Paying For One's Education (Emile KAHOUN, Yadega High School, Ouahigouya)

Dick was a clever boy, but his parents were poor, so he had to work in his spare time and during his holidays to pay for his education. In spite of this, he managed to get to the university, but it was so expensive to study there that during the holidays he found it necessary to get two jobs at the same time so as to earn enough money to pay for his studies.
One summer he managed to get a job at a butcher’s shop during the daytime, and another in a hospital at night. In the shop he learned to cut meat up quite nicely, so the butcher often left him to do all the serving while he went into a room behind the shop to do the accounts.
In the hospital, on the other hand, he was of course, allowed to do only the simplest jobs, like helping to lift people and to carry them from one part of the hospital to another. Dick had to wear white clothes.
One evening at the hospital, Dick had to help a woman from her bed to the place where she was to have an operation. The woman was already feeling frightened at the thought of the operation before he came to get her, but when she saw Dick, she trembled and cried: No! No! Not my butcher! I won’t be operated on by my butcher, and fainted away.

L.A. Hil , Advanced Stories for Reproduction

Notes:
A spare time: time when you’ve nothing to do
To manage: to succeed or be able to do something
To earn money: to get money; to do the accounts: to count money
To faint: to become consciousless because of illness or fear.

I- COMPREHENSION

Choose the letter that is in front of the correct answer

1) According to the passage
a) Dick had to pay for his parent’s education
b) Dick had to work to pay for his education
c) Dick paid for his parents’ education
d) Dick’s parents paid for his education

2) Dick would use his spare time
a) to study
b) to go on holidays
c) to go and pay for his education
d) to work and earn money

3) Dick had to find two jobs because
a) at the university education was free
b) education at the university was very cheap
c) education at the university was very expensive
d) education at the university wasn’t expensive at all

4) Dick found his job
a) in a shop and a supermarket
b) in a hospital and in a factory
c) in a school and at the university
d) in a hospital and a shop

5) In the hospital, Dick’s work was to
a) help the doctor operate people
b) help the nurse to carry the babies
c) help to carry sick people from one part to another
d) wear white clothes and go around

6) In the butcher’s shop, Dick’s work was to
a) to serve people who come to eat meat
b) to control people buying meat
c) to take the money paid by the people
d) to cut the meat up

7) We can easily judge Dick to be
a) a lazy and foolish boy
b) an intelligent and hardworking boy
c) an intelligent and lazy boy
d) a clever nd lazy boy

8) The woman fainted
a) when she saw Dick the butcher
b) when the doctor operated her
c) when the nurse came in the house
d) Dick and thedoctor helped her.


II- GUIDED ESSAY

1) Why does Dick need to pay for his own education
2) Why did the woman faint when she saw Dick?
3) One day your father refuses to pay for your education. What are you going to do? And why ? (8 –10 lines)

III- GRAMMAR
Write the number of the question and the letter that is in front of the correct answer.

1) The woman………….operated on two days ago
a) will be
b) must be
c) was
d) has been

2) Don’t make a noise. The baby ………………….
a) slept
b) sleeping
c) is sleeping
d) has slept

3) Raogo works hard, he is …………………
a) a lazy boy
b) a working mother
c) a hard worker
d) a hard boy

4) The past participle of regular verbs is formed by adding …………..to the bare infinitive
a) ing
b) es
c) ed
d) nothing

5) Next year you……………..to drive a car
a) can
b) never can
c) will be able
d) was able.

6) How long have you ………….learning English?
a) be
b) began
c) bean
d) were

7) I’ve been waiting for the train …………half an hour
a) ago
b) since
c) for
d) during.

8) Karim is as polite and hard worker………Ali
a) than
b) more than
c) as
d) thanner.

III- TRANSLATION

1) Dick a été un garçon intelligent, mais ses parents ont été pauvres.
2) Quand oncle Raogo est arrivé du village, nous étions en train de regarder la télévision.
3) Il a du travailler dur pour payer son education.
4) Je ne serai pas opéré par ce docteur.