ec 10° ano ete ce ere ccca icra Esta obra parte integrante do Manual Upgrade endo pode ser vendidaUnderwater Glossary Activities Before Reading While Reading After Reading 21 22 28 36When you dive into the water everything changes: your world, your life, your body. If you've never been a swimmer, you won't understand what I'm talking about, because there’s nothing else like it. Underwater you're free, you're weightless; the world disappears. There is nothing, absolutely nothing else I've ever known that comes close to this feeling, though they say that free-fall flying’ is similar. » The moment after you jump out of a plane and fly through the air, the moment before you pull the cord on your parachute and start the controlled landing - they say that’s close. Flying and swimming. Maybe we have a memory of a time before we were human, a time when we were in the water or in the air, all those hundreds of thousands of years ago. I don’t know and there isn’t really anyone who can tell me. Not even my father, and he knows most things. I'm not being childish. rm not saying: “My Dad knows more than your Dad”. It’s just that my father really does know all these things. He writes books on science, not popular science books, not the kind of books they put in the windows of bookshops. His books aren't for thegeneral public; they have plain covers without pictures, and the print is really small as if to deter? non-scientists. I've tried to read them, but I've always given up after the first sentence. They assume too much knowledge’. They are written in English, but not the English I speak; I don’t have that kind of knowledge, I've spent too much time swimming. If you saw my father on the television or in the street, you'd know he wasa scientist. He has that kind of look, as if his mind is always somewhere else, as if it really doesn’t matter that his jacket is twenty years old and fraying’ at the cuff’. My mother gave up on him* a long time ago. When I was younger, I thought he was really embarrassing, but I don’t mind any more. The only problem - and I suppose it was my problem, not his - was that he was never at home. And even when he was home, when he wasn't on one of his journeys, he wasn't really here. His mind was always somewhere else. Maybe that was my problem, too. I suppose I was used to it, all those competitions when I stepped out of the water and looked round for him and he wasn’t there. There was only my mother, waving like crazy and clapping and cheering. Along with all the other mothers and fathers, cheering their successful daughters. Only with me it was always just my mother. I should have been grateful. She did so much for me, as everyone liked to remind me. “Your mother is wonderful,” they said. “It must be wonderful to have a mother who supports you like that.” Wonderful. Yes. Of course. My wonderful mother. My mother was always there. It was she who got up at half-past four every morning to drive me to the pool for my morning practice. It was she who cycled beside me on my runs, shouting encouragement. It was she who chopped up fresh fruit for me every day. My mother gave up everything to help me become a champion and, as she often said, all she wanted in return was for me to win an Olympic gold medal. That's all.“would you be happy if I got an Olympic medal?” I asked my father, * ayear or so back. “If it's what you want,” he replied. Which wasn’t the answer I wanted to hear. Of course winning an Olympic medal was what I wanted. Wasn't it? After all, 'd been working towards it for years and years. My whole life was training. Every morning, every evening after school and every weekend. If you went into my room, the first thing you saw, apart from the posters of swimmers, was my timetable. It took up almost half a wall. swimming twice a day, working with weights’ at the gym four times a week, running. And then all the study periods. 1 was meant to be doing three A-levels*: French, English and Geography.Mum didn’t want me to do Geograph he said another language would be more useful, but Dad said it was a good idea, 80, she didn’t stop me. But there was so much work. Sometimes | worked till eleven at night and then I had to be up again at half-past four to go to the pool. You're meant to have eight hours’ sleep when you're training. But that just didn’t happen. Maybe that was part of the problem. I was just too tired. Back then I was always tired. It’s not as if I didn't enjoy swimming. | did. Well not all the training, obviously, and not the early mornings. But I loved the sensation of being in control, of feeling the water flow over me as I pushed forward. My speciality was the 200 metres breaststroke’. 1 loved the energy of it; you hold your arms forward and then push away the water and your whole body leaps” forward. It was the best feeling in the world. That and winning. That's great, too. And I knew that if you wanted to win, seriously win, then you had to make sacrifices. I'd been making sacrifices all my life: choosing swimming rather than friends, swimming rather than parties, swimming rather than studying, swimming rather than living. Naturally that wasn’t what I said when I was interviewed in the sports magazines. Of course not. “We reveal the real Maggie Dean,” they used to write. Yeah. About as real as your smile when you lost a race and had to say sweetly: “It doesn’t matter, it's the taking part that’s important”. Oh, yeah. Since when? If you read those magazines you'd think that all I cared about was the squad", competitions, medals. As if the ‘real’ Maggie Dean had been replaced by a robot who was programmed to swim and smile and be happy. “The squad is so supportive,” said Maggie. You could listen to her talking about being picked” to swim for the British junior team and how excited she was as she prepared for the next championship, and the one after that, and the one after that. You just had to press a button and the right words came out.Underwater Press another button and she won medals. What a clever little robot she was. Clever Maggie. She deserved a medal! Naturally Maggie-the-robot never said anything about what it felt like at school when no-one wanted to sit next to her in the cafeteria because she smelled of chlorine”. “We won't invite Maggie,” the girls used to say. “ She'll be too busy . .. and any case what boy would want to be with her . . . smelling like the disinfectant they use to clean the loos. Ugh!” When you swam as often as I did, no showers could get rid of” the lingering’ smell of the swimming pool - it got into my clothes, my hair. I used every kind of shampoo, but it was always there. In any case, how could I expect to have friends at school when I was never there? I was always training or trying to catch up with work I'd missed because of training and competitions. So I didn’t have any friends at school. That was OK. I was used to it. So why did I leave? I've no idea. It wasn't even something I'd been thinking about. I suppose I was like an elastic band that had been stretched out around something for months and then, for no obvious reason, just snapped”. I had been stretching myself that bit too far, for too long. It all started with another row”: my mother and me shouting on the way to the pool, at the pool and coming home from the pool. we often argued, but so do all the girls in the squad. They shouted at their coaches and their parents. Sport-related stress, it's called. We're often asked about it and there are psychologists on the squads these days to help you deal with it. “Do you feel pressured?” they'd ask. “No more than usual,” rd tell them. “As long as I have everything timetabled and feel in control, then I'm OK.” “Excellent,” they'd say. It was easy to deal with them. You'd just tell them what they wanted to hear. You'd get some girls who were obsessed with beating a particular rival. It was all they'd think or talk about.And their swimming deteriorated because they were focused on" that rival and not on their swimming. The thing is, it's not other people you have to beat, it’s yourself. That's something | grasped’ quite early on. No, I think it was my mother who told me, after I'd swum really badly in one race. And rd screamed at her, telling her she didn’t know anything. As I do rather often. But then, later, I thought about it and realised she was right. After all, she had been a swimmer once herself until her parents moved house and she couldn't get to the pool any more. Her parents weren't prepared to give up everything for their daughter, unlike my mother who, as she told me at least once a day, had put her own life on hold” so that I could benefit from her coaching skills. Did I say my mother was also my coach? She's a qualified swimming coach and coached a couple of schools, too. But mostly she just spent her time devising” plans to make me a champion swimmer. This sometimes caused clashes* with the official coaches on the squad. Which was what the latest row was all about. My mother was trying to get me to swim one final length” “Again,” she said. “Come on, Maggie. And this time use your arms.” “'m tired,” I answered. “And I think I've done something to my back.” “rm not listening, Maggie,” my mother replied. “I want you to swim again. And this time I want you to concentrate.” And so I did. And my back hurt. It hurt a lot. “Now you've injured my back,” I told my mother as I got out of the pool. “It’s this cold weather. You can’t train properly when it’s cold.” It was a cold day for May, but it wasn’t exactly winter either. “I wouldn't get injured if 1 was in America,” I said. “('m not starting that again,” said mother. The squad had suggested that I go to the States, to Texas. We'd been arguing about it all the way to the pool.Underwater “There's a really good chance that Dallas is going to offer me a place.” I told my mother. “What?” she replied. She wasn’t really listening. She was driving and singing along to some song. She claimed it helped her keep awake in the mornings though I always complained that it gave me a headache. “The university,” I said, “in America. Just think of it, the huge open-air pools and the chance to take part in the American college championships.” “I don’t want you to go to the States,” she said. “Why not? Think of all the facilities*, the sun. I'd get so fit.” Iwas getting quite keen on* the idea. “I don’t think it would be right for you,” she replied. “I think it’s better if you stay here.” With her, she meant. Then I started to shout and she did her usual routine of how ungrateful I was and all she'd done for me. So after Td finished swimming, we started shouting all over again. You can have a really loud row in an empty swimming pool. We went on arguing right till the moment when she dropped me off outside the school. That was the moment I decided to leave. It came to me in a split second”. I wasn’t going to school and I wasn't going back home. After ’'d made that decision, I felt so calm, so peaceful. The first thing was to find somewhere to hide while I worked it all out. One of our neighbours was abroad and Id been feeding their cats, so I knew there was a spare” key under a stone in their garden. And that’s where I went. “What do you think, cats?” I asked them. “You'll have to find someone else to feed you. Maggie's starting a new life.” The cats turned their backs on me and started to clean themselves. The problems of some stupid teenager were below their level of thinking. I think that cats are secret philosophers. They need the comfortableseat in front of the fire because they are busy on deep thoughts such as why we are here and how we got here in the first place. I waited until my mother drove off to the shops. I could tell she was still angry because she nearly hit the side of the wall as she drove out of the garage. One of these days she's going to have an accident the way she drives. I expect it’s because she doesn’t get enough sleep. ‘We were doing some stuff on sleep deprivation” at school and 1 realised that my mother had a lot of the symptoms of people who don't get enough sleep. Like irrational behaviour and getting angry for no reason. Iwatched her go and then slipped back into the house. No one saw me. It wasn’t that kind of street. Everyone leaves for work and the few mothers at home with their children are too busy to stand looking out of the window. I knew exactly what I had to do. It was very strange. It was as if 1 had a script" and was acting in some film, or that I was a different Maggie, a much calmer, more practical version of me. First of alll had some breaKfast. I usually had breakfast at school, but I hadn’t gone to school, had I? Now I was starving”. When I was training I had to eat more than double what the girls at school ate and I was still slimmer than most of them. That’s another thing they said they hated about me; I could eat all the time and I never got fat. And I had boxes full of strange diet supplements, minerals and vitamins. Nothing else, of course. My mother wouldn't let me touch anything unless she knew it was safe. There have been stories about drugs that look like diet supplements. International swimming organizations are very tough on drugs. They need to be after what happened in the ‘76 Olympic Games, when all the East German girls had been given massive doses of steroids. My mother told me most of them were now ill and some of them had died of cancer. It wasn’t the girls’ fault; they'd been used as guinea pigs” by the state. Just for a few medals.Underwater After breakfast I packed a small bag with a couple of pairs of jeans and T-shirts and a sweater and other stuff and then took out my money from its secret place. I'd been hiding extra money there for years. I think it started when I was quite young; I'd had a row with my mother and I'd announced I was leaving home and she'd said that I couldn't leave home because I didn’t have any money. So I started to squirrel money away™ inside one of my old dolls. There was over £200 now. That wouldn't last very long. My mother had an emergency fund, too. It wouldn't be stealing if I told her I'd borrowed it. She kept it inside a copy of War and Peace. There was £500 pounds. If l only spent £30 a day, I could survive for over three weeks without needing a job. 1 left my mother a note saying I'd gone away and borrowed the money and “don’t forget to feed the cats at Number 17”. Then I put my hair up inside my cap, so it would be harder for anyone to recognize me, and walked to the station. I live in Oxford and it takes about an hour to get to London. I bought a day-return ticket to London because that’s what Id normally buy. Buying a single ticket would be unusual and | didn’t want to do anything to make the ticket collector remember me. I , wanted my mother to know I'd left, but I didn’t want her to follow me. All the way to London I made plans. I knew I didn’t want to stay in . London. ’'m not stupid; I know how dangerous it is for a sixteen-year- old alone in a big city. In any case London's really expensive. I also wanted to change the way I looked. I'd taken some of my mother's old make-up; she never threw anything away, she just kept it in a wash bag® under the basin. I took some mascara and eyeliner, which my mother probably last wore twenty years ago. It didn’t take long to find a hairdresser’s near the station and the girl who went in with long brown hair came out with a very short black, spiky® cut. I loved it. There were some cool boutiques near the vUnderwater hairdresser’s and I bought a black skirt and a jacket and got some black trousers. My mother hates me in black. I looked in the mirror and couldn't believe how I looked. It was just how I felt — different, stronger, a world away from Maggie-the-robot from the sports magazines. I could have walked right past any of those journalists and they wouldn't have recognized me. Even my mother wouldn't have recognized me. Iwas hungry again, so I bought some sandwiches and chocolate at Waterloo Station before getting a train to Exeter. I knew exactly where I wasgoing:toasmalltowncalledDawlish, inDevoninthewestofEngland. I had been there once, one summer when I was very young, about five, I think, a time when we still went on family holidays. We had stayed in a big hotel and I'd swum in the sea every day. 'd always wanted to swim and I still loved swimming, but I didn’t want to compete any more. I thought Dawlish would be a safe place to go to; it was certainly safer than London. I just needed time to be on my own and work out what to do next. In a few weeks my father would be coming back from the Solomon Islands or wherever he was. When I went through London, I saw a huge poster advertising cheap air fares and for a mad moment I thought that rd get on a plane and track _ him down. But I didn’t have enough money to get to France, let alone some island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I didn’t even have my passport with me. Dawlish, though, was almost like another country; it was so different from Oxford. As soon as I arrived, I walked to the centre of town and there were all these big palm trees. I felt I was a long way away from home, as if I'd been away for weeks, though it was only ten hours since I'd walked away from school. I wondered what my mother was doing. Shouting at somebody, | imagined, telling them to find me. I didn’t think there was much she or anyone else could do, as I'd clearly left because I'd wanted to. I'd left a note, soI hadn’t been abducted”, and I was sixteen, legally old enough to live by myself. Though by law I needed my parents’ permission. It’s only in Scotland that you can leave home at sixteen without their permission. But even so, there are thousands of teenagers in Britain who do leave home without permission. I knew I wasn't going to be the top priority of any overworked" police force; it wasn’t as if | was a missing child. Actually we'd had a talk at school from the National Missing Persons Helpline. It helps families and friends trace missing people. 1 often used to look at their posters in the local supermarket. The big red letters said: “Missing! Can you help?” and there was always a smudgy® photo, often taken years before, underneath. Each poster asked the missing person to get in touch with their family and say they were safe as the family was very worried. I used to wonder what it would be like to leave home and go missing. Maybe I'd been thinking about leaving for a long time, and I just hadn’t known it. The woman who gave the talk said that when people ring up, they tell their families that they're safe, but they never tell them where the people are unless they give permission. She was really nice, that woman. I thought I might ring her up in a week or so. Just to say I was OK. It was odd® to think of myself as missing. I've often woken up feeling that a part of me was missing, but that evening I arrived in Dawlish, I felt more gathered, more together, more whole than I had for a long time. I didn’t feel missing; I felt as if 'd started a new bit of my life. I also felt tired and hungry. I needed some food and a bed for the night. There were a few big hotels, like the one we'd stayed in. I couldn't remember which one that was and, in any case they were all far too expensive. I'd already spent half my money on my hair and clothes and fares, and I had to find somewhere cheap to stay, somewhereUnderwater cheap to eat and a job where they didn’t ask too many questions. So 1 walked along the Exeter road, looking for bed-and-breakfast places“. T eventually found one in a small road near the sea. It was fine, and the woman running it seemed nice, though a bit talkative. in just one minute I knew she was called Mrs Fraser and she had two daughters and a bad knee that always hurt before it rained. I signed in as Meg Hope and gave an address in London, which was the address of the hairdresser’s shop. Meg Hope was the new name I'd decided on during the journey. I also said I was seventeen. I almost looked it, with my new haircut and black clothes. “It’s early in the year for tourists,” said Mrs Fraser. “’'m not a tourist,” I told her. “I've been ill and the doctor said that the sea air would do me good.” “Oh you poor dear!” said Mrs Fraser leading me to a big room from where I could just see a small corner of sea. “You do look a bit peaky*. Maybe it’s the black. I can’t think why you youngsters all want to wear black these days when there are so many nice bright colours you could wear. Fashion, I suppose. We all have to obey fashion.” Mrs Fraser was wearing a pleated® pink nylon skirt, which hung round her enormous hips like a fluted barrel“. She also had a pale yellow fluffy® sweater and fluffy slippers. She certainly didn’t look as if she obeyed any fashion that I knew. “you'll soon get better here,” she told me. “The air’s wonderful. Sea air. Cures everything except rheumatism. So where's your family?” she asked finally. “My parents will be coming to pick me up in a few days’ time,” I told her. “They're going to stay with a friend of theirs near Exeter.” “That's nice,” she said. “Though the traffic in Exeter has become a menace“. Takes you forever to find somewhere to park.” I remember