Carol: Hey, I might as well tell you. I mean, you’re gonna find out anyway, right? The Carol Seaver you’ve always known, the one who gets the perfect grades, well she’s a mirage, ok? Case closed.
Jason: No, no, no, no, no.
Maggie: Honey, does this have **1** to do with that test you flunked?
Carol: Yes.
Maggie: I thought so. Sweetheart, grades don’t mean anything.
Carol: Tell me about it.
Maggie: You can’t let one dinky little quiz throw you.
Carol: One quiz? Mom, I’ve been through my files. Ten years of work, everything I’ve ever written, **2**, or spake.
Maggie: All straight A’s, I believe.
Carol: I thought you just said, grades didn’t matter.
Maggie: I didn’t.
Jason: You did.
Maggie: Well, you’re the **3** health professional. Do something.
Jason: Alright, Carol. Go with that.
Maggie: Oh, good.
Carol: I mean, all those A’s, all that perfect work. It wasn’t perfect after all! It doesn’t **4** a thing!
Jason: Well, why do you think your teacher gave you all those A’s?
Carol: For the same reason they give Mike D’s. Because it’s expected. Teachers know Carol Seaver gets A’s. I mean, I can turn in a **5** sheet of paper and get an A for being succinct.
Jason: Well, how do you think you got that **6** in the first place?
Carol: For having the best sand pile in kindergarten? I don’t know. All I do know is that I can’t even fail when I admit to the teacher that I didn’t study because I was making out with Bobby.
Maggie: What?
Carol: But then why bring him into this already **7** situation? Look, I won’t cause you any more trouble. Let me just go to my next class and collect my next A.
Jason: Why?
Carol: What do you mean why?
Jason: Well, since the thing that’s been driving you all these years is getting good grades and since you’ve now figured out that they’re **8**, why waste your time? Why even bother going to school where, God forbid, you could learn something?
Carol: Good point. Let’s go home.
Jason: That should’ve worked.
Answers:
1. anything
2. thought
3. mental
4. prove
5. blank
6. reputation
7. tense
8. worthless |