The Fun They Had ( Solution )

 Lesson 1

The Fun They Had 

[ A ] Comprehension

1

(I) The pages they turned were yellow and crinkly.

(II) It was said to be funny to read the words that stood still instead of moving the way they were supposed to like those on a screen.

(III) When they turned back to the page before , they found the same words on it that it had had when they read it the first time .

(IV) The word ' they ' refers to Margie and his elder brother Tommy .

2

(I) ' The round little man with a red face ' had a box of tools with dials and wires and he offered Margie an apple.

(II) All the lessons and questions appeared on the big screen of the Mechanical Teacher.

(III) Margie did not like that part of the Mechanical Teacher where she had to put homework and test papers.

(IV) Margie began to learn ' punch ' code at the age of six .

3

(I) According to Tommy it was an old sort of school .

(II) No , Margie did not know about such an old kind of school .

(III) Such schools existed centuries ago .

(IV) a - carefully       b- superior

[ B ] Understanding the text.

1- On the page headed 17 May 2157 , Margie wrote ," Today Tommy found a real book ! "

2- Margie's grandfather told that in the age of his grandfather all the stories were printed on paper . The books were made up of printed papers.

3- The pages of the book were yellow and crinkly . The printed words were immovable in any case .

4- According to Tommy, the old books were printed on papers and had to be disposed of after reading . The telebooks were electronic and there could be millions of books on a single screen.

5-  Margie was eleven and Tommy thirteen.

6- In the geography sector the tests were very rapid and Margie was unable to catch up with them properly . She had been performing poorly for a couple of days.

7-  The county inspector was a round little man with a red face . He had a whole box of tools with dials and wires .

8- Patting Margie's head the County Inspector told Mrs Jones that the overall pattern of the girl's progress was satisfactory and she had no fault. He had slowed the geography sector upto an average ten year level .

9- They had once taken  Tommy's teacher away for nearly a month because the history sector had blanked out completely.

10- Tommy said that they had an old kind of school centuries ago .

11- Man teachers taught in large buildings called schools . They told the kids things, gave them homework and asked them questions.

12- Margie was thinking about the old school in the days of her grandfather's grandfather .All the kids went to the school laughing and shouting , studied together , helped each other with homework and returned home together.

13- The mechanical teacher was flashing on the screen " When we add fractions ½ and ¼ …"

14- Margie was thinking of the fun the old schools provided to the kids when her grandfather's grandfather was a little boy.

[C] Appreciating the text .

1 - The book had yellow and crinkly pages . The letters printed on the pages were stable and they didn't move with the turning of the pages .

They were different from the books on the television screen in many regards .Once the reading of the old books was finished , they had to be thrown away as waste . Whereas the television screen had millions of books and they were not needed to be thrown away after reading.

2 - The old teachers were human beings . They taught their students in schools which were large buildings having many classrooms . They taught the same thing to the students of the same age . They talked  and asked questions to the kids .

3 - Margie was taught by a mechanical teacher at her home . She went to the school room of her house regularly at a fixed time when the mechanical teacher used to be on . The teacher talked , explained , gave instructions and homework to her . He also gave her tests . She had to regularly put her homework on the proper slot of the mechanical teacher.

4- 

Margie liked the description of  the schools in the time of his grandfather's grandfather . It looked funny to her.She was especially enthusiastic about the way the same age kids went to the same school together, studied the same subjects , helped each other in their homework and returned home together joyfully . Moreover the  teachers who were people looked so interesting to her.