Page 92 - Manual Vol 1

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MY STORY (Excerpt)

By Prof. Virginia PARASCHIV
My story, if the following lines can be labeled as "story", is not
spectacular. I had some life, I sprung from a marginalized, but full of
passionate, dramatic stories environment.

When a lazy little boy forced my bookbag off my back and scattered
my notebooks and textbooks on the ground in the mud, I realized that I
couldn't get back at him to beat him to death. I anticipated that I would be
defeated by the malevolent strong little man. It's one thing to want it, it's
another thing to be able to have a direct confrontation with a mean boy. I
couldn't even scold him, it didn't look good for a girl to shout bad words,
especially on the street. I knew plenty of neighborhood insults. Slang and
jargon were the first teachings of the codified compartments of the
Romanian language. And, in addition, direct imprecations, substantivized
adjectives spoken firmly, in the vocative. In my mind, I was still whispering
all the wonders. I was neither proud nor fearful. But I didn't want to look like
the grinning aggressor, I understood that he's lost, that's all he's got, was the
look of big people. The term adult was not in use. That's what we all used to
say, "grownup people".
Home/classwork: What do you think of the event described above? Is it
comic? Is it painful? What about the storyteller’s attitude? What would you
have done in such a situation?
Write a brief paragraph of about 100 words, using the vocabulary from the
text. Present (5 minutes) (25 p.)Reading
practice: Read the text two times. First silently, then aloud. Your reading
will be timed by your instructor (25 p.)