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K13 Revisi Antiremed Kelas 10 Bahasa Inggris

04 Narrative Texts - Exercise


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The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian It made a warm, bright flame, like a little candle,
Andersen as she held her hands over it; but it gave a
strange light! It really seemed to the little girl as
It was so terribly cold. Snow was falling, and it if she were sitting before a great iron stove with
was almost dark. Evening came on, the last shining brass knobs and a brass cover. How
evening of the year. In the cold and gloom a wonderfully the fire burned! How comfortable it
poor little girl, bareheaded and barefoot, was was! The youngster stretched out her feet to
walking through the streets. Of course when she warm them too; then the little flame went out,
had left her house she'd had slippers on, but the stove vanished, and she had only the remains
what good had they been? They were very big of the burnt match in her hand.
slippers, way too big for her, for they belonged
She struck another match against the wall. It
to her mother. The little girl had lost them
burned brightly, and when the light fell upon the
running across the road, where two carriages had
wall it became transparent like a thin veil, and
rattled by terribly fast. One slipper she'd not
she could see through it into a room. On the
been able to find again, and a boy had run off
table a snow-white cloth was spread, and on it
with the other, saying he could use it very well as
stood a shining dinner service. The roast goose
a cradle some day when he had children of his
steamed gloriously, stuffed with apples and
own. And so the little girl walked on her naked
prunes. And what was still better, the goose
feet, which were quite red and blue with the
jumped down from the dish and waddled along
cold. In an old apron she carried several
the floor with a knife and fork in its breast, right
packages of matches, and she held a box of
over to the little girl. Then the match went out,
them in her hand. No one had bought any from
and she could see only the thick, cold wall. She
her all day long, and no one had given her a cent.
lighted another match. Then she was sitting
Shivering with cold and hunger, she crept along, under the most beautiful Christmas tree. It was
a picture of misery, poor little girl! The much larger and much more beautiful than the
snowflakes fell on her long fair hair, which hung one she had seen last Christmas through the
in pretty curls over her neck. In all the windows glass door at the rich merchant's home.
lights were shining, and there was a wonderful Thousands of candles burned on the green
smell of roast goose, for it was New Year's eve. branches, and colored pictures like those in the
Yes, she thought of that! printshops looked down at her. The little girl
reached both her hands toward them. Then the
In a corner formed by two houses, one of which
match went out. But the Christmas lights mount-
projected farther out into the street than the
ed higher. She saw them now as bright stars in
other, she sat down and drew up her little feet
the sky. One of them fell down, forming a long
under her. She was getting colder and colder, but
line of fire.
did not dare to go home, for she had sold no
matches, nor earned a single cent, and her father "Now someone is dying," thought the little girl,
would surely beat her. Besides, it was cold at for her old grandmother, the only person who
home, for they had nothing over them but a had loved her, and who was now dead, had told
roof through which the wind whistled even her that when a star fell down a soul went up to
though the biggest cracks had been stuffed with God.
straw and rags. She rubbed another match against the wall. It
became bright again, and in the glow the old
Her hands were almost dead with cold. Oh, how
grandmother stood clear and shining, kind and
much one little match might warm her! If she
lovely.
could only take one from the box and rub it
against the wall and warm her hands. She drew "Grandmother!" cried the child. "Oh, take me
one out. R-r-ratch! How it sputtered and burned! with you! I know you will disappear when the

