THE LONG-DISTANCE TEACHER

Mr Frank Garret, 65, is a schoolteacher. He is English, but he lives in France, in the village of Yerville.
Mr Garret lives in France, but he works in England. Every Monday he leaves home at 2.30 in the
morning and drives101 miles from his village to Boulogne, where he leaves his car and goes by boat
to England. He teaches French from 9.00 in the morning to 3.30 in the afternoon, and then he leaves
school. He arrives home at 9.30 in the evening. The journey there and back isn’t expensive. Mr Garret
works in England only one day a week. And what does he do on the other days? He teaches English!
He has a class of French students in Yerville. He says, ‘I love my job in England and I love my home in
France. I’m a happy man.’

CHARLES DICKENS (1812–1870)

Charles Dickens is a famous writer in the English language. He wrote about the
real world of England and many of the people in his books were not rich, but
poor and hungry. Charles Dickens’s family lived in London and his father worked
in an office. It was a good job, but he always spent a lot of money and often
there was no money to buy food. There were eight children in the family, so life
was hard. Charles went to school and his teachers thought he was very clever.
But when Charles was only eleven, his father lost all his money and the family left their house.
Charles got a job washing bottles. He worked ten hours a day and he earned six shillings (30p) a
week. Every night, after work, he walked four miles back to his room. Charles hated it and never
forgot it. He used it in many books, for example David Copperfield and Oliver Twist.

JEANS

Two Americans, Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss, made the first jeans in1923. Davis bought cloth from
Levi’s shop. He told Levi that he had a special way to make strong trousers for

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English Teacher
workmen. The first jeans were blue. In 1965 jeans became fashionable for women after they saw
them in Vogue magazine. In the 1990’s Calvin Klein earned $12.5million a week from jeans.

TELEVISION

A Scotsman, John Logie Baird, transmitted the first television picture on 25 November, 1905. The first
thing on television was a boy who worked in the office next to Baird’s workroom in London. In 1929
Baird sent pictures from London to Glasgow. In 1940 he sent pictures to New York, and also produced
the first color TV pictures.

MEALS IN BRITAINA

Typical full English breakfast is a very big meal – sausages, bacon, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms and of
course toast. But nowadays many people don’t have time to eat all this and just have toast, or
sometimes fruit and yoghurt. The typical breakfast drink is tea, which
people have with cold milk. Some people have coffee made with just hot
water. Many visitors to Britain think this coffee is horrible! For many
people lunch is a quick meal. In cities there are a lot of sandwich bars,
where office workers can choose the kind of bread they want, either
brown or white, and then all sorts of salad and meat or fish to go in the
sandwich. Pubs often serve good, cheap food, both hot and cold. School-
children can have a hot meal at school, but many just take a snack from home – a sandwich, a drink,
some fruit, and perhaps some crisps. People eat their evening meal quite early, often at about six
o’clock. A typical dinner is meat and vegetables, especially on Sundays, when all the family eats
together.

VIENNA

Vienna has a rich history. Its university opened in 1365, and is one of the oldest in Europe. From 1558
to 1806 it was the Centre of the Holy Roman Empire and it became an important cultural Centre for

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English Teacher
art and learning in the 18th and 19th centuries. The famous psychiatrist, Sigmund Freud, lived and
worked there. Vienna was the music capital of the world for many
centuries. Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, and the
Strauss family all came to work here. It is now the home of one of the
world’s most famous orchestras, the Vienna Philharmonic. Its State
Opera House is also world famous.

TOMMY HARRISON

Tommy Harrison is exactly 100 years old. He’s a retired engineer. His wife, Maude, died 14 years ago.
They had no children and now he lives alone in his flat in Bristol. Bill has smoked all his life. First he
smoked cigarettes, about 10 a day, but 40 years ago he changed to a pipe. He has only been ill once
in his life, and that was just before the First World War, when he had rheumatic fever. The only time
he visits his doctor is to get a certificate to say that he can still drive his car. Every day he has a full
English breakfast - bacon, eggs, toast and marmalade. He has only been abroad once, to France
during the war. He says: ‘I still go dancing and swimming but I don’t want to live forever, perhaps 12
months more. My father lived until he was 99.’

HOW PEOPLE LIVE

As part of our weekly series, we asked Jane Hancock and Tim Greenwood to tell us about their lives.
Jane Hancock is a hardworking teacher in Sheffield. She gets up at half past six every morning and has
breakfast. Then she makes her sandwiches and gets ready for work. Jane usually walks to work
because she thinks it’s important to take exercise every day. She sometimes walks home again in the
evening, but more often gets the bus. Jane has dinner at seven o’clock and goes to bed early. She
doesn’t go out during the week, but she often goes out with friends at the weekend. Jane makes sure
that she eats five portions of fruit and vegetables every day and fish twice a week. She hardly ever
eats meat and she doesn’t smoke. For more exercise, Jane goes to the gym three times a week. She’s
very healthy and is hardly ever ill. Tim lives by the sea in Cardiff. He’s a journalist for a local
newspaper. He usually gets up at eight o’clock, has a quick shower and then drives to work. Tim

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English Teacher
doesn’t have time for breakfast, but sometimes has a sandwich in the middle of the morning. At
lunchtime, he usually has a burger. He buys it from the fast food restaurant across the road and then
eats at his desk. Tim works long hours and often stays late in the evening. On those days, he goes to a
restaurant with people from work. They usually have quite a lot of wine with their meal and they all
smoke. Tim doesn’t eat fruit and he doesn’t like many vegetables. He plays football once a month,
but he isn’t very healthy.

