Задание

Why did the author have to work?Прочитайте текст. Для каждого

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When I was twelve, I was one of the best pupils in my

class at public school, and left it a year earlier than most boys.

My parents were proud of me, of course. They wanted me

to go to high school. But even then I realized that education was for the rich.

I refused to go to high school. I knew that most of the boys in my class were

going to work. And I decided to be one of them.

I told me parents that I needed to spend four years at

high school, then six years at college before I could become a doctor. Ten

years of study! Where could I get thousands of dollars for books, tuition and

everything else? There were four children in my family. My mother could not

work. Could my father get the money for all of us, and besides pay for my

education? Of course, not.

Miss Barry, an English teacher, tried to get me to go to high school, too. She

said that she could hardly imagine that I would work in a factory. “I’ve never

seen better compositions than yours”, she said. But I

told her that my father was unable to support me, and that I would have to

work. She asked me to promise her to study at night. I told her that I would,

though I knew it was a lie. But I loved books, I was carried away by many

books; I wanted very much to go to high school and college. Miss Berry

presented me with a book. I thanked her for it and threw it under the bed when

I returned home. I never read a page in it,

or in any other book for the next five years. I told

myself that I hated books, that they were lies and were different from life.

It was not easy to find my first job. I looked for it

for months. Every morning I bought a newspaper and

looked through the Want Ads. At last I found work. It was in a factory. The

place was dark and hot; the air was poisoned. The boys and girls working at the

long table were wet, their

faces were white and angry. There was not time for anything but work. I forgot

my college hopes, I could not sleep at night. My mother saw that I was losing

my health and she made me leave the job. Then a job in a shop, at chemist’s. Jobs. Jobs.

I went from one to another without a plan, without any hope. I was at a loss

what to do.

One day I stopped to listen to a man who was speaking

about the struggle for a better life. The words

brought hope to me and made me think, struggle and

live. It was the great beginning to me.

he wasn’t good at his studies

he was from a poor family and couldn’t afford further education

he wanted to earn much money

his father asked him