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K13 Revisi Antiremed Kelas 10 Bahasa Inggris, 04 Narrative Texts - Exercise
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match is burned out. You will vanish like the Suicides by Guy de Maupassant
warm stove, the wonderful roast goose and the
beautiful big Christmas tree!" And she quickly Hardly a day goes by without our reading a news
struck the whole bundle of matches, for she item like the following in some newspaper:
wished to keep her grandmother with her. And
"On Wednesday night the people living in No.
the matches burned with such a glow that it
40 Rue de-----, were awakened by two successive
became brighter than daylight. Grandmother had
shots. The explosions seemed to come from the
never been so grand and beautiful. She took the
apartment occupied by M. X----. The door was
little girl in her arms, and both of them flew in
broken in and the man was found bathed in his
brightness and joy above the earth, very, very
blood, still holding in one hand the revolver with
high, and up there was neither cold, nor hunger,
which he had taken his life.
nor fear-they were with God.
"M. X---- was fifty-seven years of age, enjoying a
But in the corner, leaning against the wall, sat the
comfortable income, and had everything
little girl with red cheeks and smiling mouth,
necessary to make him happy. No cause can be
frozen to death on the last evening of the old
found for his action."
year. The New Year's sun rose upon a little
pathetic figure. The child sat there, stiff and What terrible grief, what unknown suffering,
cold, holding the matches, of which one bundle hidden despair, secret wounds drive these
was almost burned. presumably happy persons to suicide? We search,
we imagine tragedies of love, we suspect
"She wanted to warm herself," the people said.
financial troubles, and, as we never find anything
No one imagined what beautiful things she had
definite, we apply to these deaths the word
seen, and how happily she had gone with her old
"mystery."
grandmother into the bright New Year.
A letter found on the desk of one of these
01. Why didn’t the little match girl go home? "suicides without cause," and written during his
last night, beside his loaded revolver, has come
02. What did the first match seem like to the into our hands. We deem it rather interesting. It
girl? reveals none of those great catastrophes which
we always expect to find behind these acts of
What did the girl see in the window when despair; but it shows us the slow succession of
she lit the second match? the little vexations of life, the disintegration of a
lonely existence, whose dreams have disap-
What did she see when she lit the third peared; it gives the reason for these tragic ends,
match? which only nervous and high-strung people can
understand.
What did she see when she lit the fourth
Here it is:
match?
"It is midnight. When I have finished this letter I
03. Where did the girl go after all the candles shall kill myself. Why? I shall attempt to give the
were burned out? reasons, not for those who may read these lines,
but for myself, to kindle my waning courage, to
04. Was the girl happy in end? impress upon myself the fatal necessity of this
act which can, at best, be only deferred.
05. What is setting of the story?
"I was brought up by simple-minded parents
who were unquestioning believers. And I
believed as they did.
"My dream lasted a long time. The last veil has
just been torn from my eyes.

