A Basic Course Two Unit one: Bill Jones My name is Jones and I am a student. Actually, my first name is William. “Bill” is short for William. I was born in a little country town not far from here. I was born on June 17, 1941. I have two sisters and two brothers. My father’s name is George and my mother’s name is Marilyn. I have many friends in this city. Last year I was in the hospital during the month of July. I was in the hospital for twenty-two days. My friend, John, was in the hospital for two weeks last year. He was in the hospital during the month of March. My friend, John, has a good radio and a phonograph. He has many phonograph records. He doesn’t have a television set, but I have one. My television set is a small one, but it’s a very good one. During the week I get up before seven o’clock and I study all day. I study engineering. On Saturdays and Sundays I don’t get up early. Unit TWO: Mr. W. R . Jackson My name is W.R.Jackson. My first name is Willard and my middle name is Ross. I was born in November, 1937, in a small town near here. My native language is English. I speak a little Spanish, a little German and a little Japanese. I don’t speak these languages very well. I often make mistakes when I speak these languages. My wife’s name is Jane Jackson. Her family name was Smith. My wife’s native language is English, but she speaks several languages. She speaks French exceptionally well. She speaks Spanish and Portuguese, too. She speaks a little Arabic. Her father’s native language is English, but her mother’s native language is French. My wife’s father is an engineer and so am I. My wife’s father was in the hospital last year and so was I. He was in the hospital for three weeks during the month of April, and I was in the hospital for two weeks during the month of July. Unit three: Walter Sullivan My last name is Sullivan and I was born in American. My first name is Walter. My sister’s name is Margret and my brother’s name is Leo. I speak French pretty well and a little Japanese. Actually, my native language is English. I’m studying French right now. My sister, Margret, is writing a letter to a friend of hers in South America. Her friend is an engineer. He speaks Spanish. He’s studying English now but he doesn’t speak English very well yet. Her friend’s name is Mario. I don’t remember his last name. At the moment, my brother Leo is reading a magazine. The magazine is in French. Leo reads French very well, and he speaks exceptionally well. Right now, I’m thinking about my French lesson. I have a lot of trouble with pronunciation. I speak French with an American accent. Unit four: Joyce Lewis Today is my birthday and I’m twenty-one years old. My name is Joyce Lewis and my father is Dr.Frank Lewis. He’s a doctor in this city and people think he’s an extremely good doctor. My mother is a nurse. She’s a very good nurse. I have two brothers and one sister. Right now my older brother is in the Middle East. He speaks Arabic very well and has many friends in the Middle East. My sister is a student, and my younger brother, Tom is a student too. Both my sister and Tom want to be teachers. They’re studying languages and both of them want to be language teachers. My father’s brother, Uncle Charles, is a farmer. My mother’s brother, Uncle William, is an engineer. Both of my uncles are still very young. People can’t guess how old they are. Uncle Charles is thirty-five and Uncle William is thirty-six. Uncle William was not well last year. He was in the hospital for several weeks. My father was his doctor. My father was with my uncle every day in the hospital, and my mother was there once or twice a week. I was there to see my uncle twice during the month of June. Unit five: Frank Ryan My name is Frank Ryan and I am a teacher of languages. I was born in 1940 in a little country town not far from here. I have a brother who is three years older than I am and a sister who is two years younger than I am. My brother’s first name is Henry and my sister’s name is Nancy. There are five of us in my family. My father and mother get up early every morning. My mother gets up at about 6 a.m. and my father gets up at about 6:30. I don’t get up until 7 o’clock or 8 o’clock. My brother gets up earlier than I do, and I get up earlier than my sister does. Some days I get up at 7:30 and some days I don’t get up until almost 8 o’clock. After I wake up each morning, I get up and get dressed. After I get dressed, I have breakfast. Usually, I have a light breakfast but my brother has a big breakfast. I have juice, cereal and coffee for breakfast. Once in a while. I have buttered toast too. My brother, Henry, usually has juice, oatmeal, toast and two or three cups of coffee. My sister, Nancy, just has juice and toast for breakfast. We finish eating breakfast at about 8:15 or 8:30 every morning. I usually leave the house at 8:50 each morning and get to work at 9 o’clock. I work at the University. Usually, I work hard all morning and go out for lunch at about 12:30. My brother leaves the house earlier than I do, and he gets to work at 8:45 each morning. I finish working at about 5:45 p.m. My sister finished working earlier than I do, and my brother finished working later than I do. We usually have dinner at about 7:15 and after dinner we read the newspaper for a while or listen to the radio. Once in a while my sister talks on the telephone and my brother watches television. We usually go to bed at about midnight. Unit six: Mr. Jonathan Thomas My name is Jonathan Thomas and I’m an engineer. Usually, I get up early, have breakfast, and go to work at eight o’clock. I