The Little Match Girl

 THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL by Hans Christian Andersen (1905)

Most terribly cold it was; it snowed, and was nearly quite dark, and evening-- the last evening of the year. In this cold and darkness there went along the street a poor little girl, bareheaded, and with naked feet. When she left home she had slippers on, it is true; but what was the good of that? They were very large slippers, which her mother had hitherto worn; so large were they; and the poor little thing lost them as she scuffled away across the street, because of two carriages that rolled by dreadfully fast.
One slipper was nowhere to be found; the other had been laid hold of by an urchin, and off he ran with it; he thought it would do capitally for a cradle when he some day or other should have children himself. So the little maiden walked on with her tiny naked feet, that were quite red and blue from cold. She carried a quantity of matches in an old apron, and she held a bundle of them in her hand. Nobody had bought anything of her the whole livelong day; no one had given her a single farthing.
She crept along trembling with cold and hunger--a very picture of sorrow, the poor little thing!
The flakes of snow covered her long fair hair, which fell in beautiful curls around her neck; but of that, of course, she never once now thought. From all the windows the candles were gleaming, and it smelt so deliciously of roast goose, for you know it was New Year's Eve; yes, of that she thought.
In a corner formed by two houses, of which one advanced more than the other, she seated herself down and cowered together. Her little feet she had drawn close up to her, but she grew colder and colder, and to go home she did not venture, for she had not sold any matches and could not bring a farthing of money: from her father she would certainly get blows, and at home it was cold too, for above her she had only the roof, through which the wind whistled, even though the largest cracks were stopped up with straw and rags.
Her little hands were almost numbed with cold. Oh! a match might afford her a world of comfort, if she only dared take a single one out of the bundle, draw it against the wall, and warm her fingers by it. She drew one out. "Rischt!" how it blazed, how it burnt! It was a warm, bright flame, like a candle, as she held her hands over it: it was a wonderful light. It seemed really to the little maiden as though she were sitting before a large iron stove, with burnished brass feet and a brass ornament at top. The fire burned with such blessed influence; it warmed so delightfully. The little girl had already stretched out her feet to warm them too; but--the small flame went out, the stove vanished: she had only the remains of the burnt-out match in her hand.
She rubbed another against the wall: it burned brightly, and where the light fell on the wall, there the wall became transparent like a veil, so that she could see into the room. On the table was spread a snow-white tablecloth; upon it was a splendid porcelain service, and the roast goose was steaming famously with its stuffing of apple and dried plums. And what was still more capital to behold was, the goose hopped down from the dish, reeled about on the floor with knife and fork in its breast, till it came up to the poor little girl; when--the match went out and nothing but the thick, cold, damp wall was left behind. She lighted another match. Now there she was sitting under the most magnificent Christmas tree: it was still larger, and more decorated than the one which she had seen through the glass door in the rich merchant's house.
Thousands of lights were burning on the green branches, and gaily-colored pictures, such as she had seen in the shop-windows, looked down upon her. The little maiden stretched out her hands towards them when--the match went out. The lights of the Christmas tree rose higher and higher, she saw them now as stars in heaven; one fell down and formed a long trail of fire.
"Someone is just dead!" said the little girl; for her old grandmother, the only person who had loved her, and who was now no more, had told her, that when a star falls, a soul ascends to God.
She drew another match against the wall: it was again light, and in the lustre there stood the old grandmother, so bright and radiant, so mild, and with such an expression of love.
"Grandmother!" cried the little one. "Oh, take me with you! You go away when the match burns out; you vanish like the warm stove, like the delicious roast goose, and like the magnificent Christmas tree!" And she rubbed the whole bundle of matches quickly against the wall, for she wanted to be quite sure of keeping her grandmother near her. And the matches gave such a brilliant light that it was brighter than at noon-day: never formerly had the grandmother been so beautiful and so tall. She took the little maiden, on her arm, and both flew in brightness and in joy so high, so very high, and then above was neither cold, nor hunger, nor anxiety--they were with God.
But in the corner, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the poor girl, with rosy cheeks and with a smiling mouth, leaning against the wall--frozen to death on the last evening of the old year. Stiff and stark sat the child there with her matches, of which one bundle had been burnt. "She wanted to warm herself," people said. No one had the slightest suspicion of what beautiful things she had seen; no one even dreamed of the splendor in which, with her grandmother she had entered on the joys of a new year.

questions:

1. what was the little girl's job?
   a. sell breads
   b. maid
   c. sell matches
   d. a cashier
2. what is the moral value of the story?
   a. go home and don't frost yourself to death
   b. dont sell matches in new year's eve
   c. only through your own eyes can you truly see the meaning behind it all
   d. do your job properly
3. what kind of text is this?
   a. recount
   b. narrative
   c. procedure
   d. descriptive
4. where's the story took place?
   a. in a town, early 20th century
   b. in a town, modern years
   c. in a village, 21st century
   d. in a farm, 20th century
5. why didn't she go back home?
   a. she likes to be in the cold
   b. she was too freezing
   c. afraid of geating beaten of unsuccesful sales
   d. she was too far from home

.. putri radityasari

KOALA

hello, this time i'm going to tell you about koala.

overview:

The koala is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. The koala is found in coastal areas of the mainland's eastern and southern regions, inhabiting Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. It is easily recognizable by its stout, tailless body and large head with round, fluffy ears and large, spoon-shaped nose. Their colour ranges from silver grey to chocolate brown.

Koalas typically inhabit open eucalypt woodlands, and the leaves of these trees make up most of their diet. Because this eucalypt diet has limited nutritional and caloric content, koalas are largely sedentary and sleep up to 20 hours a day. They are asocial animals, and bonding exists only between mothers and dependent offspring. Koalas have few natural predators and parasites

Koalas are marsupials, related to kangaroos. Most marsupials have pouches where the tiny newborns develop. A koala mother usually gives birth to one joey at a time. A newborn koala is only the size of a jelly bean. Called a joey, the baby is blind, naked, and earless. As soon as it's born, this tiny creature makes its way from the birth canal to its mother's pouch. Using the two well-developed senses it's born with—smell and touch—along with its strong front legs and claws and an instinct that tells it which direction to head, the baby koala reaches the pouch. There it stays, safely tucked away, growing and developing for about seven months.​ ​

After a baby has been in the pouch for about six months, its mother begins to produce a special substance called pap.​ ​The joey feeds on this in addition to the milk it's already getting. Pap comes from the mother's intestines and contains bacteria that the joey needs to have in its own intestines so that it can digest an adult diet of eucalyptus leaves.

At about seven months, the joey leaves the pouch to eat leaves, but returns to it to nurse. By the time the joey is about one year old, it stops nursing and eats just leaves.

Koala facts:
- Koalas are not bears, but MARSUPIALS, which means that their young are born immature & they develop further in the safety of a pouch. It’s incorrect to call them ‘Koala bears' - their correct name is simply 'Koalas'.

 - Habitat loss is the greatest threat to Koalas. The main reasons for this are land clearing, bushfires and diseases of the eucalypts, like ‘dieback' which cause the trees to die.

-The Australian Koala Foundation estimates that there are likely to be less than 80,000 Koalas remaining in Australia today and it could be as low as 43,000. Much of their habitat has already been lost. This makes it vitally important to save what is left.

- Koalas in the southern parts of Australia are considerably larger and have thicker fur than those in the north. This is thought to be an adaptation to keep them warm in the colder southern winters.

- Koalas also communicate with each other by making a range of noises. The most startling and unexpected of these in such a seemingly gentle animal is a sound like a loud snore and then a belch, known as a ‘bellow'

- Baby Koalas are known as ‘Joeys'. 

- When the Joey is born,  it is blind until it’s 22 weeks old,, and it’s only about 2 centimetres long, is blind and furless and its ears are not yet developed. After it was born prematurely, it stays in its mother’s pouch for about 6 or 7 months, drinking only milk. 

the life cycle of the koala

-first, males starts bellowing to attract female koalas

-Then they mark the trees with their scent

-They fight for their territory and their mate

-They mate with female koalas. The breeding season runs from august to february

-then the female carry the babies inside their stomach for 35 days before finally giving birth

-the joey stay in their mother’s pouch for 2 weeks, attached to the nipples

-from about 22 to 30 weeks the babies feed ‘pap’ from their mother, pap is a milk produced by the mothers until a year old

-young koalas stay on their mother’s back until they are much older, or at least until they the mother produced the next season baby koala

so that's it about koalas!! hope you enjoy it and give you more knowledge of animals. thank you..

source: https://www.savethekoala.com/about-koalas/interesting-facts

 animals.nationalgeographic.com/mammals/koala/

xx, 

putri radityasari