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"During the last few years a strange change has "Now I even hate to be with people whom I
been taking place within me. All the events of used to meet with pleasure; I know them so
Life, which formerly had to me the glow of a well, I can tell just what they are going to say
beautiful sunset, are now fading away. The true and what I am going to answer. Each brain is
meaning of things has appeared to me in its like a circus, where the same horse keeps
brutal reality; and the true reason for love has circling around eternally. We must circle round
bred in me disgust even for this poetic always, around the same ideas, the same joys,
sentiment: 'We are the eternal toys of foolish the same pleasures, the same habits, the same
and charming illusions, which are always being beliefs, the same sensations of disgust.
renewed.'
"The fog was terrible this evening. It enfolded
"On growing older, I had become partly the boulevard, where the street lights were
reconciled to the awful mystery of life, to the dimmed and looked like smoking candles. A
uselessness of effort; when the emptiness of heavier weight than usual oppressed me.
everything appeared to me in a new light, this Perhaps my digestion was bad.
evening, after dinner.
"For good digestion is everything in life. It
"Formerly, I was happy! Everything pleased me: gives the inspiration to the artist, amorous
the passing women, the appearance of the desires to young people, clear ideas to thinkers,
streets, the place where I lived; and I even took the joy of life to everybody, and it also allows
an interest in the cut of my clothes. But the one to eat heartily (which is one of the greatest
repetition of the same sights has had the result pleasures). A sick stomach induces scepticism
of filling my heart with weariness and disgust, unbelief, nightmares and the desire for death. I
just as one would feel were one to go every night have often noticed this fact. Perhaps I would
to the same theatre. not kill myself, if my digestion had been good
this evening.
"For the last thirty years I have been rising at the
same hour; and, at the same restaurant, for thirty "When I sat down in the arm-chair where I
years, I have been eating at the same hours the have been sitting every day for thirty years, I
same dishes brought me by different waiters. glanced around me, and just then I was seized
by such a terrible distress that I thought I must
"I have tried travel. The loneliness which one
go mad.
feels in strange places terrified me. I felt so
alone, so small on the earth that I quickly started "I tried to think of what I could do to run
on my homeward journey. away from myself. Every occupation struck me
as being worse even than inaction. Then I
"But here the unchanging expression of my
bethought me of putting my papers in order.
furniture, which has stood for thirty years in the
same place, the smell of my apartments (for, "For a long time I have been thinking of
with time, each dwelling takes on a particular clearing out my drawers; for, for the last thirty
odor) each night, these and other things disgust years, I have been throwing my letters and bills
me and make me sick of living thus. pell-mell into the same desk, and this
confusion has often caused me considerable
"Everything repeats itself endlessly. The way in
trouble. But I feel such moral and physical
which I put my key in the lock, the place where I
laziness at the sole idea of putting anything in
always find my matches, the first object which
order that I have never had the courage to
meets my eye when I enter the room, make me
begin this tedious business.
feel like jumping out of the window and putting
an end to those monotonous events from which "I therefore opened my desk, intending to
we can never escape. choose among my old papers and destroy the
majority of them.
"Each day, when I shave, I feel an inordinate
desire to cut my throat; and my face, which I see "At first I was bewildered by this array of
in the little mirror, always the same, with soap on documents, yellowed by age, then I chose one.
my cheeks, has several times made me weak
from sadness.
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"Oh! if you cherish life, never disturb the "Then, opening another drawer, I found
burial place of old letters! myself face to face with memories of tender
passions: a dancing-pump, a torn handkerchief,
"And if, perchance, you should, take the
even a garter, locks of hair and dried flowers.
contents by the handful, close your eyes that
Then the sweet romances of my life, whose
you may not read a word, so that you may not
living heroines are now white-haired, plunged
recognize some forgotten handwriting which
me into the deep melancholy of things. Oh,
may plunge you suddenly into a sea of
the young brows where blond locks curl, the
memories; carry these papers to the fire; and
caress of the hands, the glance which speaks,
when they are in ashes, crush them to an
the hearts which beat, that smile which
invisible powder, or otherwise you are lost--just
promises the lips, those lips which promise the
as I have been lost for an hour.
embrace! And the first kiss-that endless kiss
"The first letters which I read did not interest which makes you close your eyes, which
me greatly. They were recent, and came from drowns all thought in the immeasurable joy of
living men whom I still meet quite often, and approaching possession!
whose presence does not move me to any great
"Taking these old pledges of former love in
extent. But all at once one envelope made me
both my hands, I covered them with furious
start. My name was traced on it in a large, bold
caresses, and in my soul, torn by these
handwriting; and suddenly tears came to my
memories, I saw them each again at the hour
eyes. That letter was from my dearest friend,
of surrender; and I suffered a torture more
the companion of my youth, the confidant of
cruel than all the tortures invented in all the
my hopes; and he appeared before me so
fables about hell.
clearly, with his pleasant smile and his hand
"One last letter remained. It was written by me
outstretched, that a cold shiver ran down my
and dictated fifty years ago by my writing
back. Yes, yes, the dead come back, for I saw
teacher. Here it is:
him! Our memory is a more perfect world than
the universe: it gives back life to those who no "'MY DEAR LITTLE MAMMA:
longer exist.
"'I am seven years old to-day. It is the age of
"With trembling hand and dimmed eyes I reason. I take advantage of it to thank you for
reread everything that he told me, and in my having brought me into this world.
poor sobbing heart I felt a wound so painful
"'Your little son, who loves you
that I began to groan as a man whose bones
are slowly being crushed. "'ROBERT.'
"Then I travelled over my whole life, just as "It is all over. I had gone back to the beginning,
one travels along a river. I recognized people, and suddenly I turned my glance on what
so long forgotten that I no longer knew their remained to me of life. I saw hideous and
names. Their faces alone lived in me. In my lonely old age, and approaching infirmities, and
mother's letters I saw again the old servants, everything over and gone. And nobody near
the shape of our house and the little me!
insignificant odds and ends which cling to our
"My revolver is here, on the table. I am loading
minds.
it . . . . Never reread your old letters!"
"Yes, I suddenly saw again all my mother's old
And that is how many men come to kill
gowns, the different styles which she adopted
themselves; and we search in vain to discover
and the several ways in which she dressed her
some great sorrow in their lives.
hair. She haunted me especially in a silk dress,
trimmed with old lace; and I remembered
06. What is the text about?
something she said one day when she was
wearing this dress. She said: 'Robert, my child,
07. What is the setting of the story?
if you do not stand up straight you will be
round-shouldered all your life.'

