"I want a hippopotamus for my birthday," Rachel Allen said.
"A hippopotamus!" Mother almost dropped the dish she was drying. "Hippos are so big! He wouldn't have room to run in our yard."
That afternoon Rachel looked over her backyard. It is small, she thought. But if we move the garden to the side of the house there'd be plenty of room for the hippo to run.
The next day Rachel said to Daddy, "I want a hippotamus for my birthday."
"A hippopotamus!" Daddy put down his newspaper. "Hippos are so heavy! He'd fall right through to the basement when we brought him in for the winter."
Rachel went down to the basement. It was large, with a garage door that led to the outside. "We can keep the hippo down here," Rachel said. "Then he wouldn't fall through to the basement. He'd already be in the basement."
The next afternoon Grandpa stopped by. "I want a hippopotamus for my birthday," Rachel said.
"A hippopotamus!" Grandpa put down his pipe. "Hippos need a lot of water. They get very hot in summer, and they need a great big pool to jump into and cool off."
Grandpa's right, Rachel thought. She put on her coat and took a long walk. She wondered where she could find a pool big enough for a hippopotamus. Then she saw it - the lake behind Mrs. Hunter's house. Every day Rachel could walk the hippopotamus here for a romp in the lake.
Sunday afternoon Rachel visited Nana. "I want a hippopotamus for my birthday," Rachel said.
"A hippopotamus!" Nana handed Rachel a warm oatmeal cookie. "What would you feed him? Hippos don't live on oatmeal cookies, you know."
Rachel knew that. Hippos lived on hay. She'd seen haystacks on the farms she'd passed on the way to Nana's. Daddy could haul in hay for the hippo.
The day before her birthday, Rachel asked her mother again, "Please, please may I have a hippo for my birthday?"
"As you know, Rachel," Mother said, "having a hippo would present a lot of problems."
"I know," Rachel said, "but I have it all worked out. We'll move the garden so he has room to run. We'll keep him in the basement in the winter. I'll walk him to Mrs. Hunter's lake in the summer. And Daddy will haul in hay for him to eat."
"You do have things all worked out," Mother said. "But we'll have to see."
The next morning Rachel opened all her gifts. There was no hippo. Rachel was disappointed.
After breakfast, Mother said, "Put on your T-shirt, Rachel."
"Where are we going?" Rachel asked.
"To the zoo to see your hippo," Mother said.
At the zoo, Rachel's hippopotamus was playing in the lake with two other hippos. On a tree near the lake was a sign: Hippopotamus - Zoo Parent: Rachel Allen. Mother and Daddy and Grandpa and Nana had sponsored one of the hippos in Rachel's name!
That made Rachel very proud.
"See that hippo in the middle of the lake?" Rachel said to the other boys and girls. "That's my own personal hippo!"
From Jack and Jill, copyright © 1989 by Children’s Better Health Institute, Benjamin Franklin Literary & Medical Society, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana. Used by permission.
A. hippopotamus who wants to live with a little girl.
B. hippopotamus that lives at the zoo.
C. little girl who has everything she wants.
D. little girl who has a very unusual birthday wish.
A. writes.
B. thinks.
C. hears.
D. sees.
A. how a hippo is like other pets
B. what it would cost to have a hippo
C. how she should take care of a hippo
D. why she cannot have a hippo
A. She thinks of a way to solve the problem.
B. She agrees there is a problem.
C. She refuses to listen to the problem.
D. She pretends there is no problem.
A. They wanted the zoo to take care of the hippo.
B. They were tired of answering Rachel’s questions.
C. They hoped Rachel would be on television.
D. They gave Rachel everything she wanted.
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But if we move the garden to the side of the house, there'd be plenty of room for the hippo to run. |
In this sentence, there’d stands for
A. there would.
B. there had.
C. there is.
D. there can.