Reading
A Dark and Stormy Night
One night I was sitting at home, watching television. I had had dinner already, and was starting on dessert when there was a crash of thunder and a flash of lightning. Then suddenly it started raining cats and dogs outside – a real downpour! The lights flickered on and off and back on again. I am not afraid of the dark, but I went looking for a candle or a flashlight just in case the power did finally go out. Sure enough, just as I pulled a candle out of my kitchen drawer, there was a loud bang and the house went dark. I fumbled for a match, and had just lit the candle when there was a loud pounding on the door. As I headed towards the door, I could make out the figure of a large man standing outside on my front porch. When I opened the door, I saw that it was a police officer. He introduced himself and asked if I could come with him.
"Will you come with me, sir?" he said. "It seems there has been a break-in at your office downtown, and we need you to have a look at the damage, see if anything is missing, and help us fill out some paperwork."
"Of course," I replied. "Will I need to go to the station afterwards?"
"You will probably need to – go and get your identification and your insurance papers if you could."
"Is this going to take all night? I have an important meeting in the morning at my…"
I was going to say "at my office", but then I remembered the break-in, and I wondered if I had anything left there at all now.
We drove through the rain in silence, finally pulling up to the building where my firm is located. I looked up to the eighth floor, but I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary from there.
As we entered the building, I felt a knot growing in my stomach – I didn't know what to expect, or what I would find when in my office.
On the eighth floor, the hall lights were on and I could see that my door was slightly ajar. There were no signs of damage to the door or lock, and I eased the door all the way open, took a deep breath, and stepped inside. It was pitch-black dark – I couldn't see or hear a thing.
Shaking slightly, I reached for the light switch, and flipped it on.
Before I realized what was happening, people jumped out from behind the desks, from the closets, and from the inner offices!
"SURPRISE!!!" they all shouted at once, and that is the last thing I remembered for a while – it seems that after that I fainted right in the middle of my own surprise birthday party!
Questions
Choose the best explanation for the following words and phrases from the reading.
- "Raining cats and dogs" means:
- "A loud pounding" means:
- "I felt a knot growing in my stomach" means:
- "I fainted" means:
- "A break-in" means:
Are the following statements about the reading correct?
1. The writer fainted just before his friends shouted "Surprise!"
2. The electricity went out at exactly the same moment that the writer found the candle.
3. The policeman knocked on the door after the writer lit the candle.
4. The storm started after the writer had finished eating.
5. The writer was eating dinner and watching television at the beginning of the story.