Story : Summer holidays
【明報專訊】On the way home from school, the students are chatting happily about the summer holiday.
"This will be our first REAL summer holiday in years!" squawks the parrot loudly. "My whole family is flying off to islands in the northeast to visit my grandparents."
"That sounds fun," says the lamb. "My mom is taking us back to our home village, now that the border is open again."
"Do you know what plans Mom and Dad made for us?" Brother Bear asks his little sister. "Let's hurry home and find out!"
Mother Bear is busy preparing dinner when the children get home. "Goodness me, is it summer so soon? The year flies by too fast! Your father and I have been so busy we haven't really thought about the long holidays. When father comes home tonight, let's talk about it then," she suggests. The two children wait excitedly, thinking of all the different places they can go to, and all the different activities they can do.
Father Bear comes home later than usual and after giving the children big hugs, he says to his wife, "I'm so sorry I'm late. There's just too much work at the office. Let's have dinner -- the food is getting cold."
As the family sit around the table to enjoy their evening meal, the two young bears ask about their summer vacation.
"Oh dear," exclaims their father. "Is it summer already? How quickly the year has gone by!"
"That's exactly how I feel too," agrees Mrs Bear. "Life seems much busier this year. I've hardly had time to think about anything but work."
"Same here," says her husband. "Our company can't find enough workers, so we're short of staff and most of us are doing overtime . Until we can hire new workers, no one can take any long leave. The best I can get is a few long weekends."
The children are disappointed to hear these words but Mrs Bear consoles her husband saying, "A long weekend is like a mini holiday. We can still have a break and have a good time."
"You're right, my dear. I'll work extra hard this month and get most of the paperwork done. Then next month, I'll take every Friday off and we can have four long weekends -- one for each of us. Each one decides what the family will do that weekend. What do you think? "
The children are delighted and jump for joy. Mrs Bear says smiling happily , "I'm so glad -- now we can all visit my parents over the border."
"I'm going to play football!"
"I'm going to paint and draw!"
"I'm going to go hiking, camping and fishing!" says Mr Bear laughing. "What a wonderful time we'll have -- four fantastic holidays."
"Yes, yes!" shout the children. "We get to do what we like. We each get to choose. This may be the best holiday ever!"
■Useful vocabulary
holiday (n): vacation, break
to go on holiday/vacation/leave: to take a long break
to have a rest: to take a short break from work
Something to think about
How do you plan to spend your summer holiday?
■Glossary
overtime (n)……加班
weekend (n)……周末
console (v)……安慰
wonderful (adj)……精彩的
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[Smarties' Power English 第380期]
