Никоненко Тамара Петрівна

    When I was a child, I was afraid of many things. I was afraid of the dark, of dogs, of older boys, even of people shouting. My mother was always trying to teach me not to be afraid. She often told me: “What will you be doing when you grow up if you are afraid of everything? How will you be living? How will you be working?” One day she told me a story about herself. A story that I remembered so well.

    When she was about fourteen, she was living in a small village. Her father often invited people to spend an evening with him, for he liked to have people in his house. Once a travelling showman came to the village with a bear that he called Mr. Martin. It was a fine big bear, and it could dance, count and do other funny things. But the showman told the people not to come near the bear because it was dangerous.

   My grandfather invited the man to spend the night at his place and the bear was put into a shed. Some friends joined them and came to spend the evening with my grandfather. They were having dinner, and the showman was telling different funny stories and singing songs to them when we all heard some great noise coming from the shed. “I’m sorry,” the man said, “it’s my Martin. I forgot to give him food, so he started making a noise there.”

   My grandfather called my mother and sent her to take food to the bear. My mother was afraid. She did not know what to do. She did not know whether it was better to say “no” to her father or to go to the bear. She chose the bear, went out and closed the door behind her.

   The people kept laughing and singing in the house. My mother did not hurry for she was shaking all over. The bear was making a great noise, yet she began walking slowly to the shed. Though she was shaking all over, she managed to open the door. The bear stopped making the noise when he heard the door open. He was standing quietly in a corner and looking at her. My mother closed the door and listened. The bear looked up at her and went on eating quietly. Then the mother suddenly understood that she had been afraid for nothing. The bear was old and not dangerous at all. Her father knew it. He had seen it. He understood that the showman told the people that the bear was dangerous to make the show more interesting, and she stopped shaking. “After that,” my mother finished, “I was never afraid of anything before I knew if there was anything to be really afraid of.”

   Many years passed. I went through the war. I was no longer afraid of many things that I had been afraid of in my childhood, and it was my mother’s story that helped me in that, for in a moment of danger I always tried to see if there was anything to be really afraid of. Very often there was not.

Vocabulary

showrnan — (тут) мандрівний артист

shed — сарай

Say if the following statements correspond to the text or not and correct the wrong statements. 

1. When I was a child, I was never afraid of anything.
2. Mother was living in a large town when she was fourteen.
3. The showman came to the village with a bear.
4. The people were struggling with the bear.
5. Grandfather invited the bear to spend the night at his place.
6. The bear kept making a great noise in the shed.
7. Grandfather sent his wife to take food to the bear.
8. When she entered the shed, the bear was shaking all over.
9. Grandfather understood that the bear was not dangerous.
10. The narrator never went through the war.
11. He was no longer afraid of many things that he had been afraid in his childhood.