典范英语8 Scrapman and the incredible flying machine

Chapter 1 Scrapman was a ______ man. He lived with Winston who owned a scrap-yard. Scrapman was made out of odds and ends that Winston had saved from old broken machines. His brain was made from a ______ ______ that someone had thrown away because it was always going wrong. Winston was working late. So late,that he was having his supper heated over a gas ring in the shed. Scrapman was opening a tin of ______ beans for him. At least he thought it was a tin of baked beans. ‘V olly od beans,’ said Scrapman. ‘I can’t eat that,’ said Winston, in a tired kind of voice. ‘Can’t you read what it says on the label?’ Scrapman ______ ______ ______. He wasn’t very good at reading. He could read his name and a few really easy words but he couldn’t read what it said on the cat food tin. Scrapcat was watching from under the workbench. He didn’t eat cat food either because he was a mechanical cat and he ______ ______ ______ , not cat food. Scrapman went and sat in the corner. He felt very sad. He wished he could read like Emma. Emma was his special friend. She was teaching him to talk like ______ ______ ______. She had a picture book with wonderful stories in it about robots. These were mechanical men like him but they could do amazing things. They could drive rockets and walk on the moon and save people from fires and floods and ______. Scrapman loved looking at the pictures, but he had to wait until Emma came round to find out what the stories were about. Scrapcat saw that Scrapman was sad, so he went and sat beside him. Winston opened a ______ tin of beans and he put the tin of cat food in looking, Scrapman took it out. He’d bought it ______ ______ ______ ______ Patch. Patch was Emma’s cat. He liked to come and play with Scrapcat while Emma was at school. He’d climb in though the window when Winston and Scrapman were busy. Then he’d show Scrapcat how to do useful cat things,like chasing pieces of ______ and hiding things under the workbench. Now, you may be wondering why Winston and Scrapman were so busy. They were working ______ ______ ______ on Winston’s incredible invention. It was a wonderful flying machine that didn’t need ______ to make it fly. It was worked by pedals like a bicycle. It was almost finished. Just a few more nuts and bolts to fix and it would be ready for a test flight. But where had those last few nuts and bolts gone? Chapter 2 At last, the day came for the first test flight. Winston had ______ ______ ______ through the scrap-yard. The runway led out into a field,and ______ ______ there was another field, so there was plenty of room to take off. That morning , Winston took off one of his socks and hung it on a pole to ______ ______ ______ ______ . It was an east wind, steady and strong, just right for testing a plane. Emma arrived early with Patch. She’d brought a special picnic and a big bottle of fizzy lemonade to celebrate after the flight. She found Winston and Scrapman busy ______ the machine, making some lest-minute checks. Scrapcat was running in and out through his scrapflap giving ___ ___ ___ __ reports on the weather. By ten o’clock in the morning, Winston said that everything was ready. It was going to be cold up there in the sky, so he put on a thick jacket with a ______ lining over his overalls. And he wore his special boggles to protect his eyes from the wind. ‘Open the doors,’he said ______ to Scrapman. ‘Stand well back,’he said to Emma and Patch. And then, very carefully, Winston and Scrapman pushed the flying machine out into the open. A small crowd had ______ outside. People had heard about the flying machine. They had come to ______ ______ ______ ______ of seeing it take off for the first time. Winston held up a hand for silence. ‘Welcome.’ he said. Then he said something about this being a ‘______ occasion ’and everyone clapped and some people cheered. One little boy waved the sock on the pole like a flag. Emma went and held his hand to make him feel better and Scrapcat rubbed himself up against his legs. Winston tested the flaps and jiggled the joystick and looked in his mirrors to check that everything was ______ ______ . Then he pulled down his goggles and ______ ______ ______ ______ . He waved proudly to the crowed. ‘Chocks away!’he called out, and Emma and Scrapman pulled out the bricks from under the ______ . Winston started to pedal. The flying machine began to move forward. He pedalled faster and the machine ______ ______ ______ . Everyone in the crowd held their breath as the flying machine shot down the runway. It got faster and faster. Winston was pedalling like mad and going red in the face. By the time they had pedalled the machine back to the scrap-yard the crowd had given up and gone home. Scrapman and Winston pushed it back into the shed. One of the wheels had ______ ______ . Winston said the machine probably needed a good oiling before it could fly. Winston seemed ______ . Emma laid out the picnic on a cloth,but although they were very good sandwiches and nice fizzy lemonade, it wasn’t the celebration they’d been looking forward to. Then Scrapman remembered the tin of food he’d saved as a treat for Patch. And although everyone else was depressed, Patch was happy. Winston spent the afternoon in the shed