Tom Sawyer – Part Twenty-six

Before you read the text, read the following comprehension questions.

1. According to Tom, what two things do people do when they’re engaged?

2. What mistake did Tom make?

3. What was Becky doing when Tom went back into the room?

4. What did Tom want to give Becky as a present?

5. What did Becky do with Tom’s gift?

Now read the text and answer the questions.

Then she jumped away and ran around and around the desks and benches, with Tom after her, and stopped in a corner at last, with her little white apron on her face. Tom held her neck and said:

"Now, Becky, it's all done, all over except the kiss. Don't be afraid of that. It’s nothing at all. Please, Becky." And he pulled down her apron and her hands.

Eventually, she gave up, and let her hands drop. Her face, all red with the struggle, lifted up and she submitted. Tom kissed the red lips and said:

"Now it's all done, Becky. And always after this, you know, you’re never to love anybody but me, and you’ll never to marry anybody but me, ever never and forever. Will you?"

"No, I'll never love anybody but you, Tom, and I'll never marry anybody but you, and you’ll never marry anybody but me, either."

"Certainly. Of course. That's PART of it. And when we come from and go to school you’ll always walk with me, when there’s nobody looking, and you choose me and I choose you at parties, because that's what you do when you're engaged."

"It's so nice. I’ve never heard of it before."

"Oh, it's so much fun! Me and Amy Lawrence…."

The big eyes told Tom his mistake and he stopped, confused.

"Oh, Tom! Then I’m not the first you've ever been engaged to!"

She began to cry. Tom said:

"Oh, don't cry, Becky, I don't care about her anymore."

"Yes, you do, Tom, you know you do."

Tom tried to put his arm around her neck, but she pushed him away and turned her face to the wall, and carried on crying. Tom tried again, with soothing words in his mouth, and was rejected again. Then his pride took over, and he walked away and went outside.

He stood about, restless and uneasy, for a while, looking at the door, every now and then, hoping she would change her mind and come to find him. But she did not.

Then he began to feel badly and think that he was wrong. It was difficult for him to change his attitude, now, but he forced himself and went back inside.

She was still standing back there in the corner, crying, with her face to the wall. Tom's heart hurt him. He went to her and stood a moment, not knowing exactly what to do next. Then he said hesitatingly:

"Becky, I….I don't care about anybody but you."Diccionario online

No reply – only tears.

"Becky, please". "Becky, won't you say something?"

More tears.

Tom took out his most valuable possession, a brass handle from a piece of furniture, and showed it to her, and said:

"Please, Becky, won't you take it?"

She threw it on the floor. Then Tom marched out of the house and over the hills and far away. He didn’t go back to school that day.

Becky soon began to suspect something. She ran to the door but she couldn’t see him. She ran quickly around to the playground, he was not there either. Then she called:

"Tom! Come back, Tom!"

She listened intently, but there was no answer. She had nothing except silence and loneliness. So she sat down to cry again.

By this time the students began to appear again, and she had to hide her sadness and calm her broken heart and suffer the long, boring, aching afternoon, with no one around to sympathise with her sorrow.

... to be continued!

* The text has been adapted from the Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain


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*Consulta un PDF con la información y resumen de 100 libros en inglés
que puedes descargar en 1 único archivo.

 

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Tom Sawyer – Part Twenty-seven

Before you read the text, read the following comprehension questions.
 

1. Why did Tom cross the stream more than once?

2. What kind of animal is a woodpecker?

3. In Tom’s opinión, how had the girl treated him?

4. Tom didn’t like the idea of being a clown. What three different people did he imagine coming back to the village as?

5. What’s the name of the ship that Tom imagines sailing in across the sea?
   

Now read the text and answer the questions.
 
Tom moved around quickly through lanes until he was well out of the way of returning students, and then started to run slowly. He crossed a small stream two or three times, because of a superstition he believed that crossing over water helped to confuse those who followed you.

Half an hour later he disappeared behind the Douglas mansion on the top of Cardiff Hill, and the schoolhouse was hardly visible away in the valley behind him.

He entered a dense wood, found his way, without a path, to the centre of it, and sat down under a large oak tree. Nothing was moving. The dead noonday heat had even stopped the songs of the birds. Nature was sleeping and there was no sound except the occasional noise of a woodpecker that came from far away. The sounds of this bird seemed to make Tom feel even lonelier. His soul was sad and melancholy. His feelings were similar to his surroundings. He sat for a long time with his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands, meditating.

It seemed to him that life was, at best, full of trouble and he started to envy Jimmy Hodges, who recently died. He thought how peaceful it must be to lie down and dream forever and ever, with the wind whispering through the trees and softly moving the grass and the flowers over the grave. There’s nothing to worry about and be sad about, ever any more.

If he only had a clean Sunday-school record he could be willing to go, and be done with it all. As far as the girl was concerned, what had he done? - nothing. He had had the best intentions in the world, and been treated like a dog. She would be sorry one day, maybe when it was too late. Ah, if he could only die temporarily!

But the elastic heart of youth cannot be compressed into one shape for a long time. Tom soon began to think about the problems of this life again.

What if he turned his back, now, and disappeared mysteriously? What if he went away, very far away, into unknown countries on the other side of the seas, and never came back again! How would she feel then! The idea of being a clown came back to him now, only to fill him with disgust. Jokes and laughter and a clown’s clothes were an offense, when they mixed with thoughts of romance. No, he would be a soldier, and return after long years of fighting in a famous war. No, a better idea would be to join the Indians, and hunt buffaloes and go on the warpath in the mountain ranges and the
Open spaces of the Far West, and in the future come back as a great Indian chief, full of feathers and with a painted face. He would walk proudly into Sunday-school on a sleepy summer morning, shouting a war cry and cause all his friends to turn green with envy. Diccionario online

But no, there was something even better than this. He would be a pirate! That was it! Now his future lay clear before him. His name would fill the world, and make people shake with fear! He would go sailing the seas in his long, low, black ship, the Spirit of the Storm, with his pirate flag flying at the front! And at the height of his fame, he would suddenly appear at the village and walk into church, tanned brown from the weather, in his black pirate clothes, his impressive boots, his belt with pistols, his sword by his side, his feathered hat, his black flag with the skull and crossbones on it, and hear everyone whisper, "It's Tom Sawyer the Pirate! –the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main!"

... to be continued!

* The text has been adapted from the Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain


  Download the original book for free
 

*Consulta un PDF con la información y resumen de 100 libros en inglés
que puedes descargar en 1 único archivo.

 

  Haz click para comprobar las soluciones

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