Sunday Evenings

 
 

Vocabulary

tata	in law	feel/felt/felt
crash	funeral	pass away
shrug	puzzled	exhausted
heavy	accident	honey (2)
shout	cautious	attentive (2)
still	out loud	deliberate
sewer	softball	beat/beat/beaten (2)
faucet	bathtub	turn on/off
tears	plumber	stream (3)
sob	dress (2)	fall/fell/fallen

 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 

Sunday Evening

It was a Sunday evening, and Barny was going to bed. He and his family had just come home from a visit to his father-in-law.

As he walked by his nine-year-old son’s room, Barney heard him on say, “God is good, God is great . . .”
“That’s a good boy,” thought Barney.
“Tata grandpa.”

“Huh? ‘Tata grandpa?’ What is he talking about?” thought Barney. But feeling tired, he went into his room and fell asleep.

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

The next day, after returning home from work, Barney’s wife greeted him in the living room. “Oh Barney, my father passed away in a car crash this morning,” she said.

And so a few days later they attended his funeral.

Sunday, Two

The following Sunday, as Barney passed by his son’s room, he heard him say, “God is good, God is great . . . tata aunty.”

Again Barney was puzzled, but exhausted, he went to bed.

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

After returning home from work the next day, Barney’s wife met him in the kitchen. “Oh dear, my sister passed away this afternoon,” she told him. “She had an accident at her factory with one of the heavy machines.”

They went to her funeral several days later.

Sunday, Three

That Sunday evening, Barney heard his son again as he went by his room: “God is good, God is great — tata daddy.”

“Oh, my god!” Barney nearly shouted out loud.

That night he could not sleep at all.

In the morning, Barney drove slowly and extra cautiously to work. At the office he performed all this tasks in a very carefully, attentively and deliberate manner.

When it was five o’clock, instead of taking his car, he left it there and took a taxi home.

Barney then entered his house, stood still, looked up and said, “HAH! I MADE IT! I WON!”

“What was that, honey?” asked his wife from the kitchen.
“Oh . . . uh . . . Nothing,” replied Barney. “I was just thinking about the company bowling last month.”

He then went to the bathroom, undressed and got into the bathtub.

Barney turned on the faucet . . . but nothing came out.

“Honey, do you know what’s wrong with the water?” he asked his wife.

His wife came in and turned the faucet, but nothing happened.

“Alright, I’ll call the plumber,” she said.

A few minutes later, she returned, tears streaming down her face. “I called the plumber,” she sobbed. “But his wife answered and said that at about noon today, he had fallen in a sewer hole — and died!”

*     *     *     *     *     *     *

Questions

1. Barney first heard his son in the morning at the breakfast table. True or false? What was his son doing?

2. Was Barney completely happy and pleased with his son?

3. The next day, everything was normal. Is this right or wrong? What had happened?

4. Did Barney completely understand his son on the second Sunday evening? What had happened?

5. What happened the next day?

6. Barney had a good night sleep on the third Sunday. Is this correct or incorrect? Why couldn’t he sleep? Did he behave differently the next day?

7. What happened in the end? Did his wife behave just like she did in the previous times?

 
 

A. Have you heard this joke before? Have you heard similar jokes to this in the past?

B. Are jokes in your culture similar to those in the UK or US?

C. Are there (many) different types of jokes, i.e. wordplay, puns, irony, ethnic?

D. My friends like to tell jokes. Yes or no? Does everyone like jokes?

E. People should tells more jokes and laugh more. What do you think?

F. Has joking changed over the years? What will it be like in the future?