Prime Time 7, Coursebook plus Semester Self-checks

hippopotamus feeling sad. Sometimes I’d say, “Tossie?” “What?” she’d say, sounding cross, though she wasn’t. “Was the party fun?” “No.” “Tell.” “Nothing to tell.” “What happened?” “Nothing happened.” “Didn’t they like your dress?” “No one said.” “What did you do?” “Nothing.” “Did you meet any boys?” I knew it was risky asking this, but I generally couldn’t stop myself. “I suppose so.” If I was feeling brave I’d go one step further. “Did any of them try to kiss you?” “Go to sleep. It’s long past your bedtime.” But I couldn’t get to sleep until Tossie had stopped those awful deep sighs, and the restless turning in bed. Even that wasn’t the worst, though. The worst was when I heard her sniffing into the pillow. I didn’t feel better about this until one morning when I heard Tossie tell Mum that she’d cried till her pillow was wet with tears. So at least one of Tossie’s imaginings had been made to come true. 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 b) In your own words, describe: • Tossie’s character • her relationship with the narrator of the story c) How could Tossie’s character affect her future relationships? Reading: Crushes and flings a) Read the second part of the story and highlight the stages of Tossie’s relationships in different colours. 3  When Tossie started going with boys, I mean really, not just seeing them goofing at the parties, but having them call for her and taking her out to coffee bars, I knew we had a bad time coming. When I said this to Mum she said not to be a something or other. “What’s that?” “Jeremiah. Sad sort of chap, always saw bad things coming.” “Am I? I mean, do I?” “Not more than most, I daresay. Still, you and Tossie, you are a pair.” “I see things the way they are. Tossie sees them how she wants them to be.” Mum said, “Well, I don’t know.” She often said that, but I thought she knew quite a lot, really. As it turned out, Tossie’s love affairs weren’t so much awful as wearing. That isn’t quite true, because the first few were awful. Then I got used to the way they happened. In fact I got so used, I could almost tell when the next stage was due. They went like this. First of all Tossie would go very quiet and mysterious. If you said anything to her, she’d sort of come back to earth with a start, as if she’d been miles away. If you asked, she’d say no, she wasn’t thinking about anything in particular, smiling all the time, a secret smile that meant just the opposite of what she said. This was while she and the boy were sort of eyeing each other; they hadn’t said anything yet. Then when he’d come out with saying he was crazy about her, or whatever it was, and they’d kissed a bit, Tossie couldn’t talk about anything else. As far as I can remember, with the first one or two, or perhaps three, I really did think, “This is it. Tossie’s going to marry John (or perhaps it was Martin or David or Joe), she’ll be a bride at sixteen, I’ll be an aunt before I take my ‘O’ levels.” It would be a marvellous time – it got boring later – with Tossie on top of the world, telling us how tremendous John (or Martin or David) was, and how she’d never felt like this before; how it was all that love was written up to be, and better. She’d keep me awake late into the night, talking about whichever it was; how she loved him, how he loved her, how clever he was, how they must have been meant for each other, the lot. Of course when she got on to the later ones there’d be a lot of comparing: How John had really been too changeable, she could see that now, and how she’d wondered at the time if Martin was a strong enough character for her, and how David had been slow on the uptake, but how now Joe … . Then there’d come the time that was like opening the stocking and finding it wasn’t a watch after all. First of all, she’d be home evenings when we’d thought she’d be out, sometimes explaining, sometimes not. Then she’d be very touchy; you couldn’t say anything without having your head bitten off. After a bit of this, there’d be a night when she’d keep me awake gulping and sighing, even groaning sometimes, saying things in between like, “Don’t ever fall in love, Barb,” or “I know now, everything they say about not trusting men is true.” After a week or so of this, with Tossie 55 Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv