Page 62-64
Words and Chinese
1.
pried
(撬開)
2.
stuck
(卡住)
3.
a reason
(理由)
4.
adverbs
(副詞)
5.
probably
(大概)
6.
grabbed
(抓取)
7.
impolite
(沒禮貌)
8.
picture her
(想像)
9.
get a peek
(偷窺)
10.
cautiously
(小心的)
11.
adjectives
(形容詞)
12.
terrorizing
(令人恐怖)
13.
never mind
(不要擔心)
14.
fights dirty
(下流的手段)
15.
solve the problem
(解決問題)
16.
kicked out of school
(被退學)
17.
babying him
(把…當嬰兒對待)
18.
stand up for himself
(自我防衛)
19.
word quickly spread
(口耳相傳)
20.
kept wandering past
(不停徘徊)
Definitions
1.
making someone very scared 
2.
treating someone like a baby,
helping someone too much
3.
do something
to make a bad thing become good,
make the trouble stop
4.
do something to protect yourself,
stop people from hurting you
5.
to imagine
what someone looks like
6.
to do something carefully,
not done dangerously
7.
when it is quite sure that
something will happen,
very likely
8.
when someone has been made
to leave a school
and can’t go back again
9.
words that tell you more about nouns,
they describe people and things
10.
words that tell you more about verbs,
they describe how things are done
11.
to explain why you did something ,
why something happened
12.
when glue
holds two things together
13.
to suddenly try
to take s.t.
14.
to try to pull something loose,
to pull two things apart
15.
telling someone not to worry
about something
16.
very soon
everyone knew the story
17.
try to see something secretly
18.
walking near to something
or someone many times
19.
doesn’t follow the rules
when fighting
20.
being rude,
not the right
or nice way to talk to people
Page 62
Bradley walked slowly, holding his hand over his eye so nobody would see it. His mother would have let him stay home from school, but his father said he had to go.
“He’s scared,” his mother had said. “Some bullies have been terrorizing him.”
“Babying him will not solve the problem,” said his father. “He has to learn to stand up for himself and fight back. The only reason the bullies pick on him is because they know he’s afraid.”
Bradley was afraid, but not of bullies. He wasn’t scared of Melinda, either. It was little Lori Westin who scared him. He could picture her standing in the middle of the playground with her big mouth shouting for the whole school to hear: “Melinda Birch beat up Bradley Chalkers and made him cry!”
Cautiously, he walked across the schoolyard, hand over eye, and entered Mrs. Ebbel’s class.
He sat down in the last seat of the last row.
Jeff’s chair was empty.
Good, he thought, still covering his eye. He probably got kicked out of school.
Out of his uncovered eye, he looked at the chart full of gold stars on the wall next to him. He was glad he didn’t have any. He thought gold stars were ugly.
Mrs. Ebbel was in the middle of teaching the difference
Page 63
between adjectives and adverbs when she suddenly stopped and asked, “Bradley, is there something the matter with your eye?”
“No.”
“Then please take your hand away from it.”
“I can’t,” he said.
“Why can’t you?”
He quickly tried to think of a reason why he had to keep his eye covered. His mind raced through a hundred ideas.
“My hand’s stuck,” he said.
“It’s stuck?” asked Mrs. Ebbel.
“I was gluing something and got glue on my hand, and then I accidentally touched my face with my hand and it got stuck.”
“Bradley, take your hand away from your eye.”
He grabbed his wrist with his free hand and pretended to try to pull it away.
“I can’t. It’s stuck.”
“Do you want to go to the principal’s office?” she asked.
“He’s good at unsticking things.”
“Wait, I think it’s starting to loosen now,” he said. He pried his hand away.
There was a bluish-black circle around his eye.
For a few seconds nobody said anything, then everybody started talking at once.
“What happened?” asked Mrs. Ebbel, but then quickly said, “Never mind, I don’t want to know.”
She told the class to turn around, and started again on adverbs and adjectives.
Jeff walked in late. He said something to Mrs. Ebbel, then sat down next to Bradley.
Bradley looked the other way, at the chart full of
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gold stars. Of all the stars, Jeff’s were the ugliest.
For once, he wished he sat in the front of the room. Then only Mrs. Ebbel would have been able to see his face. Where he was, everyone could turn around and stare at him. All morning, Mrs. Ebbel had to keep telling kids to turn around and face front.
When the bell rang for recess, he put his hand over his eye and hurried outside. He went to the far end of the playground where nobody would bother him.
But the word quickly spread that Bradley Chalkers had a black eye and kids kept wandering past him trying to get a peek.
“Melinda fights dirty,” said Jeff, coming up behind him. “She hit you when you weren’t looking. And you couldn’t hit her back because it’s impolite to hit a girl.”
“Right!” said Bradley, turning around. “I would have punched her face in, except it’s impolite. Melinda probably told the whole school that she beat me up, she’s so stupid.”
“No, I don’t think she told anybody.
After you left, she asked me not to tell anyone what happened. She made Lori and Colleen promise not to tell too.”
“She’s probably afraid I’ll punch her face in,” said Bradley.
“Probably,” said Jeff.
“Then, this morning I was called into the principal’s office.
He thought I was the one who hit you.”
“Wha’d (What did) you tell him?” Bradley asked.
Jeff shrugged. “I told him you’re my best friend.” “The principal’s stupid,” Bradley agreed.