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The woman smiles, ruffles Lucy's hair and then lifts a bag of tomatoes from her own baskets and hurls it
overarm against the special offer of tea bags. Red seed drips down against the green boxes.
The women look at one another. Suddenly bits of flattened, squared ham fly free of their jellied,
cellophane packets, duck pate bursts out of its blue pottery bowls, salt and vinegar crisps crackle underfoot,
sliding through white cottage cheese.
The lights of the cash tills spark white, the women sitting at the money machines aren't sure which way to
turn, one picks up a cucumber and slides it along the floor, into a welcoming pool of raspberry yoghurt.
Outside the plate glass window red and blue lights flash as pale men in dark blue peer through the
window at all Christmas and birthday and anniversary celebrations in one.
Ten feet away, sixteen dark-haired mothers smile at their babies for the sixteenth time and enfold them in
sixteen warm, pink blankets.
(Story by Michelene Wandor. Abridged)
I. Answer the questions.
1.
Where does Naomi see sixteen mothers first?
2.
Who is Lucy?
3.
How old can Lucy be?
4.
What aisle does Naomi choose to be the first one?
5.
Does the sight in front of her eyes meet her expectations?
6.
What does she decide to do next?
7.
What does Naomi see on the racks where the dairy products used to be?
8.
What does Naomi find on the vegetable racks?
9.
What kind of box does she find empty?
10. Does Naomi notice the other women?
11. Does Naomi manage to collect everything she has meant to buy?
12. What does Naomi see at a cash till?
13. What happens when Naomi lifts a bottle of lemon and lime?
14. Why does Lucy drop a packet of white flour?
15. How does the woman behind her react?
16. What do the other women start doing?
17. How do the women sitting at the cash tills react?
18. What do the phrases "red and blue lights flash" and "pale men in dark blue" mean?
19. Why is the story called Sweet Sixteen?
II. Discussion points.
1. Do you find the end quite unexpected?
2. Was it an abnormal reaction on the part of the customers?
3. What caused this sort of reaction, in your opinion?
SHOPPING FOR CONSUMER GOODS
Text 1
Christmas Presents
... on Christmas day we went into the lounge and opened our presents. I was dead disappointed when I
saw the shape of my present. I could tell at a glance that it didn't contain a single microchip. Ok, a sheepskin
coat is warm but there's nothing you can do with it, except wear it. In fact after only two hours of wearing it,
I got bored and took it off.
However, my mother was ecstatic about her egg timer; she said, 'Wow, another one for my collection.'
Rosie ignored the chocolate Santa I bought her. That's 75 pence wasted! This is what I got:
3/4 length sheepskin coat (out of Little Woods catalogue)
Slippers (like Michael Caine wears, although not many people know that)
Swiss army knife (my father is hoping I'll go out into the fresh air and use it)
Tin of humbugs (supposedly from the dog)
Knitted Balaclava helmet (from Grandma Mole).
(Extract from "The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole " by Sue Townsend)
Discussion points.
1. Do you think that people who are closest to you expect more expensive presents?
2. Some people think that it is more preferable to receive a personal, carefully chosen gift however small
and inexpensive, than a big, expensive gift or simply the gift of money. What do you think, and why?