BRITISH ARTISTS LIVING ABROAD

Article by James Noble

Sally Campbell is a 32-year-old actress from London, but right now, she’s living in Paris in a flat that
overlooks the Seine. Sally’s mother is French, which means Sally can speak the language perfectly.
Sally is very talented. She likes acting in films, but she can also sing and dance brilliantly and she
currently has a leading part in a French musical. She can also play the piano very well. In her spare
time, Sally likes to relax at home by watching romantic films. She has no plans
to return to Britain. Tom Hammond is from Glasgow, but he lives in New York.
He’s 18 and he’s a music student. Tom can play the piano and the guitar very
well. He also writes songs with his friend John. Tom writes the music and John
writes the lyrics. When they’re happy with a new song, they usually perform it
to students at the college. They love to have an audience and would really like to be in a band. When
he isn’t composing, Tom downloads his favorite music from the Internet. Hannah Brown is a writer.

She’s from Manchester, but she lives in Italy. Hannah is 25 and likes writing romantic novels. Her
ambition, of course, is to be a published writer, so she writes every day for at least four hours. Her
favorite time to write is early in the morning, but she sometimes works late at night too. In the
afternoons, Hannah works as a waitress in a café. She doesn’t really enjoy this part of her life, but she
needs the money to stay in Italy.

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English Teacher
 ANDY BELLA CARL
I got up at about 11.00, I I’ve got a shop by the river, I got up at about 8.00,
think. I had breakfast, and and we’re open on Sundays, walked to the newsagent’s
started to cook lunch for so I got up at about 8.00, and got a paper. Then I had
the family. We had chicken, had a quick cup of coffee, a few cups of coffee, and
with rice and salad. It was a made a sandwich for lunch, read the paper in the
lovely day, so after lunch, and walked to the shop. The garden. At lunchtime, I met
we all cycled along the river. shop was busy. It was a hot some friend sat the pub,
We bought some ice- day, and lots of people and we had a few beers. It
creams and swam, and on wanted ice-creams, so I was a really hot day, so
the way home, we stopped made quite a lot of money! when I got back home I sat
at a Pizzeria for dinner. In We closed at 6.00.In the in the garden again and
the evening, I did a bit of evening, my husband and I went to sleep. It was a
workaround the house. had some pasta and salad. lovely evening, so my
Then I had some chocolate Then we put our feet up, girlfriend came round and
cake, and went to bed with had a glass of wine and made a sandwich and some
a good book. I was asleep watched TV. I went to bed fresh lemonade. Then we
by 10.00. at about 11.30. watched TV until about
12.00.

I LOVE MY JOB!

James Shannon is a chef in a London restaurant. He talks about his job. I work at Suzie’s, which is one
of the most popular restaurants in central London. The best part of working there is being part of a
fantastic team of friendly and talented people. I started by washing dishes when I was only 16. I
wasn’t interested in food and I never cooked at home, but I worked hard, and soon became a waiter.
Simon, who was head chef at the time, then began to show me how to cook and I loved it so much I
went to college to learn more. When Simon left Suzie’s, I became head chef. At the time all the food

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English Teacher
was British. The quality was excellent, but I wanted to do something different, so I decided to have an
international menu. Now we serve food from all around the world. There are so many fantastic
markets and food shops in London that I can usually find any ingredient I
need. I use a lot of natural ingredients such as brown rice, organic
flour, and pasta. Some people think that healthy food is boring, but they’re
wrong. Well-prepared natural food has so much more flavor than fast food.
Our food is healthy and our customers love it. We use the very best
meat and the highest quality vegetables. Suzie’s is open Monday to Friday from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.,
and from 12 a.m. to 11p.m. at weekends. On Fridays and Saturdays we play live music from around
the world. There’s a children’s menu on Sundays and that’s when we serve traditional British food.

CHARLES HOLLEY

He was born in Lubbock, Texas, in September 1936. He learned to play the guitar and piano when he
was still at school, and he started playing and singing with his best friend Bob Montgomery. When
they left school, Charles and Bob got a job singing country music on the radio in Lubbock: they had
their own half-hour radio show every Sunday afternoon. Later, Charles and his band – the Three
Tunes – sang at concerts in Lubbock with Bill Haley and the Comets, and with Elvis Presley. In 1956,
Charles changed his name to Buddy Holly, and signed a contract with Decca Records. In 1957, he
wrote and recorded the song that’ll be the Day with his new band, the Crickets. This was his first
number one hit, and over the next two years, Buddy wrote seven more Top Forty hits, including
Peggy Sue, Oh Boy! And Maybe Baby. In 1958, Buddy married Elena Maria Santiago. He stopped
working with the Crickets, and he and Elena went to live in New York. That winter, he went on a
concert tour of the American Midwest. On February 3rd 1959, after a show in Clear Lake, Iowa,
Buddy got on a plane with two other singers, to fly to their next concert in Minnesota. The plane left
the airport at 2.00 in the morning, and crashed into a field a few minutes later. Everyone on the plane
died.

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English Teacher