English Essay by Brian Southwick
34 Buying a New Refrigerator
READING
(slow) (fast) 

   One morning about a week ago, my wife wanted to make an omelet for breakfast. She took some eggs out of the refrigerator, but she saw that something was wrong.  The eggs were frozen!  Then she took out some salad, milk, and orange juice.  All of it was frozen, too!  My wife told me about the problem, and we tried to fix it ourselves, but a few days later the food was still too cold.  We knew then that we needed to buy a new refrigerator.
    Our old refrigerator was a used one when we bought it seven years ago, so we were very excited to buy a new one.  We went to several stores, and we looked at their refrigerators.  Some were yellow, others were light brown or grey, and still others were a cream color.  Some of the refrigerators were too big or expensive, and others were too small.  Finally, we found one that we liked in a cream color.  After that, we compared prices to find the store with the lowest price.  Then, we ordered our new refrigerator.
   
On the day the new refrigerator was delivered, we were very busy.  First, we had to take all of the food out of our old one.  There was some food in the back that was too old to eat, and we had to throw it away.  I was very happy, though, to find a bottle of my favorite hot sauce.  After we cleaned out the refrigerator, we had to move it and vacuum the rug underneath.  It was very dirty, but we found many refrigerator magnets, and even some money!

     The new refrigerator is in our kitchen now, and we are very happy with it.  My grandmother had a refrigerator for thirty years before she bought a new one.  I hope our new refrigerator lasts that long.

<注> 
refrigerator(冷蔵庫), omelet(オムレツ),frozen(凍った)freeze(凍らせる),salad(サラダ),
juice(ジュース),fix(修理する),
ourselves(私たち自身で),several(いくつかの),
light brown(明るい茶色),
grey(灰色),cream color(クリーム色),lowest(最も低い),
deliver
(配達する),
too old to eat(古すぎて食べられない),throw away(捨てる),though(けれども),
bottle(ビン),hot sauce(辛いソース),
clean out(すっかり掃除する),
vacuum
(電気掃除機で掃除する),rug(敷物),
underneath(底面に),dirty(汚い,汚れた),
magnet
(磁石),even(〜でさえ),
that long(そのくらい長く)



Question and Answers:  Please answer the following questions
in English in a complete sentence, with a subject and a verb.


Q1. Did Brian fix the old refrigerator?   

A1.


Q2. How long did Brian use the old refrigerator?

A2.


Q3. Why did Brian compare prices?

A3.


Q4. What did Brian find when he cleaned out the old refrigerator?

A4.


Q5. Who had the same refrigerator for thirty years?

A5.




<解答例>

A1. No, he didn’t.  (He tried to fix it, but he couldn’t.)

A2. He used it for seven years.

A3. He wanted to find the store with the lowest price.

A4. He found many refrigerator magnets, and (even) some money.

A5. His grandmother did.