Page 50 - Focus 2nd Edition (demo)

READING
1 Read the text quickly and choose the best title.
A I love my long holidays at home □
Working away from home □
B Life is difficult when my husband comes home
• phrasal verbs and collocations □
• daily routine C This is not the right job for me

help her with shopping, cooking,
cleaning and checking homework.
She is very strict, so the children
help with the housework, go to bed
at nine o’clock and get up for school
without any problems. Theresa
prepares dinners in advance and
makes the most of every hour
of the day. Then, Arthur comes
home. He ignores the normal
bedtimes because he wants to tell
his children stories and play with
them. The children stop doing
housework and, because they go
to bed late, they are tired when
Arthur lives in Portsmouth with his wife and three
they get up in the morning.
children. He has a good job but he isn’t happy. Arthur is Of course, Theresa understands
the captain of a large tanker. He loves ships and the sea and is pleased to see her family so
and is good at his job. He earns a lot of money and has happy, but it takes a week or more
to get life back to normal when
a lot of free tim e at work to study languages and write.
Arthur goes back to sea.
So what’s the problem?
Now, Arthur wants to find a job
on land but he knows it isn’t easy.
Arthur has a ‘three months on missed and they sometimes have What can a ship’s captain do when
- two months off contract, which Christmas dinner in November he isn’t on a ship? Arthur’s dream
means that he goes to sea for three or January but there is always is to be a writer of children’s books
months and then has two months' a feeling of sadness that they can’t and work from home. This dream
holiday. This means that some years happen at the right time. cheers him up when he is on the
he isn’t at home for Christmas, Life is also difficult for his wife, other side of the world and still ■
some years he is away during the Theresa. She is a teacher and, for has two months before he sees his
summer holidays and every year three months, has no husband to family again.
he misses someone’s birthday,
school shows and other special
days. His children are twelve, ten
and six and they grow quickly
at that age.
When Arthur comes home, the
children spend a day or two just
looking at him and trying to think
of what to say. The last week of his
leave is filled with tears. There are
also good times. The family have
parties to celebrate any birthdays

&a s s a s a
tanker (n)- a large ship that carries leave (n) - time that you are allowed strict (adj) - expecting people to obey rules
oil to spend away from your work or to do what you say

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