I cheated on a unit test in math class this morning
during second period with Mr. Burke. Afterward, I was too sick to eat lunch
just thinking about it.
I came straight home from school, went to my room, and
lay on the floor trying to decide whether it would be better to run away from
home now or after supper. Mostly I wished I was dead. It wasn't even an
accident that I cheated.
Yesterday Mr. Burke announced there'd be a unit test
and anyone who didn't pass would have to come to school on Saturday, most
particularly me, since I didn't pass the last unit test. I did plan to study
just to prove to him that I'm plenty smart—which I am mostly—except in math.
Anyway, I got my desk ready to study on . Just when I
was ready to work, Nicho came into my room with our new rabbit and it jumped on
my desk and knocked the flashcards all over the floor. What a mess! Nicho and I
finally took the rabbit outside but then Philip came to my room and also Marty
from next door and before long it was dinner.
After dinner my father said I could watch a special on
television if I'd done all my homework. Of course I said I had. That was the
beginning. I felt terrible telling my father a lie about the homework.
It was nine o'clock when I got up to my room and that
was too late to study for the unit test so I lay in my bed with the light off
and decided what I would do the next day when I was in Mr. Burke's math class
not knowing the 8- and 9-times tables. So, you see, the cheating was planned
after all.
The next day, I'd go into class as usual, acting like
things were going just great. I'd sit down next to Stanley Plummer—he is so
smart in math it makes you sick—and from time to time, I'd glance over at his
paper to copy the answers.
Lying on the floor of my room, I begin to think that
probably I've been bad all along. It just took this math test to clinch it.
I'll probably never tell the truth again. I tell my mother I'm sick when she
calls me to come down for dinner. She doesn't believe me, but puts me to bed
anyhow. I lie there in the early winter darkness wondering what terrible thing
I'll be doing next when my father comes in and sits down on my bed.
"What's the matter?" he asks. "I've got
a stomachache," I say. Luckily, it's too dark to see his face. "Is
that all?" "Yeah." "Mommy says you've been in your room
since school." "I was sick there too," I say. "She thinks
something happened today and you're upset." That's the thing that really
drives me crazy about my mother. She knows things sitting inside my head the
same as if I was turned inside out.
"Well," my father says. I can tell he
doesn't believe me. "My stomach is feeling sort of upset." I hedge.
"Okay," he says and he pats my leg and gets up.
Just as he shuts the door to my room I call out to him
in a voice I don't even recognize as my own. "How come?" he calls
back not surprised or anything. So I tell him I cheated on this math test. To
tell the truth, I'm pretty much surprised at myself. I didn't plan to tell him
anything.
He doesn't say anything at first and that just about
kills me. I'd be fine if he'd spank me or something. And then he says I'll have
to call Mr. Burke. It's not what I had in mind. "Now?" I ask
surprised. "Now," he says. He turns on the light and pulls off my
covers. "I'm not going to," I say.
But I do it. I call Mr. Burke, and I tell him exactly
what happened, even that I decided to cheat the night before the test. He says
I'll come on Saturday to take another test, which is okay with me, and I thank
him a whole lot for being understanding and all.
"Today I thought I was turning into a
criminal," I tell my father when he turns out my light. Sometimes my
father kisses me good night and sometimes he doesn't. I never know. But tonight
he does.
1.After the author cheated on the math test, he felt
____________.
A．frightened
because he might be caught
B．excited that
he had succeeded
C．pleased that
nobody knew it
D．unhappy
because he had done something wrong
2.By “It wasn't even an accident that I cheated”, the
author means that ________.
A．he had
planned not to study before the test
B．he decided to
cheat when he knew there was going to be a test
C．he decided to
cheat after he had wasted the whole evening
D．he had
planned to cheat with Plummer before the test
3.The author’ mother often drives him crazy because
_____-.
A．She really
knows what he is thinking
B．she was very
strict with him
C．she doesn’t believe him
D．she asks him
to come down for dinner
4.After he was informed of what he had done, the
father _______.
A．scolded the
author severely
B．didn’t say anything and left
C．called Mr.
Burke immediately
D．let the
author make a call to Mr. Burke
5.The author’s father kissed the author good night
because ________-.
A．he had done
something unusual
B．he promised
to study math harder
C．he was
willing to take a make-up test
D．he realized
his mistake and had the courage to admit it
