Меню
Is anyone here a “morning person”? If so, how? Seriously.
I would love to say that each morning I hop out of bed like a phoenix rising from the ashes, shaking off the cares of the previous day and ready to face the day ahead with dignity and grace. Unfortunately, that would be a lie. I am not now, have not been, nor will ever be a morning person.
Every morning when I was growing up, my mother would fling open my door and say, “Rise and shine!” I decidedly did not feel like rising out of bed or shining like the sun so early in the morning, but I knew I had to rise to the occasion and get up, or else. Staying in bed would definitely raise the stakes: my mom would call in my dad to threaten serious punishment if I made me and my brothers late for school.
My dad’s method of waking us up never failed to get a rise out of me: he would take our pet rabbit out of her cage and put her on my bed to crawl all over me. Normally this would be a cause for delight; first thing in the morning, however, a small unknown creature in your bed is cause for alarm. I would shriek and jump out of bed like I was in grave danger, yell at my dad, yell at the world, and bemoan my sorry state in general.
I lived in fear that my father would choose the next time to raise the bar for his unusual wake-up calls and replace the rabbit with one of our pet frogs. The only thing that raised my spirits was the belief that my brothers were in the same situation. This thought was always pleasant, even if a bit mean-hearted, and it made me feel better on those early mornings before school started.
To this day, a sure way to make my hackles rise is to mention small animals any time before breakfast: I will get very angry, very fast, and I will not be pleasant to be around. So I’m going to do us all a favour and not talk about this again; better not to even raise the subject.
Words to the Wise RE: Raise vs. Rise
While both “to raise” and “to rise” are verbs indicating movement upward, there is one important difference: “to raise” is a transitive verb – it must have a direct object – whereas “to rise” is intransitive – no direct object needed. Be sure to avoid mixing these up: it would be unfortunate to “rise your hand” or watch the “sun raise.”
Rachel Caywood, студентка отделения русского языка как иностранного
