LYCÉE LE ROI DES ROIS – UNIVERS DU ROI DES ROIS ANNEE SCOLAIRE: 2019-2020

Koumassi Bia-Sud
10 BP 2616 Abidjan 10
Tel : 07-87-16-37
Cel: 59-57-33-17

WORKSHEET (Tle).
Water and blood
She glanced down at her watch. One minute passed, then two. But still he stood, his
arms folded, motionless. She waited till the hand of the watch had passed the third minute.
Then she said, “Get back to work.” He looked at her with the expression common to African
labourers: a blank look, as if he hardly saw her. In a leisurely way he unfolded his arms and
turned away. He was going to fetch himself some water from the petrol tin that stood under a
bush for coolness, nearby. She said again, sharply, her voice rising: “I said, get back to work.”
At this he stopped still, looked at her squarely and said in his own dialect which she did not
understand, “I want to drink”.

“Don’t talk that gibberish to me,” she snapped. She looked around for the bossboy who was
not in sight.

The men said, in a halting ludicrous manner, “I … want … water.” He spoke in

English, and suddenly smiled and opened his mouth and pointed his finger down his throat.
She could hear the order natives laughing a little from where they stood on the mealie-dump1.
Their laughter, which was good-humoured, drove her suddenly mad with anger: she thought it
was aimed at her, whereas these men were only taking the opportunity to laugh at something,
anything at all, in the middle of their work.

But most white people think it is “cheek”2 if a native speaks English. She said,
breathless with anger, “Don’t speak English to me,” and then stopped. This man was
shrugging and smiling and turning his eyes up to heaven as if protesting that she had
forbidden him to speak his own language, and then hers – so what was he to speak? That lazy
insolence stung her into an inarticulate rage. She opened her mouth to storm at him, but
remained speechless. And she saw in his eyes that sullen resentment, and – what put the
finishing touch to it – amused contempt. Involuntarily she lifted her whip3 and brought it
down across his face in a vicious swinging blow. She did not know what she was doing. She
stood quite still, trembling; and when she saw him put his hand, dazedly4, to his face, she
looked down at the whip she held in stupefaction, as if the whip had swung out of its own
accord, without her willing it. Then she saw him make sudden movement and recoiled,
terrified; she thought he was going to attack her. But he only wiped the blood off his face with
a big hand that shook a little. She knew that all the natives were standing behind her stock-
still5, watching the scene. In a voice that sounded harsh from breathlessness, she said, “Now
get back to work.” For a moment the man looked at her with an expression that turned her
stomach liquid with fear. Then, slowly, he turned away, picked up a sack and rejoined the
conveyor-belt of natives6. They all began work again quite silently.

Doris LESSING, The Grass is Singing (1950) 1950 Doris Lessing

Reprinted by permission of Jonathan Clowes Ltd., London
 LYCÉE LE ROI DES ROIS – UNIVERS DU ROI DES ROIS ANNEE SCOLAIRE: 2019-2020
Koumassi Bia-Sud
10 BP 2616 Abidjan 10
Tel : 07-87-16-37
Cel: 59-57-33-17

1. The mealie dump: le tas d’épis de maïs

2. Cheek : insolence
3. Whip : fouet
4. Dazedly : d’un air hébété
5. Stand stock-still : rester cloué sur place
6. The conveyor-belt of natives: la chaîne des indigenes

PART ONE: read the text and do all the activities

A- Answer the questions below.

1. Who are the main characters?

2. How does the conflict start?
3. What does she forbid him to do?
4. What makes her hit the man?
5. What drives her from anger to fear?
6. What means does he use to communicate with Mary Turner?
7. How does the man react after the blow?
8. What is at stake in this conflict?
9. What is the social status of the main character?
10. What would be your reaction if you were the man who was whipped?

B- Vocabulary

Match each word or phrase from column A with its synonym in column B

Column A Column B
1. Anger a. Intend to
2. Resentment b. Furious
3. Outraged c. Dislike
4. Lose control over oneself d. Fury
5. Mean to e. Take overwhelmed by one’s
feelings
6. Fearful f. Hard
7. Be aware of g. Conflict
8. Taken by surprise h. Stupefied
9. Clash i. Conscious of
10. Harsh j. Frightful