CAT IN THE RAIN

Ernest Hemingway

There were only two Americans stopping at the hotel. They did not know any of the people they passed on the stairs on their
way to and from their room. Their room was on the second floor facing the sea. It also faced the public garden and the war
monument. There were big palms and green benches in the public garden. In the good weather there was always an artist with
his easel. Artists liked the way the palms grew and the bright colors of the hotels facing the gardens and the sea. Italians came
from a long way off to look up at the war monument. It was made of bronze and glistened in the rain. It was raining. The rain
dripped from the palm trees. Water stood in pools on the gravel paths. The sea broke in a long line in the rain and slipped back
down the beach to come up and break again in a long line in the rain. The motor cars were gone from the square by the war
monument. Across the square in the doorway of the café a waiter stood looking out at the empty square. The American wife
stood at the window looking out. Outside right under their window a cat was crouched under one of the dripping green tables.
The cat was trying to make herself so compact that she would not be dripped on. ‘I’m going down and get that kitty,’ the
American wife said. ‘I’ll do it,’ her husband offered from the bed. ‘No, I’ll get it. The poor kitty out trying to keep dry under a
table.’ The husband went on reading, lying propped up with the two pillows at the foot of the bed. ‘Don’t get wet,’ he said. The
wife went downstairs and the hotel owner stood up and bowed to her as she passed the office. His desk was at the far end of
the office. He was an old man and very tall. ‘Il piove,1 ’the wife said. She liked the hotel-keeper. ‘Si, Si, Signora, brutto tempo2 .
It is very bad weather.’ He stood behind his desk in the far end of the dim room. The wife liked him. She liked the deadly serious
way he received any complaints. She liked his dignity. She liked the way he wanted to serve her. She liked the way he felt about
being a hotel-keeper. She liked his old, heavy face and big hands. Liking him she opened the door and looked out. It was raining
harder. A man in a rubber cape was crossing the empty square to the café. The cat would be around to the right. Perhaps she
could go along under the eaves. As she stood in the doorway an umbrella opened behind her. It was the maid who looked after
their room. ‘You must not get wet,’ she smiled, speaking Italian. Of course, the hotel-keeper had sent her. With the maid
holding the umbrella over her, she walked along the gravel path until she was under their window. The table was there, washed
bright green in the rain, but the cat was gone. She was suddenly disappointed. The maid looked up at her. ‘Ha perduto qualque
cosa, Signora?’3 ‘There was a cat,’ said the American girl. ‘A cat?’ ‘Si, il gatto.’ ‘A cat?’ the maid laughed. ‘A cat in the rain?’ ‘Yes,
–’ she said, ‘under the table.’ Then, ‘Oh, I wanted it so much. I wanted a kitty.’ When she talked English the maid’s face
tightened. ‘Come, Signora,’ she said. ‘We must get back inside. You will be wet.’ ‘I suppose so,’ said the American girl.

They went back along the gravel path and passed in the door. The maid stayed outside to close the umbrella. As the American
girl passed the office, the padrone bowed from his desk. Something felt very small and tight inside the girl. The padrone made
her feel very small and at the same time really important. She had a momentary feeling of being of supreme importance. She
went on up the stairs. She opened the door of the room. George was on the bed, reading. ‘Did you get the cat?’ he asked,
putting the book down. ‘It was gone.’ ‘Wonder where it went to,’ he said, resting his eyes from reading. She sat down on the
bed. ‘I wanted it so much,’ she said. ‘I don’t know why I wanted it so much. I wanted that poor kitty. It isn’t any fun to be a poor
kitty out in the rain.’ George was reading again. She went over and sat in front of the mirror of the dressing table looking at
herself with the hand glass. She studied her profile, first one side and then the other. Then she studied the back of her head and
her neck. ‘Don’t you think it would be a good idea if I let my hair grow out?’ she asked, looking at her profile again. George
looked up and saw the back of her neck, clipped close like a boy’s. ‘I like it the way it is.’ ‘I get so tired of it,’ she said. ‘I get so
tired of looking like a boy.’ George shifted his position in the bed. He hadn’t looked away from her since she started to speak.
‘You look pretty darn nice,’ he said. She laid the mirror down on the dresser and went over to the window and looked out. It
was getting dark. ‘I want to pull my hair back tight and smooth and make a big knot at the back that I can feel,’ she said. ‘I want
to have a kitty to sit on my lap and purr when I stroke her.’ ‘Yeah?’ George said from the bed. ‘And I want to eat at a table with
my own silver and I want candles. And I want it to be spring and I want to brush my hair out in front of a mirror and I want a
kitty and I want some new clothes.’ ‘Oh, shut up and get something to read,’ George said. He was reading again. His wife was
looking out of the window. It was quite dark now and still raining in the palm trees. ‘Anyway, I want a cat,’ she said, ‘I want a
cat. I want a cat now. If I can’t have long hair or any fun, I can have a cat.’ George was not listening. He was reading his book.
His wife looked out of the window where the light had come on in the square. Someone knocked at the door. ‘Avanti,’ George
said. He looked up from his book. In the doorway stood the maid. She held a big tortoiseshell cat pressed tight against her and
swung down against her body. ‘Excuse me,’ she said, ‘the padrone asked me to bring this for the Signora.’
Causes low academic performance
Poverty
There is a direct link between poverty and academic performance. According to a research,
children living below the poverty threshold are 1.3 times as likely as nonpoor children to
experience learning disabilities and developmental delays. And the findings suggest that the
effects of poverty on children’s cognitive development occur early. This shows that there is a
relationship between poverty and academic performance.

