Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
REGION VIII-EASTERN VISAYAS
SCHOOLS DIVISION OF BILIRAN

English 9
Quarter 2- Weeks 3 and 4

Competency

Make connections between texts to particular dispositions in real life.

EN9RC-Ih-17

Initial Task

Direction. Read and understand the lines from the poems and answer the
questions that follow.

Text 1

When I consider how my light is spent

Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,

-“On His Blindness”

Text 2
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,

-“Invictus”

1. What is the connection between texts 1 and 2?

a. They present sacrifices.

b. The texts tell about happiness.
c. The lines give information

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 2. What is the atmosphere presented in the texts?
a. happy b. gloomy c. intense

3. What attitude is reflected by the speakers in the texts?

a. sad b. optimistic c. pessimistic

Presentation

Below is a short story. Tell how a person’s belief and disposition

influence her behavior in dealing with life.

The Last Leaf

O’ Henry

To Greenwich Village, which is a section of New York City, many

people came who were interested in art. They liked the bohemian life of the
village, and they enjoyed living among so many artists. The buildings and
apartments were often very old and dirty, but this only added to the interest
of the place.

At the top of an old three-storey brick house Sue and Johnsy had
their studio. One of them was from the state of Maine, the other from
California. They had met in the restaurant of an Eighth Street hotel. Both
were artists who had recently come to New York to make their living.

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 That was in May. In November, a cold, unseen stranger, whom the
doctors called pneumonia, visited the city, touching one here and one there
with his icy finger. He touched Johnsy and she lay, scarcely moving, on her

painted iron bed, looking through the small window at the blank wall
of the opposite building.

One morning the busy doctor invited Sue into the hall.

"She has about one chance in ten to live", he" said as he shook down
the 'mercury in his clinical thermometer. "And that one chance depends
upon her desire to get better. But your little friend has made up her mifid
that she is going to die. Is she worrying about something?"

She wanted to paint a picture of the Bay of Naples some day", said
Sue.
"No, something more important — a man perhaps?"

"No."

"Well, perhaps it is a result of her fever and her general physical

weakness. But when a patient begins to feel sure that she is going to die,
then I subtract fifty per cent from the power of medicines. If you can
succeed in making her interested in something, in asking, for instance,
about the latest styles in women's clothes, then I can promise you a one-to-
five chance for her instead of one-to-ten."

After the doctor had gone, Sue went into her own room and cried.
Later, trying not to show her sadness, she went into Johnsy's room,
whistling.

Johnsy lay under the bedclothes, with her face toward the window.
Sue stopped whistling, thinking Johnsy was asleep. But soon Sue heard a
low sound, several times repeated. Sue went quickly to the bedside.

Johnsy's eyes were wide open. She was looking out of the window, and
counting backwards.

"Twelve", she said, and a little later, "eleven", and then "ten" and
"nine" and then "eight" — "seven."

Sue looked out of the window. What was Johnsy counting? There was
only a gray, back yard and the blank wall of the opposite house. An old, old
vine, dead at the roots, climbed halfway up the wall. The cold breath of
autumn had blown almost all the leaves from the vine until its branches
were almost bare.

"What is it, dear?" asked Sue.

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 "Six" said Johnsy very quietly." They are falling faster now. Three days
ago there were almost a hundred. It makes my head ache to count them.
But now it's easy. There goes another one. There are only five left now."

"Five what, dear? Tell me!" said Sue. "Leaves.

The leaves of that vine. When the last leaf of the vine falls, I must go
too. I've known that for three days. Didn't the doctor tell you?"

"The doctor didn't say any such thing. That is pure foolishness", said
Sue. "What connection have those old leaves with your getting well? And you
used to love that old vine so much. Please don't be silly! The doctor told me
this morning that your chances of getting well soon were excellent. Now try
to take some of your soup and let me get back to work so that I can make
money to buy you some good port wine."

