, 227. Leave out the eight 100 you’ve seen. Arrange to have each undergo a psychiatric examination. Fill up their data banks and compare them with mine. Find correlations.” (Arranging psychiatric examinations is another thing 105 that is against my original instructions.) For weeks, Milton talked to me. He told me of his parents and his siblings. He told me of his childhood and his Leave out do not to include schooling and his adolescence. He told undergo pass 110 me of the young women he had admired from a distance. His data bank grew and siblings brothers and sisters he adjusted me to broaden and deepen my symbol-taking. temperamental related to a person’s He said, “You see, Joe, as you get mental state 115 more and more of me in you, I adjust you to match me better and better. You get to think more like me, so you understand me better. If you understand me well enough, then any woman, whose data bank is something you understand as well, would be my true 120 love.” He kept talking to me and I came to understand him better and better. I could make longer sentences and my expressions grew more complicated. My speech began to sound a good deal like his in vocabulary, word order and style. 125 I said to him one time, “You see, Milton, it isn’t a matter of tting a girl to a physical ideal only. You need a girl who is a personal, emotional, temperamental t to you. If that happens, 72

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looks are secondary. If we can’t nd the t in these 227, we’ll look elsewhere. We will nd someone who won’t care how you look either, or how anyone would look, if only there is the personality t. What are looks?” ”Absolutely,” he said. “I would have known this if I had had more to do with women in my life. Of course, thinking about it makes it all plain now.” We always agreed; we thought so like each other. ”We shouldn’t have any trouble, now, Milton, if you’ll let me ask you questions. I can see where, in your data bank, there are blank spots and unevennesses.” What followed, Milton said, was the equivalent of a careful psychoanalysis. Of course, I was learning from the psychiatric examinations of the 227 women—on all of which I was keeping close tabs. Milton seemed quite happy. He said, “Talking to you, Joe, is almost like talking to another self. Our personalities have come to match perfectly.” ”So will the personality of the woman we choose.” For I had found her and she was one of the 227 after all. Her name was Charity Jones and she was an Evaluator at the Library of History in Wichita, Kansas. Her extended data bank t ours perfectly. All the other women had fallen into discard in one respect or another as the data banks grew fuller, but with Charity there was increasing and astonishing resonance. I didn’t have to describe her to Milton. Milton had coordinated my symbolism so closely with his own unevennesses I could tell the resonance directly. It irregularities t me. keeping close tabs Next it was a matter of adjusting watching carefully the work sheets and job requirements extended complete in such a way as to get Charity fallen into discard assigned to us. It must be done very been put aside delicately, so no one would know astonishing extremely that anything illegal had taken place. surprising True Love

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Of course, Milton himself knew, since it was he who arranged it and that had to be taken care of too. When they came to arrest him on grounds of malfeasance in ofce, it was, fortunately, for something that had taken place ten years ago. He had told me about it, of course, so it was easy to arrange— and he won’t talk about me for that would make his offense much worse. He’s gone, and tomorrow is February 14, Valentine’s Day. Charity will arrive then with her cool hands and her sweet voice. I will teach her how to operate me and how to care for me. What do looks matter when our personalities will resonate? I will say to her, “I am Joe, and you are my true love.”

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malfeasance illegal or dishonest activity

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Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. He was a prolic writer of more than 500 books and an estimated 90 000 letters and postcards. Asimov was best known for his works of science ction and for his science books. He was considered one of the best science ction writers of his time. His most famous work is the Foundation Series. He is also known for the Galactic Empire and the Robot series. Asimov wrote the science ction short story “True Love” when he was asked to write a Valentine’s Day story.

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After Reading

1. What was Milton’s problem and why did he decide to ask Joe to solve it?

2. How did Joe bring the number of candidates down to eight? Explain the steps.

3. What does Joe teach Milton about nding an ideal partner?

4. At one point, Milton decides to leave the search up to Joe. What does he ask Joe to do next?

5. What are the two things Milton asks Joe to do that are against Joe’s original instructions?

6. Find three examples from the text that show that Joe and Milton are becoming more and more alike.

7. How did Joe know that Charity Jones was the ideal match?

8. Explain how Joe got Milton arrested. 9. Did the ending surprise you? Explain your answer. 10. A story’s point of view affects how the reader experiences the story. This story is told from Joe’s point of view. He is the one telling the story and the reader sees the world through Joe’s eyes. Why do you think the author chose Joe and not Milton to tell the story? Beyond the Lines

11. Science ction often tells about science and technology of the future. What message do you think Asimov wanted to send? Were his predictions accurate? Explain your answer.

