HC-L01_A Package for Mrs. Jewls

# Lesson 1
## Vocabulary in Context

開始囉：

**specialty（專長）**
A schoolroom may be set up for one skill, or specialty. In this room, students use computers.
（一間教室可能會為了一種技能或專長(specialty)而設立。在這間教室裡，學生使用電腦。）

下一個：

**disturbing（打擾的）**
Loud noises are disturbing students working in the library. Please be courteous.
（大聲的噪音正在打擾(disturbing)圖書館裡讀書的學生。請保持禮貌。）

下一個：

**collapsed（癱坐）**
After a hard practice, you might find a tired team collapsed onto benches in the gym.
（辛苦練習後，你可能會看到疲累的隊員癱坐(collapsed)在體育館的長椅上。）

下一個：

**squashing（擠壓）**
It's not unusual to see students squashing, or pressing, clay into shapes in the art room.
（在美術教室裡，常常可以看到學生把黏土擠壓(squashing)成各種形狀。）

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**shifted（轉移）**
These students shifted, or moved, their attention to the first question on the test.
（這些學生把注意力轉移(shifted)到考試的第一題。）

下一個：

**numb（麻木的）**
Wear mittens on cold, numb hands. When your fingers warm up you will feel them.
（在冰冷、麻木的(numb)手上戴手套。當你的手指變暖時，你就會有感覺。）

下一個：

**staggered（搖搖晃晃地走）**
Wearing heavy backpacks, these students staggered unsteadily to class.
（背著沉重背包的學生搖搖晃晃地走去(staggered)上課。）

下一個：

**struggled（努力）**
These science students struggled to make their difficult chemistry experiment work.
（這些科學課學生努力(struggled)讓困難的化學實驗成功。）

下一個：

**wobbled（搖晃）**
This girl held her stack of books steady when it wobbled. She kept it from falling over.
（當這個女孩手上的書搖晃(wobbled)時，她把它扶穩，讓書沒有倒下。）

下一個：

**interrupted（打斷）**
This band teacher interrupted, or briefly stopped, the band to ask them to start over.
（這位樂隊老師打斷了(interrupted)演奏，請他們重新開始。）

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A PACKAGE FOR MRS. JEWLS from Wayside School Is Falling Down
by Louis Sachar selection illustrated by Bruce MacPherson

## ESSENTIAL QUESTION
**How can an experiment clarify an idea?（實驗如何幫助釐清一個想法？）**

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Louis, the yard teacher, frowned.

The school yard was a mess. There were pencils and pieces of paper everywhere. How’d all this junk get here? he wondered. Well, I'm not going to pick it up!

It wasn't his job to pick up garbage. He was just supposed to pass out the balls during lunch and recess, and also make sure the kids didn't kill each other.

He sighed, then began cleaning it up. He loved all the children at Wayside School. He didn't want them playing on a dirty playground.

As he was picking up the pencils and pieces of paper, a large truck drove into the parking lot. It honked its horn twice, then twice more.

Louis ran to the truck. "Quiet!" he whispered. "Children are trying to learn in there!" He pointed at the school.

A short man with big, bushy hair stepped out of the truck. "I have a package for somebody named Mrs. Jewls," he said.

"I'll take it," said Louis.

"Are you Mrs. Jewls?" asked the man.

"No," said Louis.

"I have to give it to Mrs. Jewls," said the man.

Louis thought a moment. He didn't want the man disturbing the children. He knew how much they hated to be interrupted when they were working.

"I'm Mrs. Jewls," he said.

"But you just said you weren't Mrs. Jewls," said the man.

"I changed my mind," said Louis.

The man got the package out of the back of the truck and gave it to Louis. "Here you go, Mrs. Jewls," he said.

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"Uhh!" Louis grunted. It was a very heavy package. The word FRAGILE was printed on every side. He had to be careful not to drop it.

The package was so big, Louis couldn't see where he was going. Fortunately, he knew the way to Mrs. Jewls's class by heart. It was straight up.

Wayside School was thirty stories high, with only one room on each story. Mrs. Jewls's class was at the very top. It was Louis's favorite class.

He pushed through the door to the school, then started up the stairs. There was no elevator.

There were stairs that led down to the basement, too, but nobody ever went down there. There were dead rats living in the basement.

The box was pressed against Louis's face, squashing his nose. Even so, when he reached the fifteenth floor, he could smell Miss Mush cooking in the cafeteria. It smelled like she was making mushrooms. Maybe on my way back I'll stop by Miss Mush's room and get some mushrooms, he thought. He didn't want to miss Miss Mush's mushrooms. They were her specialty.

He huffed and groaned and continued up the stairs. His arms and legs were very sore, but he didn't want to rest. This package might be important, he thought. I have to get it to Mrs. Jewls right away.

He stepped easily from the eighteenth story to the twentieth. There was no nineteenth story.

Miss Zarves taught the class on the nineteenth story. There was no Miss Zarves。

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At last he struggled up the final step to the thirtieth story. He knocked on Mrs. Jewls’s door with his head.

Mrs. Jewls was in the middle of teaching her class about gravity when she heard the knock. “Come in,” she called.

“I can’t open the door,” Louis gasped. “My hands are full. I have a package for you.”

Mrs. Jewls faced the class. “Who wants to open the door for Louis?” she asked.

All the children raised their hands. They loved to be interrupted when they were working.

“Oh dear, how shall I choose?” asked Mrs. Jewls. “I have to be fair about this. I know! We’ll have a spelling bee. And the winner will get to open the door.”

Louis knocked his head against the door again. “It’s heavy,” he complained. “And I’m very tired.”

請看下側文字：

**Point of View From what point of view is the story told? How does the point of view affect the descriptions of characters and events?（觀點：這個故事是用什麼觀點來寫的？這種觀點如何影響角色和事件的描述？）**

可以暫停思考一下，答案可以是：

The story is told from the third-person point of view. The narrator tells about Louis, Mrs. Jewls, and the class by using words like “he” and “she.” This point of view helps readers understand the actions and feelings of different characters.（這個故事是用第三人稱觀點來寫的。敘述者用「he」和「she」來描述 Louis、Mrs. Jewls 和班上的學生。這種觀點幫助讀者了解不同角色的行動和感受。）

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"Just a second," Mrs. Jewls called back. "Allison, the first word's for you. Heavy."

"Heavy," said Allison. "HEAVY. Heavy."

"Very good. Jason, You're next. Tired."

"Tired," said Jason. "SLEEPY. Tired."

Louis felt the package slipping from his sweaty fingers. He shifted his weight to get a better grip. The corners of the box dug into the sides of his arms. He felt his hands go numb.

Actually, he didn't feel them go numb.

"Jenny, package."

"Package," said Jenny. "BOX. Package."

"Excellent!" said Mrs. Jewls.

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Louis felt like he was going to faint.
At last John opened the door. "I won the spelling bee, Louis!" he said.
"Very good, John," muttered Louis.
"Aren't you going to shake my hand?" asked John.
Louis shifted the box to one arm, quickly shook John's hand, then grabbed the box again and staggered into the room.
"Where do you want it, Mrs. Jewls?"
"I don't know," said Mrs. Jewls. "What is it?"
"I don't know," said Louis. "I'll have to put it down someplace so you can open it."
"But how can I tell you where to put it until I know what it is?" asked Mrs. Jewls. "You might put it in the wrong place."
So Louis held the box as Mrs. Jewls stood on a chair next to him and tore open the top. His legs wobbled beneath him.
"It's a computer," exclaimed Mrs. Jewls.
Everybody booed.
"What's the matter?" asked Louis. "I thought everyone loved computers."
"We don't want it, Louis," said Eric Bacon.
"Take it back, Jack," said Terrence.
"Get that piece of junk out of here," said Maurecia.
"Now, don't be that way," said Mrs. Jewls. "The computer will help us learn. It's a lot quicker than a pencil and paper."
"But the quicker we learn, the more work we have to do," complained Todd.
"You may set it over there on the counter, Louis," said Mrs. Jewls.
Louis set the computer on the counter next to Sharie's desk. Then he collapsed on the floor.

請看下側文字：

**Story Structure Why does Louis collapse to the floor? What story details explain the reason?（故事結構：為什麼 Louis 會倒在地板上？故事中的哪些細節說明了原因？）**

可以暫停思考一下，答案可以是：

Louis collapses to the floor because he is very tired from carrying the heavy box up to the thirtieth floor. The story says he struggled up the stairs, his legs wobbled, and he felt like he was going to faint.（Louis 會倒在地板上，是因為他搬著沉重的箱子走到三十樓，非常疲累。故事提到他很辛苦地爬樓梯、雙腿搖晃，而且覺得自己快昏倒了。）

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"Now watch closely," said Mrs. Jewls.

Everyone gathered around the new computer. It had a full-color monitor and two disk drives.

Mrs. Jewls pushed it out the window.

They all watched it fall and smash against the sidewalk.

"See?" said Mrs. Jewls. "That's gravity."

"Oh, now I get it!" said Joe.

"Thank you, Louis," said Mrs. Jewls. "I've been trying to teach them about gravity all morning. We had been using pencils and pieces of paper, but the computer was a lot quicker."

請看下側文字：

**Author's Craft: Irony How does the computer help the students learn more quickly? Is it what you expected when Mrs. Jewls said the computer would help them learn? Why or why not?（作者技巧：反諷。電腦如何幫助學生更快學習？這和你原本以為 Mrs. Jewls 說電腦能幫助學習的方式一樣嗎？為什麼？）**

可以暫停思考一下，答案可以是：
The computer helps the students learn more quickly because Mrs. Jewls throws it out the window to show gravity. No, it is not what I expected. I thought the students would use the computer for studying, but instead they learned by watching it fall and smash.（電腦幫助學生更快學習，是因為 Mrs. Jewls 把它丟出窗外來示範地心引力。不，這和我原本預期的不一樣。我原本以為學生會用電腦來學習，但他們是看著電腦掉下去摔壞來學習。）

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