English Grammar through Stories
by Alan Townend
Photocopiable
© www.english-test.net
13
money but at the same time there is a little voice at the back of
peoples' minds that
is suggesting
to them that there will also be
bargains if they wait until the last minute. Habit is a significant factor
in all this. You did this last year while you were taking down the
Christmas decorations and therefore without realizing it, you
will be
doing
exactly the same this year. You sit back in your favourite
armchair and say: «In six months' time I
shall be sitting
on a sunny
beach somewhere and I
shall be reading
my favourite book.»
The Marvells did not believe in leaving things to chance. They
believed in planning. On a winter evening around mid-January in the
Marvell household the following would be a typical conversation:
«
Are you thinking
, what
I'm thinking
Daisy?» — «I'll tell you what
I'm thinking: I'm dreaming
of my summer holiday at the moment in
a lovely warm place, And.» She
was being
very romantic when she
called him «And». «And, And (this was Daisy's sense of humour)
where
will you be taking
your holiday this summer?» — «I
was
thinking
perhaps we might try Majorca, it's said to be very pretty.»
At this stage of the conversation there would be the sound of
screams of laughter and the following day Andrew usually booked the
holiday. The next-door neighbours, the long-suffering Nortons, heard
the laughter too, turned to each other and said: «They're obviously
making arrangements to go to Majorca again.»
When Andrew finished work that Monday and
was walking
down the
high street to the station to get his train home, he decided to call in
at the travel agents to make his booking. When he reached the door,
it didn't seem to open in the usual manner. In fact to his surprise it
opened outwards instead of inwards. He ought to know, he thought,
he'd been pushing
and not
pulling
it several times a year over the
last twenty-five and he usually went to young Jack (now old Jack)
who'd been working
there over the same period of time. The layout
was different, too. Something strange
was happening
and poor
Andrew couldn't make it out. There was the smell of damp and hot
hair. «Can I help you, sir?» asked a young woman in a white overall.
— «
I've been coming
here for the last twenty ...» Andrew's jaw
dropped. For a moment he thought he
was standing
in the wrong
shop, dashed outside and then came back in again. Maybe he
was
dreaming
but then it dawned on him, the travel agents had gone and
been replaced by a hairdressers. The woman explained: «We opened
last week and
are opening
another new premises by the park next
month. The travel agents
have been experiencing
a difficult time this
year. They
weren't getting
their regular customers.» Andrew just
couldn't handle it. If Daisy were here, she
would be feeling
the same.
He tried to picture how he
would be explaining
it to her. What
would
she be doing
right now at home? She
would
probably
be preparing
the supper and
expecting
to see the receipt for the booking as he
came through the door. What could he do? He was in a hairdressing
salon and it was a uni-sex one as well! He didn't know what to do,
where to look.
When Andrew eventually reached home about two hours later, Daisy
was speaking
on the phone. She
had been going
frantic trying to find
out what had happened to Andrew. As she
was watching
him come
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