READING 4 FUN

1 Listen and read.

READING4 FUN!

THE MAN WHO DIDN’T WASH HIS DISHES

(after Phyllis Krasilovsky)

There once was a man who lived alone in a little house in a small town. He always cooked his own dinner, cleaned the house by himself and made his own bed.

One night he came home feeling very hungry, so he made a big dinner. He ate too much and was very tired after fi nishing. He decided to leave the dishes till the next night.

But the next night he was TWICE1 as hungry, so he cooked TWICE as big of a dinner, and it took TWICE as long to eat it, and he was TWICE as tired as he had been the day before. As the days passed by, he got hungrier and more tired, and there were so MANY dirty dishes that he started to pile them on the table.

As soon as the table was full he started to put them on his bookshelves. As soon as THEY were full, started piling them on the fl oor for several days and soon he couldn’t get into his house!

One night he looked in his cupboard and found out2 that there wasn’t any clean dish there. Soon he used up all his ashtrays3 and clean fl owerpots, and his sweets dishes, and drank water from vases. He used up EVERYTHING, even the pots he cooked his food in, and the frying pan, and the kettle, and he didn’t know what to do! He was SO unhappy. His whole house was full of dirty dishes, and dirty fl owerpots, and dirty ashtrays, and dirty sweets dishes, and dirty pots, and a dirty soap dish, and a dirty frying pan, and a dirty kettle. He couldn’t fi nd his books or his clock, or even his BED any more! He

1twice [twais] — двічі, 2 рази; тут: вдвічі 2to fi nd out [0faind 9aUt] — виявляти 3an ashtray [92Strei] — попільничка

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couldn’t sit down to think because even his chairs were piled with dishes, and he couldn’t fi nd the sink so he could wash them!

But THE RAIN STARTED! And the man got an idea. He drove his big lorry around to the side of his house and piled all the dishes, and all the vases, and all the ashtrays, and pots, and a frying pan, and a kettle on it and drove the truck out into the rain.

The rain fell ON EVERYTHING and soon the dishes were clean again. THE RAIN WASHED THEM! Then the man carried everything back into the house again. He put the dishes into the cupboard, the frying pan and the pots on the pot shelves, the ash trays on the tables, the fl owerpots back where he found them, the vases where the vases go, the kettle on the gas cooker, and the soap dish in the bathroom. He was so tired after carrying everything back and putting it away that he decided, “I’d better always wash my dishes just as soon as I have fi nished my dinner.” The next night when he came home, he cooked his dinner, fi nished to eat it, washed the dishes and put them right away. He did this every night after that, too. HE IS VERY HAPPY NOW. He can fi nd his chairs, and he can fi nd his clock, and he can fi nd his BED. It is easy for him to get into his house, too, because there are no more dishes piled on the fl oor or anywhere!

2 Answer the questions. READING4 FUN! 1 What did a man, who lived alone in the house, always do? 2 How did he feel and what did he do one day? 3 What were the next nights like? 4 Did he wash up the dishes right away after his eating out of them? 5 What did he fi nd out one night? 6 What was his house like soon? 7 What things couldn’t he fi nd? How did he feel? 8 What idea came to his mind? 9 Why was he very tired? 10 What did he decide? 11 Why is he happy at the end of the story?

3 Divide the story into some passages1 and tell the main idea of each passage.

4 Tell the story as if you were the main character of it.

5 Speak on the following.

zzWhat will you decide to do if all the plates are used up? zzHow long does it take you to wash up the dishes after your dinner? zzDo you always start doing washing up right away after your meal? zzHow do you feel after you have cleaned and put the dishes into their places? zzWhat happens when we don’t put our things in their places and don’t clean them every day? Why?

1a passage [9p2sidz] — уривок

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