"There's no use buying any more wine", said Johnsy, keeping her eyes
fixed on the blank wall of the house opposite. "There goes another leaf. That
leaves just four. I want to see the last one fall before it gets dark. Then I'll go
too."

"Johnsy, dear," said Sue, bending over her. "Will you promise me to
keep your eyes closed and not look out of the window until I have finished
working? I must deliver these drawings tomorrow. I need the light; otherwise
I would pull down the curtain."

"Can't you draw in your room?" said Johnsy coldly.

"I'd rather stay here with you", said Sue. "Besides, I don't want you to
keep looking at those silly leaves."

"Tell me as soon as you have finished", said Johnsy, closing her eyes
and lying white and still. "Because I want to see the last leaf fall. I'm tired of
waiting. I'm tired of thinking."

"Try to sleep", said Sue a little later. "I must go downstairs for a
minute to get Mr. Behrman who is going to sit as my model. But I will be
.right back. And don't move and also please promise me not to look out of
the window,"

Old Mr. Behrman was a painter who lived on the first floor beneath
them. He was more than sixty years old. Behrman was a failure in art. He
had always wanted to paint a masterpiece, but he had never yet begun to
paint it. For many years he had painted nothing, except now and then
something in the line of commercial or advertising work. He earned a little
money by serving as a model for those young artists who could not pay the

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price for a regular model. He drank much whiskey and when he was drunk
always talked about the great masterpiece he was going to paint. He was a
fierce, intense little man who considered himself as a watch-dog and
protector for the two young artists living above him, of whom he was very
fond.

Sue found Behrman in his poorly-lighted studio. In one corner of the

room stood a blank canvas which had been waiting for twenty-five years to
receive the first line of the promised masterpiece. Sue told him of the
strange idea which Johnsy had concerning the last leaf, and Sue said that
she feared that Johnsy would really die when the last leaf fell.

Old Behrman shouted, "Are there people in the world who are foolish
enough to die simply because leaves fall from an old vine? I have never
heard of such a thing. Why do you permit such silly ideas to come into her
mind? Oh, that poor little Miss Johnsy."

"She is very ill and very weak", explained Sue, "and the fever has left
her mind full of strange ideas."

Johnsy was sleeping when they both went upstairs. Sue pulled down
the curtain and motioned to Behrman to go into the other room. There they
looked out of the window fearfully at the vine. Then they looked at each
other for a moment without speaking. A cold rain was falling, mixed with
snow. Behrman took a seat and prepared himself to pose for Sue as a
model.

When Sue woke up the next morning, she found Johnsy with dull,
wide open eyes, looking at the window.

"Put up the curtain. I want to see", Johnsy said quietly.

Sue obeyed.

But, oh, after the heavy rain and the strong wind, one leaf was still
hanging on the vine. The last leaf. Still dark green, it hung from a branch
some twenty feet above the ground."

"It is the last one", said Johnsy, "I thought it would surely fall during
the night. I heard the wind and the rain. It will fall today and I shall die at
the same time."

"Dear Johnsy", said Sue, placing her face close to Johnsy's on the
pillow. "Think of me if you won't think of yourself. What shall I do?"

The day passed slowly, and even through the growing darkness of the
evening they could see the lone leaf still hanging from the branch against

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the wall. And then, with the coming of the night, the wind began to blow
again, and the rain began to fall heavily.

But the next morning when Johnsy commanded that the curtain be
raised again, the leaf was still there.

Johnsy lay for a long time looking at it. And then she called to Sue.

"I've been a bad girl, Sue", said Johnsy. "Something has made the last
leaf stay there just to show me how bad I was. It was a sin to want to die.
You may bring me a little soup now — and then put some pillows behind me
and I will sit up and watch you cook."

An hour later Johnsy said, "Sue some day I want to paint a picture of
the Bay of Naples."

The doctor came in the afternoon. "You are doing fine", he said, taking
Johnsy's thin hand in his. "In another week or so you will be perfectly well.
And now I must go to see another patient downstairs.

