A Lady of Letters- Part 4

A Lady of Letters- Part 3

A Lady of Letters- Part 2

A lady of Letters - Part 1

A Sense of Shame

A Sense of Shame by Jan Needle

BEFORE YOU READ:

1) Title: What does the title suggest?
What does “shame” mean? What can someone feel shame for?
Does the word “sense” strengthen or weaken the meaning of “shame”?
Have you ever felt shame for something that happened to you or to somebody else?
Look up the word “taboo”. How do you think it links to the title of the story?

2) These quotations are taken from the beginning of the story (pages 40-41). Write a paragraph between each one of them.

• "Although all the lads in the printing works reckoned she was one of the fittest bits they’d ever seen, the strange fact about Lorraine was she’d never been in love."
• "She was sixteen, he was nineteen. She was white Oldham and a Catholic too (although the days when the Catholics in Oldham got the nasty end of the prejudice stick are long gone) and he was a Pakistani."
• "Lorraine sat down with a bump. She’d often fancied boys before, or so she thought, but she’d never felt this, ever."

WHILE YOU READ:

1) Read the first two pages (40-41), and go back to the paragraphs you wrote for activity 3 above. Compare your expectations with the writer’s ideas.

2) After reading the paragraph on pages 43-44, imagine a possible second encounter between Lorraine and the Pakistani boy.

3) Read pages 44-45. Underline an expression that shows somebody is...
page 44:
a) nervous in expectance
b) clumsy
c) embarrassed
d) nervous as an outcome
e) relieved
page 45:
f) overwhelmed
g) astonished
h) thrilled
i) briefly anxious

4) Choose either a) or b)
a) After reading pages 46-47, write the dialogue that would have taken place (paragraph: “when they got round to talking, they talked about nothing at all.”)
b) After reading page 49 (paragraph: “She had imaginary conversations, when she told her friend the truth, and they always ended up the same.”) write the actual conversation that she could have had with her friend.

5) Write an informal letter from one character to another (pages 59-61).
Lorraine – Mohammed – mother – father – Jackie

6) After reading page 61-62 (paragraph: “Two nights later...”) discuss different options: Why wasn’t he at the spot they’d agreed to meet?

7) How is Lorraine feeling at the end of page 62? How is this feeling similar to, or different form what she has felt so far?

8) Read the two paragraphs on page 63, and try to imagine whose ideas are expressed at different points in the report of the dialogue they had: Lorraine’s or Anne’s?

9) How does Lorraine begin to feel about the baby? Trace this feeling to the 4end of the story. Does it remain the same? Does it change? How? (Explain briefly).

10) “She had six months.” What for? What IS she going to do? Try to reconstruct her thoughts to come up with a possible resolution of the conflict from her standpoint.


AFTER YOU READ:
1) When does the bitterest sense of shame begin in the story?
2) Choose 3 quotations that show prejudice or discrimination as regards the sense of shame in the story.
3) Discuss: Is “to have a feeling of shame” the same as understanding what “shame” is?
4) What other meanings for “sense” can you find in the story?
5) Imagine Lorraine has already had her baby. Write down a possible interview she may have with a psychologist before making a final decision.

Some Murder Stories by students

Murder story
PABLO MONTEAGUDO
4°3

Mr. Cornfeld had always been very rude to his wife Gloria.
They had been married for ten years, and Gloria couldn’t remember a single happy moment in all that time. Gloria had married him because of his money; Mr. Cornfeld had married her because of her beauty. The day after their wedding night, ten years before, something terrible happened. The couple suffered a car crash and Gloria’s beautiful face was horribly disfigured. After he learned his wife’s face couldn’t be restored, Mr. Cornfeld wanted a divorce, but Gloria didn’t accept. He asked for the divorce again and again, but she would never say yes. That’s why he hated her so much. But Gloria hated him even more, and she couldn’t wait for the inheritance she would receive, in case her husband promptly died...
About two years before, Gloria had traveled to Haiti and other Caribbean islands in order to find medical support that might help to restore her face. She didn’t find anyone who could help her, but while being there she learnt a few things about the voodoo, which was practiced by the local natives.
Voodoo rites could be able to cause a person’s death; the only elements needed were a small dummy made of wax, and a piece of the victim’s hair or fingernails. Then, you set fire to the dummy and...
Gloria was convinced all this could really work out; it would be a perfect murder. There would be neither clues nor evidence, and all her husband’s money would go to her hands.
She prepared the little wax dummy one afternoon, while her husband, she thought, was not home. She was worryingly thinking about how to get a hair or fingernail from her husband when the latter suddenly entered the room and saw the dummy.
“What in the name of God’s this thing?” he rudely asked.
Mr. Cornfeld was a very sceptical man and didn’t believe in those things, so Gloria told him the truth. She was not surprised to see he laughed in her face.
“And do you really believe in all this mumbo-jumbo?” he asked. Gloria suddenly had an idea and replied:
“Yes, of course I do! And I could kill you right now if I wanted to. All you have to do is bring me a piece of your hair or fingernails and I’ll show you!”
“All right,” Cornfeld said. “We’ll see”
He went to the bathroom and returned with a piece of hair in his hand. Gloria carefully put the hair into the wax dummy and anxiously set fire to it; her husband would be dead in a few seconds. As she was thinking this, she began feeling uneasy, like burning inside her own body, and in a few seconds more, she was lying dead on the floor.
Mr. Cornfeld was quite surprised, as he had thought such things were not possible, but they seemingly were. He was also surprised at the fact his wife always forgot to clean her hair brush.


