SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY
Flies hovered around the kitchen, looking for a suitable place to land.
Mrs Stevens carefully opened the hot oven and took out the two dozen small cakes inside. They were to be part of a surprise birthday party for her son, who would be home soon from school. After cooling the cakes by the open window, she began to decorate them with icing, cream and ‘hundreds and thousands’. Then she put them onto a large serving plate and took them to the dining table where she covered them with a brightly embroidered cloth over the cakes.
On the table were six cups and a similar number of knives, forks and serviettes. A birthday card with a picture on the front of a large cake with ten candles burning brightly sat at one end of the jarrah table.
Rain began to drip slowly down the drainpipe outside as Mrs Stevens removed her apron and hurried outside to the utility in the tin shed. Soon she was speeding down the rough and bumpy road to the bus stop. She was just in time to see a happy looking Shane waving goodbye to Mrs Johnson, the bus driver. Two minutes later he was even happier as he was joined by his unexpected guests at the dining table while Mrs Stevens began to make preparations in the kitchen for the evening meal.
1. The name of the boy celebrating his birthday was?
Shane
2. Why do you think the boy’s mother placed a cloth over the cakes?
Because the flies were hovering around the kitchen
3. This story took place at about (9, 11, 1, 4, 7) o’clock?
About 7 o’clock
4. How many surprise guests were at the party?
There were six guests because there were 6 cups
5. Why did Mrs Stevens open the oven carefully?
Because the heat waves in the oven might burn her
6. How old was the boy turning on his birthday?
The boy was turning 10 because there were 10 candles on the cake
7. lt was raining heavily on the boy’s birthday True OR False?
False because in the story it says rain began to drip slowly
8. Mrs Stevens was late for the bus True OR False?
She was two minutes late
9. Write the words in the story which tell you the answer to question 8.
Two minutes later
10. What did Mrs Stevens use to cool the cakes?
The window
11. Why did she have to cool the cakes?
The open window
12. How many seconds did it take to drive home from the bus stop?
120 seconds
