Grade 7 English Studies – Holiday Assignment

Instructions:

1. This assignment must be completed neatly and submitted on the first day of resumption.
2. Use a ruled 2A notebook.
3. Plagiarism is not allowed. Use your own words unless instructed otherwise.
4. All tasks should be completed in full sentences with proper punctuation and grammar.

Part A: Reading Comprehension

Instructions:

1. Read the short story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant

The Necklace By Guy de Maupassant © 2006 by [Link]

She was one of those pretty and charming girls who are sometimes, as if by a mistake of destiny, born in
a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no expectations, no means of being known, understood, loved,
wedded, by any rich and distinguished man; and she let herself be married to a little clerk at the Ministry
of Public Instruction.

She dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was as unhappy as though she had really
fallen from her proper station; since with women there is neither caste nor rank; and beauty, grace, and
charm act instead of family and birth. Natural fineness, instinct for what is elegant, suppleness of wit,
are the sole hierarchy, and make from women of the people the equals of the very greatest ladies.

She suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries. She suffered from
the poverty of her dwelling, from the wretched look of the walls, from the worn-out chairs, from the
ugliness of the curtains. All those things, of which another woman of her rank would never even have
been conscious, tortured her and made her angry. The sight of the little Breton peasant who did her
humble house-work aroused in her regrets which were despair-ing, and distracted dreams. She thought
of the silent antechambers hung with Oriental tapestry, lit by tall bronze candelabra, land of the two
great footmen in knee-breeches who sleep in the big arm-chairs, made drowsy by the heavy warmth of
the hot-air stove. She thought of the long salons fitted up with ancient silk, of the delicate furniture
carrying priceless curiosities, and of the coquettish perfumed boudoirs made for talks at five o’clock with
intimate friends, with men -famous and sought after, whom all women envy and whose attention they
all desire.

When she sat down to dinner, before the round table covered with a table-cloth three days old,
opposite her husband, who uncovered the soup-tureen and declared with an enchanted air, “Ah, the
good pot-au-feu! I don’t know anything better than that,” she thought of dainty dinners, of shining
silverware, of tapestry which peopled the walls with ancient personages and with strange birds flying in
the midst of a fairy forest; and she thought of delicious dishes served on marvellous plates, and of the
whispered gallantries which you listen to with a sphinx-like smile, while you are eating the pink flesh of a
trout or the wings of a quail.

She had no dresses, no jewels, nothing. And she loved nothing but that; she felt made for that.

She would so have liked to please, to be envied, to be charming, to be sought after.

She had a friend, a former school-mate at the convent, who was rich, and whom she did not like to go
and see any more she suffered so much when she came back.

But, one evening, her husband returned home with a triumphant air, and holding a large envelope in his
hand.

“There,” said he, “here is something for you.” She tore the paper sharply, and drew out a printed card
which bore these words:

“The Minister of Public Instruction and Mine. Georges Ramponneau request the honor of M. and Mine.
Loisel’s company at the palace of the Ministry on Monday evening, January 18th.” Instead of being
delighted, as her husband hoped, she threw the invitation on the table with disdain, murmuring:

“What do you want me to do with that?” “But, my dear, I thought you would be glad. You never go out,
and this is such a fine opportunity. I had awful trouble to get it. Every one wants to go; it is very select,
and they are not giving many invitations to clerks. The whole official world will be there.” She looked at
him with an irritated eye, and she said, impatiently:

“And what do you want me to put on my back?” He had not thought of that; he stammered:

“Why, the dress you go to the theatre in. It looks very well, to me.” He stopped, distracted, seeing that
his wife was crying. Two great tears descended slowly from the corners of her eyes towards the corners
of her mouth. He stuttered:

“What’s the matter? What’s the matter?” But, by a violent effort, she had conquered her grief, and she
replied, with a calm voice, while she wiped her wet cheeks:

“Nothing. Only I have no dress, and therefore I can’t go to this ball. Give your card to some colleague
whose wife is better equipped than I.” He was in despair. He resumed:
 “Come, let us see, Mathilde. How much would it cost, a suitable dress, which you could use on other
occasions, something very simple?” She reflected several seconds, making her calculations and
wondering also what sum she could ask without drawing on herself an immediate refusal and a
frightened exclamation from the economical clerk.

