英语博客(A cup of English):Mousetrap（在线收听）

Beginners.

We have a mouse in our garage. There might be more than one. The one I have seen is small, grey, and causes a lot of mess. As much as I love animals, I'm afraid we have to put down a mousetrap. My husband bought a box of traps a long time ago, some of which we have used. So, he prepared the trap, put some cheese in it, and put it on the floor of the garage. My youngest son, Robert, wanted to make his own trap. He went into the garage and bashed about for a while, moving things, and arranging his special trap. "Mum, come and see," he said after a few minutes. He had the lid of a metal cage propped up with a stick which was attached to a string. Under the lid was enough bird seed to feed a hundred mice. Ingenious! "I'm just going to wait here until the mouse comes, then I'll pull the string and trap it!" "Okay," I said, and walked back to the kitchen. About ten minutes later he came back into the house to watch cartoons. Waiting for a mouse is not that entertaining.

Grammar notes.

Related vocabulary and expressions: to prop up, some of which, I'm afraid.

Exs:

The workmen propped up the fence posts before they secured them.

I bought five pounds of bananas, some of which are ripe and ready to eat.

I'm afraid we will have to cancel the barbecue; there is a storm coming.

Advanced.

The other day, I walked into our garage to put some cardboard boxes in the recycling bins, when I noticed a lot of bird seed on the floor. I looked up on the shelf above, and saw that a big bag of seed that we keep for the birds in the Winter, had a hole in it. As I looked around, I realized that the seed had been spread all over the shelf. This was not a case of an accidental tear in the bag; the hole had been made by an animal, a small one. My husband had warned me that as Autumn turns to Winter, small animals will try and get into the house, and will do so if we leave doors open for too long. This creature must be a mouse, and usually where there is a mouse, there are mice. The little thing must think that he is in heaven. He is in a nice, warm garage, and has a huge bag of bird seed all for himself and his family. My son, Robert, was very excited about seeing the mouse, so I picked him up, and very quietly and slowly walked into the garage, staring at the shelf. And would you know, we saw the little grey mouse running back and forth between the seed bag and a little hole in the wall. Robert and I looked at eachother and grinned with excitement. The mouse actually stood up on its hind legs and looked at us for a few seconds. It looked so tiny and cute. I actually wanted to let it live in the garage for the Winter, but I realize how unsanitary it is. I certainly didn't want to encourage mice to live in our house. That could end up being a real problem.

Grammar notes.

Vocabulary: a bin, to spread, to tear, unsanitary, hind leg.

Exs:

A bin is a kind of container for different storage needs.

Don't spread too much jam on your toast.

Be careful that you don't tear your new poster.

This bathroom is really unsanitary. It needs to be thoroughly cleaned.

One of the dog's hind legs is broken. It will have to wear a cast for a while.