Dear students,
You are invited to read this interesting letter and solve the following task:
First, you have to read the letter.
Then, you have to give your opinion about Edna's behaviour as a comment.
Why do you think Edna tells lies to her family? Would you do the same? Why? (at least 8 lines)
Why do you think Edna tells lies to her family? Would you do the same? Why? (at least 8 lines)
And Finally, you have to assess your classmate comment (peer-correction), as I said in the previous class. You have to check the grammar rules, don't forget it!!!
Enjoy it!!!
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Victoria College
Woman’s Residence
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario
December
7th, 1983
Dear
mother and dad,
It has been three months since I left for college. I
have been remiss in writing, and I very sorry for my thoughtlessness in not
having written before. I will bring you up to date now. But, before you read,
please sit down. OK?
Well
then, I am getting along pretty well now. The skull fracture and the concussion
I got when I jumped out of the window of my dormitory when it caught fire
shortly after my arrival are pretty well healed now. I only spent two weeks in
the hospital, and now I can see almost normally and get those sickly headaches
only once in a while.
Fortunately,
the fire in the
dormitory and my jump were witnessed by
an attendant at the gas
station near the dorm,
and he was the one who called the fire
department and
the ambulance. He also
visited me at the hospital, and since I had
nowhere to
live because of the burned out
dorm, he was kind enough to invite me to share
his apartment with him. It is really a basement room, but it's kind of cute. He
is a very fine boy and we have fallen deeply in love and are planning to get
married. We haven't set the date yet, but it will be before my pregnancy begins
to show.
Yes,
mother and dad, I am pregnant. I know how much you are looking forward to being
grandparents, and I know you will welcome the baby and give it the same love
and devotion and tender care that you gave me when I was a child. The reason
for the delay in our marriage is that my boyfriend has some minor infection,
which prevents us from passing our premarital blood tests, and I carelessly
caught it from him. This will soon clear up with the penicillin injections I am
now taking daily.
I
know you will welcome him into our family with open arms. He is kind, and
although not well educated, he is ambitious. Although he is of a different race
and religion than ours, I know your often-expressed tolerance will not permit
you to be bothered by these facts.
Now
that I have brought you up to date, I want to tell you that there was no
dormitory fire, I did not have a concussion or a skull fracture, I was not in
hospital, I am not pregnant, I am not engaged, I do not have syphilis, and
there is no one in my life. However, I am getting a D in History and an F in
Science, and I wanted you to see these marks in their proper perspective.
Your
loving daughter,
Edna
Really, I don’t understand why Edna told lies, I don’t find sense to tell lies to her parents.
ReplyDeleteMaybe, she want draw the attention of their parents, even so doesn’t make sense because later she tell the truth.
I think to invent that fractured her skull, her house burned down or who is sick with syphilis is the attitude of a mentally ill person. And maybe her parents don’t believe the grades’ version, even they may think that not even in university.
In my personal opinion, I wouldn't do the same as the 1st because it lies are useless and 2nd I don't understand why Edna was lying.
Polette Guerra Ramirez.
The worst behavior ever! I find no sense of inventing all kind of stories and illness and a pregnancy!, just because She got a couple of bad grades. It's just inexcusable such a behavior, maybe She invented all that because She wanted her parents to feel sorry for her before actually telling the truth, although it was totally worthless, her parents should have felt very angry finding out that all the previous explanation was a total lie and even worse she had just gotten two bad grades.
ReplyDeleteTo conclude, that was just silly and she should start writing a book or soemthing because she is very good instead of pissing off her parents.-
Teresita Mora.-
Really I don't understand anything about this text is so confused.
ReplyDeleteFirst she lies to her parents , invented a lot of incredible
things that she happened , but in the final of the story
says that nothing is was true.
Maybe she wanted to call the atention of her parents saying
that things , but I think that she doesn't cared what
were thinking her parents .
Lie is too bad , is better to say the true in the instant .
PAULINA CATALDO*
Great, girls!!! wonderful comments!!!
ReplyDeletewell I can't stand the lies.I think the truth always win and when you lie only hide the real information thinking that with this you avoid the suffering to others but for me it's worse because, with the time the lie becomes more and more big.
ReplyDeleteI think that girl is totally sick because she invented a lot of histories and later she told the truth in the same letter that's no normal.
