Reading Control 3: The old man and the sea.

After the old man sharped from the board he spent plenty of days until the eighty-fifth day of his unlucky streak arrived. On that day he promised to sail his skiff far beyond the island’s shallow coastal waters and venture into the Gulf Stream. He prepared and went, and at noon he arrived at a spot and waited for many hours. 

Incredibly, a big fish, a marlin, takes the bait that the old man has placed in the waters. He hooks the fish, but he cannot pull it in. Instead, the fish begins to pull the boat. Unfortunately, he was unable to tie the line fast to the boat for fear the fish would snap a taut line. The old man bears the strain of the line ready to give slack. The fish pulls the boat all through the day, through the night, through another day, and another night. 

It swims all day until at last it tires and swims east with the current. The old man feels annoyed and angry but at the same time he respects the great fish. On the third day the fish tires, and the old man manages to pull the marlin in close enough to kill it with a harpoon thrust. He lashes it to his boat, raises the small mast, and sets sail for home. As he sails on with the fish, the marlin’s blood leaves a trail in the water and attracts sharks. The first to attack is a great mako shark, which he manages to slay with the harpoon. In the struggle, the old man loses the harpoon and lengths of valuable rope, which leaves him vulnerable to other shark attacks. 

Although he killed several sharks, more and more appeared and by the time night came, they manage to get the fish and eat it. The old man regreted his choices and as feeling down and upset he goes back to home. The next morning, a crowd of amazed fishermen gathers around the skeletal carcass of the fish, which is still lashed to the boat. Knowing anything about the old man’s struggle, tourists at a nearby café observe the remains of the giant marlin and mistook it for a shark. The boy looks at the boat and realizes that it was from the old man´s, afterwards he meets the old man when he awakes, amazed and melancholic he decides to be fish partners again. The old man spent his days fishing and dreaming with his memories and dreams.

Víctor Mauricio López Espadas 419 words

Reading Report 3 - The Couple Next Door

          An officer found a pink onesie in the baby's room. It turns out that Anne had changed the baby’s outfit in the dark after her last feeding, therefore, the description the police had was inaccurate. The mother realized a mint-green onesie was missing. It had to be what the baby was wearing. 

          The police couldn’t find any evidence that indicates someone broke into the Contins’ house. However, they found prints of tire tracks in the garage that didn’t match the family’s car. It is then when the detective came up with the theory that, if the parents are guilty, there must be an accomplice. The willingness of the grandparents to provide such an amount of money might be a powerful motivator to commit the crime. 

          Rasbach talked to Cynthia, the hostess of the party. She didn’t remember Anne and Marco speaking privately through the whole night, in fact, most of the time Marco was with her. She confessed they kissed each other blaming it on the drinks they have had, she said he was quite persistent.

          Marco couldn’t sleep and decided to have a chat with Rasbach about what was tormenting him. The detective seized this opportunity and asked him about what he was doing with Cynthia the night Cora went missing. Marco denied having started anything, he claimed Cynthia threw herself at him. But none of them noticed that Anne had overheard the conversation.

          After an unexpected turn of events, we found out that the whole time the neighbours have had a camera on their backyard, which the police didn’t notice. Cynthia didn’t want anybody to know about it because they use it to record the sexual encounters she has with other men, her husband being aware of this. They knew they were in trouble.

Number of words: 300

Claudia Leticia Mendez Caamal

Report 3: The Rising of the Shield Hero

The course of events have led us to the outskirts of the kingdom of Melromarc. Here Naofumi discovers that his shield has the power to absorb almost anything he gives to it, changing its shape and overall stats, as in a video game. However, our protagonist is still unable to find any form of offensive capabilities within these transformations, but the shield unlocks an ability to reproduce ointments and medicines almost in mass by just putting the right ingredients. By this time in the novel, the shield hero realizes he could sell these remedies to the people who live in the countryside; he effectively does so and begins his career as a merchant, but sooner than later he finds out that he will not be able to become stronger just by selling things. Now, with even the smallest monster becoming an almost unsurpassable hindrance, Naofumi had to find a way to get some companions in order to help him level up and attack in his place.

A little bit later in the novel we are introduced to a very particular character that runs by the name of the Slave Trader, he offers the main character a (as redundant as it is) slave for some coin. Surprisingly, Naofumi in his desperation decides to accept and pays the fee. However, he asks for the cheapest slave, which is a young demi-human girl who appears to be really sick, whose name is Raphtalia. There is a whole ritual in order to secure the “loyalty” of a slave in this world, which consists in a sort of tattoo that causes pain (and could even kill) whenever the subject does not oblige to their master’s orders. This is really important, as it is the core of the bond between Rapthtalia and Naofumi. 

At first, Raphtalia is scared of Naofumi because of her position as a slave, but she sooner than later notices how mistaken she was when Naofumi gives her food, a good place to sleep, cuts her hair, and even buys a ball for her to play with. However, whenever they went out to level up Raphtalia’s coughs would ramp up and make her unable to fight. Here is where Naofumi decides to try different medicines in order to cure her, which takes very little time to happen. Now, there is a little time skip where Raphtalia’s appearance is the one of a young lass and it is revealed to us that demi-humans growth is determined by their level, and not their age. By this time of the story, Naofumi and Raphtalia’s relationship is akin to a father and daughter one, but the first wave is soon to come, and both will need to give their best in order to get out of it alive.

Diego Santiago Cervantes Chi
467 Words

Reading Report 4: Of Mice and Men

     I have finished reading the book this Saturday, and I feel the need to write this final report since the end of the story has impacted me quite a lot. As I have mentioned in previous reports, the main purpose of George and Lennie, along the story, was to have their own farm and not need to work for someone else, then, in the middle of the book, Candy joins them. However, the story begins to turn sadder and sadder… 

    The end of the story is still shocking to me because as I have written before, I felt pretty identified with Lennie. Besides, somehow I started to admire George by making a comparison of him to my own friends. I just loved the way these two mates were always together, the way George would help Lennie to cope with difficult situations, and how he used to defend him from others. 

    When I started reading chapter five, I still had the hope that George would defend Lennie as he always did. But that never happened, and in fact, it was even worse. I do not know if I did not notice it, but I do not perceive George’s feelings at the end of the story, the author just mentions that he had a monotonous voice, but I really wonder what was going on in his mind, because to me, what he did seems to be quite well planned. 

    Regardless of how I feel about the end of the story, I think it is a great book for adolescents and young adults. However, now I understand and agree with the fact that parents in the United States are not really comfortable with the Elementary Schools asking their kids to read this novel as part of the American literature. If I were a teacher, I would only recommend this book for high school students and older.

313 words

Little liar

In today's episode of You're what you read, Nataly and I present our original story, which started as a horror story, then we intended to add humour to it, but at the end we end up with a story that teach us a lesson.

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tpiXN6EcyKZLPq7UOtJBAWyNj7auxwTI/view?usp=sharing

Nataly Chuc, Claudia Mendez

 The Flood - by Mauricio López and Christopher Medina

In our today´s task, we were able to do something that a lot of us were expecting to do, we got the opportunity to do our own podcast by creating a story (being in this case a horror story) which we were able to bring to life and tell you as our special public. We hope that you enjoy it a lot!

-Mauricio&Christopher. 

Link for the podcast: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11UDtnj19vWTjhhPJgc7LGTpbGcvYxocP/view?usp=sharing 

Healer (Chapter 1) - Picking the Lesser Evil

During the course of this year, there was something we always wanted to do: a podcast, so we ended up giving it a try. However it proved to be way more difficult than we expected; Patty and I put a lot of effort compiling the sound effects and music, the background cover, as well as writing and acting the story too. Now, from the bottom of our hearts, we sincerely hope you enjoy it and stay tuned for the next adventure.

-Diego & Patty