Prime Time 5, Transition, Coursebook mit Audio-CD

2 Now that’s what I call living! Before you read a) Find out the meaning of the word “weird”. Use a dictionary or look it up online. b) What kind of behaviour would you regard as weird? Reading: Jimmy’s story – Part 1 a) Read the following text from a British novel about a teenage boy called Jesse Flood. “Now that’s what I call living!” is the title of a little story which Jesse tells about another boy called Jimmy. b) Underline what is weird about this family and Jimmy’s childhood. 1–4 1.3–1.6 1 2 Here’s a little story. is guy, let’s call him Jimmy, he lives with his family in an old school bus in New Mexico. ere’s him, his mom and dad and his ve brothers and sisters, all in this old bus. ey’re driving it all around New Mexico and up into California, staying in dierent places, just bumming around 1 . Only one day the poor old bus dies. […] So when they get to the next corner, Dad turns the wheel and the hippie bus, for the rst time in its life, doesn’t follow. Yes, for the rst time in its long life, it does what it damn well wants. Goes straight on and o the road, down a slope and nally stops upside-down on its roof. And would you believe it! Mom and Dad and Jimmy and the other ve little Brokers all climb out of the doors and windows, every one of them just ne. And Dad says, aer he’s counted them all quickly, “OK. at’s the last time I live in a bus.” And o he goes and buys a tent. A big old army tent. And they’re o again, stopping here and there, and life’s not so bad until one day the poor old tent is grabbed by a tornado, up into the air and away. And Dad says, “OK. at’s the last time I live in a tent.” So they go to the coast, where he buys an old boat. One that’s seen better days, of course. And they’re planning to live o what they can get from the sea, only none of them has any idea about shing. Two shes they catch that rst day, two 1 to bum around (coll.): to travel around with no particular purpose 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 shes between the seven of them, and Jesus might have been able to feed the ve thousand like that, but Mom and Dad, no way. A storm starts and they can’t get back into the harbour. So they’re out all night, thrown around by the waves at their most extreme. And Dad doesn’t know much about sailing a boat, I’m afraid, not having had much experience because he grew up as far from the sea as anybody can get, but he manages. Just about, he manages. And when they nally get back to dry land, Mom and Jimmy and the ve brothers and sisters all say, like they’ve been rehearsing it for days, although they haven’t actually, “Listen, Dad,” they say. “at’s the last time we live in a boat. It’s time to get your act together, start living in the real world, nd yourself a job and us a home!” And he does, in a way. He gets them a big trailer to live in and he turns himself into a taxi-driving part-time gardener (although he doesn’t know a lot about gardens, and he thinks he can drive a cab the way he used to drive that poor old bus, not well at all.) And Jimmy and the rest of the kids have a more normal life aer that, with a roof over their heads, and schools, and enough food. But everyone of them has been aected by their unusual childhood, and so they can never quite match other people’s narrow expectations. In other words, they’re weird. Real weird. One grows up to be an artist in Ulan Bator, another becomes a wrestler in Southern Winnipeg and a third is a lion tamer in Outer Mongolia. […] And each one of them goes their own crazy way. 26 It’s my life Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv