Читать книгу English for Life Reader Grade 9 Home Language - Elaine Ridge - Страница 14

Pre-reading
1.	Look at the illustration. What does it suggest to you about the way in which a young baby views the world?
During reading
2.	What is your favourite day of the week? Many people would say Saturday, especially people who go to school or who work from Monday to Friday? Why is this?

To Philippa Pell

David Pell Goodwin

It must be like waking up on a Saturday,

Your first few weeks,

Hearing noises like someone striking a match

And making tea,

Or feeding horses next door with a clanking pail

Yet none of these sounds being imbued with the urgency

Of weekdays.

The cockroach on the cupboard,

And the fly on the cup’s rim,

Are no more than moving points

For your new eyes to follow,

Unjudgementally.

Then, sleeping in my arms

As I scheme and plan,

You are as unconcerned

As the lilies of the field

About today’s raiment,

And tomorrow’s meal.

imbued – filled

scheme – plot

raiment – clothing

Post-reading
3. a)	The speaker seems to use a gas stove. What would be different about the way in which he or she would light the stove during the week and the way he or she would light it on a Saturday?
b)	What would you say actions are like when they are “imbued with the urgency of weekdays”?
4.	A baby watches things that move, and watches them without criticising or worrying. What is the usual reaction of people when they see a fly on their cup or a cockroach on their cupboard? Why does the baby’s attitude seem wonderful to the speaker?
5.	In the first three lines of the last stanza, the parent’s approach to life is contrasted with the baby’s. Find two words which reflect the parent’s approach, and another two which reflect the baby’s.
6.	Parents are normally concerned about having enough clothes and food for their children. The baby is as “unconcerned” about them “As the lilies of the field” are. What does that comparison (simile) suggest about its kind of unconcern?