her conversation because the day felt increasingly like a film. It was also strange not to have my school books and mytimetable. | felt as if I'd been carrying this huge stone on my back and now I'd dropped it. I was free, but there was still an ache where the stone had been. | decided that it was just because I was tired, so I went to bed really early. The next day I woke up at 4.30 as usual. It took me a second to remember where I was and that I didn’t have to get up for training, 1 went back to sleep but I woke up again at 6.30. This time I was really awake, so I got up, put on a swimsuit under my jeans and sweater and walked down to the sea. It was very blue and very cold, but I don’t mind cold water. I swam quickly, lots of different strokes”, just swimming for myself, feeling like a dolphin surging® through the sea. Then I turned over on to my back and swam along, looking at the sky. There was no-one else on the beach and it was really beautiful.Underwater After breakfast (I ate two of everything, Mrs Fraser was delighted and made me a bacon sandwich to eat later) I went out to look for a job. I walked all round the town, up High Street and Old Town Street as far as Church Street and then back down to the beach. There were lots of shops and a few offices, but no jobs. Or no jobs for Meg Hope, who didn’t have a bank account or a social security number®. I didn’t want to tell anyone my real name. Id left Maggie behind in Oxford; I didn't want to become her again. 1 was walking along the sea road towards Teignmouth, when I saw the café. I was hungry again, so I went in for a coffee and some cake. It was a bit like one of those shops that sells Indian things, and it was called ‘The Kandahar’, which sounded exotic, too. It smelled of incense and there were lots of curtains with tiny bits of mirror on them. The waitress was young and had a really nice smile. And because there weren't many other people there, she came over to my table and started to talk, Her name was Becky and she wasn't from Dawlish either, she told me. The place was so small that it seemed as if everyone knew each other. She came from Bristol where she'd been studying at Art College, but she'd had a row with her boyfriend, so she'd left and come here for the summer. Itold her as much as I could without saying anything. But I did tell her I was looking for a job. “Have you done any waitressing?” she asked. “A bit,” I lied. I was getting good at lying. “Well, we don’t pay much, but there’s a room upstairs you can rent feally cheaply as well, and you do get free food. It’s just that someone’s left us. Well, actually we threw her out®.” People at school had always said I was naive™ and childish because I'd never taken any drugs or had a drink, but I did know about the world. So it didn’t shock me when I discovered that the previous waitress had been a drug addict and had been fired when she'd stolen cash from the till™.Even without experience I could see that I was going to be a much better waitress than she had been. So I took the job and the flat. Mrs Fraser was very disappointed not to meet my parents on the day I left. I just hoped she never had tea at ‘The Kandahar’. Though I couldn't imagine her there; it wasn't her kind of place. I thought I would grow into it. That I could become a different kind of person, someone more like Becky and less like Maggie. But I didn’t. Becky only wanted to talk about her boyfriend and the owner, Tom, who mostly lived in London, kept asking me to smoke dope with him. I didn’t feel as if I belonged there and there were so many things I hated, apart from the dope. I hated the fact that the shower never worked and I had to take a bus to the laundrette* to wash my clothes. And I wanted someone to talk to. Really talk to. As Maggie, not Meg. I didn’t think I liked Meg very much. So I rang the National Missing Persons Helpline. They told me my parents were really worried about me. There had been articles about me in the papers. Everyone thought I was in danger. “I never thought,” I said. And I hadn't. It never occurred to me that my father would have flown straight home and spent a month sitting beside the phone, waiting for news. I suppose I just didn’t think at all. Or if I did, it was just about me. 1 thought my mother would be angry; I didn't realise how upset she would be. I thought she only cared about the swimming. And I realised that what I wanted most was to speak to my father. I really missed him. Maybe | always had. Sol rang home and he was there on the phone. He talked and cried, and I talked and cried. I asked him to come down and I think he was out of the door and into his car almost before I'd put down the phone. Iwas shocked when I saw him. He looked awful, he hadn't shaved and when I hugged® him, his jacket smelled of beer and cigarettes. “where’s Mum?” I asked him. “I thought she'd come, too.” “1 don’t know,” he said. “I didn’t want to tell you over the phone.Your mother had a kind of a breakdown* after you left. And a couple of months ago she walked out. No-one knows where she is.” And he started to cry. It was awful, I couldn't bear it. “I just can’t cope” without her,” he said as we drove home, and it was true. The house was a tip and there was nothing to eat, The first thing I did was make Dad shave and