I can't say that I never lie in my life, but now I know that the confidence is very important and you can lose it if you lie and with this action you can't change the reality
melissa gallardo
I absolutely agree with my classmates because I don't really understand her behavior, I guess that she wanted to draw her parent's attention but I think that It's too much, She has a really big imagination. I Think that she did it, because she got a couple of bad grades and tried to to divert the attention for fear that her parents scolded.
ReplyDeleteI'd never do it to my parents it is bad and with that kind of acts the people would never trust in you again, I just have to say that is silly and we have no reason to do it; But sometimes we have to lie ...
I always say: Always with the truth !
Joann Vera
well , I don't know why she told their parents those kind of lies , maybe because she wanted to tell them something different ,but for my you don't do that ,specially to your parents .
ReplyDeleteI don't like people who lie ,I consider them traitors and those kind of people you can't trust, in my opinion you have to push them away from you , because they don't do any good in your life, they only try to poison your world and your enviroment .
I didn't like the text , to be honest, and I wouldn't do something like that to my mother , but at the end it all depends of the people and their values
Nicole Tapia
It was impossible for me, after I finished reading the letter, not to laugh. First when I started reading the last paragraph I thought why would she lie about all those things? and then I get it! It was the grades. She wanted to show her parents that a bad grade is not as terrible as getting pregnant, not have an apartment, being at the hospital, or get involved with a guy with syphilis. In a more complicated way, she wanted to tell her parents that in a way, it's just a grade. But in my case, I would never tell my parents or anyone all those lies just to hide something "bad". I think everyone had lie in their life, but not as much as this girl. My mother always says: "You can catch a lier faster that a thief", that's why it's better to tell always the truth.
ReplyDeleteEven when I don't agree with lying and hurt people doing it, I can understand why Edna lied to her parents. In this story she talks about grades, for us, as students they're a major topic, but we have the possibility to improve and get better ones. Sometimes we tend to give importance to things like behaviors instead of our welfare. Edna tried to show her parents that a bad grade is not the end of the world and even when they're important to our future they're not everything...I think we must take this lesson, NOT LYING, but paying attention because we're always trying to be perfect in superficial things and not just being happy with the way we are...
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of funny her letter , because she wanted to show to her parents, that existed things even worse than her qualifications. Her attitude is not the best, but it's innocent, she is very outgoing, It was just a joke; Of course it's not the best way for tell your parents about your grades, but maybe she was afraid about their reaction, so she decided to tell them in that way.
ReplyDeleteI would not do that way, because playing with illness and injuries it's kind of worry, and is supposed that we must have confidence with our parent to tell things like that.
Thank you, girls!!! Very interesting comments!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why Edna lies, I think many things about this letter.
ReplyDelete1._ I think she needs parental care.
2._She has many crazy ideas.
3._Edna maybe thought that if saing lies her mother and dad, they don't ask for calification at the university.
4._ I think Edna is crazy.
I don't know, maybe she has a great imagination.
I mean she was bored.
Francisca Diaz
Deletei think this letter it`s really confused because why she lies to her parents? maybe she said that like a distraction for her bad grades and i don't think that is a good way of telling a bad news, because she concerned her parents.
ReplyDeleteThank you girls!!! Nice ideas!!! I need the other comments!!
ReplyDeletetomorrow I'm going to upload your participation ticks!!! so, HURRY UP!!!!
Kind regards,
i wonder why she needed to lie. maybe, she wanted to sensitize her parents saying that she suffered the emergency in the dormitory window and other lies to make them feel that their daughter's poor grades were less important than the emergency she supposedly had to face.
ReplyDeleteshe should have dared say the truth anyway because it has no sense to lie when the truth does appear sooner or later. in my case, i would not have told any lies to them because i was not and am not accustomed to lying. a liar is worse than a thief.
definitely, she must try to be treated by a psychologist. she is mentally sick. it is not normal to behave in such a way.
verónica meza a.
note. my keyboard is not working. i can't respect capital letters.
I think edna wrote that letter full of lies about illnes or skull fracture because the family does not put interest in it, do not worry about it. to get the attention of his parents was lying to them. I never lie to my parents as important and delicate things .I think would look for other means to attract the attention of my parents.
ReplyDeleteCristobal Bofill
Well done!!!
ReplyDelete