Poor Health
A child suffering from ill health may not be able to do well academically. For example, children
suffering from asthma are prone poor academic person if the ailment is poorly management.

It is the work of the teachers and parents to know how to manage the health of their children so
as not to impact their academic performance.

Broken home experience

This is a problem caused by parents to their children. The effect of a broken home on
children makes them lose concentration at school and even make them lose interest in
learning.

Education is one of the most important aspects of human resource development.

1. Adopt a positive mental attitude

In the face of lower-than-expected grades, it’s only human to react by feeling disappointed with oneself. When you’re frequently receiving lower grades
than you’d hoped for, you may start to feel depressed or defeated, and feel like giving up. The first step on the road to improving your grades is to turn
this negativity on its head. You need to be positive about the situation if you’re to stand a chance of improving it. Acknowledge that your grades aren’t
what you’re aiming for, but believe that you can do something about it. Start by mentally taking control of the situation: instead of thinking “I’m a failure”,
think “I can and will do better than this.” Don’t give up – take positive steps towards achieving the improvement you’re more than capable of achieving.

2. Work out where you’re falling short

You need to work out which areas need targeting before you can draw up a plan of action, so the next step is to figure out the areas in which you’re
underperforming, and why. Are your grades consistently lower than you’d like them to be across all your subjects, or is there one particular area you’re
struggling with that’s bringing down your overall performance in a particular subject? Take a look at your grades over the last few months and look for
patterns. Has there been a general decline in academic achievement, or have your grades in certain areas always been lower than you’d hoped? Are
your grades always low in the same areas, such as one problem subject? You’ll probably already have a vague idea of the answers to these questions,
but seeing your grades written down on paper – perhaps even in graph format – can help you see things more clearly.

Next, think about the reasons why you’re not performing to your full academic potential in the areas you’ve identified. Are there external factors that
may be negatively affecting your grades, such as a family problem or worrying about a social situation at school? Are you struggling with any particular
academic skills that might be dragging you down, such as essay-writing or note-taking? And are you studying in a way that works for you? These are
all factors that could be affecting your academic performance, so once you’ve isolated what the problem is – it could be a combination of more than
one of these issues – you’ll be able to start tackling it. If the problems are external, you’ll need to take steps towards getting them to a point at which
they no longer adversely affect your studies; seeing a counsellor might help, for instance. If they’re academic, read the rest of this article for some
suggestions on how you can improve.
 

5. Start organising your life

Clutter of any kind inhibits our ability to operate efficiently, so another way of improving your academic performance is
to get organised. Keep your workspace tidy and all your notes and textbooks organised in such a way that you know
where everything is. Start thinking more about your time management, too, as this will allow you to prioritise your time
effectively, freeing time for problem subjects. Write yourself a daily timetable that incorporates your school schedule,
dividing your day into slots of time and fitting in plenty of time for studying. Allocate extra time to subjects or topics
you’ve identified as being ones you’re struggling with; it could be that the reason for your underperformance in these
subjects is that you’re simply not devoting enough time to them.

  10. Stop procrastinating

One of the reasons why you’re underperforming could be that you’re spending too much time procrastinating – that is,
putting off work by distracting yourself with other things, such as social media. This is a common response to a big
workload; when you have so much to do that you don’t know where to start, the temptation is simply not to start. The
problem is that in doing so, you’re delaying the inevitable, as well as making your task worse by eating into the time
when you could be productive. If you’re guilty of procrastination – and we all are at some point or another – take a
look at our article on five reasons we procrastinate and how to stop it.
 

