Act 1 Scene 7 and 8 "Decisions"

"Having been briefly tempted back to her old way of life, Rita resists and makes the momentous decision to leave her husband.... She must continue her education"
The characters in this play, Rita and Frank, have changed from student-teacher relationship to another one, in which their personal lifes seem to be involved. For instance, Rita's husband and her mother are being taking part in some way. Apart from that, Julia, Frank's wife also appears in this scene in Frank's words.
Rita did not go to Frank's dinner party because she thought that she could not behave and talked as those people in the party (Frank's guests). Also she supposed that she would have been the only person to be laughed at.
When her mother said that they could sing better songs than those in the pub, I think that Rita related those words to that moment in her life, in which she was trying to improve as a person.
The act ended "an" we start again because Rita wants to continue with her literature course, in spite of the fact that, it has been really difficult for her. I would say that she is taking all that process as an important challenge in her life.

Act 1 Scene 6"An apple and a can of soft drink"

Rita's cultural horizons are expanding and she proposes Frank a visit to an art gallery. Rita had gone to the theatre to see "Macbeth" by Shakespeare. Then, she went to Frank's studio to tell him about the play but she went there other day , not the day of her lessons. She considered "Macbeth" a fantastic play and the story a dead exciting one. What is more, she wants to do an essay on it.However, she only can use these words from the play in an essay as a quotation if she wants to develop the idea of the play.Because the words are specifically for this play.
I think that willy Russell offers Rita and Frank an apple and a can of soft drink as two symbols. The apple as a symbol of sin when refering to Adan and Eva. And the soft drink in order to soften up their feelings

Act 1 Scene 5 Rita and Frank in the process of learning

Rita says that the course is providing her with life itself. With this expression she wants to demonstrate how important is the course for her. On the other hand, her husband thinks really different from her,he burnt all her books because he does not want her to continue with her studies.However, she thinks that the situation with the books does not matter to her because she has the knowledge "inside her head".
Rita does not want to go to the pub with frank because she discovers that he stopped being a poet because of his adiction problem, in a way she wants to help him to stop drinking.
Frank is so reluctant to go to see the production of The Importance of Being Earnest, not because it is amateur, it was because he prefered going to the pub instead. In spite of that, he thinks Julia would be jealous if he goes to the theatre with Rita.

Act 1 Scenes 3 and 4 Discussions about Culture

In the first scene, Rita wrote an essay on one auhtor but with almost total reference to another author, also Frank noticed that her essay was really short. So he decided to tell Rita a story of the theology teacher, in order to make her realize that a clever and short answer is not necessarily the correct answer. In a way he tried to explained her that she had to span a bit more her essays and devote more time to do it, applying all the information that she had.
When Rita said "it makes me stronger coming here", I think that she would feel better by acquiring knowledge about culture in general, maybe she felt more secure than before coming to the lessons.Apart from that, she made comments about social issues, such as violence and economic problems as well that affected people's everyday life.
By the end of the two scenes Rita has learned mainly that she was able to write essays by taking into account Frank's advices. Also that she could put into practice her previous knowledge to perform the activities in the lessons.