Boiled Eggs

One of the easiest things to make is a boiled egg. Put an egg into a saucepan full of cold water. Put the saucepan on top of the stove. Turn on the heat. When the water starts to boil, look at your watch. You must boil the water fast for about three to four minutes only. Then remove egg immediately from the water and serve.

4.

Dear Cinderella,

Your jobs for tonight:

sweep the chimney, scrub the floors, beat the carpets, hoover the stairs, dust the furniture, polish the silver, make the beds, change the sheets, tidy the house, dig the garden, clean out the fireplace, empty the rubbish, wash our underwear, mend the socks, darn the shirts, iron the laundry, cook the supper, do the washing-up, dry the dishes, put them away.

Don’t wait up for us. We might be late home.

The Ugly Sisters

5.

Mr and Mrs Turvey both hated housework. They were a very untidy couple who never put things away. When they went to bed, for example, they always left their clothes in a mess on the floor. Their kitchen was a mess, too. Even though they had a dishwasher, they always left the dirty dishes in the kitchen sink and only did the washing-up when there wasn’t a clean plate to be found in the house. It was the same with their clothes. They never put them into the washing machine until there was nothing else to wear. The living room always looked as though a bomb had just gone off. There were things everywhere. There was thick dust on every piece of furniture and the carpet had not been cleaned for weeks. And the bathroom!

One day, when Mr Turvey couldn’t find one of his shoes, and Mrs Turvey couldn’t see her face in the bathroom mirror, they decided it was time to get the house cleaned. So they found Marie, a foreign student at a local language school, who needed some extra money.

Marie came to the house and worked all day long. She washed and dried all the clothes. Then she got out the iron. She ironed the clothes, folded them neatly and put them away. She swept all the dust off the floors with a large broom. She took a wet cloth and wiped the dust off every surface in the house and then polished the furniture until it was shining. She got out the vacuum cleaner and cleaned the carpets. In the kitchen the floor was filthy. It was too dirty to wash with a mop, so Marie got on her hands and knees and scrubbed the dirt off with a scrubbing brush. Finally she made the bed and, when she had finished, the house looked spotless.

Mr and Mrs Turvey came home that evening. There was nothing on the floor. There was no dust on the furniture. The wood was shining and you could smell the polish. In their bedroom all their clothes were neat, clean and tidy. ‘So what do you think?’ Mrs Turvey asked her husband.

‘It looks nice and tidy,’ he said, ‘but how are we going to find anything?’