His name is Behrman. He is some kind of artist, I believe. Pneumonia,

too. He is an old, weak man, and the attack is very severe. There is no hope
for him, but I am sending him to the hospital in order to make him more
comfortable."

The next day, Sue came to the bed where Johnsy lay. "The doctor tells
me that soon you will be perfectly well again", Sue said, putting her arm
around Johnsy. Johnsy smiled at her happily.

"Isn't it wonderful?" Sue continued. "But now I have something

important to tell you. Old Mr. Behrman died in the hospital this morning of

pneumonia. He was sick only two days. They found him in his room the
morning of the first day helpless with pain and fever. His shoes and clothing
were completely wet and icy cold. They couldn't figure out where he had
been on such a terrible night. And then they found a lantern, still lighted, a
ladder, and some other things which showed that, during the wind and the
rain, he had climbed up and painted a green leaf on the wall of the house
opposite. Didn't you think it was strange that the leaf never moved when the
wind blew. Ah, darling, it was Behrman's real masterpiece, — he painted it
there the night that the last leaf fell".

Let’s Talk About It!

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Read and answer the following questions.

1. What happened to Johnsy in the story?

a. sick of pneumonia b. paralyzed c. crippled
2. Why did Johnsy count the leaves of the vine?
a. She was bored.
b. She wanted to paint.
c. She was thinking of her death.
3. What did Mr. Behrman do to help Johnsy?
a. He gave her an advice.
b. He painted the last leaf.
c. He took care of her.
4. If you were Mr. Behrman would you have done the same? Why? Why
not?
5. What does the last leaf symbolize? Johnsy? Mr. Behrman?

The story you have just read tells the readers about hope. Every time we
encounter difficulties, we should not lose hope because it will give us
strength to fight against life’s difficulties and a chance to continue living.

Let’s try another story!

This is a story of a young boy. Find out how he shows his inner
strength during the difficult time in his life.

A Day’s Wait
Ernest Hemingway

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 He came into the room to shut the windows while we were still in bed
and I saw he looked ill. He was shivering, his face was white, and he walked
slowly as though it ached to move.
‘What’s the matter, Schatz?’
‘I’ve got a headache.’
‘You better go back to bed.’
‘No, I’m all right.’
‘You go to bed. I’ll see you when I’m dressed.
’ But when I came downstairs he was dressed, sitting by the fire,
looking a very sick and miserable boy of nine years. When I put my hand on
his forehead I knew he had a fever.
You go up to bed,’ I said, ‘you’re sick.’

‘I’m all right,’ he said.

When the doctor came he took the boy’s temperature.
‘What is it?’ I asked him.
‘One hundred and two.’
Downstairs, the doctor left three different medicines in different
colored capsules with instructions for giving them. One was to bring down
the fever, another a purgative, the third to overcome an acid condition. The
germs of influenza can only exist in an acid condition, he explained. He
seemed to know all about influenza and said there was nothing to worry
about if the fever did not go above one hundred and four degrees. This was a
light epidemic of flu and there was no danger if you avoided pneumonia.
Back in the room I wrote the boy’s temperature down and made a note
of the time to give the various capsules.
‘Do you want me to read to you?’
‘All right. If you want to,’ said the boy.
His face was very white and there were dark areas under his eyes. He
lay still in bed and seemed very detached from what was going on. I read
aloud from Howard Pyle’sBook of Pirates; but I could see he was not
following what I was reading.
How do you feel, Schatz?’ I asked him.
‘Just the same, so far,’ he said.

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 I sat at the foot of the bed and read to myself while I waited for it to
be time to give another capsule. It would have been natural for him to go to
sleep, but when I looked up he was looking at the foot of the bed, looking
very strangely.

