3rd Standard English Term-III
I. A Stitch in Time
"Oh no," wails Shyam.
The seams of his favourite shirt have come apart.
"I can't wear this shirt anymore, Thatha!"
"Of course you can, silly," his grandfather says.
"We can fix it!"
Thatha takes a needle and some blue thread.
He shows shyam how to stitch.
Shyam's friend Veni has come home.
"Let's go cycling," Veni says.
"In a minute," says Shyam. "Let me iron my shirt first."
He switches on the iron box. But the light doesn't glow, and the iron remains cold.
"Ufff! I'll just wear the crumpled shirt," grumbles Shyam.
"I was at the Repair Shop last week," says Veni.
"George Uncle was repairing an iron box. I watched what he was doing closely. Let's try to make it work! Do you have a screwdriver?"
Shyam hunts in the cupboard and gets a screwdriver. Veni unscrews the back of the iron. She scans the inside of the iron.
"What's wrong?" asks Shyam.
"I don't think I can repair it," says Veni.
"Oh no! Appa and Amma will scold us when they see what we have done to the iron box!"
"We'll take it to the Repair Shop! They'll help us." says Shyam. Shyam and Veni take it and sneak out on their cycles to the Repair Shop.
"Aunty, can you help us repair this iron box?" Veni asks Daisy Aunty.
"What's wrong with it?"
"It won't switch on!" says Veni.
Daisy Aunty takes out a little box with wires and knobs.
"This is a multimeter," she Says. "It checks if all parts of the iron are allowing electric current to flow."
She tests all the parts, until she comes to a small wire.
"See this wire next to the plug? It's broken - there's your problem!"
She cuts out the old wire and plug, and fixes a new wire and plug to the iron box.
"Let's test it." She switches it on, and the light glows.
The iron is fixed. Veni and Shyam ride back home. It is a day well spent!
II. Amazing Ammachi
"Ammachi! Could we make coconut barfi?", Sabari asked.
"Please?", he asked.
"Ha ha ha! Only if you help me make it!" replied Ammachi.
"YAY!", said Sabari excitedly.
"Ready?" shouted Sabari.
"Ready!" said Ammachi after sitting on the seat tied to the pulley.
"We will only pick ripe coconuts, okay? The ones that are brown all over."
"Pull me up! UP! UP! And Up!"
"Now, watch out! Here they come!"
WHOOSH! THUD!
"Now, let us take the husk off!"
CRANK! The lever of the machine rang!
"CRRRRRR!"
This was Sabari's tummy not the lever. Ammachi giggled.
"Then we crack the shell with the cleaver. Like THIS!"
KHATAK!
"And grate the fruit!"
"KRRRRRR!"
"Toss it into the pan with sugar and all the other things!" said Ammachi.
"It smells SO good, Ammachi!" said Sabari.
"Then we pour it all out on to a tray. Let us wait for it to cool."
"Now cut it into neat little pieces! YAY!
Our coconut barfi is ready to eat."
"YUM! Thank you Ammachi."
III. A Cloud of Trash
Charu was a smart and bright girl. She always was kind to all but, she was the unhappiest girl among her friends. She was certainly the unhappiest girl in her entire class. She was perhaps the unhappiest girl in the world, or at least that's what she felt.
What about her friends?
Charu had no friends any more. No one wanted to play with Charu, because she had a cloud hanging over her head.
The cloud had orange peels and biscuit packets, broken toys and pencil colourful plastic bags. All surrounded by a swarm of buzzing flies.
Nobody wanted to play with a girl who had a cloud of trash hanging over her. What if a rotten banana peel fell on your head? YUCK!
Charu couldn't even play hide-and seek any more. The cloud would always give her away. "Let's walk to school together," she said to Sona. Sona ran off in the opposite direction.
She asked, "May I borrow your pencil?"
Jancy made a face and changed her seat to go sit with Asha.
Charu even had to eat her lunch alone.
Charu knew that she should have listened to her Amma. Amma always told her not to litter.
"Don't throw the banana peel on the road!"
"Throw the empty biscuit packet in the dustbin."
But, Charu never listened. She only laughed and kept littering. She did not care about her surroundings.
Then one day, Amma became ver angry and said, "Soon, all this trash will start following you!"
Charu just laughed.
The next morning, Charu woke up to foul smell and the sound of buzzing flies. A cloud of trash was hanging over her head. Amma's words had come true!
Charu tried to run away, but the trash cloud followed her everywhere.
She tried to sweep the cloud down with a broom, only to find the cloud over her head.
Charu tried EVERYTHING.
She screamed and asked the cloud to leave her alone. She even tried to throw it into the dustbin, but it just wouldn't go. So, Charu became very unhappy. Then something happened! Charu saw Bala throwing a banana peel on the road near the park.
Charu was annoyed.
Could he not see the cloud over her head?
She yelled, "Don't throw the peel on the road. Someone will slip!"
Bala, scared of the trash cloud, threw the peel in the dustbin.
The next day, the trash cloud had become smaller!
""How did that happen?" Charu wondered.
Then, Charu saw Amutha Aunty throwing away plastic bags near the hospital.
"Aunty!" Charu said. "Please pick up these bags. I am sure you can reuse them."
Amutha aunty picked up the bags and left.
The next day when Charu woke up, the cloud was much smaller. Charu smiled. She knew what she had to do.
When someone threw away a biscuit packet or pencil shavings in the school, Charu stopped them.
She picked up every twisted plastic bottle near the hotel and put it in the dustbin.
The village became cleaner and cleaner, and Charu's cloud became smaller and smaller.
Until one day, it had gone.
COMPLETEY GONE!
Charu was now perhaps the happiest girl in the world.
Charu never littered again. Secretly, she liked having the village clean. But, she was also scared that the trash cloud would come back, some day.
Who knew!
Do you litter things in your village?
