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Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’ Università e della Ricerca ESAME DI STATO DI ISTRUZIONE SECONDARIA SUPERIORE Indirizzi: ISJV - ARTISTICO ISEV, EA14 - GIURIDICO ECONOMICO Tema di: LINGUA E CULTURA STRANIERA - INGLESE PART 1 – COMPREHENSION AND INTERPRETATION Question A Read the following text
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Sarah had, of course, arrived home – though ‘home’ is a sarcasm in the circumstances – before Mrs Fairley. She had played her usual part in Mrs Poulteney’s evening devotions; and she had then retired to her own room for a few minutes. Mrs Fairley seized her chance; and the few minutes were all she needed. She came herself and knocked on the door of Sarah's bedroom. Sarah opened it. She had her usual mask of resigned sadness, but Mrs Fairley was brimming with triumph. ‘The mistress is waiting. At once, if you please.’
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Sarah looked down and nodded faintly. Mrs Fairley thrust a look, sardonic and as sour as verjuice, at that meek head, and rustled venomously away. She did not go downstairs however, but waited around a corner until she heard the door of Mrs Poulteney's drawing-room open and close on the secretarycompanion. Then she stole silently to the door and listened. Mrs Poulteney was not, for once, established on her throne; but stood at the window, placing all her eloquence in her back. ‘You wish to speak to me?’
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But Mrs Poulteney apparently did not, for she neither moved nor uttered a sound. Perhaps it was the omission of her customary title of ‘madam’ that silenced her; there was something in Sarah’s tone that made it clear the omission was deliberate. Sarah looked from the black back to an occasional table that lay between the two women. An envelope lay conspicuously on it. The minutest tightening of her lips — into a determination or a resentment, it was hard to say which – was her only reaction to this freezing majesty, who if the truth be known was slightly at a loss for the best way of crushing this serpent she had so regrettably taken to her bosom. Mrs Poulteney elected at last for one blow of the axe. ‘A month’s wages are in that packet. You will take it in lieu of notice. You will depart this house at your earliest convenience tomorrow morning.’
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Sarah now had the effrontery to use Mrs Poulteney’s weapon in return. She neither moved nor answered; until that lady, outraged, deigned to turn and show her white face, upon which burnt two pink spots of repressed emotion. ‘Did you hear me, miss?’ ‘Am I not to be told why?’ ‘Do you dare to be impertinent!’
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‘I dare to ask to know why I am dismissed.’