THE BABYSITTER

On a cold winter evening, a girl was babysitting two young boys in a big isolated house in the
forest.

When she arrived, it was quite late. The children were in their pajamas, eating dinner in the
kitchen. The parents talked to the babysitter for a few minutes, and they left. After dinner, she
went upstairs with the children, read them a nice story and sent them to bed.

Then she went back downstairs to watch TV in the living room. It was a dark room
with lots of strange objects everywhere: stuffed animals, old music instruments,
and a big clown statue next to the TV set. The statue was particularly ugly, with its
smiley white face and black shiny eyes. The babysitter was trying to
concentrate on her TV series, but her eyes were going back to the statue, again
and again.

Suddenly, she heard the phone in the kitchen ring and she went to answer it. It
was the children’s father, who asked if everything was OK. She said yes, then she hesitated a little
and added: “There’s just one thing... I’m sorry, I feel really stupid but... it’s just that clown statue in
the living room, it looks so scary!”

There was silence on the other line. Then the father slowly said:
"We don't have a clown statue in our living room. We never did."

Just then the babysitter heard a ‘click’ as a white hand was taking the phone from her. In the other
white hand, there was a big shiny knife.

The babysitter was never seen again.

Read the text again and answer the questions

1. What were the children doing when the girl arrived?

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2. What did the babysitter do upstairs to send the children to bed?
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3. What did the living room look like?
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4. What was next to the TV set?
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5. Why is the underlined part of the text mentioned?
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6. What did the father say about the clown statue?
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7. Why did the babysitter tell the children’s father about the statue?
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8. What do you think happened to the babysitter?
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