Passage G1e

 14

GOOD“NEIGHBORS”

There is a family of ants that lives below a tree in front of our house, but I don't know when they got there.

They work hard all day long repairing and cleaning their nest and looking for food. There's not a lazy one among them. They are very friendly toward one another and greet each other with their feelers when they meet. I like them very much and go to see them every day.

One day I went to see the ants just before a big rain. They were busy carrying earth in their mouths to stop up the entrance of the nest. Just then the rain came pouring down. I ran back into the house. As I watched from the window I thought, "What a pity, the ants will surely be drowned."

As soon as the rain stopped I went out to see the ants. They were alive and as happy as ever. The mud at the entrance to the nest had kept the rain out and they were already busy moving it away.

It was late. The people who had been outside enjoying the cool air had already gone home. I thought that the ants would be tired from their day-long work and would go to bed too. But when I shined my flashlight on their nest, they were still working silently. What good, hard-working neighbors they are!

15

DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION

A TV reporter wanted to find out what people thought of a new film, so she decided to interview people as they came out of the theatre. She asked one woman what she thought of the film. “It was excellent,” the woman replied. “I thought it was the best film I've seen in years.”

Then she stopped a young man and asked him the same question. “It was dynamite” he said. He was surprised to see the reporter dive to the ground and cover her ears. He bent down to ask her what the trouble was.

“Where is it?” she whispered.

“Where's what?” he asked.

“The dynamite!” she shouted. “Where's the dynamite?”

This reporter had a problem. She understood what the word "dynamite" meant, but she didn't understand what the young man meant. In other words, she understood the denotation, but not the connotation, of the word.

16

ABOUT THE CONTINENTS

A: There are seven continents in the world. But I only remember five. Could you tell me the other two?

B: What are the five you know?

A: Asia, Europe, Africa, North America and South America.

B: The sixth is Oceania, the smallest of all the continents. It's mainly made up of Australia and New Zealand.

A: I know Australia and New Zealand, but I didn't know they're of the same continent. What's the other continent?

B: Antarctica, an ice-covered continent.

A: Oh, I forgot I've learned about it somewhere.Which is the largest of the seven continents?

B: Asia.It has an area of about 43 million square kilometres,covering thirty percent of the world's land.

A: Which continent comes next?

B: Africa,with an area of over 30 million square kilometres, about one-fifth of the land of the world.

A: Is Europe very large?

B: No,Europe is only larger than Oceania in area,with a little over 10 million square kilometres,occupying one fourteenth of the land of the world.

A: Why is Latin America so called?

B: Because most of the people there speak Spanish, Portuguese or French. Those languages belong to the Latin family.