Murder Story
ANDRES PROAÑO
4°3ra

Life. In a moment I realize there are things that are not me, and in that moment, I realize I am, and there are others who are not me and I am not them. And with that realization, comes a rush of knowledge, and then it stops. The tools with which I percieve the world are taken from me. I know nothing more. Nothing more, except that I am before others and I must make them know what I know. And this is what I know:
There was a world where everyone lived and died in a continuous cycle. And whenever someone died, those near that person mourned, because they were reminded of their inevitable death and because they lost things shared or deposited in that one who was no more. And so, with pain comes a thirst for revenge. And because of this thirst, whenever someone’s death was caused by another, all those who suffered sought for the death-giver to be undone. Because of the chaos and vicious cycles this produced, the whole of all gave power to an institution that acted as a pacifier and decided, through investigation, when one was truly responsible of the death of another and delivered justice.
In this world, there were two who were equally superior to the rest but had interests opposite to one another. This one walked showing oneself openly to all, working for the interests of what one thought was right, not for what was more convenient for one. This one was the hero.
The other one walked hidden in the anonymity that the great numbers of others provided and behind a façade of normality. This one worked for the interests of oneself, not for those of others or any beliefs. This one was the rival.
There was another one who was given death by the rival, and the rival received benefits because of this one’s death. This one was the victim.
The rival and the hero raged an intelectual battle in this world, where all others were inferior and could do nothing but watch helplessly.
The pacifiers could not understand all the mistakes caused by the rival, because he was superior to them in thought, and so he managed to evade their investigation. But since the hero was on the same level as the rival, he managed to understand the mistakes left behind, and worked out his identity and culpability. And so he made it known to the pacifiers who the rival was, and the pacifiers delivered justice.
This is the only world I know, and I vicariously enjoy sharing this knowledge to all I can.
This is my existence.

An eye for an eye by Jeffrey Archer

An Eye for an Eye by Jeffrey Archer


Pre-reading Activities

1) What does the title mean? Can you provide any examples to which this
expression can be applied to?

2) Have a look at the following words. Get in groups of 3 and try to make
up a story using them. Bear in mind the title of the story and try to
include this ingredient into it.

The postman hot frying pan blood eye
chopped Bruce Banks blind Mary Banks
Strychnine axe Sir Matthew Roberts

3) Choose the best story

4) How much do you know about crime and the law?
Match the following words and definitions in pairs.


1. Plea of not guilty A) The result or effect of evidence;
the establishment or denial of a fact by evidence.
2. Manslaughter B) A lawyer or group of lawyers giving legal advice and
especially conducting a case in court.
3. Plaintiff C) An emotion, desire, physiological need, or similar
impulse that acts as an incitement to action
4. Counsel D) A suite of rooms, especially one used by lawyers to
consult privately with attorneys or hear cases not
taken into court.
5. Barrister E) The documentary or oral statements and the material
objects admissible as testimony in a court of law.
6. Instructing solicitor F) It refers principally to a British trial lawyer.
7. Chambers G) An attorney who is not a member of the bar and who
may be heard only in the lower courts.
8. Motive H) A defendant's answer to the declaration made by the
plaintiff in a civil action.
9. Evidence I) The party that institutes a suit in a court.
10. Proof J) The unlawful killing of one human being by another
without express or implied intent to do injury.

While-reading activities

1) Role-play in pairs

You are Sir Matthew. You have been given Mary Bank’s case and you will have to act as the defense counsel at trial but you suspect that she is hiding some information from you so you decide to visit her at Holloway Jail on Monday morning at 11 o’clock. You are going to assume the role of the counsel for the prosecution so that she can get used to what it will be like when she gets into the witness box but besides you want to find out whether she’s lying or not.

You are Mary Banks. You are a frail, grey haired woman who looks fifty. You are ready to answer all of Sir Matthew’s questions to prove that you are innocent and that you couldn’t have murdered your husband. Give your own explanation to each of the evidences that the lawyer will put forward and which might incriminate you.


Follow-up activities

1) Go back to the title. How can you interpret it in the light of the events? Is it a
good title? Why? Why not?


2) Solve the following puzzle



A _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _N _

_ _ _ _ E _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Y _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ E

F_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ O _ _ _ _
_ R _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

A _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ N _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ E _
_ _ _ Y _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ E


1. Impervious to pleas, appeals, or reason; stubbornly unyielding.
2. Sightless.
3. A stand or an enclosed area in a courtroom from which a witness presents testimony.
4. A shallow, long-handled pan used for frying food.
5. The distribution by the government of relief payments to the unemployed; welfare.
6. The scientist that interprets or establishes the medical facts in civil or criminal law cases.
7. A hollow or concavity into which a part, such as the eye, fits.
8. One that initiates and carries out a legal action, especially criminal proceedings.
9. Judgment, as by a jury or judge, that a defendant is not guilty of a crime as charged.
10. The unlawful killing of one human being by another without express or implied intent
to do injury.
11. To give concise preparatory instructions, information, or advice to.
12. White crystalline alkaloid substance used as a poison for rodents and other pests.
13. A tool with a bladed, usually heavy head mounted crosswise on a handle, used for felling trees or chopping wood.


3) Write a diary entry for Mary Banks as if you had just returned to your prison cell after
your interview with Sir Matthew. Narrate the events that took place from your
perspective. Include your feelings, impressions and future prospects.