1.Look at the sky, I think it (rain). 2.In winter I (go) to the gym every day.
3.Jessica has got a new job in Moscow! She (move) there in the next month.
4.Mother can’t take me to school. She (have) an appointment at the dentist’s at 9:00.
5.My brother (not be) like this again, he promised.
6.Her friend has broken his leg. She (visit) him at hospital.
7.Mike and Boris (to have) a party. I think it (be) a very nice party.
8.I have already bought the tickets. They (leave) for Saint-Petersburg tonight.
Contents
The Reader of Books Mr Wormwood, the Great Car Dealer
The Hat and the Superglue
The Ghost Arithmetic The Platinum-Blond Man Miss Honey
The Trunchbull The Parents Throwing the Hammer
Bruce Bogtrotter and the Cake
Lavender The Weekly Test
The First Miracle The Second Miracle Miss Honey’s Cottage
Miss Honey’s Story
The Names The Practice
The Third Miracle A New HomeThe Reader of Books
It’s a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful.
Some parents go further. They become so blinded by adoration they manage to convince themselves their child has qualities of genius.
Well, there is nothing very wrong with all this. It’s the way of the world. It is only when the parents begin telling us about the brilliance of their own revolting offspring, that we start shouting, "Bring us a basin! We’re going to be sick!"
School teachers suffer a good deal from having to listen to this sort of twaddle from proud parents, but they usually get their
own back when the time comes to write the end-of-term reports. If I were a teacher I would cook up some real scorchers for the children of doting parents. "Your son Maximilian", I would write, "is a total wash- out. I hope you have a family business you can push him into when he leaves school because he sure as heck won’t get a job anywhere else." Or if I were feeling lyrical that day, I might write, "It is a curious truth that grasshoppers have their hearing-organs in the sides of the abdomen. Your daughter Vanessa, judging by what she’s learnt this term, has no hearing-organs at all."
I might even delve deeper into natural history and say, "The periodical cicada spends six years as a grub underground, and no more than six days as a free creature of
sunlight and air. Your son Wilfred has spent six years as a grub in this school and we are still waiting for him to emerge from the chrysalis." A particularly poisonous little girl might sting me into saying, "Fiona has the same glacial beauty as an iceberg, but unlike the iceberg she has absolutely nothing below the surface." I
think I might enjoy writing end-of-term reports for the stinkers in my class. But enough of that. We have to get on.
Occasionally one comes across parents who take the opposite line, who show no interest at all in their children, and these of course are far worse than the doting ones. Mr and Mrs Wormwood were two such parents. They had a son called Michael and a daughter called Matilda, and the parents
looked upon Matilda in particular as nothing more than a scab. A scab is something you have to put up with until the time comes when you can pick it off and flick it away. Mr and Mrs Wormwood looked forward enormously to the time when they could pick their little daughter off and flick her away, preferably into the next county or even further than that.
It is bad enough when parents treat ordinary children as though they were scabs and bunions, but it becomes somehow a lot worse when the child in question is extraordinary, and by that I mean sensitive and brilliant. Matilda was both of these things, but above all she was brilliant. Her mind was so nimble and she was so quick to learn that her ability should have been obvious even to the most half-witted of
parents. But Mr and Mrs Wormwood were both so gormless and so wrapped up in their own silly little lives that they failed to notice anything unusual about their daughter.
Drugs in the present day are causing people to make bad choices and bad decisions. Drugs aren’t necessarily making people do things that aren’t right, but make it so that people don’t think straight. When people don’t think straight they tend to make wrong choices. When people make wrong choices it usually puts people around them in danger, which isn’t good to have citizens endanger ever.
People go simply crazy is awful and sometimes drugs are the reason for going crazy. If you have ever seen the show Cops or anything like that most of the shows are filled with people going crazy and committing crimes. That leads into my next subject, committing crime because drugs. A lot of crimes like robbing, GTA, murder, Suicide, Homicide, DUI, etc., all are horrible things people do while on drugs. If the world was to crack down on drugs there would be a lot less crime and murders. Less crime and so on the world would be a way better place.
Bad habits are the worst thing about drugs. Common bad habits of drugs are skipping school, skipping work, and not paying bills, are just a few common habits caused by drugs. First off skipping school will get you no where, because when you skip a lot school you will get kicked out. Once you’re kicked out you have a slim chance of getting to college. Once college is ruled out then you have a very shy chance of getting a good paying job. Second off skipping work is just going to get you fired and that will look bad on your record if you ever go to get another job. Also then you wouldn’t be able to afford rent, insurance, bills, groceries, the drug itself, and whatever has to be paid. Once that happens you would lose everything that you were paying and paying off.
Imagine a world where there are no drugs what so ever. We wouldn’t have to fear as much about crime. No more worrying about what you chose to try because it wouldn’t drugs in it. No more worries about what kids are doing when parents don’t know where they are. The world would be a better place less crime, less bad decision making, less addicted people, and less whackos in our society. Our world would be drug free!