"Tom!"

There was no answer.

"Tom!"

Still no answer.

"Where's that boy gone? Tom!"

The old lady looked all around the room. She looked under the bed, but found only the cat.

"If I catch that boy, ..." she murmured to herself.

She opened the door and looked out into the garden.

"Tom!" she shouted.

Then she heard a slight noise behind her. She turned round just in time to catch the boy as he came out of a cupboard.

"And what have you been doing in there?"

"Nothing," said the boy.

"Nothing! Look at your hands and your mouth! What is that stuff?"

"I don't know, Aunt."

"Well, I know. It's a jam. I've told you forty times that if you touched that jam, I'd skin you. Give me that stick."

"Look out, Aunt! Look behind you!"

The old lady turned round and Tom was out of the door in a flash, over the garden fence and away.

"Damn that boy! Will I never learn? He's always playing tricks on me. And he seems to know just now how far he can go, too. But I can't take a stick to him. I really can't. After all, he's my dead sister's boy. Ah well, he'll play truant today and I'll have to make him work tomorrow."

At supper Aunt Polly tried to trick Tom into admitting that he hadn't gone to school.

"It was rather hot today, wasn't it, Tom?"

"Yes," answered Tom.

"You didn't have to open your shirt collar where I sewed it, then."

Tom was confident, now. He opened his jacket. His collar was securely sewed.

"Oh Tom," said Aunt Polly. "You're a good boy really."

She was sorry that she had been wrong about him.

"But Aunt," came a voice. It was Sidney, Tom's younger brother. "Didn't you sew Tom's collar with white cotton? Look! Now it's black.

Tom was already running out of the door.

--The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

29. The underlined word "skin" probably mean in the passage?

A. praise B. beat C. support D. cheat

30. Which of the following words can be best used to describe Tom?

A. stupid B. clever C. naughty D. brave

31. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. Tom's mother passed away.

B. Tom's aunt was a good sewer.