When they're together, my five-year-old son and his cousin tend to cause mayhem. one Saturday, I put my foot down. "All right, you two," I said sternly. "No screaming , grabbing, whining, hitting, teasing, tattling, breaking toys, scratching or fighting."

As I turned to leave, I heard my son say, "C'mon, Steven, let's get dirty . "

Notes:

(1) tend to（do）倾向；趋向

(2) mayhem n.大混乱；大灾害

(3) put one's foot down开始抗议

(4) sternly adv.严厉地

(5) whine v.哭闹

(6) tease v.取笑

(7) tattle v.扯淡

Exercises:

根据短文回答下列问题：

① How old is the son?

② What do they tend to do when the son and his cousin are together?

③ What does "Put one's foot down" mean here?

④ Did the boy obey the father's order?

⑤ What did they do then?

让人无奈的孩子

我五岁的儿子和他的表弟在一起的时候，总要招来大乱。一个星期六，我开始抗议了。“好啦，你们两个，”我严厉地说，“不许叫喊，不许乱拿，不许哭闹，不许乱敲，不许取笑，不许扯淡，不许弄坏玩具，不许乱抓，不许打架。”

我刚转身要走，就听我儿子说：“来，斯蒂文，我们来把自己弄脏吧。”

练习参考答案：

① Five.

② They tend to cause mayhem.

③ it means "to make up one's mind to stop sth from happening".

④ No, he didn't

⑤ They began to get dirty.