Form 4 Literature Component : Short story

THE FRUITCAKE SPECIAL

By Frank Brennan

 

PLOT: 

EXPOSITION
Anna works in Amos Cosmetics factory. She is a chemist and she designs perfume for the company.

RISING ACTION 

One day, Anna mixes some fruitcake that her mum has packed for lunch into her invented perfume. Suddenly, strange things become to happen as Mr. Amos asks her for a date and the waiter in the restaurant fall in love with Anna, and Mr Amos declares his love too.

CLIMAX
A fight takes place in the restaurant between Mr Amos and the waiter to fight for Anna’s love and it ends up with Sabina punching Mr Amos. Anna leaves the restaurant in hurry.

FALLING ACTION
Anna tries to find out the secret recipe from Aunt Mimi but she is unable to. She finds out the woman who keeps the recipe has passed away.

RESOLUTION
Anna quits her job at Amos Factory and she ends up with marrying Armstrong, the pizza delivery man who now owns his own pizza company.

 

CHARACTERS:

ANNA            

Works as a chemist, her job is to design new perfumes, single and

lives with her mother.

DAVID AMOS
Owner of Amos Cosmetics factory. He is dark, handsome and gentleman. Often seen with

beautiful women. He appears polite but does not think much of his workers.

AUNT MIMI 
Pleasant but she also likes to mind other people’s business. Constantly trying finds suitable 

partner for her niece. She gives some fruitcake to Anna.

SABINA 

A beautiful young model and she is David’s girlfriend. She looks down on Anna.

ARMSTRONG 

Pizza delivery boy. Totally different than David Amos. Through effort & determination, he grows 

from a pizza delivery man to become owner of the pizza company.

THE WAITER
He works at the French Restaurant. He behaves weirdly towards Anna when he is under the spell 

of the fruitcake perfume.

ANNA'S MOTHER 

Naturally anxious that her daughter is still single and she always thinks that the pizza delivery 

man would make a good husband for Anna.

OLD WOMAN 

Used to sell fruitcakes in the market, offered the cake to Aunt Mimi for her niece.

SETTING:

PLACE

Amos Cosmetics factory

Home

French Restaurant

Aunt Mimi’s apartment

TIME

Modern civilization

SOCIETY

Middle class and high class society

POINT OF VIEW:

1st person POV

“I was a chemist at the Amos Cosmetics factory.........”

THEME:

•The true love vs the superficial love.

•Determination towards success

•Sincerity in declaring love. 

QWERTYUIOP

 QWERTYUIOP

By Vivien Alcock

PLOT:

Exposition

Lucy Beck had graduated from BSC and was for looking for a job. She was trying to improve her life as she was tired of being poor.

Rising Action

She got a job offer to work as a secretary at the Ross and Bannister’s Firm. However, she had been warned by the handyman of the firm to be careful in her work.

Climax    

She finally found out what the old man, Mr. Darke tried to tell her on the first day of work as she had been disturbed by the spirit of the previous typewriter, Ms. Broome. She was so surprised that the typewriter had been interrupted her work by typing the word ‘QWERTYUIOP’ all over the letter.

Falling Action

She discovered about Ms. Broome and tried to telling her to let go her previous post as she is the new secretary of the firm.

 

Resolution 

Lucy finally had succeed to get rid from Ms. Broome as she told her Mr. Bannister had passed on three years ago. She folded the finished letter into a paper dart and sent it sailing out of the window. The wind caught it and carried it away.

SETTING:

Time

The story probably takes place in early 20th century when office work was done on typewriters and tapes were still in use. Computers were probably not in use yet.

Place

Belmont Secretarial College

Lucy Beck’s house

Ross and Bannister’s Firm

Society

20th century society.

CHARACTERS:

 










Lucy Beck  

Young and small ,mouse-coloured & easily overlooked. She is dissatisfied with her current life and determined to improve it to help her mother.

Harry Darke

He is an old man who has been working for Ross and Bannister’s for years.

Mrs Price

A teacher at the Belmont Secretarial College.

Lucy’s mother

A housewife who lives a hard life. She also needs to support her brother, Bert.

Uncle Bert

Depends on his sister for support, drunkard

 









Miss Broome 

She was the previous secretary of Ross and Bannister’s. She is unwilling to let go of her post even after her demise. 

George Ross

The younger partner of the company.

POINT OF VIEW:

3rd person POV
"She was tired of being poor"

THEME:

• Determination brings success
• Opportunities come but once
• Letting go when necessary
• Love and care for family members 

Introduction and Body Paragraph for an Essay

To create an essay, the most important thing is, you need to make an introduction which is called as an  INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH.

Here is an example of introductory paragraph, so you can have a clear view on how to build an introduction ;

Title : Ways to prevent procrastination among college students.

People nowadays become easily stressed. Work overload, terrible time management and procrastination are some of the reasons on why people become stressed out. Some people likes to leave their works unattended and unfinished until at the last moment when he or she needs to submit the works. This is called procrastination. According to Edward Young, Procrastination is a thief of time and it also contributes to a lot of negative effects such as low quality of works and weak time management. It is also one of the most frequent habits repeatedly done among college students. To have a healthy life, college students need to avoid this terrible habit and there are several ways to prevent it. 

• In the introductory paragraph, the general to specific technique need to be apply in the paragraph so that the reader can get a brief idea on the topic or title before proceed to the content of the essay.
• you can state the general knowledge of the topic, current issues and the definition on the term that stated in the topic.
• Then, in the last line of the paragraph which is called the thesis statement, you need to state the MAIN IDEAS whether it is stated or implied. Based on the above introductory paragraph, i have stated the implied main idea.

For the BODY PARAGRAPH, you need to state back the main idea with the elaboration and explanation by adding supporting details such as definition, examples, issues or experiences.

Here is an example of the first body paragraph that states the first main idea:

The first way to prevent procrastination is by scheduling or making time tables. Scheduling helps you avoid one of the great time wasters, procrastination, because it gives you a specific time to do each task. It gets you started on the work and helps you avoid putting off doing things that you dislike. Other than that, having a schedule also saves time. It takes time to devise a schedule, but that time is repaid many times over. Your schedule is a guide, telling you what to do next and assuring you that everything will get done. Besides, scheduling keeps you up to date and helps you avoid last-minute cramming. By keeping up to date and studying things as you come to them, you will learn much more efficiently. Thus, by scheduling or making time table helps a lot to overcome procrastination.

  

 *The bold sentences are the supporting details