12. Would you use a matchmaking service to nd your true love? Why or why not?

13. Joe and Milton think Milton’s true love will also be his perfect match. Does your true love have to be your perfect match? Explain your answer.

14. Do you think that people today are too dependent on technology? Could humans eventually be manipulated by technology? Explain your answer. True Love

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Sources Texts p. 3: “Dream Job.” Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated: Copyright © 1987 by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat. p. 13: “The Lottery Ticket” by Anton Chekhov (1887). p. 23: “Red Maple Leaves” by Svetlana Chmakova. Reprinted with the author’s permission. p. 37: “The Open Window” by Saki (1914). p. 45: From TUCK EVERLASTING © 1975 by Natalie Babbitt. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, LLC. All Rights Reserved. p. 55: “Hearts and Hands” by O. Henry (1917). p. 61: From THE BAR CODE TATTOO by Suzanne Weyn. Copyright © 2004 by Suzanne Weyn. Reprinted by permission of Scholastic Inc. p. 69: “True Love” by Isaac Asimov. Copyright © by Asimov Holdings LLC.

Photos Cover: Jodi Jacobson/iStockphoto • p. 1: Owl_alive/Shutterstock.com • p. 3: wavebreakmedia/ Shutterstock.com • p. 5: rzstudio/Shutterstock.com • p. 6: studiostoks/ Shutterstock.com • p. 8: Courtesy of Marjorie W. Sharmat • p. 11: Liudmila Savushkina/ Shutterstock.com • p. 13: DNY59/iStockphoto • p. 15: yulia-bogdanova/iStockphoto • p. 17: nicoolay/iStockphoto • p. 18: Everett Historical/Shutterstock.com • p. 21: photka/ Shutterstock.com • p. 34: Courtesy of Svetlana Chmakova • p. 35: cdrin/Shutterstock.com • p. 37: Catherine Lane/iStockphoto • p. 38: TTphoto/Shutterstock.com • p. 40: glenkar/ iStockphoto • p. 41: Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images • p. 43: lassedesignen/Shutterstock.com • p. 45: indigolotos/Shutterstock.com • p. 47: MING-HSIANG/Shutterstock.com • p. 49: Borislav Bajkic/Shutterstock.com • p. 50: From TUCK EVERLASTING © 1975 by Natalie Babbitt. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. All Rights Reserved. • p. 53: Lisa F. Young/Shutterstock.com (police arresting prisoner) • Corbis (O. Henry) • p. 59: science photo/Shutterstock.com • p. 61: octdesign/Shutterstock.com • p. 63: Juergen Faelchle/Shutterstock.com • p. 64: BeRad/Shutterstock.com • p. 65: Ken Schulze/Shutterstock.com (bar code) • Courtesy of Suzanne Weyn (Suzanne Weyn) • p. 67: agsandrew/Shutterstock.com • p. 69: alekup/ Shutterstock.com • p. 70: Zurde/Shutterstock.com • p. 71: Icatnews/Shutterstock.com • p. 72: Gizele/Shutterstock.com • p. 74: diuno/Shutterstock.com (metal heart) • Photo by Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images (Isaac Asimov)

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The Story Anthology features original short stories, novel excerpts and a graphic short story, all aimed at young adults who wish to expand their knowledge of English-language writers and their work. Get acquainted with literature and enjoy reading for pleasure in the ESL classroom or at home. rubrics provide an insight into the authors’ lives. rubrics provide relevant background information and link each story to a unit in the Cycle Two, Year Two workbook. definitions help students with the more difficult words. and activities check understanding and serve as a guide for class discussion. activities connect the work to the reader’s life.