On Jackson's Island

The summer holidays came, and there was no school.

One hot summer's day Tom Sawyer and his friend Joe Harper were down by the Mississippi River. They sat and watched the boats, and fished and talked.

"Let's go away from here!" said Tom, suddenly. "Let's go and do something exciting."

"OK," said his friend Joe. "But what? And where?"

"I know," Tom said. "Let's run away. Let's go and live on Jackson's Island. We can sleep outside, under the trees."

Jackson's Island was an island in the Mississippi. Nobody lived there.

"But don't tell your mother or your father," said Tom. "Go home and get some things to eat, and meet me here at midnight."

So they went down the river in a small boat to Jackson's Island. They had some bread and some meat, and Joe had his pipe, too. When they got to the island, they made a fire, under a big old tree. Then they cooked the meat over the fire, and oh, the meat was good - the best food in the world! Soon, they stopped talking, their eyes closed, and they slept.

Vocabulary:

to fish  =  to catch fish

midnight  =  the middle of the night (12 pm)

pipe  =  something like a cigarette, but bigger - you put tobacco in it

1. Questions on the text.

a) What's the name of Tom Sawyer's friend?

b) What fantastic idea did Tom have?

c) Which famous river is Jackson's Island in?

d) What did Tom and Joe do when they got to the island?

2. Find the words in the text for ...

a) the time of the year when you have no school

b) you have to kill animals to eat this

c) the part of your face with which you can see and watch

3. Give a definition of the following words:

a) summer

b) island

4. Fill in the verbs in their correct form.

a) What are you doing, Tom?  -  I ________ (to cook) a meal for my friend Joe and me.

b) If it's warm tomorrow morning, we ________ (to go) swimming.

c) Yesterday Tom and Joe ________ (to go) to Jackson's Island. They ________ (to carry) some meat, some bread and a pipe with them.

5. Tom fragt seinen Freund Joe, ob er alles für die Reise dabei hat. Übersetze seine Fragen:

a) Wo ist das Boot?

b) Hast du das Brot?

c) Was macht dein Vater jetzt?

d) Magst du Jackson's Island?