Read

 

Use some of the ideas you have learned this week in reading the short story “Last Night of the World,” by Ray Bradbury. It can be found free online at one of these sites:

 

http://www.esquire.com/fiction/fiction/ray-bradbury-last-night-of-the-world-0251

http://morningenglish.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/the-last-night-of-the-world-ray-bradbury/

 

Here are a few vocabulary items you might need to know to understand this story:

 

hurricane lamp: See photo. The lighting source can be oil, gas, or a candle.

 

 

(A) Penny for your thoughts. This idiom is a type of proposal: the speaker is offering to “pay” to hear someone’s thoughts. Of course, no payment actually takes place – a penny wouldn't be much money, anyway. The idea is that the person who says a penny for your thoughts wants to know what the listener is thinking about and is showing interest through the symbolic offer of a penny. It is often used when the person spoken seems to be deep in thought or troubled by something. It is a kind/polite way of asking someone to express his or her ideas or concerns.

 

for the hell of it To do something only because you want to, or because you think it is fun, but without a specific purpose. A more polite expression is for the heck of it.

 

evening paper A newspaper that was distributed in the evening rather than the morning. Many newspapers in large cities were so popular that they published both morning and evening editions.