Podcast 6 - B2 level story - Mr Briefcase has a bad day

Story starts at 1:17

Hello, and today, I'm going to tell you another story. And I'm going to bring in some useful vocabulary, especially adjectives to talk about people's appearance. In other words, what people look like, and the story is called, Mr Briefcase has a bad day. Okay, sounds intriguing. Let's get going.

So I suggest that as I'm reading, and you hear new words that you write them down, and keep them as a reference.

So the main character in this story is Mr Briefcase and Mr Briefcase was a door-to-door salesman. What does that mean? Basically what he does, he goes from door to door. He knocks on people's doors and tries to sell them things.

Leafy suburb

Now, Mr Briefcase specializes in things for the kitchen - items for the kitchen, for example, crockery and cutlery. Okay, so what is crockery? Well, crockery are those things like plates and saucers and cups and bowls and things made of ceramic material or porcelain or something like that. We call that crockery. C-R-O-C-K-E-R-Y.

And also, he sold cutlery. That means things which are made of metal like knives and forks and spoons, cutlery, C-U-T-L-E-R-Y.

Anyway, first of all, we're going to describe Mr Briefcase, as you can imagine, he was a very elegant chap, he would have to be, wouldn't he? I mean, he was a salesman, he had to impress people when they open their doors to him. And so he was quite a tall man. Short hair, blonde, but well, thinning a little bit on top. Yes, His hair was thinning because he was in his 50s now. And so thinning means losing a little bit of hair as you do when you get older. But still, he looked very elegant, very handsome. His complexion was quite dark, really. He was quite tanned[from the sun], tanned, yes, he was tanned because he had regular holidays in Marbella in the south of Spain.

And he was, well, he was quite a well built gentlemen, quite well built. He had a good physique, we say, because he went to the gym very regularly. And he likes to do weights, to do weights. That means you know, lift those bits of metal and they make you strong and give you a good muscular physique. So he's a quite an attractive man. Oh, and I didn't mention, yes, he had these piercing blue eyes, piercing blue eyes. So we say piercing blue eyes when somebody's eyes are very bright, I suppose. And quite impacting to look at. So it's another attractive feature of Mr Briefcase with his piercing blue eyes.

Okay, let's get on with the story. So it was one Monday afternoon when Mr Briefcase was walking down the road. He was in a rather attractive, leafy suburb. You know, one of those places where only wealthy people live. The houses were large and very elegant, with huge gardens around and lovely well kept lawns with sprinklers. Sprinkling water to keep the grass nice and green.

Mr Briefcase stopped at one of these houses. He opened the garden gate and walked down the garden path, past the flower beds to the front door. He was about to push the bell of the front door when he noticed there was a boy sitting on the step. The boy was a teenage boy, rather overweight and looking rather scruffy, scruffy, S-C-R-U-F-F-Y and scruffy means that you're not very tidy. Your clothes untidy and perhaps torn or not well looked after - your hair is dishevelled. That means your hair is not well combed, dishevelled D-I-S-H-E-V-E-L-L-E-D. Ah, that was a long word wasn't it? Disheveled or unkempt and there's another one unkempt U-N-K-E-M-P-T, which all mean the same thing really unkempt, dishevelled, scruffy means not tidy.

He had not piercing eyes, but he had a pierced ear. Yes, he had a pierced ear with an earring in his ear. Rather a spotty face. Well, spotty face. I mean he was a teenager. I mean that's normal, isn't it - a bit of acne and he had some freckles on his nose as well. Freckles, those little spots, brownish spots that the sun brings out. F-R-E-C-K-L-E freckle or freckled his complexion - so complexion means the way his skin looks. His complexion was freckled and a bit spotty. But not only that, he was also a little bit surly, surly. S-U-R-L-Y, surly, which means rather unfriendly and morose. M-O-R-O-S-E, morose, somebody who doesn't smile very much. In fact, they frown most of the time.

Mr Briefcase, asked the boy, he said, Excuse me. Are your parents at home? The boy answered in a surly way,

"Yeah, they are."

"Ah, good. I'll ring the bell, then."

So he leaned forward and he rang the doorbell and waited. Nobody answered. Well, it was rather a large house. So I suppose that it would mean that somebody might take a long time to come and open the door. Mr Briefcase rang the bell again. A long wait, and still no answer.

"Are you sure your parents are at home?" said Mr Briefcase to the boy.

"Yes, they are," he said.

"I see." He rang the bell a third time and waited. Still nobody. "I don't understand it. If they're at home. Why don't they answer the door?"

And the boy answered, "Because that's not my house!"