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08. What did the story-teller feel at the "It's Miss Fairchild," he said, with a smile. "I'll
beginning about those suicides? Why? ask you to excuse the other hand; "it's
otherwise engaged just at present."
09. In your opinion why did Mr. Robert
He slightly raised his right hand, bound at the
commit suicide?
wrist by the shining "bracelet" to the left one
of his companion. The glad look in the girl's
10. “Our memory is a more perfect world than
eyes slowly changed to a bewildered horror.
the universe: it gives back life to those who
The glow faded from her cheeks. Her lips
no longer exist.” (last sentence of
parted in a vague, relaxing distress. Easton,
paragraph 28)
with a little laugh, as if amused, was about to
speak again when the other forestalled him.
Did Mr. X emphasize this perfection with a
The glum-faced man had been watching the
positive light?
girl's countenance with veiled glances from his
keen, shrewd eyes.
11. Was the suicide letter addressed to t he
finder? "You'll excuse me for speaking, miss, but, I see
you're acquainted with the marshall here. If
Heart and Hands by O. Henry you'll ask him to speak a word for me when we
get to the pen he'll do it, and it'll make things
At Denver there was an influx of passengers easier for me there. He's taking me to
into the coaches on the eastbound B. & M. Leavenworth prison. It's seven years for
express. In one coach there sat a very pretty counterfeiting."
young woman dressed in elegant taste and
"Oh!" said the girl, with a deep breath and
surrounded by all the luxurious comforts of an
returning color. "So that is what you are doing
experienced traveler. Among the newcomers
out here? A marshal!"
were two young men, one of handsome
"My dear Miss Fairchild," said Easton, calmly,
presence with a bold, frank countenance and
"I had to do something. Money has a way of
manner; the other a ruffled, glum-faced person,
taking wings unto itself, and you know it takes
heavily built and roughly dressed. The two
money to keep step with our crowd in
were handcuffed together.
Washington. I saw this opening in the West,
As they passed down the aisle of the coach the and--well, a marshalship isn't quite as high a
only vacant seat offered was a reversed one position as that of ambassador, but--"
facing the attractive young woman. Here the
"The ambassador," said the girl, warmly,
linked couple seated themselves. The young
"doesn't call any more. He needn't ever have
woman's glance fell upon them with a distant,
done so. You ought to know that. And so now
swift disinterest; then with a lovely smile
you are one of these dashing Western heroes,
brightening her countenance and a tender pink
and you ride and shoot and go into all kinds of
tingeing her rounded cheeks, she held out a
dangers. That's different from the Washington
little gray-gloved hand. When she spoke her
life. You have been missed from the old
voice, full, sweet, and deliberate, proclaimed
crowd."
that its owner was accustomed to speak and be
heard. The girl's eyes, fascinated, went back, widening
a little, to rest upon the glittering handcuffs.
"Well, Mr. Easton, if you will make me speak
first, I suppose I must. Don't vou ever recog- "Don't you worry about them, miss," said the
nize old friends when you meet them in the other man. "All marshals handcuff themselves
West?" to their prisoners to keep them from getting
away. Mr. Easton knows his business."
The younger man roused himself sharply at the
sound of her voice, seemed to struggle with a "Will we see you again soon in Washington?"
slight embarrassment which he threw off asked the girl.
instantly, and then clasped her fingers with his
left hand.
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"Not soon, I think," said Easton. "My butterfly 14. What was the young man embarrassed
days are over, I fear." when the woman recognize him?
"I love the West," said the girl irrelevantly. Her
15. Why didn’t the young man take interest in
eyes were shining softly. She looked away out
talking to his old friend, the woman?
the car window. She began to speak truly and
simply without the gloss of style and manner:
16. What was the role of the other two
"Mamma and I spent the summer in Denver.
passengers at the end of the story?
She went home a week ago because father was
slightly ill. I could live and be happy in the
The Story of An Hour by Kate Chopin
West. I think the air here agrees with me.
Money isn't everything. But people always mis-
Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with
understand things and remain stupid--"
a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to
"Say, Mr. Marshal," growled the glum-faced her as gently as possible the news of her
man. "This isn't quite fair. I'm needing a drink, husband’s death.
and haven't had a smoke all day. Haven't you
It was her sister Josephine who told her, in
talked long enough? Take me in the smoker
broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in
now, won't you? I'm half dead for a pipe."
half concealing. Her husband's friend Richards
The bound travelers rose to their feet, Easton was there, too, near her. It was he who had
with the same slow smile on his face. been in the newspaper office when intelligence
of the railroad disaster was received, with
"I can't deny a petition for tobacco," he said,
Brently Mallard's name leading the list of
lightly. "It's the one friend of the unfortunate.
"killed." He had only taken the time to assure
Good-bye, Miss Fairchild. Duty calls, you
himself of its truth by a second telegram, and
know." He held out his hand for a farewell.
had hastened to forestall any less careful, less
"It's too bad you are not going East," she said, tender friend in bearing the sad message.
reclothing herself with manner and style. "But
She did not hear the story as many women
you must go on to Leavenworth, I suppose?"
have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability
"Yes," said Easton, "I must go on to to accept its significance. She wept at once,
Leavenworth." with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's
arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself
The two men sidled down the aisle into the
she went away to her room alone. She would
smoker.
have no one follow her.
The two passengers in a seat near by had heard
There stood, facing the open window, a
most of the conversation. Said one of them:
comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she
"That marshal's a good sort of chap. Some of
sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion
these Western fellows are all right."
that haunted her body and seemed to reach
"Pretty young to hold an office like that, isn't into her soul.
he?" asked the other.
She could see in the open square before her
"Young!" exclaimed the first speaker, "why-- house the tops of trees that were all quivered
Oh! didn't you catch on? Say--did you ever with the new spring life. The delicious breath
know an officer to handcuff a prisoner to his of rain was in the air. In the street below a
right hand?" peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a
distant song which some one was singing
12. What is the story about? reached her faintly, and countless sparrows
were twittering in the eaves.
13. What was the reaction of the woman when
she saw the handcuff ?

