Will you promise something this year?
Christmas and New Year’s Eve are coming! It is the best time to make promises. What are the things that young people promise to themselves and to other people? And why is it so difficult to keep our promises?
- I will go on a diet (mainly girls and not only during Christmas).
- I won’t make my parents angry (but then we discover that they make us angry and it’s never our fault).
- I won’t beat, bite, offend (or any other horrible things) my brother or sister.
- I will do homework right after I come back from school (…unless there’s something interesting on TV).
- I won’t bite my fingernails.
- I will learn more and I won’t be lazy.
- I will always throw away garbage if my mum asks me.
- I won’t oversleep to school.
- I won’t be late at school (unless my bus is late or UFO attacks me).
- I will always help my mum with shopping.
Christmas! Will you be fantastic?
Answer each question with A, B or C and count you points. You will find out what your Christmas may be!
1. A perfect colour of dress/ suit for a family party is…
a. black or white;
b. blue or green;
c. pink or gold.
2. The most fantastic part of a Christmas tree is…
a. fairy lights;
b. presents;
c. hanging sweets.
3. When I buy presents for Christmas I make a list of…
a. people I want to give a present to;
b. money I may spend;
c. presents I want to buy.
4. Christmas for you is a time of…
a. tradition;
b. break in school;
c. good time with your family.
5. You get a present you don’t like too much. What do you do?
a. I say „Thank you although I don’t like it”.
b. I smile and try look happy.
c. I am happy. I like any present.
6. You are going to take a sandwich from a big plate. What sandwich would you take?
a. The smallest.
b. The biggest.
c. The most colourful.
Answers
Every a) answer gives you 0 points, b) answer – 1 point and c) answer – 2 points.
0–3 points
For you Christmas is mainly tradition. Of course you can’t wait but you know perfectly what you will be doing. You never change anything and new dishes on the Christmas table are not interesting for you. What’s more! You always buy the same presents and you expect particular presents as well. That’s why if you get a present you didn’t want, you can’t hide the disappointment. Christmas is a time of joy so try to be less serious.
4–8 points
You are so happy when Christmas is coming! No school, no problems, a lot of presents and meeting family and friends. You have so many wonderful ideas for presents and even if you don’t have much cash to spend, you still have no problems with surpassing people with gifts. If there’s anything new on the Christmas table, you go for it although you like traditional dishes. You know perfectly how to celebrate Christmas.
9–12 points
You are so happy and joyful all the time. Christmas for you is another occasion to be even more happy. You are so excited about Christmas Eve, buying presents and getting presents that sometimes you forget what Christmas is about. You love your family and you want to spend time with them but if you get an offer of a party with your friends, you go. And if you buy presents, think what people would like to have. Don’t buy just anything.
A christmas present
Every year during winter I try to help birds to find food. Actually I put some seeds, bread and other things they like into a special, small house built especially for them. I know what particular birds like. A coalmouse (sikorka) loves pork fat. That’s why there is always a piece of it for them. Normally they need about one week to eat the whole piece but last year they were really greedy (chciwe), I thought. Every day I put a new piece of fat and every day it disappeared. It’s not very expensive but after couple of days my mum got a bit angry. I didn’t think it was coalmice fault.
It was too weird (dziwne). We live on the ground floor and there are stairs to our balcony so actually it was easy for everybody to take it. But why would somebody like to steel pork fat? One night it was really beautiful outside. It was snowing and everything was less and less visible under the snow coat. I was sitting by the window watching what was happening outside. Suddenly I saw something moving very slowly into the direction of our balcony or rather in the direction of a brand new piece of pork fat. I was just about to shout ’Hey! Leave it!’ but I said nothing. Those skinny paws (te chude łapy), teeth shivering in cold (zęby trzęsące się z zimna) stopped me. He was coming back every day and my mum and I were leaving on the balcony not only pork fat but also sausages, cooked meat and warm milk.
One evening, just before the Christmas Eve, my mum came to my room. I was sitting by the window waiting for our everyday visitor but my mum said ’He won’t come today’. The first thing I thought about was that they found him dead because he obviously was sleeping outside and it was freezing, and I asked my parents to take him home but they didn’t agree. I was thinking about his pain, cold and loneliness out there in snow with nobody to hug him, nobody to say ’Good dog’. And suddenly I heard my dad’s voice: ’Good dog, come on…’. Mum was smiling. ’It’s Christmas, isn’t it?’ – my dad said and I saw those big, a bit terrified eyes. This poor, wet and cold dog was looking at me and I didn’t know what to do. He didn’t let me touch him but after ten minutes and a bowl of hot milk he lied down by my feet and fell asleep.
It was the best Christmas present of my life and coalmice got a present as well. Now nobody would eat their pork fat.