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 Tom Sawyer – Part
Seventy
Before you read the text, read the following comprehension questions.
Now read the text and answer the questions.
Tom was a hero once more. Everyone loved him, the
old and the young. His name even appeared in the village newspaper.
There were some that believed he might even be President on day, if he didn’t go
to prison.
Instead of being abused, Muff Potter was now popular and everyone’s favourite
person. Public opinion can change very quickly!
Tom's days were wonderful and full of pleasure, but his nights were full of
horror.
Injun Joe appeared in all his dreams, and always with death in his eye.
Nothing and nobody could persuade Tom to be outside after dark. Poor Huck was in
the same state of fear and terror.
Tom had told the whole story to the lawyer the night before the great day of the
trial, and Huck was afraid that his share in the events might become known. When
Injun Joe's escaped out of the window, it had saved Huck the suffering of
testifying in court.
Huck had got the lawyer to promise secrecy, but what does that mean?
Huck didn’t have a lot of confidence in the human race.
The gratitude that Muff Potter's showed Tom every day made him happy that he had
spoken. But when night came, he wished he had kept his mouth closed.
Half the time Tom was afraid Injun Joe would never be captured. The other half
he was afraid he would be.
He felt sure he could never breathe safely again until that man was dead and he
had seen the dead body.
So far, Injun Joe had not been found, despite the rewards offered by the police.
An important detective came up from St. Louis, looked around, shook his head,
and gave a report. He said he had found a clue, but you can’t put a clue in
prison for murder. So, he went home to St. Louis.
After he left, Tom felt just as insecure and worried as he was before.
The slow days drifted on, and each day left behind it a slightly lightened
weight of apprehension.
... to be continued!
* The text has been adapted from the Adventures
of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain
Download the
original book for free
*Consulta
un PDF con la información y resumen de 100 libros en inglés
que puedes descargar en 1 único archivo.
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Now read the text and answer the questions.
There comes a time in every boy's life when he
has a strong desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.
This desire suddenly came to Tom one day. He went out to find Joe
Harper, but had no success.
Next, he looked for Ben Rogers, but he had gone fishing.
He soon found, by accident, Huck Finn the Red-Handed. Huck was the right boy to
talk to about this. Tom took him to a private place and presented the situation
to him in confidence.
Huck was enthusiastic about the idea. He was always willing to join any project
that offered entertainment but needed no money. Huck had a lot of time on his
hands, but no finances.
"Where shall we dig?" said Huck.
"Oh, anywhere."
"Why, is the treasure hidden all around?"
"No, it isn’t. It's hidden in very special places, Huck. Sometimes on islands,
sometimes in old wooden boxes under an old dead tree, just where the shadow
falls at midnight. It’s often hidden under the floor in haunted houses."
"Who hides it?"
"Robbers, of course. Who do you think, Sunday school teachers?”
"I don't know. If it was mine, I wouldn't hide it. I'd spend it and have a good
time."
"So would I. But robbers don't do that. They always hide it and leave it there."
"Don't they look for it anymore?"
"No, they think they will look for it, but they usually forget the clues, or
they die.
Anyway, it lays there a long time and gets old. Eventually, somebody finds an
old yellow piece paper that explains how to find the clues. A paper that has to
be de-coded for over about a week because it's mostly signs and hieroglyphics."
"Hiero-which?"
"Hieroglyphics. Pictures and things, you know, that don't seem to mean anything."
"Have you got one of them yellow pieces of papers, Tom?"
"No."
"Well then, how you going to find the clues?"
"I don't want any clues. They always bury it under a haunted house or on an
island, or under an old dead tree. Well, we've tried Jackson's Island a little,
and we can try it again sometime. And there's the old haunted house up the hill,
and there's lots of old dead trees. Loads of them."
"Is it under all of them?"
"Of course not!"
"Then how you going to know which one to look at?"
"Look at all of them!"
"Tom, it'll take all summer."
"Well, so what? Suppose you find a brass pot with a hundred dollars in it, or an
old box full of diamonds. How would you feel?"
Huck's eyes shone.
"That's fine. Good enough for me. Just give me the hundred dollars and I don't
want any diamonds."
"All right. But I bet you aren’t going to throw away any diamonds. Some of them
are worth twenty dollars each.
Most of them are only worth a dollar or less."
"No! Really?"
"Of course! Everyone knows that. Haven’t you ever seen one, Huck?"
"No, I don’t remember seeing any diamonds."
"Oh, kings have loads of them."
"Well, I don' know any kings, Tom."
"I don’t suppose you do. But if you went to Europe, you'd see loads of them
hopping around."
"Do they hop?"
"Hop? Of course they don’t hop!"
"Well, what did you say they did, for?"
"C’mon! I only meant you'd see them. Not hopping, of course. What would they
want to hop for? No, I mean you'd just see them all over the place. You know, in
a kind of a general way. Like that old humpbacked King Richard."
"Richard? What's his other name?"
"He didn't have any other name. Kings only have one name."
"Well, if that’s what they want, Tom, all right. But I don't want to be a king
and have only just one name. Anyway, where you going to dig first?"
"Well, I don't know. Suppose we try that old dead tree on the other side of the
hill?"
"I agree."
So, they got some tools and a shovel, and set out on their five-kilometre trek.
... to be continued!
* The text has been adapted from the Adventures
of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain
Download the
original book for free
*Consulta
un PDF con la información y resumen de 100 libros en inglés
que puedes descargar en 1 único archivo.
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