M:No,Doug.Remember? We met at Gary’s party last Friday night.

W:Oh,yeah.Now I remember.Yowere standing all alone...uh,oh,I mean...I mean,you...yoknow.We started talking about school and stuff.Uh,how did yoknow I lived here?

M:Well,I just live around the corner,and I asked Gary if he knew how I could contact you,and...

W:And?

M:Well,I was just wondering if you’d like to go out this Thursday night.Well,there’s this realgreat movie playing downtown at the theatre,and I thought...well.well,we can’t use my carbecause I was in an accident with this wild animal driving this BMW,so I’ve already checked the bus schedule,and...

W:Uh?hem Well,David.Oh yeah.Doug.I’m sorry,but I have to work that evening.

(Text 9)

W:What part of the paper are yoreading?

M:Travel.

W:Are yothinking about our vacation already?

M:Yes,it’s not so far away.I’ve been looking at some of these ads.

W:Why don’t we just go to the same place we went to last year?

M:I won’t stay at that hotel again.There wasn’t enough to do.

W:Do yohave a better idea for this year?

M:Yes,I do.Look at this ad.It looks like a good vacation to me.

W:“Three weeks.” “Ten exciting ports.”“Use the ship as your hotel.” How much does it cost?

M:We’d have to call the travel office to get the price.

W:It must be expensive if they don’t give the price in the ad.And besides,I’d rather we stayed in one place.

M:I don’t want to sit on the same beach and eat the same food and look at the same walls every day for three or four weeks.

W:Yoknow the doctor said yoshouldn’t try to do too much.

M:He didn’t say that I had to sit in the same chair all day long.

(Text 10)

The word “pub”is the short form for“public house”in Great Britain.It is supposed to be the Englishmen’s favorite meeting place,where they can get together with friends over a pint of beer and talk about football,horse racing,or business.Pubs are usually open from 11 a.m. to midnight.Yomay notice that the pub is the Englishmen’s meeting place.It is not quite respectable for a woman to go into a pub alone.She must have a man to go with her.Perhaps that’s partly the reason why pubs depress me—they are intended mainly to provide for male interests.Most Englishmen have their favorite local pubs,where they can escape from the pressure of family life or work,and if they are lucky they tell their troubles to a pretty bar-girl.Indeed,many men dream of retiring from their 9 to 5 jobs and buying a little country pub,where they imagine they always be the host of a week-long party.