John's Toothache

John had an extremely bad toothache. However, he wanted to avoid going to the dentist. So, John decided to hide his toothache from his parents. He went about his day, playing and going to school, and his parents never suspected anything. His toothache, however, only grew worse with time. When alone, John would moan and cry about the horrible pain that was slowly making it difficult for him to eat. He knew that his parents would find out about his wretched state and would definitely scold him.

One evening during dinner, John chewed on something hard, which aggravated his toothache. John suddenly cried out in pain. His parents looked at him anxiously as John dropped the food that he was eating. He clutched at his cheek and howled with pain, not bothering to conceal his discomfort this time.

“Do you have a toothache, John?” his mom asked.

John, in his miserable state, could only nod.

His mom gave him an earful: “Why didn't you tell us about this earlier? If we had visited the doctor earlier, you wouldn't be in so much pain now.”

As he and his parents drove to the dentist the next day, he reflected on how foolish he was to wait so long to tell them about it.

A.
to be more than
B.
to ease up
C.
to make worse
D.
to be related to