Question

Leia e resolva as questões de 1 a 4: The Old Man and the Sea

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish the boy’s parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week. It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his skiff empty and he always went down to help him carry either the coiled lines or the gaff and harpoon and the sail that was furled around the mast. The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled; it looked like the flag of permanent defeat.

The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck. The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were on his cheeks. The blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert

Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the .sea and were cheerful and undefeated

Santiago,” the boy said to him as they climbed the bank from where the skiff was” “.hauled up.”I could go with you again. We’ve made some money. The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him

“.No,” the old man said. “You’re with a lucky boat. Stay with them”

“But remember how you went eighty-seven days without fish and then we caught big ones every day for three weeks”

“I remember,” the old man said. “I know you did not leave me because you doubted.”

“.It was papa made me leave. “I am a boy and I must obey him”

“.I know,” the old man said. “It is quite normal”

“He hasn’t much faith.”

“No,” the old man said. “But we have. Haven’t we?”

Yes,” the boy said. “Can I offer you a beer on the Terrace and then we’ll take the stuff home.”

“Why not?” the old man said. “Between fishermen”


1. From the very beginning of the novel (the excerpt you’ve read is from the first paragraphs of the first chapter) we learn of an old fisherman’s hopeless struggle. The old man: *

a) had decided to quit.
b) was still fighting against defeat.
c) had told the boy to go to another boat

2. The skiff sail was patched with flour sacks, which indicates that the old man was: *

a) rich.
b) empty.
c) poor.

3. Why did the boy stop fishing with the old man? *

a) Because he didn’t like to fish.
b) Because he didn’t like the old man.
c) Because it was an order from his parents.

4. The author uses some Spanish words in the novel, like salao (which means ‘very unlucky’), in that fragment. Why didn’t he use the English word for that? *

a) Because he didn’t know its meaning.
b) To make the readers confused.
c) To bring the novel some cultural traits related to the setting.

Answer 1

Resposta:

1.c) had told the boy to go to another boat