Last Man of Bataan

(An Excerpt)
By: Carlos P. Romulo

I talked with and write about such men as Colin Kelly, Jr. who sank the 29,000 battleship off Luzon; and First
Lieutenant Boyd D. Wagner who was attacked by five pursuit planes at Aparri and brought down two of them in the air.
Boys like these represented the heroic, helpless stand and we were putting up against Japan. But there were humbler
figures no less heroic.
There was the little Filipino telephone girl in San Fernando, La Union, who refused to leave her switchboard and
maintained communication to the last against the oncoming Japanese; and that frail school teacher in Vigan, Ilocos Sur-
his name is Buenaventura J. Bello- who refused to remove the American flag from his classroom wall and was shot
standing beneath it by Japanese soldier.
I was a soldier. I learned to work day and night sustained by the catnaps and by sandwiches and coffee wolfed at
my desk. I learned how to raise my voice on the telephone so that it could be heard above the exploding bombs. Did I
have a home-empty now, in the residential district and a wife and children, hiding in the provinces from the enemy
while Christmas was coming on? I hadn’t time to think of these things.

1. Which statement supports that the writer fought during the American Japanese war?
A. I was a soldier.
B. We were putting up against Japan.
C. I learned how to raise my voice on the telephone.
D. I talked with and write about such men as Colin Kelly.

2. The persona in the story tells us that the writer was once a ___________.
A. guerilla from Bataan
B. journalist covering the war event
C. soldier during Japanese-American war
D. resident of the province hiding from the Japanese soldier.

3-5. Explain how this reading selection is influenced by our history.

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DIRECTIONS: Complete the following statements about what you have learned about authors’ influences and purpose in
writing a selection.
I. An authors’ influences are ______________, _________________, ___________________ and other factor that
affects his writings.
An author is influenced by his ________________ when he writes.

The more you know about the author, the better you can understand the ________________________ of his body of
work.

An authors’ purpose the main reason he or she has for writing.

The three basic purposes are to:

1. To _________________ mostly tries to convince like in an editorial or advertisement.

2. To _____________________, mostly present information or explains like in a textbook or news story.
3. To _____________________, mostly to provide entertainment like in a poem or funny essay.