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Growing Pains 6 minutes I guess it was not Scottie’s day. We did not know if something had happened, or if Scottie was just feeling his age. After all, how grown-up is a four-year-old supposed to act? But to really understand what happened, let us start at the beginning. Mary and I had invited our nephew, Scottie, over for his usual Sunday supper. We always looked forward to having him because he was a neat little boy. On this particular evening, he arrived on time as usual. However, instead of hugs and kisses, Scottie just pushed past us and headed for the sofa. I had to take a second look to make sure this was the right little boy. While we waited for the roast chicken --- Scottie’s favorite --- to finish cooking, we sat on the sofa talking. Right in the middle of one of my sentences, Scottie said suddenly, “Hey, Uncle Arnold, I want to play my record.” The conversation came to a halt. A minute later, the record player was on as loud as it could go with “Disco Duck.” Scottie was dancing and singing in the middle of the room. Mary was talking to me, but I could not hear a thing she was saying. I was puzzled that I let the matter pass with only a slight comment. Soon dinner was served. We sat down, lit the candles, and started to eat. Scottie usually would be the first to start eating, but tonight he just sat there and stared at me. “Aren’t you hungry?” I asked. “Yes,” replied Scottie. “Then aren’t you going to eat?” “No, I’m not,” he answered. “It’s your favorite dinner,” said my wife. “I don’t want to eat,” answered Scottie. Paying no attention to his strange behavior for the moment, I said, “Okay, if you don’t want to eat, you don’t have to eat. You may sit and keep us company until we finish our delicious meal.” As we continued our dinner, Scottie’s face looked confused and uncertain. After we finished dinner, we began clearing away the dishes, leaving Scottie to sit there with that look of disappointment on his little face. When I removed the dish containing the roast beef, it was more than he could bear. He stood up and threw his napkin across the table. Unfortunately, it hit one of the candles and caught fire. I do not know who cried out the loudest, myself or Scottie. We both stood there with a look of horror on our faces. I took the napkin and put it out. Scottie started crying. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I was just trying to be Dennis. My teacher read us the book about Dennis the Menace, and we thought all the things he did were so funny. But they are not funny when I do them. I don’t want to be Dennis any more.” We were glad that he was not Dennis any more, just our little Scottie. (Reading Time: 6 min.)

In blanks 1-5 write Y for YES, if the statement agrees with the information; N for NO, if the statement contradicts the information; NG for NOT GIVEN, if there is no information on this in the text. 1. The reason for Scottie’s unusual behavior was that he didn’t like roast chicken. 2. Mary was Arnold’s wife. 3. Scottie had always been a discipline problem. 4. The narrator was used to being kissed by Scottie. 5. “Disco Duck” was a pop song which children and grown-ups both liked. Complete the sentences below using a word or words from the text. 6. Scottie had no intention of burning the . 7. Scottie wanted to model himself on the comic book character .

Working While You Grow 3 1/2 minutes Kitchen Manager --- Joe I had been working at a café called Pacific Desserts for two years. One day the kitchen manager left his job. I had worked there the longest. I was given the kitchen manager’s work, but not the title or the play. High school kids waited tables at night there. They often visited in the morning before the place was open. They came for free coffee. I had been making myself breakfast before the manager got there and I decided to expand. For the last three months of school, I made fried eggs and potato salad using the restaurant’s eggs, cheese, milk, vegetables, potatoes, and spices. We started a morning coffee club, and charged $1 per plate. Soon the high school students started to bring their friends. One of them even made a signboard in his carpentry class that read “Joe’s Underground Café.” I usually made about $8 extra per day. This was the same as an increase in my pay. I was also spending an hour of the company’s time for my own profit.

Bicycle Messenger --- Kenny Being a bike messenger in Seattle was hard, but our job was easy. We had to work extremely hard, but at least we got paid by the hour. The company always let us wear shorts, but we had to wear the company T-shirts. We cut off the sleeves to stay cool. Then, the company wanted to give a better impression of itself because we delivered to big businesses. They made us wear long pants and shirts made of heavy material. This was crazy! Try riding your bicycle fast for ten miles up hills, really big hills, with heavy packages while you’re wearing long pants! All of the messengers agreed we could not continue like that. We decided that we wouldn’t wash our clothes at all. We wore the same clothes every day. You can imagine what it was like when we were in an elevator. Our clothes smelled terrible and our bodies also smelled bad. Within a month, the company received many complaints. They let us wear shorts again.