Page 36 - Viva Real English 4 : Ebook

5 The Adventures of Little Al

Thomas Alva Edison is one of the best-known inventors in history. He was the
youngest of the seven children of his parents, and everyone called him ‘Al’. Young
Al was a weak and fragile child with an unusually large head. For some years he
was not allowed to go to school because of poor health.

Al was poor at studies. Once a teacher said in front of his mother that he was
‘addled’. His mother was a teacher herself. She decided to withdraw Al from school
and educate him at home.

As a boy, Edison’s curiosity and daring led him
into unusual adventures. At the age of six he

went missing one day. After an anxious search
his father found him sitting in a nest he had
made in the barn. The nest was filled with
goose-eggs and hens’ eggs he had collected.
Edison had noted the way a goose hatched her
eggs by sitting on them, and he wanted to try it
out himself!

Though Edison did not attend school regularly,
he used to read every book in his reach. His
parents were educated and refined people with
a good library at home. He read voraciously,
mostly books on history and science. He even
tried reading scientific books that were beyond
the grasp of a child.

fragile : weak and likely to become ill barn : a large farm building to store
addled : confused; not able to think grain and keep animals in
clearly hatched : made a young bird come
withdraw : take back out of the egg

educate : teach refi ned : well educated and having a
curiosity : strong wish to know high position in society
something voraciously : regularly and in large

daring : courage quantities
anxious : feeling worried grasp : understanding
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