change and then I sent him to the supermarket with a long list. It took me two days to clean up the house and make it look like home again. But it’s not home. Not without Mum. And Dad has changed. He doesn’t like to go away for long journeys now, in case I'm not there when he comes back. I often ring the National Missing Persons Helpline, I don’t know what Id do without them. “The thing is, Maggie,” they told me last week, “for people who wait the clocks all stop; life does go on, but it goes on around them.” And it’s true, we're like rocks in a river; we can’t move, the water flows past us. When I ran away, I was only thinking of myself. But now I know what it’s like to wait. So. If you're reading this, Mum. I'm really sorry. Dad and I miss you so much. Please come home. 20cams ‘free-fall flying - controlled falling before opening a parachute 2 deter ~ make people not want to (read) > assume too much knowledge - believe the reader already knows a lot “fraying - edge of material tearing (because it is old) Scuff - end of asleeve gave upon him ~ stopped trying to change him 7 weights ~ heavy pieces of metal to be lifted and that help develop muscles * A-levels (Advanced levels) - UK state ‘exams before students leave school at 18 * breaststroke ~ a circular swimming style °° leaps - jumps " squad - team ™ picked - chosen ® chlorine - strong-smelling chemical used in pools * Joos - toilets ° get rid of - send away ° lingering - that will not go away ” snapped - broke suddenly ™ row — argument, fight ” focused on - concentrated on ® grasped ~ (here) understood * put her own life on hold ~ stopped thinking about her life for a period of time ® devising - making ® clashes - arguments %ength - the length of the pool facilities - things provided (here: pools, equipment, etc) % keen on - interested in split second ~ instantly * worked it all out ~ decided what to do ® spare - extra sleep deprivation - going without sleep >! script - text from which film is made ™ starving - very hungry © guinea pigs - testers * squirrel ... away ~ hide ° wash bag - small bag for soap, toothbrush, etc. ° spiky - with spikes, with points » abducted ~ taken away against her wish ° overworked - with too much work ® smudgy ~ unclear “ odd - strange © bed-and-breakfast places ~ small private hotels © peaky - unwell © pleated - with permanent folds “ fluted barrel — large round container with irregular surface © fluffy ~ soft, like fur “ menace - danger © strokes - styles of swimming “ surging - moving quickly and powerfully © social security number ~ personal tax number © threw her out ~ forced her to leave © naiive - with very little knowledge till - where money is kept in a shop or até ® dope - cannabis * launderette — shop where you go to wash your clothes © hugged — put one’s arms around *® breakdown - serious medical condition which often makes the sufferer act in a strange or unexpected way © cope - be able to deal with daily life © tip ~ like a place you leave rubbish 21Pisa jimi | saromss | A. The author 1. Complete the gaps in the author's biography using the words in the box. awards graduate creative playwright published journalist Antoinette Moses is a a. ate UEA (University of East Anglia) with a MA in Creative Writing. She completed a PhD in 2009 and has written all her life. While writing she hasbeen ab. afilm festival directorandacook.Shehasc....... a guide to Athens, another on running arts festivals, a cookery book, a book on poetry and co-written scripts for students of English as a foreign language. She has also written and presented two television series for Channel 4. .aneditor, Antoinette Moses is also ad. _----....--------- Her plays have won several competitions. She was also the researcher/ co-writer on a school edition of Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. She has published over fifteen books of language learner literature, including Frozen Pizza and Other Slices of Life, a book of short stories which has become a set text at a number of schools and universities around the world. Two of her Cambridge English Readers (Let Me Out and Jojo’s Story, which has been described by one reviewer as ‘one of the most important books of all time’) have won e. ee from the Extensive Reading Foundation. Antoinette teaches f. __ - writing at the University of East Anglia. htap://www.ttea.ac.uk/lt/People/Antoinette+Moses, adapted, accessed in Jan 2013 ntp://www.cambridge.org/gb/elt/catalogue/subject/project/authors/item404822/ Ccamibridge-English-Readers-Authors/?site locale=en_GB¤tSubjectiD=382366, (adapted), accessed in January 2013,B. The title 1. Read the following statement by Hemingway and look at the picture. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water Emest Hemingway, Death in the afternoon 1.1 How do these words relate to the way we judge what we see? 1.2 When you think of life below sea level what words / feelings come to mind? What should the title of a story tell you? What does the title Underwater suggest about the story? What genre do you think this title hints at? Tick (V) your option. a.Media news (_ ) d. Romance (_) g. Biography b. Horror story e. Thriller ~) h. Science fiction _) ¢. Drama ) £. Detective storyC. Issues 1. This story deals with a family. 1.1 Complete this diagram with vocabulary you relate to this topic. 