VIP Class Notes (Vicki)

Reading

The Golden Spider Webs

The Beautiful Tree

It was the day before Christmas, and a beautiful Christmas tree stood in the middle of a large room. The tree was trimmed with nuts and candy and bright colored candles. Its branches were full of toys, and on the very top a silver star was shining.

The doors of the room were shut. “The children must not see the tree until morning,” said their parents. But the bug black cat had seen the Christmas tree with her great green eyes. The little gray kitten had seen it with her round blue eyes. The big house dog had seen it with his kind brown eyes. The yellow bird had seen it with his wise bright eyes.

Even the wee mice from the attic had taken a peep when no one else was near. But the little gray spiders had not had even one peep at the Christmas tree. You see, the spiders like to spin their webs in dark, warm corners. They had made webs in nearly all the dark corners of the house.

Just a few days before Christmas the mother had cleaned the house. When she swept and dusted the dark corners. When she swept and dusted the dark corners, all the spiders had to run away. Dear me, how the spiders had to run!

Some ran upstairs to the attic and hid in the dark corners there, and some ran downstairs to the cellar and hid in the dark corners there. they could not see the Christmas tree, and they felt very sad. At last they went to the Christmas Fairy and told her all about it.

“Dear Fairy,” they said, “please be kind and help us to see the Christmas tree. Spiders love beautiful things, too.” The Christmas Fairy said, “You shall see the tree. Just wait. I promise to send for you soon.”

What the Spiders Did

That night, when everything was quiet, the kind fairy sent for the spiders. So the spiders came creeping, creeping downstairs from the attic. They came creeping, creeping upstairs from the cellar. “Now you may go in,” said the fairy. They crawled along the floors and around the corners into the very room where the Christmas tree stood.

All the spiders were there – wise old father spiders, fat mother spiders, and tiny, tiny baby spiders. They crowded around the tree. And then they looked! “What a beautiful sight!” they said. They crawled up the tree so that they could see everything on it. Then they crawled over all the branches, from the top to the bottom.

Round and round, up and down, in and out among the branches they went. The spiders crept over and over the dolls. They crawled round and round the drum and in and out of the horn. They crept all over the jumping-jack from his red cap to his white toes. Back went the spiders to the cellar and the attic. But they went away happy, for they had seen the Christmas tree.

In the middle of the night the fairy came to the tree. “I must see if the beautiful tree is all ready for Christmas morning,” she said. But when she looked at it – what do you think? The tree was covered from top to bottom with webs! Everywhere a spider had crawled, it had left a web.

There were webs around the silver star. They were on all the branches. They went around and around the pink ball and nearly hid the dolls in their bright dresses. What could the fairy do? “Now I see why the mother swept all the spiders away,” she said. “It will never do to trim a Christmas tree with spider webs.”

So the fairy thought and thought. After a while she smiled happily and said, “I know just what to do.” Then she touched every one of the webs and changed them all to gold. “Oh, what beautiful trimmings!” cried the fairy. The golden spider webs shining like diamonds! And that is why bright trimmings are still used on Christmas trees.

Vocabulary

attic – 阁楼
i.e. There are many spiders in the attic.

cellar – 酒窖
i.e. There are also many spiders in the cellar.

customer – 客户
i.e. She has many customers today.

change – 变
i.e. The color changed from blue to silver.

earn – 赚钱
i.e. They earned a lot of money by selling cookies.

Speaking exercise

I can see many cars is dirty but later the cars are very clean. Mr Bean is clean them. And Mrs Wicket is sit with the customers. And they are have many money. The queen is very happy because the car changed blue and silver.

REVISED:
I can see many cars are is dirty but later the cars are very clean. Mr Bean is cleaning them. And Mrs Wicket is sitting with the customers. And they earned lots of are have many money. The queen is very happy because the car changed from blue to and silver.

I can see his car is broken so he go to the car station but his car is stolen. And he buy a hot balloon and then he saved a kid. And then he look at his car. A man is sitting in the car so he use a hook to hook the car. The man is surprised and he jumped at the river and the goose pooped on him.

REVISED
I can see his car is broken so he went go to the car repair shop station but his car is stolen. And he bought buyhot air balloon and then he saved a kid. And then he saw look at his car. A man is sitting in the car so he used a hook to hook the car. The man is surprised and he jumped in at the river and the goose pooped on him.