Читать книгу English for Life Reader Grade 9 Home Language - Elaine Ridge - Страница 6

Pre-reading
1.	To ‘chivvy’ someone means to make someone do something more quickly or in a different way, usually in a way that annoys that person (often a child). Can you think of some of the things said to chivvy you that used to annoy you?
During reading
2.	Why do you think the poet has used so little punctuation?

Chivvy

Michael Rosen

Grown-ups say things like:

Speak up

Don’t talk with your mouth full

Don’t stare

Don’t point

Don’t pick your nose

Sit up

Say please

Less noise

Shut the door behind you

Don’t drag your feet

Haven’t you got a hankie?

Take your hands out of your pockets

Pull your socks up

Stand up straight

Say thank you

Don’t interrupt

No one thinks you’re funny

Take your elbows off the table

Can’t you make your own mind up about anything?

Post-reading
3.	This poem consists of fifteen orders or commands, two questions, and one statement! Which one is the statement?
4.	What reason does the speaker have for giving this list of orders, one after another? What is he or she trying to suggest?
5.	This poem is written from the point of view of a child. How would the first line of the poem have to change if it were told from the point of view of an adult?
6.	Read the poem again before answering these questions.
a)	In the light of all the commands that the child is given, what is the irony in the last question?
b)	What makes this a humorous poem?
7.	Can you think of one command (or maybe more) that adults say or have said to you that is not in this list of imperatives? Write it down; or perhaps take it in turns to go around the group, each person adding his or her contribution to the list.