They were in the living-room eating

They were in the living-room eating their suppers on their knees in front of the telly. Mrs Wormwood sat munching her meal with her eyes glued to the American soap-opera on the screen. She was a large woman whose hair was dyed platinum blonde and whose make-up was.
"Mummy," Matilda said, "would you mind if I ate my supper in the dining-room so I could read my book?"
The father glanced up sharply. "I would mind!" he snapped. "Supper is a family gathering and no one leaves the table till it's over!"
"But we're not at the table," Matilda said. "We never are. We're always eating off our knees and watching the telly.”
"What's wrong with watching the telly, may I ask?" the father said. His voice had suddenly become soft and dangerous.
Matilda didn't trust herself to answerser him, so she kept quiet. She could feel the anger boiling up inside her. She knew it was wrong to hate her parents like this, but she was finding it very hard not to do so. All the reading she had done had given her a view of life that they had never seen. If only they would read a little Dickens or Kipling they would soon discover there was more to life than cheating people and watching television.
(In one of such evenings, a teacher of Matilda came to visit her parents.)