When they're together, my five-year-old son and his cousin tend to cause mayhem. one Saturday, I put my foot down. "All right, you two," I said sternly. "No screaming , grabbing, whining, hitting, teasing, tattling, breaking toys, scratching or fighting."

As I turned to leave, I heard my son say, "C'mon, Steven, let's get dirty . "

Notes:

(1) tend to（do）傾向；趨向

(2) mayhem n.大混亂；大災害

(3) put one's foot down開始抗議

(4) sternly adv.嚴厲地

(5) whine v.哭鬧

(6) tease v.取笑

(7) tattle v.扯淡

Exercises:

根據短文回答下列問題：

① How old is the son?

② What do they tend to do when the son and his cousin are together?

③ What does "Put one's foot down" mean here?

④ Did the boy obey the father's order?

⑤ What did they do then?

讓人無奈的孩子

我五歲的兒子和他的表弟在一起的時候，總要招來大亂。一個星期六，我開始抗議了?！昂美?，你們兩個，”我嚴厲地說，“不許叫喊，不許亂拿，不許哭鬧，不許亂敲，不許取笑，不許扯淡，不許弄壞玩具，不許亂抓，不許打架?！?/P>

我剛轉身要走，就聽我兒子說：“來，斯蒂文，我們來把自己弄臟吧。”

練習參考答案：

① Five.

② They tend to cause mayhem.

③ it means "to make up one's mind to stop sth from happening".

④ No, he didn't

⑤ They began to get dirty.