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There were patches of blue sky showing here There would be no one to live for during those
and there through the clouds that had met and coming years; she would live for herself. There
piled one above the other in the west facing her would be no powerful will bending hers in that
window. blind persistence with which men and women
believe they have a right to impose a private
She sat with her head thrown back upon the
will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or
cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except
a cruel intention made the act seem no less a
when a sob came up into her throat and shook
crime as she looked upon it in that brief
her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep
moment of illumination.
continues to sob in its dreams.
And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often
She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose
she had not. What did it matter! What could
lines bespoke repression and even a certain
love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the
strength. But now there was a dull stare in her
face of this possession of self-assertion which
eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on
she suddenly recognized as the strongest
one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a
impulse of her being!
glance of reflection, but rather indicated a
suspension of intelligent thought. "Free! Body and soul free!" she kept
whispering.
There was something coming to her and she
was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She Josephine was kneeling before the closed door
did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to with her lips to the keyhole, imploring for
name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, admission. "Louise, open the door! I beg; open
reaching toward her through the sounds, the the door--you will make yourself ill. What are
scents, the color that filled the air. you doing, Louise? For heaven's sake open the
door."
Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously.
She was beginning to recognize this thing that "Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she
was approaching to possess her, and she was was drinking in a very elixir of life through that
striving to beat it back with her will--as open window.
powerless as her two white slender hands
Her fancy was running riot along those days
would have been. When she abandoned herself
ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days,
a little whispered word escaped her slightly
and all sorts of days that would be her own.
parted lips. She said it over and over under the
She breathed a quick prayer that life might be
breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and
long. It was only yesterday she had thought
the look of terror that had followed it went
with a shudder that life might be long.
from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright.
Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood She arose at length and opened the door to her
warmed and relaxed every inch of her body. sister's importunities. There was a feverish
triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself
She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a
unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She
monstrous joy that held her. A clear and
clasped her sister's waist, and together they
exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the
descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for
suggestion as trivial. She knew that she would
them at the bottom.
weep again when she saw the kind, tender
hands folded in death; the face that had never Someone was opening the front door with a
looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a
and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter little travel-stained, composedly carrying his
moment a long procession of years to come grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from
that would belong to her absolutely. And she the scene of the accident, and did not even
opened and spread her arms out to them in know there had been one. He stood amazed at
welcome. Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick
motion to screen him from the view of his
wife.

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When the doctors came they said she had died


of heart disease--of the joy that kills.

17. What is the story about?

18. From 5-14, what do you think Mrs. Mallard


feel?

19. “It was only yesterday she had thought


with a shudder that life might be
long.” (last sentence, paragraph 17)

What does it mean?


20. Did Mrs. Mallard feel sad about her
husband’s death?

21. What did the family mean by the phrase


“of the joy that kills” in last sentence?

22. What was the cause of Mrs. Mallard’s heart


attack?

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