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Views #29 | Mid Intermediate 5

The Visitor

Leath is from Africa. He talks about a dangerous visitor that came to his house.

Script
Vocab
Quiz


Leath	Todd

Todd: Hey Leath!

Do you want to go ahead and talk about the story you we're going to say?

Leath: OK. Yeah, this was about-- I'd say a year and a half ago and it was in Harare the capital, where my mom lives.

I was on holiday back home seeing my mom and anyway it's a Sunday morning and I was in the shower.

Got up pretty late, it must have been about half ten and all of a sudden my mom burst into the shower and she says," Leath, Leath, there's a snake, there's a snake in the kitchen."

And so I thought, "Ah, what kind of snake would this be?" because we live in the capital, residential area almost high-rise. Well, not high rise but residential area.

And so I put a towel around my waist and walked bad-temperedly throught to the kitchen. Attached to the kitchen we've got this little courtyard where we set out to have morning coffee and breakfast. It's tiled and leads onto a small garden. And so I walked out onto the courtyard and there was a seven foot Egyptian cobra. Wow! I was really, really blown away because I know a bit about snakes and I know that a bite from an Egyptian cobra in a country where antidote isn't readily available is almost certainly fatal. And there we were, my mom and I, with a seven foot Egyptian cobra slithering between the courtyard and our kitchen. And, eventually, we trapped it in the courtyard and I went to fetch guys who work for national parks. National parks are the guys who kind of look after animal problems within the city and brought them around. And we were hoping that they were going to catch it because Zimbabwe isn't so rich at the moment and stuff like that. They don't have the facilities to keep caught animals so unless it's endangered they just shoot it, so the guy shot our seven foot cobra.

Todd: Oh, they shot it huh?

Leath: Yeah, and we had to bury it out back.

Todd: Really? Well, still I'm glad you just didn't want to be bitten or anything.

Leath: No, no. No way.

Todd: What a story. Thanks!

Learn vocabulary from the lesson!

on holiday

I was on holiday back home seeing my mom.

When you are 'on holiday' you are on vacation and you don't have to work or go to school. Notice the following:

Did you go somewhere on holiday?
I slept a lot when I was on holiday.

burst into

My mom burst into the shower and said there was a snake in the kitchen.

If you 'burst in' to a place you enter it suddenly without warning, this usually happens with strong emotions. Notice the following:

He burst into the bathroom without knocking.
I was getting dressed when my brother burst into my room.

bad-temperedly

I put a towel around my waist and walked bad-temperedly through the kitchen.

To be 'bad-tempered' is to be in a bad mood or angry about something. You are not happy. 'Bad-temperedly' is the adverb for bad-tempered. Notice the following:

There is no need to be bad-tempered.
The customer yelled bad-temperedly at the waitress.

look after

The national park guys are the ones who looked after animal problems within the city.

To 'look after' something is to care for or take care of it. We usually look after people or things that are unable to care for themselves, such as children, elderly or pets. Notice the following: