Read the following passage and try to answer the questions given below:
Bill Cody was sitting by the fire in his mother’s cabin. Since his father’s death three years before, he had to help his mother by earning money, as he was the oldest of the children. This money he earned in hard and dangerous ways.
Though he was now only fourteen years old, he was already an expert horse-rider and rifle-shot. He had travelled as a messenger with wagon-trains through the Wild West, and he had shown no fear of the Indians when they attacked. At one time, when his wagon was destroyed, he, along with others, had to walk a thousand miles back to their camp. And at that time he was only eleven years old.
Now Bill had been called home because his mother was ill. She soon began to feel better; and it was not very long before she was well again.
As his mother recovered her strength, Bill knew he must again find work as soon as possible to earn money for the family. He would have liked to return to the Pony Express, carrying letters across the country on horseback, but he knew that his mother did not want him to return to that dangerous work.
Questions
- Why did Bill have to earn money?
- At the age of fourteen he was ………..
- Why had Bill been called home?
- What was the Pony Express?
- Why did Bill’s mother not want him to return to that work?
- Give the opposites of the following words: death, dangerous, hard, possible, liked.
Answers
- Bill had to earn money because his father was dead and he was the eldest child.
- At the age of fourteen he was an expert horse-rider and rifle-shot.
- Bill had been called home because his mother was ill.
- The Pony Express was a Mail Service which carried letters on horseback.
- Bill’s mother did not want him to go back to that work because it was dangerous.
- death – life
dangerous – safe
hard – easy
possible – impossible
liked – disliked
