Shefins English Times DAY 20

DAY 20

UNIT 39 : To be completed before 12.30 PM

1.Read the passage loudly with proper pronunciation.

Tommy Trimble loved to trim things. Twice a month he would walk over to the barber shop to have his hair trimmed. He would regularly trim the hedges in his yard, trim his moustache every morning and he wouldn’t think of letting a week go by without trimming his fingernails. Tommy lived in Washington DC and worked for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Every day at OMB he would trim the national budget. At Christmas time there is nothing he enjoyed more than trimming his family’s tree.

So when Tommy went to the hardware store to buy an edge trimmer for his lawn, he sort of suspected that this new purchase could lead to things that could get out of control. At the store the salesperson explained to him the benefits and drawbacks of electric and gas trimmers. He was very tempted to buy a cordless electric edge trimmer, because the price was less than the gas-powered edge trimmers. Whenever possible Tommy tried his best to trim off anything from the price of the products he bought.

But then the salesperson explained that the gas-powered edge trimmer could trim for much longer than the cordless electric trimmer. From Tommy’s point of view, more trimming was always better than less trimming, so he decided to buy the gas-powered edge trimmer. Tommy got back from the store late Saturday morning. Nobody has seen him since then. One thing that is for sure is that he finished doing all the trimming of lawn edges at his house. No lawn anywhere could possibly look any trimmer. And Tommy’s next door neighbour’s lawn has freshly trimmed edges, something their lawn never had before.

And all down the street where he lived the lawns were looking exceptionally trim and tidy. At the small park two blocks from his house all the lawn edges were nicely trimmed. The thing that really tipped people off was that the grass all along the nearby avenue was neatly trimmed. And the avenue near Tommy’s house led to an interstate highway. Now, 20 miles down this highway was a national park with grass galore.

That’s where Tommy’s wife eventually found him — trimming grass that was growing at the bottom of a tall redwood tree. “Honey, this trimmer works really great,” Tommy said with enthusiasm. “I can see that,” Tommy’s wife said with an amused sigh. “Come on home dear,” his wife said. “There’s lots more trimming to do at home, Okay, I’ll go back home, but only if there’s more trimming.”

2. Listen to the speaker for proper accent and pronunciation .