Hello My dear students 11th A-B-C and 10A_B_C degree

Hello my dear students:I hope you be very encouraged to initiate this academic year in the school. Well, I invite to you to unload the first work of reading.

THE OVAL PORTRAIT

Edgar Allan Poe

She was a beautiful young flower, and always so happy.

Yes, she was happy. Until that evil day when she saw and loved the painter of her portrait. They were married. But, sadly, he already had a wife: his work. His painting was more important to him than anything in the world.

Before, she was all light and smiles. She loved everything in the world. Now she loved all things but one: her husband's work. His painting was her only enemy; and she began to hate the paintings that kept her husband away from her. And so it was a terrible thing when he told her that he wanted to paint his young wife's portrait.

For weeks, she sat in the tall, dark room while he worked. He was a silent man, always working, always lost in his wild, secret dreams. She sat still always smiling, never moving while he painted her hour after hour, day after day. He did not see that she was growing weaker with every day. He never noticed that she was not healthy any more, and not happy any more. The change was happening in front of his eyes, but he did not see it.

But she went on smiling. She never stopped smiling because she saw that her husband, who was now very famous, enjoyed his work so much. He worked day and night, painting the portrait of the woman he loved. And as he painted, the woman who loved him grew slowly weaker and sadder.

Several people saw the half-finished picture. They told the painter how wonderful it was, speaking softly as he worked. They said the portrait showed how much he loved his beautiful wife. Silently, she sat in front of her husband and his visitors, hearing and seeing nothing now.

The work was coming near an end. He did not welcome visitors in the room any more. A terrible fire was burning inside him now. He was wild, almost mad with his work. His eyes almost never left the painting now, even to look at his wife’s face. Her face was as white as snow. The painter did not see that the colours he was painting were no longer there in her real face.

Many more weeks passed until, one day, in the middle of winter, he finished the portrait. He touched the last paint on to her lips; he put the last, thin line of colour on an eye; then he stood back and looked at the finished work.

As he looked, he began to shake. All colour left his face. With his eyes on the portrait, he cried out to the world: ‘This woman is not made of paint! She is alive!’ Then he turned suddenly to look at the woman he loved so much.

She was dead.

Source: An Extract from "The Black Cat and Other Stories" (retold by David Wharry)

GLOSSARY

evil day: wrong or damned day (maldito día) sadly: unhappily (desgraciadamente) to hate: to detest (odiar, detestar) kept her husband away: prevent her husband from coming closer (imantenían distanciado a su esposo) silent: failing to speak or communicate (callado, silencioso) wild, secret dreams: intimate dreams without any control (delirantes ensoñaciones) growing weaker: becoming weaker (debilitándose) went on: continued (prosiguió, continuó)

sadder: showing more and more sorrow (más triste) coming near an end: near to be over (acercándose a su final) he did not welcome visitors: he received no guests (no recibía visitas) mad: crazy (loco) were no longer there: there were not any (ya no se encontraban allí) to shake: to tremble, to agitate (a temblar) suddenly: all of a sudden (de pronto)

READING COMPREHENSION ACTIVITY                                        1. Why did the beautiful woman hate her husband’s paintings?  2. What happens to the woman when her husband is painting her?  3. Why does she die?