17.
Read the text and put the paragraphs (1 – 5) in order.

 

1) Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He
told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one
nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the
boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

2) The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He
said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The
fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar
just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't
matter how many times you say I'm sorry. The wound is still there."

3) A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.

4) The first day, the boy put 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few
weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily
gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to
drive those nails into the fence.

5) There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him
a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer
a nail into the back of the fence.



18. Put the sentences in chronological order according
to the text.  

1) The father showed the boy holes in the fence.

2) His father told him to take off the nails.

3) There once was a boy with a bad temper.

4) His father gave him some nails to hammer them in
the fence.

5) The boy put all the nails into the fence.