This chapter describes two memories from Roald Dahl's time at school as a young boy. The first involves seeing an older boy riding a bicycle very skillfully down the road without hands, which inspired Roald to want to learn those skills. The second takes place at the local sweet shop, where Roald and his friends would go daily. One friend claims that liquorice candies are made from rat blood and will make your teeth sharp and cause a tail to grow, frightening the others. The chapter also describes the various candies sold and expresses dislike for the shop's owner, Mrs. Pratchett. The final line hints at plans to address this dislike in the next chapter.

1. The bicycle and
the sweet shop
Boy - Chapter three

2. Vocabulary
*
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3. Jaunty Definition: expressing a lively, cheerful, and self-confident
manner.
Sentence: “She was wearing a jaunty white cap.”
Synonym: Happy
Picture:
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“One day, I told myself, one
glorious day I will have a bike like
that and I will wear long trousers
with bicycle-clips and my school
cap will sit jaunty on my head and I
will go whizzing down the hill
pedalling backwards with no hands
on the handlebars!”

4. Bizarre Definition: something very strange or unusual
Sentence: "This is a bizarre situation"
Synonym: Odd
Picture:
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“My second and only other
memory of Llandaff
Cathedral School is
extremely bizarre.”

5. Linger
Definition: stay in a place longer than necessary because of a
reluctance to leave.
Sentence: “She lingered in the yard, enjoying the warm
sunshine"
Synonym: Stay
picture:
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“We lingered outside its rather
small window gazing in at the
big glass jars full of Bull's-
eyes and Old Fashioned
Humbugs and Strawberry
Bonbons and Glacier Mints
and Acid Drops and Pear
Drops and Lemon Drops and
all the rest of them.

6. Baffle Definition: to cause someone to be completely unable to
understand or explain something
Sentence: She was completely baffled by his strange behaviour.
Synonym: Confuse
Picture:
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“You might think a question
like this would have baffled
Thwaites. But Thwaites was
never baffled.”

7. Loathsome Definition: Extremely unpleasant or disgusting
Sentence: “I don't like my mom soup, it's loathsome!”
Synonym: Detestable
picture:
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“But by far the most
loathsome thing about
Mrs Pratchett was the
filth that clung around
her. Her apron was grey
and greasy.”

8. Troop (verb) Definition: to go somewhere as a group
Sentence: “Hundreds of thousands of visitors troop through
the museum every year.”
Synonym: March
picture:
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9. Characters and setting
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10. “Characters:
-Roald
- A senior twelve year-old boy
- Roald’s friends
- Thwaite (One of his friends)
- Thwaite’s dad
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Setting:
- Village Green
- The sweet shop

11. Summary part 1
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This chapter is about some anecdotes Roald remembered from
his 2 years at Llandaff Cathedral School between the ages of 7
and 9. The first anecdote was about him walking back home from
school, when suddenly a senior twelve-year-old boy came riding
very fast down the road on his bicycle with no hands on the
handlebars. Roald got amazed, and the only thing he could think
about was about those awesome bike skills! He mentioned that if
in that specific moment somebody asked him which was his
biggest wish, he would have said having an awesome bike like
the boy’s bike and getting the ability to do all those awesome
skills!

12. Summary part two
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The second anecdote takes place in the sweet shop, where Roald and four friends
went each morning and afternoon before and after school. One afternoon, one of
his friends, told him he shouldn’t eat Liquorice Bootlaces anymore (One of
Roald’s favourite candies) because his father, a doctor, had told him these candies
were made from rat’s blood. He had told him the whole process. He said that you
would get ratitis if you ate them - your teeth would become very sharp and
pointed, and a short stumpy tail would grow out of your back just above your
bottom. Then, Roald describes some candies: their taste, smell, appearance, etc.
Finally, he describes the one and only thing him and his friends hated about the
sweet shop: the owner of the shop, Mrs. Pratchett. The last sentence is very
interesting, since it says something that makes us want to read chapter 4! “Many
schemes were put forward but none of them was any good. None of them, that is,
until suddenly, one memorable afternoon, we found the dead mouse.”

13. Questions
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14. Why do you think
that Thwaite’s
father told him
that liquorice
bootlaces were
made of rat’s
blood?
We think his father told him they were made of rats’
blood because he didn’t want him to eat them, probably
because they were very sweet, had many fats or were bad
for his teeth, since he is a doctor.
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15. “
Adjectives Roald uses to describe Mrs. Pratchett
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Horror - Small skinny old hag - Loathsome - Disgusting - Grimy - Mean

16. Thanks!
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