English Comprehension - Cave Wars - Chapters 1 & 2 - Booklet

Tom and Ruby lived at the seaside, in
a house near the beach. In summer,
the beach was full of people on
holiday, but in winter they all went
home. That was when Tom and Ruby
played in their secret caves.
There were two caves. The little cave
was low down in the cliff, hidden
behind thick bushes. The big one was
higher up, behind a heap of rocks. No
one except Tom and Ruby knew
about the caves – until the Gang
moved in.
One wet winter afternoon, Tom
and Ruby decided to make a
camp in the big cave. They set
off up the path, with a rug
and some sausages, but
when they reached
the big pile of rocks,
they heard voices. 2

3

There in the cave were two of the roughest,
toughest boys they’d ever seen – and a girl who
looked even tougher.
“Hey,” shouted Tom, “that’s our cave!”
“Not any more!” said the girl.
The boys nodded and pulled horrible faces. “We
got here first!” one of them shouted.
4

Ruby wanted to fight them, but Tom pulled her
away. “Don’t be silly,” he whispered. “They’re
HUGE!”
He dragged her back down the path to the little
cave. She was very, very angry.
“They’ve stolen our cave,” she said. “We’ve got
to do something.”
There was a piece of old board lying on the
beach. Tom stared at it. “I’ve had an idea,” he
said.
5

Tom and Ruby took the board home and painted
a notice on it.
Early next morning, they put out their notice
and blocked the path to the top cave with
stones. Then they hid and waited to see what
happened.
6

When the Gang saw the notice, they glared at it
for a while and argued about what to do. Then
they stamped off back up the path to the holiday
house on top of the cliff.
“We’ve won!” said Ruby. “They’ve gone!
7

But she was wrong. Ten minutes later, she and
Tom heard voices high above their heads. Looking
up, they saw three long ropes dangling over the
top of the cliff.
The Gang came climbing down the ropes, laughing
and shouting as they swung into the big cave.
They sat on the pile of rocks, throwing stones at
Tom and Ruby’s notice.
“Danger! Falling rocks!” shouted the girl, and the
boys laughed.
8

The rocks bounced everywhere. Tom and Ruby
had to hide in the little cave. Ruby was furious.
“We’ve got to get our own back!” she said.
“And make them go away!”
She looked up and down the beach – and suddenly
her angry frown changed to a huge, HUGE grin.
“I know what we can do,” she said. “All we have
to do is wait till they go home tonight...”
9