12. Make learning more fun

Sometimes students underperform because they have simply lost the motivation to learn. It’s not surprising, when the
pressure of exams and doing well at school takes away the enjoyment of learning. It’s easy to get so focused on
achieving top grades that you forget that learning can actually be fun – and not only that, but it’s much easier to do
well when you’re enjoying it. If studying has become a chore for you, it’s time to put the fun back into learning. You
could do this by gamifying your studies, or by trying some of the ideas in our article on 15 ways to make studying less
stressful.

  Fast Food’s Prompt Harm To Your Wellbeing

In our general public today, there are numerous medical problems. Individuals are picking junk food more, since there are such a large number of
cheap food eateries. Individuals aren’t notwithstanding contemplating what nourishment they put in their mouths. Everyone needs to understand
that the more fat and cholesterol they put into their bodies, the slower their heart will thump, and that will prompt shorter lives. A few people
acknowledge they are unhealthy and made the decision to eat healthier, yet the fats and cholesterol in the sustenance is drawing them back in.

Everybody should reconsider before choosing to eat fast food. There are numerous wellbeing dangers with regards to eating sustenance that is
made inside a matter of seconds. The sustenance isn’t legitimately dealt with, which drives the distance back to where the nourishment is initially
created. Regardless of whether it is anything but difficult to purchase and shabby, the wellbeing dangers exceed the five minutes of fulfillment
that fast food brings. One ought to painstakingly think before they eat fast food.

The health risks that originate from eating so much fast food are dangerous. Obesity can originate from eating junk food that is purchased
frequently. Fast food is produced using a great deal of high immersed fats and calories on the off chance that it isn’t work off, at that point you
can develop to end up obesity. Indeed, even a little amount of junk food contains high calories. Individuals are tricked by the amount and they
have a tendency to eat more. In this way, without knowing, they expend a ton of calories. This is a prime precedent on how individuals can
devour such a large number of calories, and without knowing. Obesity isn’t the main hazard, since coronary illness is likewise a prime factor.
What you eat can influence your heart’s wellbeing and your odds of creating dangerous coronary illness. When you eat the majority of the fats,
sugars, and salts, your heart can become frail and it will imperil you. There is no protected hazard for your body with regards to eating junk food.
Nourishment borne illnesses can originate from out junk food. What many people don’t know is the conditions the animals are living in before
they’re executed. Dairy animals are being hung upside, pigs and chickens are confined in enclosed spaces. Inside the office, the animals are
beaten yet again to be grouped into put. In one case, a man is seen punching, kicking and kneeing a pig, at that point hitting it with a steel
staggering tong no less than 20 times, as the animals shouts. What can originate from those living conditions? Distinctive microscopic organisms
that enters our sustenance. An ongoing report has uncovered that an entire 48% of soda wellsprings at fast food eateries contain coliform
microbes – which develops in defecation. 11% containted E. It’s to a great degree sickening to see that even our sodas are presently tainted by
sustenance borne ailments that for the most part get from meat.

In the Unified States, sustenance borne illnesses have been evaluated to make 6 million 81 million ailments and up to 9,000 passings every year.
Anybody one of these numbers can be from somebody’s family. The greater part of this microbes is found in the nourishment you eat from your
neighborhood junk food joint. Eating at one of these spots can cost a huge number of dollars in healing facility charges, all in light of an ailing
burger.

Everybody should reconsider before choosing to eat fast food. The wellbeing dangers aren’t justified regardless of your life, and animal that live
in butcher houses aren’t dealt with appropriately or cleanly before they’re passing, which can cause numerous nourishment borne ailments to
possess sustenance. In spite of the fact that it is anything but difficult to purchase and shoddy, gambling a life for something that isn’t useful for
any individual in any case could cost a large number of dollars in healing center bills. It is imperative to eat well and use sound judgment when
choosing what to put in your body. Try not to be apathetic and get fast food on your route home from work. Settle on the correct decision and eat
a few vegetables.

Another thought, is supplant a portion of the junk food restaurants with restaurants that serve plates of mixed greens and sound subs, similar to
Subway. I do need to concede that individuals don’t generally have room schedule-wise to go home and get something beneficial to eat, so they
go to McDonald’s, Burger King, or Wendy’s. Furthermore, have you at any point saw that in the event that you take out the “s” in fast, it winds
up fat food. Having lousy nourishment is terrible for you yet having, possibly, once like clockwork, at that point that would be alright in light of
the fact that you wouldn’t have a lot of it. I’m certain that very few individuals see medical problems in nourishment as I do. Be that as it may, it
is a major issue. We don’t need to boycott “fat nourishments”, yet we can at least restrict them, making for a more beneficial eating routine. That
way, everybody will have a long and upbeat, solid life.