Simon was waiting for dinner in a small café where he used to take food. That day he looked like a man from the cover of “Underground Medicine Review”. He had green skin but the café was badly lighted and his appearance didn’t seem strange to the staff and to another eater sitting the next table. It wasn’t the first time Simon sat in that place. Usually he orders pumpkin soup and fried potatoes. That day he didn’t change his habit. A girl came to his table with the plate of the soup. It made him happy because he hadn’t eaten ten hours. When Simon was hungry the blood in his body moved slowly and the brain didn’t get enough oxygen. In such moments he couldn’t think about anything but the food. But when he let the meal get into his organism the blood steam got better and he began to think about termogristles in his neck. He had sought three gristles five years ago and he thought it would be a good idea to sell them and buy new ones. He had been using them since his 25th birthday and now was the time to change its parts. He thought he would expand his lungs next year. That step he must have done from the beginning of his experiment but he didn’t have enough money to afford that. Last year he had traveled Norway but hadn’t find a laboratory which would grant him. Since that journey it became clear to him that he shouldn’t trust foreign funds. The only thing these guys want to do is to use people like Simon in their experiments. Of course without any payments! Thinking about those things he was staring at TV fixed on the wall. The sound was switched off though it didn’t matter. He used to watch “Animal Planet Channel” without a sound. The actions on the screen weren’t complicated. The big sharks were eating fishes, crabs were hiding in the rocks. Simon knew that sharks had no artificial bones but their bodies were flexible and they moved fast. He wasn’t surprised at that but he knew what he had to do. He thought he had to open his own foundation. He could create an internet site where he could place the information about his mutations. He could become famous! But suddenly he felt that something got wrong. He looked at his watch and understood that he had been sitting at the table. The table was empty. No plates, no forks, no spoons! He asked himself where the fried potatoes were and couldn’t answer. He asked the waitress about it. She said she had brought it twenty minutes ago. Did it mean he had already eaten it? Simon asked about it the eater sitting at the next table and he confirmed what the waitress had said. Simon’s skin turned pale for a while. It became clear that he missed the moment when he had eaten potatoes. He tried to remember that moment but he couldn’t. Expanded lungs, big sharks, artificial bones, termogristles made a mess in his mind. The system was overload.

Bogdanov Kiril, Intermediate II

Vocabulary:

Skin - кожа
Appearance - внешность
Staff - персонал
Pumpkin - тыква
Habit - привычка
Blood - кровь
Brain - мозг
Let - позволить
Steam - поток
Sought – прош. от seek - искать
Termogristles - термохрящ
Expand - расширять
Lungs - легкие
Afford - позволять
Grant – давать дотацию
Trust - доверять
Fund - фонд
Payment – плата, платеж
Complicated - сложный
Shark - акула
Hide - прятаться
Artificial - искусственный
Flexible - гибкий
Foundation - основа
Mutation - мутация
Empty - пустой
Waitress - официантка
Confirm - подтверждать
Pale - бледный
for a while – на некоторое время
overload - перегружен