III. Post-reading

3.1. Feelings.

Describe the entire range of emotions experienced by Ralph that evening. Try to be as convincing as you can.

3.2. Poetry corner.

Read the following poem by Jack Prelutsky entitled An Early Worm Got out of Bed and say if the character of the poem is very much like the ones in the story (or vice versa).

3.3. Project work.

Together with a friend, find your way out of this haunted house. When finished, safe and sound, create your own maze similar (or not very) to the one you have just been to.

WEIRD, WONDERFUL MRS BECKER

I. Pre-reading

1.1. SHARE your memories of a very special New Year and Christmas celebration. Try to recollect all the details that made it so unique.

1.2. In PAIRS, discuss the problem of Secrets and Surprises. Do you think we people need them?

1.3. In GROUPS of three or four, share recollections of very extraordinary events you were involved in. Rate these events in the order of their uniqueness.

II. Reading

2.1. Understanding the title.

The title of the story written by Claire Blatchf ord is interesting from the linguistic point of view. What do you think of the alliteration used in it? What about the comma too? What do these details suggest?

2.2. Reading for pleasure and enrichment.

Read the story and answer the question: Was Mrs Becker really wonderful — or simply weird? The following words will be useful for better understanding of the events.

Dough — a mixture of flour and other ingredients ready for baking

Shovel — to move stones or dirt with a special spade

Fumble — to move with your hands, carelessly or awkwardly

Wade — to walk through water that is not deep

Stomp — to walk with heavy steps especially when angry

Advent — a period of four weeks before Christmas

Mrs Becker is weird," Cat said at suppertime one evening soon after Thanksgiving.

"Caitlin, please don't talk that way about our new neighbor. We hardly know her," Cat's mother replied.

"But she is weird," Cat insisted. "Her front door was wide open when we got off the bus today, and she was carrying rocks into her house. They were covered with mud. Who in the world would want a lot of dirty rocks in their house?"

"Maybe she has an aquarium," Cat's father suggested.

Cat shook her head. "They were way too big for that. They were as big as the rocks in Mr. Turnbull's stone wall."

Mr. Yates raised his eyebrows. "How old do you think Mrs. Becker is?" he asked Mrs. Yates.

"About Gammy's age."

"She got us mixed up again, too," Cat added.

Cat was eleven, and Lisy, although she was only half an inch shorter than her sister, was eight. When people confused the two or, worse yet, asked if they were twins, Cat got cross. Very cross. It wasn't fair that she had such a tall younger sister.

"I'll make cookies for her sometime soon," Cat's mother de­cided.

"Cookies?" echoed Lisy. She loved making cookies. Even more, she loved eating raw cookie dough.

The next afternoon when Cat and Lisy got off the bus, there was Mrs. Becker in a blue parka in front of her house. This time she was shoveling earth from her garden into three bushel baskets.

"Hi," she said, pausing to wave at them. The bun of white hair on top of her head looked as though it was about to unravel.

"Hi," said Cat.

"Did you have a good day?"

"O.K.," answered Cat. She really had had a good day, but she wasn't sure how friendly to be with this strange lady who dug in her garden in December.

"Looking forward to Christmas?"

Both girls nodded.

"Me, too. It's my very favorite time of year."

"I have to do my homework now," Cat said. She nudged Lisy with her elbow, and they started up the driveway to their house.

"She's watching us," Lisy whispered while Cat fumbled for the key in her pocket and then unlocked the door. Once inside, Cat dumped her schoolbag on the kitchen table. "What's she doing?" Cat wondered.

Together they went into the living room and peered out from behind the curtains. Mrs. Becker had resumed her digging. When the baskets were full she carried them, one by one, up the front steps and into her house.

At suppertime that night, Cat announced, "Mrs. Becker is really weird. She took a lot of earth into her house."

"Black earth," Lisy added.

Mr. Yates raised his eyebrows again. "She seems nice enough," he said, "but that is an odd thing to do."

"Are you still going to make cookies for her?" Lisy asked.

Mrs. Yates nodded. But there was no time for baking that evening, nor the next, nor the one after that. Mrs. Yates was too busy wrap­ping packages to send to relatives. Then there were the Christmas cards to write and address. Secretly Cat hoped her mother would forget all about cookies for Mrs. Becker.

On the afternoon of the nineteenth, everyone was predicting the season's first snowfall, and on the morning of the twentieth, Mr. Yates woke the girls with the good news: "No school!"

"Yippee!" Cat yelled, jumping out of bed.

The snow was coming down so thick and fast she could barely see their garage. Mr. Yates left early to catch the train, but Mrs. Yates stayed home. After breakfast the girls bundled up, went out, and waded around the backyard, heads bent, snowf lakes stuck to their eyelashes. Lisy got cold and went in, but Cat continued to brave thestorm. She crouched under the forsythia bush and pretended she was in an abandoned wolf's den.

Sugary smells greeted her as she came in for lunch.

"Don't take your snow pants off yet," her mother said. "I want you to take these cookies to Mrs. Becker." "Me?"

"It'll only take a few minutes."

"What about Lisy? Isn't she coming?"

"Her snow pants are soaked."

"Mine are, too."

Cat stuck her tongue out at Lisy, who was licking the mixing bowl. Cat took the bag with the cookies and stomped back outside. If she fell into one of the holes in Mrs. Becker's yard and froze to death, they'd be sorry!

She made it to Mrs. Becker's front door without any mishaps and rang the bell. A second later the door flew open, and there was Mrs. Becker in a red sweater with a spray of holly sticking out of the bun on top of her head.

"Here-are-cookies-from-my-mother," Cat said in one breath.

"Thank you," Mrs. Becker said, taking the bag. "I'm baking, too. Let's have a swap."

Before Cat knew what had happened, she was inside the house, and the door was shut. Mrs. Becker hurried into her kitchen. Cat looked around. There was a cuckoo clock on the wall in front of her. She peered into the living room, and her mouth fell open.

"Wow!"

The entire floor in that room was covered with moss and grass-real moss and grass! There wasn't a chair or a table or a TV in sight. Instead there were potted plants of all sizes and shapes half-buried in the grass. Rocks (the big rocks Cat had seen Mrs. Becker carrying into her house) lined a path leading to a Christmas tree in the center of the room. Can­dles and straw birds adorned the tree. A gold star shone from its top.

"Come," Mrs. Becker said.

Cat jumped. She hadn't heard her return.

"Those are paper-whites, here are tulips," Mrs. Becker said, pointing at some buds as they went down the path. "I'm hoping they'll bloom on Christmas Eve." "Is it... is it always like this in here?" Cat asked.

Mrs. Becker laughed. "No, this is my Advent garden."

Cat looked puzzled.

"The rest of the year I have furniture, but the four weeks before Christmas I change everything. We did it as children. My father would tell my sister and me a fairy tale as we made the garden. It's about a poor family that lived deep in a forest. One Christmas Eve when they had nothing to eat, the ice and snow suddenly melted away. The light grew warmer, and the flowers opened. They found all kinds of nuts and berries to eat while the birds sang, 'It's Christmas!' "

Cat didn't say anything. She felt she'd slipped into another world. She stood there smelling the earth and grass while the snow outside swirled up against the windows and the wind whistled.

"I know you wondered what I was doing the day you came home and I was carrying the rocks into the house,"

Mrs. Becker said. "I decided I wouldn't tell you then; I'd invite you and your sister over for a surprise on Christmas Eve."

Cat turned to her. "Can we still come?" "Yes."

"Mum and Dad, too?"

"Of course! But try to keep it a secret till then."

"Lisy can't keep secrets," said Cat, "but I can."

"I know you can," Mrs. Becker said with a smile. "You're older." Then she leaned over, broke a little spray of holly off a plant, and gave it to Cat.

2.3. True or false?

1. Cat and Lisy were twins.

2. Mrs Becker was a newcomer in their neighbourhood.

3. The girl considered their new neighbour very special.

4. Mrs Becker never noticed the girls watching her.

5. Mrs Becker had a greenhouse so she needed rocks and soil.

6. Cat was eager to go to Mrs Becker's place.

7. Making a Christmas garden was Mrs Becker's invention.

8. Cat was enchanted both by Mrs Becker and her Advent garden.

2.4. Prove that...

1. Cat was observant and imaginative for her age.

2. The girls' Mum wanted her daughters to be respectful.

3. Cat was sensitive about being an elder sister.

4. Mrs Becker was shrewd and perceptive.

5. Mrs Becker valued family traditions.

2.5. Vocabulary in focus.

Study the words and their meanings, and fill the gaps with the appropriate words.

• weird — unusual, different, very strange, mysterious

• cross — angry

• to unravel — to separate, loosen

• a mishap — a small mistake or accident

• to adorn — to decorate

• to make a swap — to exchange

• to confuse — to think wrongly that one person or thing is something else

1. I seem to know everything but when it comes to writing tests — I always ... facts and figures.

2. We are both tired of listening to our old CDs — why not... ?

3. I wonder what made her put on such a dress. Even for a New Year costume it looks ....

4. Being ... and resentful never helped anybody. Better make a fresh start.

5. Wow! The cat has been playing with my yarn again. It'll take years to ... it.

6. John is really the perfect victim — he keeps getting into all possible ....

7.... with all sorts of flowers the hall looked really festive.

2.6. Grammar in focus.

Sometimes children wouldn't do what their parents want. The same happened with the characters of the story. Say what they wouldn't want to do.

e.g. Mother wanted her daughters to take cookies to their neighbour. However, Lisy wouldn't go. She explained it saying that...

2.7. More grammar.

Would is also used for repeated action. For example, Mrs Becker's father would tell her Christmas stories when she was a little girl. Then they would make a Christmas garden together. Share your memories of the past with the group mates.

e.g. When I was very young and lived in ..., I often ...

2.8. Holidays and high days.

Match the high days with their descriptions.

Epiphany or Twelfth Night	On this day, according to Christianity, the day of Christ's Resurrection is marked.
Shrove Tues­day or Pancake Day	On this day Christians remember how Jesus was first shown to three Wise Men from the fast and received gifts from them.
Palm Sunday	On this day, four Sundays before Christmas, Christians begin preparations for the birthday of Jesus Christ.
Easter	On this day, you'd better confess your sins and eat a lot of pancakes.
Advent	On this day, according to the Christian leg­end, Jesus was welcomed when entering Jerusalem.

2.9. Work and play idioms.

Work (and play) with the following idioms. Match the idioms with their meanings correctly. Work out (or play, why not) short stories that require such idioms.

1	Play for time	A	Работать на износ
2	In the works	B	Детские игрушки
3	Child's play	C	(Находиться) в работе
4	Play possum	D	Тянуть время
5	Work like a nigger	E	Творить чудеса
6	Work wonders	F	Работать как проклятый
7	Play for high stakes	G	Притворяться
8	Work one's guts out	H	Идти на большой риск