8.1. The Best Christmas Present in the World - III

 8.1. The Best Christmas Present in the World - III.

🖕🖕🖕 READING & LISTENING PRACTICE VIDEO 

Part. III.

I folded the letter again and slipped it carefully back into its envelope. I kept awake all night. By morning I knew what I had to do. I drove into Bridport, just a few miles away. I asked a boy walking his dog where Copper

Beeches was. House number 12 turned out to be nothing but a burned-out shell, the roof gaping, the windows boarded-up. I knocked at the house next door and asked if anyone knew the whereabouts of a Mrs Macpherson. Oh yes, said the old man in his slippers, he knew her well. A lovely old lady, he told me, a bit muddle-headed, but at her age she was entitled to be, wasn’t she? A hundred and one years old. She had been in the house when it caught fire. No one really knew how the fire had started, but it could well have been candles. She used candles rather than electricity, because she always thought electricity was too expensive. The fireman had got her out just in time. She was in a nursing home now, he told me, Burlington House, on the Dorchester road, on the other side of town.

Comprehension Check

1. Why did the author go to Bridport?

2. How old was Mrs Macpherson now? Where was she?

I found Burlington House Nursing Home easily enough. There were paper chains up in the hallway and a lighted Christmas tree stood in the corner with a lopsided angel

on top. I said I was a friend come to visit Mrs Macpherson to bring her a Christmas present. I could see through into the dining room where everyone was wearing a paper

hat and singing. The matron had a hat on too and seemed happy enough to see me. She even offered me a mince pie. She walked me along the corridor. “Mrs Macpherson is not in with the others,” she told me. “She’s rather confused today so we thought it best if she had a good rest. She has no family you know, no one visits. So I’m sure she’ll be only too pleased to see you.” She took me into a conservatory with wicker chairs and potted plants all around and left me. The old lady was sitting in a wheelchair, her hands folded in her lap. She had silver white hair pinned into a wispy bun. She was gazing out at the garden. “Hello,” I said. She turned and looked up at me vacantly. “Happy Christmas, Connie,” I went on. “I found this. I think it’s yours.” As I was speaking her eyes never left my face. I opened the tin box and gave it to her. That was the moment her eyes lit up with recognition and her face became suffused with a sudden glow of happiness. I explained about the desk, about how I had found it, but I don't think she was listening. For a while  she said nothing, but stroked the letter tenderly with her fingertips. Suddenly she reached out and took my hand. Her eyes were filled with tears. “You told me you’d come home by Christmas, dearest,” she said. “And here you are, the best Christmas present in the world. Come closer, Jim dear, sit down.” I sat down beside her, and she kissed my cheek. “I read your letter so often Jim, every day. I wanted to hear your voice in my head. It always made me feel you were with me. And now you are. Now you’re back you can read it to me yourself. Would you do that for me,

Jim dear? I just want to hear your voice again. I’d love that so much. And then perhaps we’ll have some tea. I’ve made you a nice Christmas cake, marzipan all around. I know how much you love marzipan.”

MICHAEL MORPURGO.

Comprehension Check.

1. Who did Connie Macpherson think her visitor was?

2. Which sentence in the text shows that the visitor did not try to hide his identity?

1. For how long do you think Connie had kept Jim’s letter? Give reasons for your answer.

2. Why do you think the desk had been sold, and when?

3. Why do Jim and Hans think that games or sports are good ways of resolving conflicts? Do you agree?

4. Do you think the soldiers of the two armies are like each other, or different from each other? Find evidence from the story to support your answer.

5. Mention the various ways in which the British and the German soldiers become friends and find things in common at Christmas.

6. What is Connie’s Christmas present? Why is it “the best Christmas present in the world”?

7. Do you think the title of this story is suitable for it? Can you think of any

other title(s)?

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