Finally, she replied, hesitatingly:

“I don’t know exactly, but I think I could manage it with four hundred francs.” He had grown a little
pale, because he was laying aside just that amount to buy a gun and treat himself to a little shooting
next summer on the plain of Nanterre, with several friends who went to shoot larks down there, of a
Sunday.

But he said:

“All right. I will give you four hundred francs. And try to have a pretty dress.” The day of the ball drew
near, and Mine. Loisel seemed sad, uneasy, anxious. Her dress was ready, however. Her husband said to
her one evening:

“What is the matter? Come, you’ve been so queer these last three days.” And she answered:

“It annoys me not to have a single jewel, not a single stone, nothing to put on. I shall look like distress. I
should almost rather not go at all.” He resumed:

“You might wear natural flowers. It’s very stylish at this time of the year. For ten francs you can get two
or three magnificent roses.” She was not convinced.

“No; there’s nothing more humiliating than to look poor among other women who are rich.” But her
husband cried:

“How stupid you are! Go look up your friend Mme. Forestier, and ask her to lend you some jewels.
You’re quite thick enough with her to do that.” She uttered a cry of joy:

“It’s true. I never thought of it.” The next day she went to her friend and told of her distress.

Mine. Forestier went to a wardrobe with a glass door, took out a large jewel-box, brought it back,
opened it, and said to Mine. Loisel:

“Choose, my dear.” She saw first of all some bracelets, then a pearl necklace, then a Venetian cross,
gold and precious stones of admirable workmanship. She tried on the ornaments before the glass,
hesitated, could not make up her mind to part with them, to give them back. She kept asking:

“Haven’t you any more?” “Why, yes. Look. I don’t know what you like.” All of a sudden she discovered,
in a black satin box, a superb necklace of diamonds; and her heart began to beat with an immoderate
desire. Her hands trembled as she took it. She fastened it around her throat, outside her high-necked
dress, and remained lost in ecstasy at the sight of herself.

Then she asked, hesitating, filled with anguish:

 “Can you lend me that, only that?” “Why, yes, certainly.” She sprang upon the neck of her friend,
kissed her passionately, then fled with her treasure.

The day of the ball arrived. Mine. Loisel made a great success. She was prettier than them all, elegant,
gracious, smiling, and crazy with joy. All the men looked at her, asked her name, endeavored to be
introduced. All the attaches of the Cabinet wanted to waltz with her. She was remarked by the minister
himself.

She danced with intoxication, with passion, made drunk by pleasure, forgetting all, in the triumph of her
beauty in the glory of her success in a sort of cloud of happiness composed of all this homage, of all this
admiration, of all these awakened desires, and of that sense of complete victory which is so sweet to
woman’s heart.

She went away about four o’clock in the morning. Her husband had been sleeping since midnight, in a
little deserted anteroom, with three other gentlemen whose wives were having a very good time.

He threw over her shoulders the wraps which he had brought, modest wraps of common life, whose
poverty contrasted with the elegance of the ball dress. She felt this and wanted to escape so as not to
be remarked by the other women, who were enveloping themselves in costly furs.

Loisel held her back.

“Wait a bit. You will catch cold outside. I will go and call a cab.” But she did not listen to him, and
rapidly descended the stairs. When they were in the street they did not find a carriage; and they began
to look for one, shouting after the cabmen whom they saw passing by at a distance.

They went down towards the Seine, in despair, shivering with cold. At last they found on the quay one
of those ancient noctambulant coupés which, exactly as if they were ashamed to show their misery
during the day, are never seen round Paris until after nightfall.