1.2 What role should the family play in a person's life? 2. We use some phrasal verbs to talk about family and other relationships. 2.1 Match the following phrasal verbs with their correct meaning. a. Turn someone down 1. quarrel with someone b. Get on with someone 2, admire someone c. Fall out with someone 3. not accept someone d. Look up to someone 4, despise someone e. Look down on someone 5. have a friendly relationship with someone 2.2:If you had to guess which of these phrasal verbs would fit the story which ones would you choose? Why?3. Parents sometimes put too much pressure on their children. Do you agree? Justify your opinion. 3.1 Read the following poem written by a teenager. The game Expectations. Can you live up to them? There is Always a winner, Always a loser, Losers aren’t necessarily defeated, And winning doesn’t mean you're a winner. The sweet smell of victory. The stench of defeat. Parents, fans, coaches. Several tributaries feed the river of pressure. Sometimes it’s too hard, Much too challenging of an obstacle to overcome. Nerves boiling to the extreme. Mental composure strained. Feelings of failure, ‘Sweet sensation of accomplishment. Expectations. Can we live up to them? Ashleigh Corvi, htp://internationalspor.com/cspoetry/middlecm, accessed in Janvary 2013 3.2 Can you explain the lines “Losers aren't necessarily defeated, / And winning doesn't mean you're a winner.”? 3.3 What do you think? Is it difficult to live up to your parents’ expectations? Can you think of any example of someone you know with this problem?4. Read this short text about the pressure teen athletes suffer. 4.1 Do you play any sport on a regular basis? 4,2 Do your parents pressure you to play or is it your choice? 4.3 What do you feel about parents and coaches’ pressure to win at all costs? 4.4 Comment on this statement: “I want my son to win medals! When I was a teen I tried but didn’t win any! That’s why I keep pushing him.”UNDERWATER 5. Which psychological traits from the list are important for an athlete? Tick (V) your choices and justify them. Mature Conscientious Irresponsible ; Short Apathetic red Honest Aggressive Fair Hardworking Insensitive Loyal Focused Devoted Confident wild D. Predicting 1. Bearing in mind the title, the issues raised in the previous exercises and these pictures what do you think this short story is about? 2. Who might the main characters be? 3. What could their relationship be?Crm A. Plot Story analysis L 2 3. 2B ‘When and where does the story take place? Maggie says in the first paragraph of the story “Underwater you're free, you’re weightless; the world disappears”. : Comment on this choice of words. Maggie has mixed feelings about swimming. Identify them. She likes... She doesn't like... skim the text and find out what sacrifices Maggie has to make in order to achieve success. Were they worth it? Justify your answer. When Maggie talks about her contacts with the media, she refers to herself using the 3" person and the expression “Maggie - the- robot”. What is she trying to express? Choose from the words below. irony respect sarcasm detachment ~—_compassion How is she accepted at school? Illustrate the problems she has to face daily with references from the text. “It all started with another row: my mother and me...” 7.1 What does “It” refer to? 7.2 Why were they arguing?8. Organize the main events in Underwater after this fight between Maggie and her mother. Illustrate each of them with the sentence that best defines them. Event Sentence KAN 5 9. Compare Maggie’s daily routine before and after her decision to change her life. 10. Why does she choose Dawlish to stay? Tick (v’) the correct option. (va. she once had a boyfriend there. () b. It was safer than London and she could swim for pleasure. (vc She could do her Olympic trials in better conditions. 11, “Ifelt as if ’d been carrying this huge stone on my back and now Yd dropped it.” 11,1 Explain the meaning of this sentence. 12. “I thought I would grow into it. ... But I didn’t.” These sentences represent her awareness of the real Maggie. 12.1 What was the immediate consequence of this fact? 13, How did Maggie feel when she first rang the “National Missing Persons Helpline”? Choose from the box below. astonished bitter regretful disappointed homesick 14. “We're like rocks in a river; we can’t move, the water flows past us.” 14.1 What does Maggie mean when she says this? 15. How do your feelings about Maggie change as the story develops?Conflict 1. Whatare the major internal (between the caracter and him/herself) and external (between caracter and an outside force—man, nature, society) conflicts which drive the action of the story? Conflict Internal or External? Quotation a, Maggie’s mixed fellings about... . Maggie's relationship with her... c. Maggie's unhapiness with her new... 2. Compare Maggie to yourself. Keep the differences in mind and tell your classmates how you would have acted in a similar situation. B. Characters 1. Look at the characters in this story and complete the sentences. MrsDean MrDean Maggie Dean/Meg Hope Mrs Fraser Becky Tom 1.1 The main characters are __- because - 1.2 The supporting characters are __ _.. because1.3 Who are they in the story? a. Mrs Dean b. Mr Dean c. Maggie/Meg d. Mrs Fraser e. Becky 2. Which of the following characteristics do you associate to the characters? talkative kind of robot _ former Art student sloppy enthusiastic supporter a. Mrs Dean b. Mr Dean c. Maggie/Meg Mrs Fraser e. Becky 3. With your partner decide which of the following adjectives describe Maggie’s mum and dad. Some can fit both. intelligent bossy helpful strong scruffy _ qualified supportive absent opinionated —_quarrelsome absent-minded enthusiastic _— dedicated tothe job _persistent 3.1 Go back to the text and find sentences that justify two of your choices for each character. 