01 daily routine i
- 1. http://opinionsinenglish.com DAILY ROUTINE I Do you enjoy being a student? A: Not really. I start school early in the morning and by the time I get home in the afternoon, I already have to start studying for the next day. On average, I study 5 to 6 hours per day. During the week I don’t have time for anything else. This means I have no time to hang out with my friends, play video games, go to the movies or concerts, or even just watch a little TV. At most I can listen to a little music on my ipod while studying. As you can tell, my life is rather bleak. It’s just study, study, study. By the evening I am so tired I am not in the mood to do anything else. I always go to bed exhausted. Unfortunately, I wake up tired too. Maybe I need to organize my time better but I don’t know how. I need to learn how to study more efficiently. I have a friend who has a great system and I am jealous of him for it. He’s in school from 8 to 1, has lunch, and from 2 to 6 he’s free to do whatever he wants. He is able to play sports, play videogames, go to the movies, go on dates, and even has time left over to relax. He’s home by six and only after dinner does he start to study. He studies from 6 to 8 every day. His father is the principal of school though, and that helps. No teacher would dare give him a bad grade. But I’m just joking; he’s a pretty smart guy. B: Absolutely not. It’s a complete nightmare for me. I dread going to school. Most of my teachers are evil and they enjoy giving us questions no one can answer. They call upon you when they can see by your face that you have not prepared. Sometimes they don’t call on you for months, and then all of a sudden in one day you are asked to give an oral test in five different subjects. They make us write tests quite often and most of the time those tests don’t cover the material that we’ve talked about in class. Everyone Copyright This material is the property of http://opinionsinenglish.com and any reproduction or use other than personal is strictly forbidden. 1
- 2. in class is stressed out and I am on the verge of a nervous breakdown. C: Of course I enjoy it. It’s great to be at school. It’s the easiest place to make friends and most of my teachers are pretty cool too. Whenever students need help, our teachers are always there for us. I am lucky to have fantastic classmates. We help each other out with homework and studying for exams. In the afternoon we hang out after school and participate in sports practices, clubs or other organizations. I, for example, am in the Spanish club and the theatre club, and my girlfriend runs indoor and outdoor track. On the weekends we go to the movies or go to the mall to hang out. During school holidays if I have the time, I get together with my friends, but most of the time I am on trips with my family. Worker Are you satisfied with your life? A: Yes, I am. I live a modest but full life. I have everything I need. I own a nice small house, my wife and I have separate cars, and my daughters have everything they need. I am also able to save a little each month for my retirement and my girls’ college fund. We even go on holiday once a year and we eat out when we want. I am a loan officer in a local bank and I enjoy working with people and trying to help them as much as possible. The bank owns me from 8am until 6pm Monday through Friday but the weekends are all mine. B: No, not at all. Work takes up most of my time. It takes me an hour to get ready in the morning and another half hour to get to work. If you include lunch, I am physically at work 10 hours a day. We technically knock off work at four o’clock, but by the time I finish up what I am working on, shut down my computer, say goodbye to my colleagues and make it to the parking lot, it’s closer to five. It takes me an hour to get home because of the afternoon traffic, so it’s six when I walk through my door. The first thing I do is try to relax from my miserable day. Sometimes I read the newspaper or a magazine that’s lying around the house, but I usually only end up glancing at the headlines or the pictures. Then I watch the news, eat, take a shower and by then it’s time for bed again. I have a TV in the bedroom but I typically don’t last longer Copyright This material is the property of http://opinionsinenglish.com and any reproduction or use other than personal is strictly forbidden. 2
- 3. than 20 minutes before I am sound asleep. But what can I do? I should work less and relax more. I should dedicate more energy to my free time. There is no point in wasting your whole life working, especially when they keep raising the retirement age. If you’re lucky, you retire around 60-65, but what can you really do with your free time when you are old, sick and invalid and maybe can’t even take care of yourself. Anyway, it will be unlikely you will be able to live the ‘high life’ off your pension. I wouldn’t be able to bear the sympathy of others. I don’t want pity from anyone. Life would be better if it were in reverse. You should travel, party, lay on the beach and have fun when you’re young. I play the lottery weekly in the hopes of hitting the jackpot. If I ever win, I will quit my job immediately and show everyone around me how to really live. Unfortunately, until then I have to toe the line. People should spend more time developing relationships with others. For example, time should be spent talking to your colleagues, neighbors, friends and family, and trying to see them more often. Copyright This material is the property of http://opinionsinenglish.com and any reproduction or use other than personal is strictly forbidden. 3