work hard all day, finish working at about 5:30 p.m. and go home right away. I have dinner at 7 o’clock and usually go to bed around 11 p.m. Yesterday, I didn’t wake up until 8:00 a.m. I got up immediately and got dressed. I had juice and toast and left my house at 8:45. I was an hour late and didn’t get to work until 9 o’clock. I worked all day and didn’t have lunch. I finished working at 7:30 last night and went home at 8 p.m. I was two hours late and didn’t have dinner until 9 o’clock. After dinner I read the newspaper for a while and made some telephone calls. I listened to the radio for two hours and went to bed at midnight. I didn’t go to sleep immediately. I slept just six hours last night. I didn’t sleep very well. Unit seven: Jim Stone My name is Jim Stone. Yesterday afternoon I left the house at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon and didn’t get home until 5:30. I went to see a friend of mine. My friend, Nancy Smith, was in the hospital, and I went to visit her. We talked all afternoon. We talked about a lot of different subjects. We talked about the weather and we talked about our old friends. I asked her if she knew anybody in New York. And she said she did. Then I asked her about her friends in New York. I asked a lot of questions. She answered all of my questions. Then she asked me if I spoke French, and I said I spoke a little French. She wanted to know if I spoke French with an American accent, and I said I did. Then she asked me if I knew anybody in Paris. I said I had four or five friends in Paris. I answered almost all of her questions. Finally, I asked her if she wanted to watch television for a while, and she said she did. I said I had to go, and then I said good bye. She asked me when I was coming back to visit her, and I said I didn’t know. She said good bye and I left the hospital at about 5 p.m. Unit eight: Jack Martin My name is Jack Martin. I’m a lawyer and I work in an office near here. I work from about 9 o’clock in the morning until 6 o’clock each day. Actually, I work just five days a week. I don’t go to work on Saturdays or Sundays. Usually, I have breakfast and dinner at home. I have lunch in a restaurant near my office. In the evening, I sometimes listen to radio or watch television. I never go to the movies. Once in a while I go to a party at a friend’s house. Every night I go to bed early and go to sleep immediately. Usually, I sleep soundly all night. Last year I used to get to work at 8 o’clock every day. I used to set my alarm clock for 6 o’clock each morning. At 6:00, I used to get up immediately and get dressed quickly. I used to have breakfast 6:30 every morning. For breakfast, I used to have juice, oatmeal, toast, and coffee. Then I used to have the house at about 7:45. I used to get to the office at 8 o’clock and start working immediately. Every day I used to work until 7 or 8 o’clock in the evening. I didn’t get home until nearly 8:30 at night. I used to have dinner quite late and go right to bed. I didn’t have time to listen to the radio or watch television last year. Unit nine: Thomas Anderson My name is Anderson and I’ve been here just a few days. I’m from out of town. I have several friends here in this city and I’ve come to visit them. Actually, I used to live in this city many years ago. I was born here and my wife was born in a little town near here. We both went to school here and had many friends here. We’ve lived in New York for more than fifteen years. We live in the suburbs and I work in the city. I have to get up early every day to go to work. I work from 9 o’clock in the morning until a little after 6 o’clock in the evening. My wife doesn’t work. I’ve always gotten up early and gone to bed late. I’ve worked hard all my life. My wife and I speak several languages. She speaks French extremely well. She’s spoken French for many years. I speaks German and a little Spanish. I’ve spoken German all my life. Unit Ten: Donald Hamilton While I was eating dinner last night, my brother was watching his favorite television show. Just as I finished eating, my brother asked me a question. He wanted to know where Mr. Sullivan was born. I said I didn’t remember where Mr. Sullivan said he was born. Then, my brother asked me another question. He always asks a lot of questions. He wanted to know if I knew Bill Jones. I said I knew Bill very well. I’ve known Bill for more than ten years. We used to work in the same office. We used to have lunch together. We used to leave the office at about 12 noon every day. Once in a while Bill and I used to go to the movies in the evening. After I answered both of my brother’s questions, he started watching television again. Just as I was having a cup of coffee, Bill Jones called me on the telephone. He asked me what I was doing when he called. I said I was just having a cup of coffee. He said he was going to the movies. He wanted to know if I wanted to go with him. I said I did. My brother wanted to know if he could go, too I said he could go. He wanted to meet Bill Jones. . my birthday and I’m twenty-one years old. My name is Joyce Lewis and my father is Dr.Frank Lewis. He’s a doctor in this city and people think he’s an extremely good doctor. My mother is a nurse are. Uncle Charles is thirty-five and Uncle William is thirty-six. Uncle William was not well last year. He was in the hospital for several weeks. My father was his doctor. My father was with. gets up at about 6 :30 . I don’t get up until 7 o’clock or 8 o’clock. My brother gets up earlier than I do, and I get up earlier than my sister does. Some days I get up at 7 :30 and some days I