CHAPTER 1 Love for life

Andrew hurried down the street. He was looking for a shop where they sell make-up, but he didn’t really know where to go. He didn’t want to ask his wife or any of their friends – this was his secret. Then suddenly he saw a shop window full of pictures with beautiful women in perfect make-up, and stopped. This was the right place! He entered the shop and began to examine the products. He didn’t know anything about make-up or how to apply it, maybe because he was over 50 and not really interested in it. He looked for instructions on the labels, but it didn’t say how to actually put the makeup on. After a few minutes the shop assistant came up to him and asked if he needed help.

“Well, yes please,” he answered. “I have never used make-up before and I wonder if you have lessons for customers who want to learn how to use it.”

If the woman was surprised, she didn’t show it. She replied that they didn’t offer make-up lessons, but she could recommend a place that did. Andrew thanked her very much.

“After I have learned how to use make-up, I will come back and buy the make-up from you, because you’ve been so helpful.”

Two weeks later Andrew started make-up lessons. The teacher was a woman called Angelica and she was an expert on make-up and hairstyling. In the classroom, there were seven other students. All of them were younger women. They looked at him curiously, but didn’t say anything other than hello. Angelica showed them how to do different types of make-up on one of the other students. At the end of the lesson the instructor told them to try some of the things she taught them at home, as homework.

After the second lesson some of the women stayed in the classroom and asked Angelica why Andrew was taking a make-up lesson.

Angelica just smiled and said: “Everybody is welcome to join my lessons. And I know there are men who like to wear make-up. Why should women be the only ones to try to improve their looks?”

“Well, I wonder if he is a transvestite,” one of the women whispered. “You know, a man who likes to wear women’s clothes and make-up.“

Her friend suggested: “Maybe he is just curious and wants to understand young people. He writes everything down and he is very serious. He doesn’t talk to any of us.”

Before the third lesson began one of the women approached Andrew and asked him why he had chosen to take make-up lessons.

“I could see you were curious,” Andrew answered with a sad smile. “It is like this. I am married to a wonderful woman and six months ago she was in a car accident. Her hands were hurt very badly and she can’t put on her make-up by herself anymore. I try to help her with everything, including her make-up, but I’m not very good with the make-up. I told her she is beautiful just the way she is, but she doesn’t want to leave the house without make-up. I hate to see her sad, so I decided to take this course and learn how to do it. This is my gift to the love of my life.”

001 True or False?

Write the answers in your notebook. Write T for TRUE and F for FALSE.

1. Andrew was not married.

2. He did not want to ask anyone he knew where he could buy make-up.

3. He asked the shop assistant to tell him which was the best make-up.

4. Andrew didn’t know how to put on make-up.

5. The shop assistant told him that she could recommend a place where he could learn how to apply make-up.

6. The women were happy that there was a man taking the lessons too.

7. One of the women thought that Andrew was a transvestite.

8. Angelica said that everybody was welcome in her course.

9. Andrew wanted to learn how to put on make-up so that he looked better.

10. Andrew’s wife could not put on make-up herself because she was blind.

11. Andrew thought that his wife looked beautiful without make-up.

12. His gift to his wife was to help her put on her make-up.

Tag questions come at the end of a sentence. They are used when the speaker is almost sure about something, but wants to check if it’s right.

Always use the word not , either in the main part of the sentence or in the tag (the end of the sentence).

• In a positive sentence, the tag question is always negative. We are late, aren´t we?

• In a negative sentence, the tag question is always positive. She isn’t happy, is she?

examples: examples:

I am not the only one who wonders why he is here, am I? He didn’t talk to the other students, did he?

She is named Angelica, isn’t she? It isn’t the right place, is it?

Tag questions can use do, don’t , did or didn’t instead of repeating the same verb.

You know how to apply make-up, don’t you? They learned how to put on make-up, didn’t they?

