Firefly
Summer
by
Maeve Binchy
Maeve
Binchy - Irish short story writer
Kerry
O’Neil had no great hopes about his new school. He had gone there
with his father for an unsatisfactory visit, and Father Minehan had
marked out a certain amount of work that would have to be done. He
had agreed that since Kerry was fifteen it would not be practical
for him to learn the Irish language at this stage, but he would
be expected to master enough of it to get the general sense of
things Irish.
He
was a forbidding looking man, white, ascetic, with a nervous smile.
He had managed to suggest more than once to Kerry’s father that the
school, which was a very illustrious one, had fallen on hard times
due to a massive and expensive rebuilding programme.
Kerry
had been quiet and respectful through most of the interview. At an
early stage in the proceedings he realized that Father Minehan didn’t
respond to charm. He walked admiringly around the old buildings and
asked bright questions about the original building and the time that
the order had first set it up.
“It’s
only been here a hundred years. It’s not one of our older
foundations”’ Father Minehan had said a little testily.
“Don’t
forget, I’m from the United States. That seems very old to me”, Kerry
said with a smile.
Father
Minehan softened then. Kerry had said the right thing.
Coming
home in the car his father looked at Kerry.
“You
handled that one well, son. Our sort of cleric wasn’t he?”
Kerry
didn’t join in what he considered his father’s all-men-together mode.
“I think he was all right, he has a job to do”.
Patrick
was annoyed. “What do you mean, he has a job to do?”
“Well,
just that. He has to keep me in my place, arrogant young American
know-all, trample me down a bit. He has to try to fleece you
for his building fund. Irish-American: more money than sense, get him
to sign a cheque.”
Patrick
gave a genuine shout of laughter.
“It
didn’t take you long to sum him up. Still, it’s got a great
reputation. It’s one of the finest schools in Ireland”.
Kerry
turned away to look out of the window, he knew what his father
would say next, and he knew the tone he would say it in. Patrick was
about to say that he got the poorest of educations in grade school
and had to go back when he was twenty to learn more than reading
and writing. He often said this. But he never got the response he
was hoping for. Kerry O’Neil never once said that it certainly hadn’t
made any difference, as Father had done so well. He never said
anything at all.
Words:
cleric -
clergyman
to fleece
to take money from somebody in a dishonest way
grade school
– primary school
Exercises
I. Circle the letter
R or W. Justify your answer by the text.
|
1
|
It
is Kerry’s second year in that school.
|
R
|
W
|
|
2
|
After
the visit, Kerry feels disappointed with the school.
|
R
|
W
|
|
3
|
The
school is having financial difficulties.
|
R
|
W
|
|
4
|
The
O’Neills are a rather poor family.
|
R
|
W
|
II. Choose the
adjectives to describe the school.
The school is:
|
|
Irish_American
|
|
expensive
|
|
|
centuries
old
|
|
Catholic
|
|
|
famous
|
|
Irish
|
|
|
permissive
|
|
private
|
|
|
British
|
|
strict
|
|
|
protestant
|
|
liberal
|
III. Choose the right
answer, proving it by the text.
1. “You
handled that one well, son”.
a)
You
appreciated this man, didn’t you?
b)
You
charmed him, after all.
c)
You’re
a good driver!
2. “He
has a job to do”.
a)
He
seems to be a good teacher.
b)
He’s
got a lot of work.
c)
He’s
only doing what he’s supposed to do.
3. “Patrick
was annoyed”, because:
a)
He
was dissatisfied with the schoo.l
b)
Kerry
didn’t share his good opinion.
c)
He’d
had to sign a cheque.
4. Patrick
gave a genuine shout of laughter.
a)
He
agreed with Kerry.
b)
He
was happy with Kerry’s new school.
c)
Kerry
had such a stereotyped view of Americans.
5. “He
never got the response he was hoping for”.
He
would have liked Kerry to add:
a)
“You
should have got a first-class education”
b)
“You’ve
succeded although you did not get a good education.
c)
“You’re
right. School really matters”.
Keys:
Ex.
I 1- W 2-R 3-R 4-W
Ex.
II. Irish-American, famous, expenseve
Ex.III
1-a, 2-c, 3-c, 4-a, 5-b
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