I was totally shocked by the story.
“The funny thing is...”, she laughed “is that he joked with me when he finally staggered out of all that mess on top of him. He told me that he was thinking of me because there were quite a lot of aluminum cans in the skip and he thought if I ever get out of here, I´ll give them to the nice lady that passes by every day!”
So, that was Maria´s job. She picked up aluminum cans every day and sold them to a recycling depot. And every Friday she came to my salon to get her nails done.
Answer the questions in pairs.
1. How did the narrator (the manicurist) know Maria?
2. Why did Maria like the man who worked at the petrol station?
3. What did the girl at the petrol station say had happened to the man?
4. What object did she find that belonged to the man?
5. How did the man end up in the skip?
6. What did the man say he would give to Maria?
7. What was Maria´s job?
Answers
1. The manicurist knew the old lady because she came to her salon every Friday to get her nails done.
2. Because the man smiled at her every day she passed by the petrol station.
3. She said that he hadn’t turned up for work that day. She didn't know what had happened to him and she was filling in for him.
4. His red cap with “Orlando” written on it.
5. He was fixing a hole on his roof. Suddenly he fell and landed in a lorry that was passing by. He was tipped into a skip with stones and rubble. The driver didn´t see him.
6. The aluminum cans that were in the skip.
7. Maria collected aluminum cans to sell to a recycling depot.
STORY THREE – AN UNUSUAL DAY
Published in Exercícios para Falar Melhor em Inglês (Speaking Activities) by Jane Godwin Coury, Editora Disal, São Paulo, Brazil – p39-43.