Chechnya Six months earlier Sonja’s sister, Natasha, was repatriated from

Anthony Marra Italy. When Sonja heard the knock and opened the door, she
couldn’t believe how healthy her sister looked. She hugged her
AFTER HER SISTER, Natasha, died, Sonja began sleeping in the sister, joked about the padding on her hips. Whatever horrors
hospital. She returned home to wash her clothes a few days a Natasha had experienced in the West, she’d put fat around her
month, but those days became fewer and fewer. No reason to waist.
return, no need to wash her clothes. She only wears hospital
scrubs anyway. “I am home,” Natasha said, holding the hug longer than Sonja
thought necessary. They ate dinner before the sun went down,
She wakes on a cot in the trauma unit. She sleeps there potatoes boiled over the furnace. The army had cut the electric
intentionally, in anticipation of the next critical patient. Some lines four years earlier. They had never been repaired. Sonja
days, roused by the shuffle of footsteps, the cries of family showed her sister to the spare room by candlelight, gestured to the
members, she stands, and a body takes her place on the cot and bed. “This is the place you sleep, Natasha.”
she works on resuscitation, knowing she is awake because she
could dream nothing like this. They spent the week in a state of heightened civility. No prying
questions. All talk was small. What Sonja noticed; she did not
“A man is waiting here to see you,” a nurse says. Sonja, still on comment on. A bottle of Ribavirin antiviral pills on the bathroom
the cot, rubs the weariness from her eyes. sink. Cigarette burns on Natasha’s shoulders. Sonja worked on
“About what?” surgeries, and Natasha worked on sleeping. Sonja brought food
The nurse hesitates. “He’s right out here.” home from the hospital, and Natasha ate it.

A minute later in the hallway the man introduces himself. “My Sonja started the fire in the morning, and Natasha slept. There
name is Akhmed.” He speaks Russian without an accent, but by were
now Sonja feels more comfortable conversing in Chechen. A mornings, and there were nights. This is life, Sonja thought.
short beard descends from Akhmed’s face. For a moment she Akhmed is true to his word. Five minutes after Sonja accepts the
thinks he’s a religious man, then remembers that most men have girl, he is washed and suited in scrubs. Sonja takes him on a tour
grown their beards out. Few have shaving cream, fewer have of the hospital. All but two wings are closed for lack of staff. She
mirrors. The war has made the country’s cheeks and chins devout. shows him the cardiology, internal medicine, and endocrinology
wards. A layer of dust covers the floors, their footprints leaving a
He gestures to a small girl, no older than eight, standing beside trail. Sonja thinks of the moon landing, how she saw the footage
him. “My wife and I cannot care for her,” Akhmed says. “You for the first time when she arrived in London.
must take her.”
“Where is everything?” Akhmed asks. Beds, sheets, hypodermics,
“This isn’t an orphanage.” disposable gowns, surgical tape, film dressing, thermometers, IV
“There are no orphanages.” bags, forceps—any item of practical medical use is gone. Empty
cabinets, open drawers, locked rooms, closed blinds, taped-over
The request is not uncommon. The hospital receives humanitarian windowpanes, the stale air remain.
aid, has food and clean water. Most important, it tends to the
injured regardless of ethnicity or military affiliation, making the “The trauma and maternity wards. And we’re struggling to keep
hospital one of the few larger buildings left untargeted by either them both open.” Akhmed runs his fingers through his beard.
side in the war. “Trauma, that’s obvious. You have to keep trauma open. But
maternity?” Sonja’s laugh rings down the empty hall. “I know.
Newly injured arrive each day, too many to care for. Sonja shakes It’s funny, isn’t it? Everyone is either giving birth or dying.”
her head. Too many dying; she cannot be expected to care for the “No.” Akhmed shakes his head, and Sonja wonders if he’s
living as well. offended by her. “They are coming into the world, and they are
leaving the world and it’s happening here.” Sonja nods, wonders
“Her father was taken by the rebels on Saturday. On Sunday the if Akhmed is religious after all.
army came and took her mother.” Sonja looks at the wall
calendar, as if a date could make sense of the times. TEST I:Direction: Fill out the table with setting and

“Today is Monday,” she says.

“I was a medical student before the war,” Akhmed says,
switching to Chechen. “In my final year. I will work here until a
home is found for the girl.”

Akhmed glowers. Sonja often sees defiance from rebels and

occasionally from soldiers, but rarely from civilians.

“I can’t,” she says, but her voice falters, her justification failing.
character. Use skimming as a reading technique.
Sonja surveys the corridor: a handful of patients, no doctors. TEST II: Direction: Now, answer the following questions
Those with money, with advanced degrees and the foresight to below to test your understanding on the given story.
flee the country, have done so. “Parents decide which of their 1. What descriptions were given about the setting of the story?
children they can afford to feed on which days. No one will take 2. What seems to be the conflict surrounding the story?
this girl,” Sonja says. “Then I will keep working.” 3. What was the deal made by Sonja and Akhmed?
4. What change in attitude was evident in the main character of
“Does she speak?” Sonja looks to the girl. “What’s your name?” the story at the beginning and at the end?
“Havaa,” Akhmed answers. 5. Why was it important for the writer to narrate the events that
happened during the wars to reveal traditions in Chechnya?
 Adaptation from The Journey to the River Sea
By Eva Ibbotson TEST IV: Direction: The story was quite interesting. Now,
answer the questions that follow to test your understanding.
Maia is an orphan. Her only guardian is a lawyer, named Mr. 1. What problems did Maia experience during her travel to
Murray, whose only responsibility is to help her with the small Brazil?
amount of money her parents have left her when they died. Then, 2. What are the characteristics of Gwendolyn and Beatrice?
Maia learned that her relatives, the Carters would be willing to 3. What life lessons did she learn from her friends Finn and
take care of her. When a note written by the Carter twins, Clovis?
Gwendolyn and Beatrice, arrives, Maia makes up her mind to go
live with the Carters in their house on the Amazon. She travels
there with Miss Minton, her new tutor. On the boat from England, TEST V: Direction: Fill out the table with unfamiliar words
she meets Clovis King, a struggling child actor. The two quickly from the two selections Chechnya by Anthony Marra and
became friends. Maia is very excited to live with the Carters. She Adaptation from The Journey to the River Sea by Eva
imagines that she and the twins will become the best of friends Ibbotson
and they will have a wonderful time together.

However, the only reason the Carters took Maia in was her
money. In reality, Gwendolyn and Beatrice are selfish. They hate
Maia before they even know her. Maia feels like being with the
Carters is like a being in prison. Soon, however, she meets Finn,
who is running away from private detectives known as “the
crows.” They are trying to force Finn to return to England and
claim his inheritance. When Clovis committed a mistake in a play
where he belongs, he goes to Maia for help because his acting
company fires him. She and Finn hide him in the hidden lagoon
where Finn lives and devise a plan to get Clovis back to England.
Finn, Maia, and Clovis plan to make the crows believe that Clovis
is Finn so Clovis pretended to be Finn.

Meanwhile, in England, Clovis confesses that he is not the real

Finn and wishes to go home, which causes Sir Aubrey, Finn’s
father to have a heart attack. The real Finn goes to his father's
home, to help Clovis reveal the truth. In the end, Mrs. Carter,
Beatrice, and Gwendolyn return to England to become servants of
their wealthy relative. However, Maia, Miss Minton and Clovis
all return to Brazil. Finn inherits all his family’s money and
possessions.

TEST III: Direction: Fill out the table with point of view,
conflict and theme. Use Scanning as a reading technique.