Flash test

FLASH TEST

 Duration: 30 mn

 A.Description of the cartoon________________________________________________5/

 Tell the different parts of the cartoon (characters, place, action)

Write about the message of the cartoonist.

 B.Complete the following blanks____________________________________________5/

 1)____________ comes from a middle-class 2) ____________which is  money-conscious. This  is not surprising in the 3) ____________US society. If you have money, you are 4)____________but if you lack money you can’t have a social 5)____________.

Crystal is a 6)____________ person. She knows that she will 7) ____________ money to pay for her study so did jobs like 8) ____________and 9) ____________. She also 10____________for a job as a help-desk attendant in her future dorm.

C.Make a pschychological portrait of Crystal___________________________________5

Stress her social origin, living conditions, ambitions, strengths and achievements….)

 

  1. Commentary_________________________________________________________5/

Explain  Crystal ‘s following phrase: « Having no students loans….It was a mixture of work, luck and help. »

 

 

 

 

Coping with the cost

1.Planning for college.

Crystal comes from a middle-class family which is  money-conscious. This  is not surprising in the capitalist US society. If you have money, you are someone but if you lack money you can’t have a social status.

Crystal is a provident (prévoyant) person. She knows that she will need money to pay for her study so did jobs like pet-sitting and baby-sitting. She also applied for a job as a help-desk attendant in her future dorm.

The hard situation forces Crystal to manage to get a job and save up money. She understand that a degree is a way to improve her situation and she is ready to make all the sacrifices to get through.So, the crucial situation turns her into a very mature and probably independent young person.

  1. Putting the “work” in Work-Study

The second part of the document entitled Putting the “work” in “Work-study” means that “work” took an important part of Crystal’s life. Working became as much as crucial as studying.

On her first year of college, she got a scholarship which was useful to pay for college expenses. Her parents had to pay for her room and food expenses. She continued working 20 hours a week.

On her 2nd year, she had to share her room and save up money on her diet. Everyday, she spent less than 3 dollars to eat.

She kept working in the Games Room on Campus. Also, she was a blackjack dealer and became a tax-office receptionist. Despite all these jobs, Crystal still got some loans from her parents. We realize that she emphasizes the time she spent working and rarely speaks about her study.  She is forced to get different jobs to survive/study. She doesn’t have the choice. She is courageous. Many students would / forbid/give up. Her  working may have consequences on her  studies. She may be tired, not attentive/sleepy in class.

 A Final piece of help.

Really, she was a hard-working and serious student if we considers her results. She graduated with honours, which means that she got excellent grades at her exam.

She is proud of her achievement. Crystal keeps listing the many jobs she had to perform to make us aware ofthe difficulties a student has to face. She avoided student loans but owed her parents a huge sum of money.

 Conclusion

As a conclusion, I can say that Crystal’s experience tells us that if we don’t come from an affluent family that’s almost impossible to avoid students’ loans. She had to work. She was lucky as she received a scholarship. But if her parents couldn’t help her financially she would have been  in debts.

 

 

The cartoon

In this cartoon, we can see a woman advising a student / a guidance counsellor.

  • The student wonders why he should go to college.
  • The woman has logical answers:

– if he goes to college, he’ll get a good job,

– if he gets a good job, he will get/earn a lot of money,

– if he has money, he will be able to pay back his college loans.

= going to college will provide him with a good job which will pay well and will enable him to pay off his college loans.

2.The guidance counselor : What she means !

  • She is a guidance counselor but does not say he should go to college to learn more things,enrich his culture. She has a realistic/practical/ matter-of fact point of view.

The irony

  • What makes it funny/the irony: if you need to go to university just to get money to pay the bank back, why bother? = the guidance counselor is in fact saying that going to university is not a good idea = contrary to what she should be doing.

 3.The cartoonist’s message

  • The cartoonist wants to denounce the sacrifices students have to make to study: they have to ask for loans to study, but in the end they have to spend all their money on paying them back. So it would probably be better to try to avoid student loans, and that seems to be what Crystal did.

4.Anticipation on the contents of the text

  • Given the title of the text, it must be a student’s testimony about how she managed to pay her college fees without asking for loans.
  • Perhaps she got a part-time job / may have had a part-time job / must have had a job.
  • Her parents may have saved money for her.
  • She may have asked all her family to help.