It took them to their door in the Rue des Martyrs and once more, sadly, they climbed up homeward. All
was ended, for her. And as to him, he reflected that he must be at the Ministry at ten o’clock.

She removed the wraps, which covered her shoulders, before the glass, so as once more to see herself
in all her glory. But suddenly she uttered a cry. She had no longer the necklace around her neck!

Her husband, already half-undressed, demanded:

“What is the matter with you?” She turned madly towards him:

“I have—I have—I’ve lost Mme. Forestier’s necklace.” He stood up, distracted.

“What!—how?—Impossible!” And they looked in the folds of her dress, in the folds of her cloak, in her
pockets, everywhere.

They did not find it. He asked:

 “You’re sure you had it on when you left the ball?” “Yes, I felt it in the vestibule of the palace.” “But if
you had lost it in the street we should have heard it fall. It must be in the cab.” “Yes. Probably. Did you
take his number?” “No. And you, didn’t you notice it?” “No.” They looked, thunderstruck, at one
another. At last Loisel put on his clothes.

“I shall go back on foot,” said he, “over the whole route which we have taken, to see if I can’t find it.”
And he went out. She sat waiting on a chair in her ball dress, without strength to go to bed,
overwhelmed, without fire, without a thought.

Her husband came back about seven o’clock. He had found nothing.

He went to Police Headquarters, to the newspaper offices, to offer a reward; he went to the cab
companies—everywhere, in fact, whither he was urged by the least suspicion of hope.

She waited all day, in the same condition of mad fear before this terrible calamity.

Loisel returned at night with a hollow, pale face; he had discovered nothing.

“You must write to your friend,” said he, “that you have broken the clasp of her necklace and that you
are having it mended. That will give us time to turn round.” She wrote at his dictation.

At the end of a week they had lost all hope.

And Loisel, who had aged five years, declared:

“We must consider how to replace that ornament.” The next day they took the box which had
contained it, and they went to the jeweller whose name was found within. He consulted his books.

“It was not I, madame, who sold that necklace; I must simply have furnished the case.” Then they went
from jeweller to jeweller, searching for a necklace like the other, consulting their memories, sick both of
them with chagrin and with anguish.

They found in a shop at the Palais Royal, a string of diamonds which seemed to them exactly like the
one they looked for. It was worth forty thousand francs. They could have it for thirty-six.

So they begged the jeweller not to sell it for three days yet. And they made a bargain that he should buy
it back for thirty-four thousand francs, in case they found the other one before the end of February.

Loisel possessed eighteen thousand francs which his father had left him. He would borrow the rest.

He did borrow, asking a thousand francs of one, five hundred of another, five louis here, three louis
there. He gave notes, took up ruinous obligations, dealt with usurers, and all the race of.

lenders. He compromised all the rest of his life, risked his signature without even knowing if he could
meet it; and, frightened by the pains yet to come, by the black misery which was about to fall upon him,
by the prospect of all the physical privations and of all the moral tortures which he was to suffer, he
went to get the new necklace, putting down upon. the merchant’s counter thirty-six thousand francs.
When Mine. Loisel took back the necklace, Mme. Forestier said to her, with a chilly manner:

“You should have returned it sooner, I might have needed it.” She did not open the case, as her friend
had so much feared. If she had detected the substitution, what would she have thought, what would she
have said? Would she not have taken Mine. Loisel for a thief?

Mine. Loisel now knew the horrible existence of the needy. She took her part, moreover, all on a
sudden, with heroism. That dreadful debt must be paid. She would pay it. They dismissed their servant;
they changed their lodgings; they rented a garret under the roof.

She came to know what heavy housework meant and the odious cares of the kitchen. She washed the
dishes, using her rosy nails on the greasy pots and pans. She washed the dirty linen, the shirts, and the
dish-cloths, which she dried upon a line; she carried the slops down to the street every morning, and
carried up the water, stopping for breath at every landing. And, dressed like a woman of the people, she
went to the fruiterer, the grocer, the butcher, her basket on her arm, bargaining, insulted, defending her
miserable money sou by sou.

Each month they had to meet some notes, renew others, obtain more time.

Her husband worked in the evening making a fair copy of some tradesman’s accounts, and late at night
he often copied manuscript for five sous a page.

And this life lasted ten years.

At the end of ten years they had paid everything, everything, with the rates of usury, and the
accumulations of the compound interest.

Mine. Loisel looked old now. She had become the woman of impoverished households— strong and
hard and rough. With frowsy hair, skirts askew, and red hands, she talked loud while washing the floor
with great swishes of water. But sometimes, when her husband was at the office, she sat down near the
window, and she thought of that gay evening of long ago, of that ball where she had been so beautiful
and so feted.

What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows? who knows? How life is
strange and changeful! How little a thing is needed for us to be lost or to be saved!

But, one Sunday, having gone to take a walk in the Champs Elysées to refresh herself from the labors of
the week, she suddenly perceived a woman who was leading a child. It was Mme.

Forestier, still young, still beautiful, still charming.

Mme. Loisel felt moved. Was she going to speak to her? Yes, certainly. And now that she had paid, she
was going to tell her all about it. Why not?

She went up.

 “Good-day, Jeanne.” The other, astonished to be familiarly addressed by this plain good-wife, did not
recognize her at all, and stammered:

“But—madame!—I do not know—You must have mistaken.” “No. I am Mathilde Loisel.” Her friend
uttered a cry.

“Oh, my poor Mathilde! How you are changed!” “Yes, I have had days hard enough, since I have seen
you, days wretched enough—and that because of you!” “Of me! How so?” “Do you remember that
diamond necklace which you lent me to wear at the ministerial ball?” “Yes. Well?” “Well, I lost it.”
“What do you mean? You brought it back.” “I brought you back another just like it. And for this we have
been ten years paying. You can understand that it was not easy for us, us who had nothing. At last it is
ended, and I am very glad.” Mme. Forestier had stopped.

“You say that you bought a necklace of diamonds to replace mine?” “Yes. You never noticed it, then!’
They were very like.” And she smiled with a joy which was proud and naïve at once.

Mme. Forestier, strongly moved, took her two hands.

“Oh, my poor Mathilde! Why, my necklace was paste. It was worth at most five hundred francs!”

Answer the following questions in complete sentences:

1. Who is the main character of the story?

2. What was her main problem in the story?

3. What lesson did she learn at the end?

4. In your opinion, how could she have avoided her problems?

5. What would you do differently if you were in her shoes?

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Part B: Grammar and Vocabulary

Instructions: Answer the following grammar questions:

1. Write the past tense and past participle of the following verbs:

begin

speak

write

choose

go

2. Rewrite the following sentences in the passive voice:

The teacher praised the student.

They are building a new library.

3. Identify the subject, verb, and object in the sentence below:

The boy kicked the ball across the field.

4. Match the words with their synonyms:

Brave – (a) cowardly, (b) bold, (c) shy

Happy – (a) joyful, (b) angry, (c) dull

Tired – (a) energetic, (b) sleepy, (c) excited

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Part C: Writing Task

Instructions: Choose ONE of the following and write about 150–200 words:
1. Write a story that begins with:

“It was the first day of the holidays, and I had no idea it would end like this…”

2. Write a letter to your friend telling them about your holiday plans and how excited you are.

3. Write an essay on “The Importance of Reading Books.”

Make sure your work has:

A clear introduction, body, and conclusion.

Proper punctuation, spelling, and grammar.

Paragraphs for each idea.

Part D: Creative Corner

Instructions:

1. Design a mini poster on the theme: “My Dream World”

You may draw or use magazine cutouts. Include at least 3 sentences describing your dream world.

2. Choose one poem you like and memorize it. Be prepared to recite it when school resumes.