mending the wheel of the incredible flying machine and oiling every ______. He had a worried look on his face and the said he didn’t want any help. He didn’t whistle while he was working, which was a ______ ______ . Scrapman and Emma sat on the grass feeling bored. ______ ______ ______, Scrapman asked Emma if she would read him a story from her big picture book. ‘Scrapman, you should try to learn to read. Then you could read the book for yourself,’ said Emma. Scrapman didn’t feel like learning to read. He wonted to help Winston. ______ ______ ______ , he wanted to fly up in the sky the incredible flying machine. He felt cross. What was the point in reading about robots doing all these incredible things, when he wasn’t allowed to do anything? Chapter 3 That night, Winston finished work on the flying machine. He ______ his hands on an oily rag and said with a sigh: ‘Scrapman, my old lad, it may never take off from the ground. But it’s a fine machine all the same.’And he went off home for a good night’s sleep. Scrapman didn’t sleep. He sat turning the pages of the picture book and looking at the pictures. How he would love to have adventures and do brave things like the robots in the stories. He traced a finger along the words that Emma had been reading to him. ‘R.o.b.o.t,’ he spelt out. ‘Robot!’ Maybe it wasn’t so difficult after all. He sat trying to ______ ______ the words of his favourite story. Emma had read it to him over and over again so he almost ______ ______ ______ ______. He couldn’t read all of the words but he could read enough to remember the story. He fell asleep with his head on the open page of the book. The next morning, Scrapman woke up and wondered where he was. Then he looked at the book and remembered that he could read. He felt so proud of himself. Nothing was too difficult for him now. He felt as if he could do anything. He stood up and ______ and looked around the shed. Very quietly, they opened the doors of the shed and pushed the incredible flying machine out into the yard. Ia was a fine morning. The birds were singing on the telegraph wires. Winston’s sock was stretched out in the ______ , showing that the wind was set in just the right direction. ‘O volly good,’said Scrapman and he went back into the shed. He put on Winston’s warm woolly jacket and went back to the flying machine. Scrapcat had already jumped up into the back seat and was waiting ______ . ‘Get down, Scrapcat,’ said Scrapman. ‘Cats don’t fly,’And he made Scrapcat jump down and wait on the ground. Scrapman started pedalling. He flying machine shot off down the runway. Scrapcat belted after it and ______ ______ ______ ______ he jumped in behind Scrapman. Scrapman didn’t notice. He was pedalling as hard as he could. The machine went faster and faster. Scrapman’s legs were going round like pistons, which wasn’t surprising because they were pistons. They were going so fast that you couldn’t even them. They were just a blur. And then, as they got to the first field, the flying machine started to lift very ______ off the ground. But it wasn’t so incredible really because although Scrapman didn’t have a very good brain, he was very very strong. He was ten times as strong as an ______ man, which meant, unlike Winston,Scrapman could pedal fast enough to get the flying machine off the ground. ‘Hip-hop-haroo,’ shouted Scrapman. And scrapcat ______ his head out of the back seat and went: ‘Honk, honk.’ Which made Scrapman jump so hard he swerved the plane so that it turned in a great circle and flew back across the scrap-yard. Chapter 4 Winston woke up to a strange noise. It sounded as if a zoo had been let loose in the fields behind the scrap-yard. He went out ______ ______ ______ to see what the matter was. That’s when the incredible flying machine zoomed overhead. Winston rubbed his eyes, he scratched this head, his mouth fell open. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Chapter 5 Scrapman started to ______ ,so he pedalled even faster. Now he was going so fast he was afraid he would hit something. He made wider and wider circles round the church and then he headed out into the open country. ‘We must follow him.’ said the chief policeman and he got back into his car. Winston and Emma and Patch jumped into Winston’s van and followed the police car. The firemen got into the fire-engine and followed the van, and most of the people who had gathered to see what was going on, followed them. The police car went first with its blue light flashing and its siren blaring and the ______ ______ ______ followed. Off they went through the ______ country lanes. They had to go very fast indeed to keep up with the flying machine. Winston didn’t know what was going on. He could see Scrapman up in the sky. The flying machine was coming closer and closer. He could see Emma waving her arms Scrapman didn’t come down ______ . He had to circle the field three times before the flying machine was low enough and slow enough to land. Everyone held their breath as it came to earth with a bump and a jolt-and then ______ ______ ______ ______ . Emma ran across and put her arms around Scrapman , which was difficult because she only came up to his knees. Scrapcat jumped out and Patch came over and licked his face in a friendly kind of way.