Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow:
I wish I’d been that much more willin’
When I had more tooth there than fillin’
To pass up gobstoppers.
From respect to me choppers,
And to buy something else with me shillin’.
Paraphrase: The poet feels that she was not wise enough to look after her teeth. She used her only shilling to buy hard sweets and candies like gobstoppers which she cut with all respect with her knife. She should have used her shilling for buying something that was good for teeth rather than buying gobstoppers. She should have taken all these precautions when she had many more healthy teeth than the ‘filled’ ones.
(a) Was the poet wise enough to look after her teeth?
(b) What should she have done with her shilling?
(c) What are ‘gobstoppers’?
(a) The poet was not wise enough to look after her teeth because she allowed them to decay and deteriorate.
(b) She should have made better use of her shilling and she should not have bought sweets and candies with it.
(c) Gobstoppers are a large, hard sweet made from the dried root of the liquorice plant.