Louisiana, long ago. A young wife, a new baby — and a proud man's terrible mistake.
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First, let's learn eight words. Read each word and its sentence, guess the meaning, then click Reveal to check. Say each word out loud.
Read each part. Then try the questions from memory, and talk about the last one.
Long ago, in Louisiana, a man called Monsieur Valmondé found a little girl. She was asleep by the big stone gate of his farm. Nobody knew her family. Nobody knew her name. Madame Valmondé took the girl and loved her like a daughter. They called her Désirée.
Désirée grew up beautiful and kind. One day, a young man rode past the same stone gate. His name was Armand Aubigny. He saw Désirée and fell in love in one minute. Armand was rich, and he was proud: his family name was one of the oldest names in Louisiana. Monsieur Valmondé said, "Be careful. We do not know Désirée's family." Armand did not listen. "I will give her my name," he said.
So Armand and Désirée married, and she went to live in his big house, L'Abri. It was a dark, sad place. The people who worked there were slaves — they were not free. And Armand was hard and cold with them.
1. Where did Monsieur Valmondé find Désirée?
2. Why was Monsieur Valmondé worried about the marriage?
1. Asleep by the big stone gate of his farm, when she was a little girl. Nobody knew her family or her name.
2. Because nobody knew Désirée's family — and Armand's family was very old and very proud.
Désirée and Armand had a baby boy. At first Armand was happy and kind — kinder than ever before. Désirée was happy too.
But when the baby was about three months old, something changed. Visitors came to the house and looked at the baby in a strange way. Armand stopped smiling. He did not look at his wife or his son. One hot afternoon, Désirée looked at her baby. Then she looked at the little servant boy who stood near him. She looked from one face to the other, again and again. Her own face went white.
She called Armand. "Look at our child," she said. "What does it mean? Tell me." Armand answered coldly: "It means that the child is not white. It means that you are not white."
"It is not true!" Désirée cried. "Look at my hand! My skin is whiter than yours, Armand!" But Armand turned and walked away.
1. When did things start to change, and how?
2. What does Armand say about the child — and about Désirée?
1. When the baby was about three months old. Visitors looked at the baby in a strange way, and Armand became cold and stopped smiling.
2. He says the child is not white — and that Désirée is not white.
Désirée wrote to Madame Valmondé: "They say I am not white. Please tell them it is not true." Her mother's answer was short: "My Désirée, come home to your mother who loves you. Come with your child."
Désirée showed the letter to Armand. "Shall I go?" she asked. "Yes, go," he said. "Do you want me to go?" "Yes. I want you to go."
Désirée took her baby in her arms. She did not take the road to her mother's house. She walked across the empty fields to the bayou — the deep, slow water. She did not come back.
Some weeks later, Armand made a big fire behind the house. He burned the baby's little bed. He burned Désirée's dresses and her letters. Then, in a drawer, he found one more letter — an old letter from his own mother to his father. He read: "I thank God that our dear Armand will never know that his mother belongs to the race that is cursed with slavery."
Armand's mother was black. The secret was his.
1. What did Madame Valmondé write to Désirée?
2. What did Armand find in the drawer, and what did it say?
1. "Come home to your mother who loves you. Come with your child." She offered Désirée a home.
2. An old letter from his own mother. It said that Armand's mother was black — the secret was his, not Désirée's.
This whole story is about faces — how people look, and who they look like. In English, there are two patterns, and they are different.
Write look, looks or looked — with or without like.
1. The big house at L'Abri dark and sad.
2. "Look at his little hands!" said Désirée. "He his father!"
3. Madame Valmondé held the baby for a long time. Her face worried.
4. In her thin white dress, Désirée a stone statue.
1. looked (+ adjective: dark and sad)
2. looks like (+ noun: his father)
3. looked (+ adjective: worried)
4. looked like (+ noun: a stone statue)
Finish the two mini-dialogues. Write look, looks, look like or looks like.
1. "What does the baby ?" — "He's beautiful! He his mother — the same eyes."
2. "How does Armand today?" — "Not good. He angry and cold."
1. What does the baby look like? — He looks like his mother.
2. How does Armand look today? — He looks angry and cold.
Write looks, looked, looks like or looked like. Then read the little story out loud.
Madame Valmondé came to visit. The house dark and sad, like always. The baby was growing fast, and he strong and healthy. But when Désirée stood him next to the little servant boy, the two children brothers. Désirée went white. "Look at my hand!" she cried. "My skin whiter than yours, Armand!" At the end of the story, alone by the fire, the proud Armand a man who has lost everything.
looked · looked · looked like · looks · looks like
look + adjective tells us HOW; look like + noun tells us WHO or WHAT.
Now take the story's ideas into the real world. Talk about each one out loud. There are no right answers — say what you think, and say why.
People often say things like "You look like your grandmother!" Why do families love to talk about faces? Is it always a friendly game? Think of examples from families in films or TV.
In the story, people decide everything about a person from a face. Today, do people still judge others by how they look — clothes, age, height? Where does this happen (shops, work, school)? Is it fair?
Armand's old family name is like a treasure for him — more important than the people in his house. Are family names important in your country? What is more important: a good name or a good heart? Why?
This story is from 1893, but people still read it all over the world. Why? What can an old story teach us that the news cannot?
This is the most important part of the lesson — do all of it out loud. Use the timer, and try to speak for the whole time.
Tell the whole story in your own words: the girl at the stone gate → the marriage → the dark house → the baby → the strange change → Armand's cold words → the letter from her mother → the bayou → the fire → the last letter.
Use look + adjective and look like + noun at least once each, and use five of today's key words.
Describe the people: Désirée (brown hair, grey eyes, fair skin), Armand, the baby, Madame Valmondé. What do they look like? How do they look at the start of the story — and how do they look at the end? Use looked + adjective and looked like + noun.
You can change one moment in the story — only one. Which moment do you change? What happens next? Tell the new story from that moment to the end. Start with: "In my story…"