‘Why don’t you try to go to sleep? I’ll wake you up for the medicine.’
‘I’d rather stay awake.’ After a while he said to me, ‘You don’t have to
stay here with me, ‘No, I mean you don’t have to stay if it’s going to bother
you.’ I thought perhaps he was a little light-headed and after giving him the
prescribed capsule at eleven o’clock I went out for a while.
It was a bright, cold day, the ground covered with a sleet that had
frozen so that it seemed as if all the bare trees, the bushes, the cut brush
and all the grass and the bare ground had been varnished with ice. I took
the young Irish setter for a little walk up the road and along a frozen creek,
but it was difficult to stand or walk on the glassy surface and the red dog
slipped and slithered and fell twice, hard, once dropping my gun and having
it slide over the ice. We flushed a covey of quail under a high clay bank with
overhanging brush

and killed two as they went out of sight over the top of the bank. Some of
the covey lit the trees, but most of them scattered into brush piles and it
was necessary to jump on the ice coated mounds of brush several times
before they would flush. Coming out while you were poised unsteadily on
the icy, springy brush they made difficult shooting and killed two, missed
five, and started back pleased to have found a covey close to the house and
happy there were so many left to find on another day.
At the house they said the boy had refused to let anyone come into the
room.
‘You can’t come in,’ he said.
‘You mustn’t get what I have.’ I went up to him and found him in
exactly the position I had left him, white - faced, but with the tops of his
cheeks flushed by the fever, staring still, as he had stared, at the foot of the
bed. I took his temperature.
‘What is it?’
‘Something like a hundred,’ I said. I
It was one hundred and two and four tenth. ‘It was a hundred and
two,’ he said.
‘Who said so?’

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 ‘The doctor.’ ‘Your temperature is all right,’ I said. It’s nothing to worry
about.’
‘I don’t worry,’ he said, ‘but I can’t keep from thinking.’
‘Don’t think,’ I said. ‘Just take it easy.’ ‘I’m taking it easy,’ he said and
looked straight ahead. He was evidently holding tight onto himself about
something.
‘Take this with water.’
‘Do you think it will do any good?’
‘Of course it will.’ I sat down and opened the Pirate book and
commenced to read, but I could see he was not following, so I stopped.
‘About what time do you think I’m going to die?’ he asked. ‘What?’
‘About how long will it be before I die?’
‘You aren’t going to die. What’s the matter with you?’ Oh, yes, I am. I
heard him say a hundred and two.’ ‘People don’t die with a fever of one
hundred and two. That’s a silly way to talk.’ ‘I know they do. At school in
France the boys told me you can’t live with forty-four degrees.

I’ve got a hundred and two.’

He had been waiting to die all day, ever since nine o’clock in the
morning. ‘You poor Schatz,’ I said. ‘Poor old Schatz. It’s like miles and
kilometers. You aren’t going to die. That’s a different thermometer. On that
thermometer thirty- seven is normal. On this kind it’s ninety-eight.’
Are you sure?’
‘Absolutely,’ I said. ‘It’s like miles and kilometers. You know, like how
many kilometers we make when we do seventy in the car?’ ‘
Oh,’ he said. But his gaze at the foot of his bed relaxed slowly. The
hold over himself relaxed too, finally, and the next day it was very slack and
he cried very easily at little things that were of no importance.

Check Your Understanding

1. What do the following actions reveal about Schatz?

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 “She is sick and miserable, but he gets up and dressed and
closes the window in his parents’ room. What disposition is
reflected of the character?
2. What do you think of the father’s choice of the reading
material for his son?
3. How does the father show his love for his son?
4. If you were the father would you have done the same? Why?
Why not?

Activities

Activity 1. Comparing and Contrasting

Directions: Show the similarities and differences of Schatz and Johnsy
on how they reacted to their situations. Select the answers from the
given choices below that best fit in the Venn diagram.

 Pretending to be alright
 Suffering from influenza
 Always count the leaves of the vine
 Ready to face death
 sick of pneumonia

Johnsy
Schatz

Activity 2. Know Them.

The Last Leaf

Characters Character Traits Beliefs/Dispositions in
Life

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Johnsy

Sue

Mr. Behrman

A Day’s Wait
Characters Character Traits Beliefs/Dispositions in
Life
Schatz

Father

Activity 3. Dig Deeper.