3.2 How do these characters influence the development of the plot? 314. Maggie goes through some psychological changes during the story. Can you identify three occasions that contribute to these personality changes? Choose sentences from the text to support your answer. a.1* Part - From * ”, page to b.2™ Part - From“... 2 3" Part - From“. ”, page - 4.1 Complete her Story Character Card. Character Card Before 1. Description a. Physical: b. Personality: After b. Personality: 2. Insight 2. Insight a. Thoughts: a. Thoughts: __ b. Feeling bb. Feelings: 3. Development 3. Development a. Problem: - a. Problem: - b. Goal: b. Goal: c. Outcome: __ elOutoomer ee 4. Interacting a. Quot b. Interaction with other characters: 4. Interacting a. Quote: b. Interaction with other characters:5. 6. What does Maggie experience during the story? 5.1 How does this experience make her feel? “Readers want to care, to believe in the possibility of what a story’s characters can accomplish.” 6.1 Did this story make you care about Maggie and what she accomplished? Justify your opinion. Maggie had a different relationship with her father and her mother. 7.1 Describe her relationship with her father quoting from the text to support your ideas. 7.2 Describe her relationship with her mother quoting from the text to support your ideas. With your partner try to add some more feelings to the list. Feelings Word List suspicious euphoric delighted concerned optimistic confused discouraged perplexed scared anxious Play “Be the Character” game in class: a. Select six students to be father, mother, Maggie, Mrs Fraser, Becky and Tom. Your task is to do the best to become the character; b. Four other students will be a panel who determines which student from the first group responds to questions most like the character; c. The remaining students ask the students roleplaying the characters questions, for example, What is your biggest secret and why don't you want anyone to know it? What is the best thing you have ever done? What was so good about it? What do you regret doing? Why? What would you like to change about yourself?....C. Point of View 1. From whose point of view is this story told? 2. Did this narrative technique influenced your feelings? If yes, in what way? 3. Write Maggie’s mother’s diary page right after the quarrel when she left her at school, showing a different perspective of the events. D. Word Work 1. This story is about the life of a swimmer practising for the Olympics. 1.1 Unscramble the letters for each swimming style. The first letter is done for you. aB.. --(tutefybrl) «. B.. (tsaerbekorts) b.B (ekortskcab) d. Po (eflryetes) or F sotto £ (rnfot rlawe) 1.2 Which is Maggie's specialty? 2. Inthe story you come across a lot of adjectives. 2.1 Choose from the box the correct adjectives to fit in the columns. Positive Negative dangerous stupid free tough calm happy embarrassing childish safer stronger ungrateful lingering clever obsessed supportive naive tired successful weightless excited peaky stupid gathered safer wonderful black peaceful grateful irrational2.2 Use some of these adjectives or add some more that describe Maggie's personality to write a short (adjective) poem about her. It can be an acronym poem or a simple one like these. Frivolous Brave shallow Energetic q Squeaking Tenacious Sulky, ‘Strong | sarah. Young | 3. Collocations are two or more words that often go together. Try to find the corresponding pairs.asa 1. Mark Maggie’s route between Oxford and Dawlish in the map. 1.10n the Internet search for information about each of these places including: + Location «Cultural relevance + What it’s known for2. Five years have passed. What happened to Maggie? Imagine an interview with her for your school newspaper. In pairs prepare your questions and Maggie’s answers. a1 3. This is an open ended story. 3.1 Continue the story in order to answer the following questions: + Did Maggie's mother ever appear? + Did Maggie ever win a gold medal?“so I rang the National Missing Persons Helpline.” The helpline Maggie refers to has changed its name. It’s now called” Missing People”. missing ~~ people A lifeline when someone disappears 4.1 Go to the website of the helpline and find out: + who they are + what they do + how they can be contacted 4.2 When someonte is missing a poster appeal is usually launched. Can you create Maggie's poster? 4.3 Write a piece for TV / Radio news reporting her missing.5. Watch the trailer of the film The secret life of bees. 5.1 Answer these questions. + Why do you think Lily ran away from home? + Will she go back to her family house again? 5.2 Compare Maggie and Lily’s stories and complete the chart. Life away from foe Outcome Time and Place Maggie Lily