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）傾向；趨向
    (2) mayhem n.大混亂；大災害
    (3) put one's foot down開始抗議
    (4) sternly adv.嚴厲地
    (5) whine v.哭鬧
    (6) tease v.取笑
    (7) tattle v.扯淡
    Exercises:
    根據短文回答下列問題：
    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?
    讓人無奈的孩子
    我五歲的兒子和他的表弟在一起的時候，總要招來大亂。一個星期六，我開始抗議了?！昂美玻銈儍蓚€，”我嚴厲地說，“不許叫喊，不許亂拿，不許哭鬧，不許亂敲，不許取笑，不許扯淡，不許弄壞玩具，不許亂抓，不許打架?！?BR>    我剛轉身要走，就聽我兒子說：“來，斯蒂文，我們來把自己弄臟吧?！?BR>    練習參考答案：
    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.