1. Read the text and answer the questions.

“HALF A GIFT”

I was ten years old then, and my brother Nick was fourteen. For both of us this purchase of gift for our mother on Mother’s Day was an occasion of excitement and great importance.

Our mother worked from early morning till late night, cooking, buying, washing and looking after us in illness.

After careful deliberation I bought for my mother a comb decorated with little shiny stones. Nick came back from the store with a pleased look but wouldn’t tell me about gift.

The next morning when I came back, Mother was on her knees scrubbing the floor. It was the job she hated most in the world. Then Nick came with his present, and Mother sat back on her heels, staring unbelievingly at the gift. Her face went pale with disappointment as she looked at the new scrubbing brush.

“A Mother’s Day gift of a scrubbing brush”, her voice almost broke.

Tears sprang to Nick’s eyes. Without a word he picked up the scrubbing brush and rushed down the stairs. I ran after him.

On the way down we met Father. “It’s a fine gift. A wonderful gift,” I explained.

We all went upstairs where Mother was still scrubbing the floor. Without a word Father took the brush and showed us how to use it. “You didn’t let Nick finish”, he said to Mother. “Part of his gift was that he was going to wash the floor from now on. Isn’t that so Nick?” With a flush of shame Nick understood the lesson. “Yes, yes”, he said in a low eager tone.

Questions:

1. What is the text about?

2. What gifts did Nick and his brother buy for their mother?

3. Why was their mother disappointed when she saw Nick’s gift?

4. What did the brothers do after they understood that their mother didn’t like Nick’s gift?

5. What lesson do you think Nick understood?

6. Why do you think the text is called “HALF A GIFT”?

2. Read the text and say why the Fullwords decided to educate their children themselves at home and what took them to be successful. Say if home education will develop successfully in Russia. Speak about education in Russia.

“HOME SCHOOLING”

Elaine and Roy Fullwood had no intention of educating their children themselves until things went badly wrong at school. When a new head teacher took over at the local school, the work of their eldest child, Alex, suffered and she became bored and aimless.

Despite a meeting with the head teacher and other concerned parents nothing changed. At this point Elaine and Roy decided to take Alex, aged 8, and Anna, aged 6, away from school.

A year later Elaine was concerned about whether the girls were making enough progress. «For advice, we took the girls' work to the heads of the schools where they would have been pupils. In both cases they were well ahead for their age. This reassured us that we were on the right way.»

Alex and Anna have now been at home for two years. Roy and Elaine make it quite clear that being at home is not a soft option. They put a lot of emphasis on responsibility and self-discipline. The children themselves will decide whether they want to do «O» and «A» levels. Roy and Elaine certainly won't try to influence them.

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