The Six O’Clock News

 

Vocabulary

kale	lettuce	carrots
garlic	stall (2)	mushrooms
sack	stallholder	leaf/leaves
fresh	garden	village
enough	carry	think/thought
kid	used to	quiche
hungry	kitchen	telenovela
after	while	after a while
decide	break (2)	commercial (2)
hand	prepare	handful
wash	chop	plate
add	quickly	dressing
miss (2)	resume	transfix
view	following	flash flood
flood	destroy	homeless
involve	switch (2)	head-on collision
stall	collide	motorway
stab	traffic	suspect
rebel	fight	continue
troops	crowded	government
area	light (2)	shopping area
stand up	turn off	light-headed
dizzy	turn off	wobbly
maybe	ought to	lie down
wall	spin	corridor
crash	stumble	towards
twirl	blotch	ceiling
puff	fuzzy	forget/forgot
spread	dissolve	in front of
drench	sweat	eternity
grab	again	remaining
tap	weed	notice
among	take out	carefully
headed	waste bin	trash can
odd	pedal	step (3)
lid	familiar	catch your attention
drop	attention	catch/caught
edge	radiate	serrated
tip	stem

 
 

Vegetable Stalls

Some carrots. Peas. Kale. Lettuce. Garlic, mushrooms, and broccoli.

“Okay that’s it,” Sarah told the stallholder.

“How about some of this,” said the stallholder pointing to a large sack of green leaves. “It’s fresh spinach. They come from my grandmother’s garden in her village.”

Sarah thought she had enough produce to carry back to her apartment. ‘Oh, but why not. I can cook my favourite spinach quiche tonight, just like my mother used to when I was a kid,’ she thought.

“Well.…alright, I’ll have a kilo of spinach.”

With all her bags of vegetables, Sarah returned home.

Telenovela

She put her bags on her kitchen table, then went to her living room and turned on her TV. Just in time for her favourite Telenovela.

‘This show’s making me hungry,’ she felt after a while.

So at the first commercial break, Sarah went into the kitchen and decided to prepare — a salad.

A Salad

Taking a head of romaine lettuce and a handful of spinach, she washed and chopped them up, put them on a plate, and added some dressing.

Quickly—she didn’t want to miss any part of the show.

Returning to her TV, she resumed her transfixed viewing as she ate her salad.

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

The Six O’Clock Evening News

Following that, the evening news came on.
“Good evening. Welcome to the Six O’clock News. Today flash floods have destroyed thousands of homes. Tens of thousands of people have been made homeless.…” Sarah switched the channel.

“…Three cars were involved in head on collisions along the North-bound motorway. Traffic was stalled for several kilometres…” Switch.

“…Police are on the look out for a man suspected of stabbing…” Switch.

“…Fighting continues today between rebel forces and government troops…” Switch.

“…Today a bomb exploded in a crowded shopping area…”

Dizzy

Sarah began to feel a little light-headed. She turned off the TV and stood up….but felt dizzy. Her legs felt wobbly.

‘Maybe I ought to lie down,’ she thought. As she walked towards her bedroom, the corridor walls seemed to spin around her.

Sarah stumbled into her bedroom and crashed onto her bed. She looked at the ceiling as it twirled around her.

Lying in Bed

‘OH MY GOSH….’ She could see fuzzy, black-purple blotches puffing, spreading and dissolving in front of her.….

Suddenly…after what had seemed like an eternity…it all stopped. Sarah found herself drenched in sweat.

And she felt hungry again.

In the Kitchen

She returned to the kitchen. ‘Okay, let me start cooking spinach quiche. That will made me forget about what had just happened.’

Sarah grabbed the remaining spinach and began washing them under the tap. Slowly this time.

As she did so she noticed some weeds among them.

How sloppy.

Throw Away

She carefully took them out and headed over to the waste bin.

Stepping on the foot pedal, she opened the lid. Sarah was just about to drop the weeds in — when something caught her attention: they looked oddly familiar.

They consisted of numerous serrated-edged, pointed leaves that radiated from the tips of their stems.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

1. Sarah was at a supermarket. Yes or no?

2. What did she buy?

3. Where did the spinach come from?

4. She likes drama. True of false?

5. Did Sarah like the news?

6. What happened to her?

7. What did she do at the end?
 

A. Do you shop for groceries? If yes, where do you normally do your grocery shopping?

B. Can you cook? What are your favourite dishes?

C. What should you do if you feel ill?

D. Do you watch much TV? If yes, what are your favourite programs?

E. Is it important for people to watch the news?