1. Andrew’s wife can’t put on make-up, ?

2. Angelica cares about her students, ?

3. Andrew loves his wife, ?

4. They often talked about the only man in the class, ?

5. Annie was curious about Andrew , ?

6. Olivia likes make-up, ?

7. This make up is very expensive, ?

8. You don’t know why he is learning about make-up, ?

Julia had become a teenager just two weeks before she went into her father’s home office to look for a good book to read. Her father always encouraged her to read and to learn about life and people. He was a hardworking man who did everything he could to make her and her mother happy. When she found Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, she took it from the bookshelf and started reading it right away. But then she stopped, because she could see that there was something hidden behind the other books on the shelf. It was a small, rather old book. My Diary was written in big letters on the cover. Was it her father’s diary? She knew she should not read it. A diary is personal and might be full of secrets. Nobody else should be allowed to read it. But, she loved her father very much and decided that the diary could be a new way to find out more about his life. He never talked much about his childhood or his parents and she wondered why. She was too curious to just put it back without reading it.

She decided to read the last entry first. It was written on her Dad’s 20th birthday. She read that he had not celebrated his birthday. His own father was in prison at the time, and his mother was staying with her sister. It sounded like she did that a lot. Harry wrote that he didn’t care about his birthday, because next year he was going to be somewhere else. He had left school when he was 16 and he didn’t have a job. He drank too much alcohol and he used drugs sometimes. His girlfriend was only 17 years old and pregnant with his child. Julia read the last page in the diary:

“It’s time to change my life. I have just discovered that I’m going to be a father. I want to be the best father in the world. I will do everything I can to make my child happy. I want to be the father I never had.”

1. How old was Julia?

2. Why did she go into her father’s home office?

3. What did Julia’s father always encourage her to do?

4. What book did Julia choose to read?

5. Why did she suddenly stop reading?

6. What made her curious?

7. Why did she decide to read it?

8. How do you think she felt after she finished reading?

9. Do you think her feelings for her father changed after she read it? Why?

10. Do you think that it was all right to do as she did?

The Thomsons moved to a new house in the outback in Australia not long after their first child Belinda was born. When she was two, her little brother Ethan was born. As they grew up, they became the best of friends. They were a happy family, but bad things can happen to any family. When Belinda was only twelve years old, she became very sick. Her parents had to take her to hospital. She had to have an operation. The doctor was worried and told her parents it was difficult to find her blood type quickly, because they were in a small hospital far away from the city. They needed to be able to give her a blood transfusion immediately if she lost blood during the operation. When they checked the blood types of Belinda’s parents and her little brother Ethan, they discovered that Ethan was the only possible donor.

The nurse talked to little Ethan and explained the situation. She told Ethan that Belinda was very sick and that Ethan’s blood could save her life. Did he want to help his sister? Ethan didn’t answer the question at first. He looked very serious as he walked around the room and didn’t say a word for two minutes. Then, finally, he looked the nurse in the eye and said “Yes.” donor: someone who gives something.

His parents hugged him and thanked him and told him he was a good and brave boy.

“I must go now,” Ethan said to his parents. “Goodbye Mum, goodbye Dad.”

“Wait,” said the nurse.”One of your parents can come with you.”

“That’s all right,” Ethan said. “You can stay with Belinda. I will be okay.”

Ethan waved at his parents and followed the nurse into the lab so that she could take the blood from him. He didn’t cry or complain even though it hurt a little. The nurse finished the blood transfusion and looked at Ethan. He didn’t move. He just lay on the bed and looked at his arm where she took the blood.

“Are you okay?” she asked him.

“I’m just wondering how much time I have left. Is there enough time to go to Belinda’s room and say goodbye to her?”

“You don’t need to say goodbye,” the nurse explained. “She will recover after the blood transfusion and soon you can all go home together like before.”

“So I am not going to die? I gave her all my blood,” Ethan said and looked surprised.

“No, you just gave her a little, just enough for her to survive.”

Ethan got up and went straight to his parents.

“Mum! Dad! Did you choose to let Belinda live and for me to die?”

“Oh, no Ethan! Of course not! We love you both very much and we want you to live for many, many years.”

004 whaT happened when?

Put the sentences in the right order from one to twelve. Write them in order in your notebook.

a. Belinda got very sick one day.

b. The doctors checked what blood types the family had.

c. Belinda had an operation.

d. The nurse said that they could go home together after Belinda recovered.

e. The doctors were worried that Belinda would lose a lot of blood.

f. The nurse told Ethan that his blood could save his sister’s life.

g. Belinda’s little brother, Ethan, was born.

h. Ethan said goodbye to his parents.

i. The Thomsons moved to the outback, in Australia.

j. Belinda’s parents took her to hospital.

k. Ethan asked the nurse how much time he had left to live.

l. The nurse explained that he was not going to die.