Direction: Answer the following questions.

1. In what way are the two stories connected? Cite instances from the
stories.

2. Which of the two characters has shown more inner strength - Schatz or
Johnsy? Explain your answer.

Evaluation

Directions: Read the following excerpts from the poems. Then answer the
questions below. Write only the letter of the correct answer.

Let us then be up and doing

With a heart for any fate
Still achieving still pursuing
Learn to labor and to wait

- Psalm of Life

This is my work; my blessing, not doom

Of all who live, I am the one by whom
This work can be done in the right way

- Work
-

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1. How are the two poems related?

a. These give the idea of the importance of work.

b. These state about two persons working at the same time.
c. These tell about how to wait for the right time.

2. Which of the following lines from the poem, ‘Work” has a similar idea to
this line, “Learn to labor and to wait” from “Psalm of Life”?

a. This is my work; my blessing, not my doom.

b. This work can be best be done in the right way.
c. Of all who live, I am the one by whom

3. Which of these presents the idea of work based from the excerpts?

a. Work hard and expect a good result.

b. Work diligently and blessings will follow.
c. Work every day and you’ll be appreciated.

4. The speaker in the first and second poems emphasize that __________.

a. One must love his work.

b. One must work for compliance.
c. One must work to earn money.

5. Which of these is the theme of the texts?

a. Learning to work
b. Love of work
c. Working hard

End of English 9 LAS Weeks 3 and 4, Quarter 2

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 Guide Answers

Initial Task
1. A 2. B 3. A

Let’s Talk About It!

1. a. sick of pneumonia

2. c. She was thinking of her death

3. b. He painted the last leaf

4. Answers vary

5. To Johnsy the last leaf symbolizes death while it symbolizes art to

Mr. Behrman.

Check Your Understanding

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 1. Schatz can manage himself though he was sick, and it shows that he cared his parents.

2. The father chose the reading material so that Johnsy would enjoy and for him to be brave.

3. He took care of his son by giving him medicine and other needs.

Activity 1. Comparing and Contrasting

Always counting
Pretending to be Ready to
the leaves of the
alright face
vine
death
Suffering from
sick from
influenza
Pneumonia

Schatz Johnsy

Activity 2. Know Them

Characters Character Traits Beliefs/Dispositions in

Life

Johnsy Pessimistic Believes in superstition

Sue Caring Believes chances in life through

art

Mr. Behrman helpful Never gives up in art

Doctor optimistic Patient’s recovery depends on the

15 person’s will to live
 Characters Character Traits Beliefs/Dispositions in Life

Schatz brave There is a need to be prepared before

death comes

Father loving Believes that taking care of his son

makes him tough

Activity 3. Dig Deeper.

1. The two stories are connected because these present the situations of the
character who are suffering from ilnesses, and how they thought of the idea of
death.

2. Schatz shows more inner strenght because he is trying to prove that he is

alright.

Evaluation

1. a

2. b

3. b

4. a

5. b

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References

Bermudez, et al. (2007). English Expressway III; pp.88-90, pp.

151-155

Reyes, et al. (20000). English Arts III; p. 62, 122

Almonte, et al. (2014). A Journey Through Anglo-American

Literature; 89-90

Writer: Catherine B. Rosquites

Position: Secondary School Teacher III
School: Almeria National High School

Mapper: Sarah M. Cabuquin

Position: Secondary School Teacher I
School: Tabunan National High School

Presenter: Dwight Kirby D. Docallos

Position: Secondary School Teacher I
School: Western Biliran High School of Arts and Culture

JESUS I. MANGCO
District English Coordinator

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 AIDA C. CABRERA
PSDS-Almeria District

DIVISION EVALUATORS

GIRLIE C. BILBAD
T-2 Naval School of Fisheries

TITA D. GOBI
MT-2 Kawayan National High School

DELIA S. QUIJANO
EDS- English

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