illustrated Everyday Expressions with Stories 2 » Lesson 21 - At the orphanage
Reporter: Hi! I'm from the newspaper. Do you mind if I ask you some questions about the orphanage? It will only take a minute .
Volunteer: I'm just a volunteer here, but I'll try to answer your questions.
Reporter: Great! First, how many kids do you have here?
Volunteer: I think we have about forty-five kids here now, but the orphanage can hold sixty kids .
Reporter: Wow! That's a lot of kids to take care of. How do you them all?
Volunteer: One by one.
Reporter: Is the orphanage of anything? I can put that in the article I'm writing.
Volunteer: The kids can always use extra clothes.
Reporter: Anything else?
Volunteer: Well, we would be grateful to anyone who can give their time through donations and volunteer work. Even a little work can a big help.
My parents give me money each semester for my expenses at college. I try to live for a whole semester on what my parents give me, but I usually fall short of my goal. Before the end of the last semester, I was broke! I'm sure my parents would have been happy to send more money if they had known I was in need. However, I didn't want to have more to pay back. Besides, I wanted to deal with the situation myself.
First, I tried to go without lunch every day, but I was too hungry to study after that. There was only a week or so left before the semester came to an end. I thought about selling my books to make a little money. I knew my books would not amount to much. At most, I could only get twenty dollars per book, but it was better than nothing. I could either sell my books or starve. I chose to sell my books.
When I went to take my final exam in history, the professor said, "This test is especially difficult. If you brought your book, you can use it during the test."
Somehow I managed to get a "B" on the final exam without the book. I guess everything worked out in the end, but from now on I'm not going to sell back my books until all of my classes are over.
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