Jack London. The Apostate (adapted for pre-intermediate)

Part 4

New Words to Learn:

1. unfairness – несправедливость
2. gloomy – мрачный
3. measles – корь
4. skillful – опытный, умелый
5. wages – заработок рабочего
6. accurate – точный
7. pneumonia – пневмония

Johnny felt unfairness. He became gloomy, came into the house and went to bed. The door of his room was open to let in warmth from the kitchen. As he undressed in the darkness, he could hear his mother talking with a neighbor woman. She was crying.

«I can’t understand what’s going on with Johnny,» he could hear her words. « He is a good boy. And he went to work too young. But it wasn’t my fault. I do the best I can.»

What’s going on with …? – Что происходит с …?

The next morning his mother woke him up as usual. He had breakfast, left home and went in through the factory gate. It was another day, of all the days, and all the days were alike.

He remembered his first job. He was seven then and his job was easy.  All he had to do was to sit down with a little stick in his hand and control a stream of cloth. He sat always in the one place and felt himself part of the mechanism. He was very happy at that job because he was still young and he had dreams and illusions.

a stream of cloth –поток ткани

When he was nine, he fell ill with measles and lost his job. His second job was in a glass factory.  It was simple but not good for the lungs. But the pay was better. It was piece-work, and the more skillful he was, the bigger wages he earned.

piece-work – сдельная работа

The director was very proud of him, and brought visitors to look at him. In ten hours three hundred dozen bottles passed through his hands. He worked like a perfect machine. Every movement of a muscle in the thin fingers, was quick and accurate. But at night his muscles moved in his sleep, and in the daytime he could not relax and rest. The color of his skin grew yellow and his cough grew worse. Then he caught pneumonia and lost his job in the glass factory.