Portuguese activity for students in the sixth year of elementary school, with exercises in reading and interpreting the text “A Menina dos Phosphors”. With research activity on the exploitation of child labor in Brazil and elaboration of a mural.
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Text for questions 1 to 5
It was terribly cold, snowing and starting to get dark. It was the last night of the year, New Year's Eve. In the cold and darkness, a poor little girl walked down the street, barefoot, bareheaded. When leaving the house, she had slippers on her feet. But the slippers were too big, her mother had worn them before, and they were so big, the girl had lost them running across the street, as two cars sped by. velocity. She had not been able to find one of the slippers, and the other, a boy had taken, saying he would use it as a crib when she had children.
So there went the girl, her little bare feet, bruised from the cold. In an old apron she wore a number of matches and held a small package of them in her hand. All day, nobody had bought him a single match, nobody had given him a nickel. Suffering from the cold and hunger, the poor girl, walking down the street, looked terrified. Snowflakes fell on her long blond hair, which formed graceful curls around the back of her neck – but the girl was far from thinking about beautiful hair.
All the windows were lit up, and the delicious aroma of roast goose came to the street, for it was New Year's Eve. That, yes, she thought. At last she huddled in a corner between two houses: one of them advanced further into the street than the other. She sat up, curled up her little legs, but she was still cold. Not having sold a single match, not possessing a single nickel, she dared not go home where her father would beat her. It was also cold in the house where they lived, too—an unroofed house with a cracked roof through which the wind hissed, though they had covered many of them with straw and rags. Her little hands were icy cold. A little match would do them good. Could she, with stiff fingers, pull a match from the little package, scratch it against the wall and warm her fingers! She got it after all; she took one out and crossed it out. How the match burned and crackled! The clear, hot flame felt like a candle as she wrapped her hand around it. It was a strange light. The little girl imagined that she was sitting in front of a large iron fireplace, with ornaments and a polished brass drum. The fire crackled merrily, and it warmed so much… What a beauty! The little one was already extending her feet, to warm them too… when the flame went out and the fireplace disappeared. She was sitting in the street, a small piece of match in her hand.
She struck another match, which burned, of course, brilliantly. Where the glare hit, the wall became transparent like a veil. She then saw the interior of a house, where a table was set, with a very white tablecloth and fine china. The roasted goose was steaming, stuffed with plums and apples, and, what was even more extraordinary, of suddenly the goose jumped off the platter and stumbled across the room, with his knife and fork stuck in his back. He came like this to the poor girl. Then the match went out, and only the wall was visible, thick and cold. She lit another match. She found herself sitting under the branches of the most beautiful Christmas tree. It was even bigger and more ornate than the tree she'd seen through the French window in the rich merchant's room last Christmas. Thousands of candles burned in the green branches, and colorful figures, like those adorning shop windows, stared at her. The little girl reached up with her hands – but in that the match went out. The Christmas candles went up, higher and higher, and she saw that they were twinkling stars. One of them fell, tracing a long streak of fire across the sky. Someone must have died - said the little girl. The old grandmother, the only person who had wanted him well but who was already dead, used to say: "When a star falls, a soul rises to the heavens." The girl again struck a match against the wall. In the glow around her, she saw, radiant and bright, her old grandmother, sweet and kind.
- Grandmother! - Shouted the little girl. - Take me with you! I know you will no longer be there when the match goes out. You will disappear, like the good fireplace, the delicious roast goose and the big, beautiful Christmas tree!
She hastily scratched the rest of the matches from the little package, to have her grandmother there beside her and hold her back. The glare from the matches became brighter than daylight. Grandmother had never been so big and beautiful. She lifted the girl in her arms and the two of them flew, happy, to the heights, where there was neither cold nor hunger nor apprehension, they flew to God. When the morning dawned, very cold, they found, there in the corner, between the two houses, the girl with her cheeks flushed and a smile playing on her lips.
He had died of cold on the last night of the old year. New Year's dawn was shining on the tiny corpse, who lay with the matches in his hands. An entire pack was burned.
“She wanted to warm up,” they said. No one knew what marvels she had seen, nor did she imagine the splendor that had surrounded her, with her old grandmother, in the joys of the New Year.
Andersen's Tales. Trans. Guttorm Hanssen. Rio de Janeiro: Peace and Land, 2002.
1) Who is the main character in the text?
2) Describe:
a) How was the atmosphere on the street where the girl worked?
b) What were the girl's clothes like?
c) Make the physical description of the girl.
3) Explain why the girl looked terrified?
4) Why didn't the girl want to go home?
5) Describe the girl's home.
6) Feeling very cold and the girl starts to scratch the matches in an attempt to warm up. Describe what happens from that moment to her?
7) What was the outcome of the story.
8) Do you think this story only happens in books or can it happen in real life? Comment.
9) Transcribe from the text 10 nouns and 10 verbs in the past tense.
10) Conduct research on the exploitation of child labor in Brazil. Select texts, phrases, photos, graphics, statistical data analysis and drawings, among others, and create a mural. If you prefer, cut the images in magazines or newspapers.
By Rosiane Fernandes Silva – Graduated in Letters
At answers are in the link above the header.
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