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    Cecilia's House & The Foraging Class: American Chapters
    Cecilia's House & The Foraging Class: American Chapters
    Cecilia's House & The Foraging Class: American Chapters
    Ebook73 pages53 minutes

    Cecilia's House & The Foraging Class: American Chapters

    By Greta Gorsuch

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    Read preview

    About this ebook

    American Chapters presents short stories in vivid and easy-to-read, 500-word chapters, perfect for English language learners internationally and adult literacy learners in countries where English is commonly used. All stories are also offered as audio books for learners who want to hear the sounds of American English.

    "Cecilia's House"
    Cecilia lives in tiny Sunflower, Texas. There aren't many jobs in a country where the towns are small and far apart. But Cecilia has built a good house-cleaning business with her business partner Franny. But one day, Cecelia drives over to visit Franny, who has been sick. When she gets to Franny's house, a police car is waiting with flashing lights. What Cecilia learns next will change her life. 

    "The Foraging Class"
    High school student Shana can't believe she has to spend her Spring Break on a camping trip at a Texas state park, attending something awful called a "Foraging Class." The class will teach them about eating things that look like grasses and weeds! But she has no choice. So Shana, her mother Alice, and best friend Kristen drive off on their adventure into the green pine forests of East Texas. Then everything changes one night, deep in the park. And none of them will ever see the world the same way again.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWayzgoose Press
    Release dateJun 18, 2019
    ISBN9781393807438
    Cecilia's House & The Foraging Class: American Chapters
    Author

    Greta Gorsuch

    Greta Gorsuch has taught ESL/EFL and applied linguistics for more than 30 years in Japan, Vietnam, and the U.S. She is an experienced materials writer who actively researches foreign language reading and pronunciation. Greta’s work has appeared in journals such as System, Reading in a Foreign Language, Language Teaching, Language Teaching Research, and TESL-EJ. She recently co-authored Second Language Course Evaluation and Second Language Testing for Student Evaluation and Classroom Research (both from Information Age Publishing). She lives in beautiful wide West Texas and goes camping whenever she can.

    Read more from Greta Gorsuch

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      Book preview

      Cecilia's House & The Foraging Class - Greta Gorsuch

      Cecilia’s House & The Foraging Class

      Cecilia’s House & The Foraging Class

      American Chapters

      Greta Gorsuch

      Wayzgoose Press

      Copyright © 2019 by Wayzgoose Press

      All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

      Book Design and Editing by Maggie Sokolik, Wayzgoose Press

      Cover Design by DJ Rogers, Book Branders

      For Karen

      Contents

      From the Author

      Cecilia’s House

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Chapter 10

      Chapter 11

      The Foraging Class

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Chapter 10

      Chapter 11

      Chapter 12

      Chapter 13

      Chapter 14

      Chapter 15

      About the Author

      Books in This Series

      From the Author

      Welcome to our series, American Chapters. The American Chapters series presents short stories in vivid and easy-to-read 500-word chapters, perfect for English language learners internationally, and adult literacy learners in countries where English is commonly used.

      All American Chapters print stories are also offered as audiobooks for learners who want to hear and read the stories and hear the sounds of American English.

      American Chapters are lively, relevant, and realistic short stories about living in the United States of America. About Americans, immigrants, sojourners, and the diverse peoples living in this wide landscape, the stories touch on the tough questions, and the great things in life—things like work, ethnic differences, our connections to the past, our place in nature, being new, small town life, personal loss, and above all, new beginnings.

      Cecilia’s House

      cake

      Chapter 1

      Cecilia was wondering what to do next. This was typical for her. She had a lot of energy. She had a lot of ideas. She would think of something to do. She planned to do it, and then, she did it.

      Any day could look like today: Get up. Start a cake for Frannie. Put the cake in the oven. Pick up trash from the front yard. Water the flowers. Order some new I Clean It t-shirts online. Look at her fingernails. What color should she pick this week? Maybe light purple? Was that too bright? Then, take a shower. Put her long brown hair in curlers. Wait ten minutes. Take the curlers out. Brush her hair. Look at her few gray hairs and frown. Put on her make up. Put on a pair of blue jeans, an I Clean It t-shirt, an orange and red Sunflower Roughnecks team jacket, and a pair of pink socks and shoes. Take Frannie’s cake from the oven.

      Here it was—8:30 AM. Cecilia was trying to decide if she had time to clean the bathroom before her first cleaning job. She decided she didn’t. She wanted to stop by Frannie’s house before going to town. Frannie didn’t sound good on the telephone last night. If Frannie was sick, Cecilia was going to have a busy day. There were four houses to clean! Cecilia didn’t look forward to cleaning them by herself. Frannie was her friend, and Frannie was also her partner in the I Clean It house cleaning business.

      What’s wrong? she asked Frannie. She could hardly hear Frannie’s answer. Was the cell phone signal that bad?

      I don’t know, Frannie said. It’s probably just a cold. She coughed. It feels like I can’t get enough air, she said.

      Is Donny there? Can I talk to him? Cecilia asked. Donny was Frannie’s no-good son. He was 32 years old. He didn’t have a regular job.

      No, Frannie said. He’s visiting friends in Houston.

      Uh-huh, Cecilia said. She started planning. What could she do to help? Could she take oranges? Cough syrup? Aspirin? She said, Do you want me to come over? I have some things that might help.

      No, no, Frannie said. You’ll just catch my cold. This is a bad one. It’s been two weeks! But really, forget it. I’ll be fine. If I can make it to Mrs. Morris’s, I’ll see you there.

      This morning, though, Cecilia didn’t feel good about that phone call. That’s why she wanted to stop by

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