Basic Reading — 第五冊

🔊The elementary students in this class are cleaning up their room. Two boys in the back left are cleaning the blinds with a duster that has a long handle. A girl squatting on the shelf is cleaning the windows. One of the girls is bent over using a dustpan to pick up the excess liquid. The rest of the students and their teacher are looking after the floor.

🔊Even with daily sweeping and mopping, the floor still becomes quite dirty over time. Once a semester, the students have to give the floor a heavy-duty scrubbing. The work is all done by hand. They use mops and scrub brushes in addition to water mixed with cleaning solution. They must scrub very hard to remove the build-up of dirt left behind from previous spills and messes.

🔊Everyone is hard at work and yet the teacher seems to be standing still. She is covering her nose because of the fumes of the cleaning solution. The students wear masks because of this, too and because there is dust floating around.

🔊It is important that no one goofs around while cleaning the wet slippery floor or someone might fall. Still, they need to work fast, so that they can get back to their studies. But as long as everyone pitches in and does their part, it shouldn’t take too long.

🔊Many large shopping centers and malls have areas where you can eat. These places are called food courts. They are designed to keep people in shopping centers longer—a hungry customer isn’t going to stick around if there is nothing to eat.

🔊Food courts usually have many independent vendors along the outside and large eating areas in the middle with tables and chairs. First you choose what you want to eat and then you find a place to sit. It is a good idea if you are eating out with friends because you can all eat different restaurants while sitting at the same table.

🔊Types of foods vary greatly and cater to many tastes. Chinese, Italian, Japanese and American foods are the most common and can be found in food courts throughout the world. There are so many choices that even the fussiest eater should be able to find something for lunch.

🔊Food courts may not be a fine dining experience, but they are convenient. They are also usually cheap and relatively clean. More importantly, though, they will fill you up and get you back shopping in no time.

🔊My name is Luka (the cute girl with the biggest trophy) and I love memorizing English vocabulary. I don't know why, but it is very fun. My friends think it is weird and like to tease me about it. Sometimes it bothers me, but I know that my strange fascination will help me in the future.

🔊A while back my school decided to hold a vocabulary contest. I immediately signed up. There was no way I could miss an opportunity to prove to my friends that my obsession was worthwhile. Luckily for me, I walked away with the top spot in the competition.

🔊The awards presentation took place two weeks after the competition because the judges needed time to mark the written test. The ceremony took place at my junior high school in one of the classrooms.

🔊The top ten places in the competition each received an award certificate and a red envelope. In addition, the top three got trophies. My trophy was the biggest because I got first place. It was plastic with a tacky angel on the top, but at least I got something to prove to my friends that I won. Now maybe they will stop teasing me all the time.

🔊Carrie loves nothing better than to spend the day shopping. This is one of her favorite clothing stores, called Thrifty Girl. As the name implies, it is for those who are a little cheap. Carrie comes here almost every chance she gets and will spend hours searching the racks for bargains.

🔊Picture 1 Look! Carrie has found a white, hooded sweater. It is so pretty. Holding it up to admire it, she hopes that it fits because there are no more in any size.

🔊Picture 2 Taking the sweater by the hanger, Carrie walks to the change room to try it on. She knocks on the door first to make sure that the small booth is not occupied. No one responds, so she opens the door.

🔊Picture 3 The mirror attached to the front of the door is a good place to see how she looks in the sweater. Turning from side to side as if she were modeling, she scrutinizes every inch of the sweater. Carrie is quite pleased with the look and feel of the new sweater. Back into the change room she goes to change back into her old clothes.

🔊Now that she has a new article of clothing, her shopping addiction is satisfied—for the time being at least. She takes the hoody to the cashier to pay and then happily exits the store.

🔊I have always wanted to play tennis. Ever since I can remember, the sport has fascinated me. But like everything in my life, I just look from the outside and never get involved.

🔊“Why don’t you just try it out?” my friends say to me. My response is always the same. “I am too shy.”

🔊My shy nature seems to keep me from trying a lot of new things. It isn’t that I don’t want to do new things, it’s just that I am nervous and I don’t want people to see me. I’m afraid they will laugh at me or tease me.

🔊Thankfully someone invented interactive video games. Now that I have a Wii, I can try all kinds of new sports without ever having to leave the house. I can play tennis, golf, table tennis and I can even dance. This great technology really makes you feel like you are a part of the action. You even get some exercise while you play. The best part is I can do all of this in the comfort of my own home.

🔊My father says that I shouldn’t play it so much. He thinks that I need to get outside more or else my shyness will get worse. He also says that I need to spend more time on my homework and less time playing games.

🔊My grades have been slipping ever since I got the Wii, but this is only because I am not studying 24 hours a day now. He doesn’t understand that I need to relax and have fun sometimes. If he had his way, I would have a pencil in one hand and a book in the other all day long. He has even threatened to take my Wii away if my grades don’t improve. He just doesn’t realize the value of video games. One day I will be a virtual tennis star. And what good will all that time wasted studying be to me then? My father just doesn’t understand reality.

🔊Cara’s button has fallen off her jacket. In order to put it back on, she will have to put her sewing skills to the test. Luckily, her mother has a small sewing kit for such occasions.

