Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
MIMAROPA Region
Schools Division of Calapan City
Oriental Mindoro National High School
J.P Rizal St., San Vicente East, Calapan City

ADAPTATION FROM THE JOURNEY TO THE RIVER SEA

BY EVA IBBOTSON
Maia is an orphan. Her only guardian is a lawyer, named Mr. Murray, whose only responsibility is to help her with the
small amount of money her parents have left her when they died. Then, Maia learned that her relatives, the Carters would
be willing to take care of her.
When a note written by the Carter twins, Gwendolyn and Beatrice, arrives, Maia makes up her mind to go live with the
Carters in their house on the Amazon. She travels there with Miss Minton, her new tutor. On the boat from England, she
meets Clovis King, a struggling child actor. The two quickly became friends. Maia is very excited to live with the Carters.
She imagines that she and the twins will become the best of friends and they will have a wonderful time together.
However, the only reason the Carters took Maia in was her money. In reality, Gwendolyn and Beatrice are selfish. They
hate Maia before they even know her. Maia feels like being with the Carters is like a being in prison. Soon, however, she
meets Finn, who is running away from private detectives known as “the crows.” They are trying to force Finn to return to
England and claim his inheritance. When Clovis committed a mistake in a play where he belongs, he goes to Maia for
help because his acting company fires him. She and Finn hide him in the hidden lagoon where Finn lives and devise a plan
to get Clovis back to England. Finn, Maia, and Clovis plan to make the crows believe that Clovis is Finn so Clovis
pretended to be Finn.
Meanwhile, in England, Clovis confesses that he is not the real Finn and wishes to go home, which causes Sir Aubrey,
Finn’s father to have a heart attack. The real Finn goes to his father's home, to help Clovis reveal the truth.
In the end, Mrs. Carter, Beatrice, and Gwendolyn return to England to become servants of their wealthy relative.
However, Maia, Miss Minton and Clovis all return to Brazil. Finn inherits all his family’s money and possessions.
The Story of the Pencil
by Paulo Coelho
The Grandchild was looking at his grandma writing for a letter. Suddenly he asked: “Are you writing a story
about us? Is it by chance a story about me?”.
The grandma stopped writing, smiled and said to her grandchild: “Indeed I am writing about you, however more
important than the words is the pencil I am using.
“I hope you will be like this pencil when you grow up”.
The child, looked at the pencil curiously, but could not see anything special.
“But . . . it is exactly the same as every other pencil I saw in my life”.
“It is all in the way you look at things. There are five qualities in that pencil that, if you will be able to maintain, will make
you a man in peace with the whole world.
First Quality: you can make big things, but never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. This hand we call it God,
and he will always have to address you towards his will.
Second Quality: sometimes I have to stop writing and use a sharpener. This makes the pencil suffer a little, but at the end
it will be sharper. So, learn to bear a little pain because it will make you a better man.
Third Quality: the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to cancel mistakes. Understand that correct something we did
is not necessarily a bad thing, but something fundamental to keep us on the right path.
Fourth Quality: what is really important in the pencil is not the wood or the shape, but the lead that is inside. So, be
always careful of what happens inside of yourself.
At the end, the fifth quality is: always leave a sign. In any case, be aware that everything you do in your life will leave
trails; try to be conscious of every single action”.