🔊Perhaps the most difficult part of sewing is threading the needle. It requires good hand-eye coordination to feed the tiny thread through the microscopic eye of the needle. Sometimes it helps to moisten the end of the thread a bit, especially if it is frayed.

🔊“I finally got it!” Cara yells after three hours of trying to thread the needle.

🔊Cara holds the button in place while she pushes the needle through the button hole into the fabric. After pulling the thread all the way to the knot on the end, she turns the needle and pushes it back up through a different hole. She repeats this process many times. When she is sure the button is secure, she ties a knot in the thread and she is finished.

🔊Oops! There seems to be a small problem. Due to a preexisting medical condition, Cara has no feeling in the fingers of her left hand. As a result, she has accidentally sewn her hand to the jacket. Better luck next time, Cara.

🔊Painting is not so much fun, but every now and then it has to be done. Walls become dirty or just fade over time and start to look dull and drab. The only thing that will spice them up is a fresh coat of paint. You CAN do it yourself, but why waste your time when you can hire someone to do it for you?

🔊This is the guy to call. He is a professional painter, which means he paints for a living. He can do the job faster and better than most people. It may cost more to hire him than by doing it yourself, but the end result is going to be much better.

🔊Here, he is standing on a stepladder so that he can reach the higher areas. He is holding a paintbrush in his right hand and a can of white paint in his left.

🔊The bottom half of the wall is already finished, but he still has the top half to go. He uses a brush for corners and obstacles, like light switches, fuse panels or anything else that can’t be painted with a roller. For larger areas, it is much quicker for him to use a roller. He also covers up the furniture and puts plastic on part of the floor so that paint doesn’t get splashed or spilled on it.

🔊No matter who paints, you should remember to wear a mask. Paint fumes are quite toxic and are not good to inhale. You can also open the windows in the room to allow fresh air inside. If you paint a bedroom, it is best to let it air out for a couple of days before you sleep in it. You can use it as an excuse to go on a holiday for a couple of days.

🔊This is a pay-and-park style parking lot. Before you can enter, you must take a ticket from the ticket dispenser. After the ticket is issued, the arm on the gate will lift, allowing you to drive your car inside.

🔊Parking lots like this are usually monitored by surveillance cameras or, at the very least, a parking attendant and sometimes both. This means that it is much safer for your car. You won’t have to worry about someone just taking off with your automobile or vandalizing it. Someone will always be watching.

🔊When you are ready to leave, you drive up to the tollbooth next to the exit. Then hand your ticket to the attendant and pay the parking fee. Once you have paid, the attendant will push a button and the arm will lift to let you out.

🔊Most parking lots like this one have hourly and daily rates. You might also be able to pay by the month if you work nearby and want to use it every day. The prices are very reasonable and will give you peace of mind knowing that your car is going to be there when you get back.

🔊Parking lots, such as this one, are not nearly common enough in Taiwan. Parking is a real concern with motorists and scooter riders who spend precious time daily trying to find an available spot to park in. They may cost you a few dollars, but, as far as I’m concerned, the convenience is worth it.

🔊In the good old days, we had Sony Walkmans. They would play our cassette tapes as we ran or walked. They seemed liked God’s gift to music lovers and their popularity skyrocketed overnight.

🔊Then along came the Discman. When the first models came out, they seemed like a step backward in technology. They were bigger and skipped every time you moved. Many people were hesitant to make the switch from their old walkmans because of this. But they did get much better, just in time to be replaced by MP players.

🔊Now you can download hundreds of personally selected songs into tiny devices that fit in the palm of your hand. Just stick the earphones in your ears, hit play and they become instant mobile entertainment centers.

🔊Some of them have all sorts of fancy features, like doubling as a memory device for your computer. You can save all sorts of files on them just like you would on a flash drive. First and foremost though, they are for music.

🔊Now it is hard to walk down any street without seeing someone singing along with their tiny technological wonders. But for how long? MP players are already taking over and after that…who knows? Maybe people will be able to download songs directly into their brains!

🔊Jeff’s friend Norman was bitten by a mosquito earlier in the day. Afterwards, Norman began to feel a bit woozy, so he had to lie down to take a nap. It seems the mosquito must have been carrying some kind of virus and had infected Norman.

🔊A couple of hours later, Jeff went to check on Norman and found that he was running a fever. He was also losing consciousness.

🔊Jeff frantically ran to the kitchen to prepare an ice pack. He quickly put some ice into a bag and filled it partially with water. Hopefully, this would bring Norman’s temperature down.

🔊Jeff then hurried back to the bedroom where Norman was rambling on incoherently. He placed the ice pack on his delirious friend’s forehead and sat down.

🔊While Jeff was waiting for the fever to break, he soothed Norman with a lullaby that his grandmother used to sing to him. Jeff continued to serenade Norman long into the night.

🔊Though Jeff was very kind, he lacked somewhat in the intelligence department. Though he meant well, in all the time he was kindly trying to nurse his friend back to health, not once did he think to phone a doctor. Sadly, Norman didn’t make it to see the morning.