SPECIAL
PAGE
36/36
ABOUT AGIRL
My favorite time of year is late fall, early winter. Thats
when Istart making plans for the year ahead but dont
actually have to do anything yet.
FILL-IN (13)
NO JOB: achild is ahuge job, but it
doesnt pay my school , put money in
the account, or pay for classes Iwant to .
Im really because the plan was me
to contribute to the family. Dan good
money, but we could more. But maybe its
just well that Idont have ajob, because
I probably have to in ayear . Now
Ihave alittle 2 hours to the dog and
clean. And Im really bad cleaning. Ikeep
getting and Iconstantly run off to the
TVschedule to see whats .
SS BOND | DISTRACT | FRUSTRATE | LINE |
LOAN | RAISE | SPOIL
BONDING: Drews call comes while Iam up
at TH. Other mothers look at me the way I to
look at their daughters until afew weeks .
Anyway, for the first time in our shopping ,
Drew and Iactually meet when we are to,
and even have time for alittle talk coffee.
Idont think wed get to like that if it
wasnt cell phones.
GISTS VERB TROUBLE
Neplnujete-li kariru voblasti blues music, pak pozor
na tet osobu, tedy -sna konci sloves adoes/ doesnt
votzkch azporech: she dont like the way Idress/ she
only love me for my money
Postupn eliminujte lety typu was you/ he know me/
did Isaw?/ will it good?/ do know my parents you?
(sprvn: were you/ he knows me/ did Isee?/ will it be
good?/ do my parents know you?)
Naute se nepravideln slovesa. To e jsou nepravideln
nen nhodou, jde ohistoricky nejpouvanj slovesa.
Mnoh zastarala, mnoh ale ani trochu: the old man
catched the ball that Ithrowed and taked it away.
Kbudoucmu asu: wont nen want, budouc as od be je
will be (ne pouh will) avbec, snate se pouvat spe
be going to: will she really there? none of us will excited
if she win/ is she really going to be there? none of us is
going to be excited if she wins
Vrozkazovacm zpsobu nepouvejte nadbyten
you (you tell me why she did it!/ you dont look now!
shes getting undressed) atak si ujasnte, e nekej/
nekejte! (dont say!) nen tot co nekejme! (lets not
say!)
He is so dumb he cant
fart and chew gum at
the same time.
VERBI ET ORBI (9)
SS get | calm down | get sb worked up | teach | defend
oneself | be good at st | get along | tear apart
||Nejsi tak siln, abys to jezero peplaval. See si lo.
||Jak dlouho jim trvalo, ne t uklidnili? Co t tak rozililo?
||Kdo t nauil, jak se m brnit? Jde ti to moc dobe.
||STonym vychzme skvle. Nejde ns od sebe
odtrhnout.
ZEPTEJTE SE MARY
||pro jela Lisa do Iowy akdo se vrtil do Minnesoty
||jestli prv tam ij rodie od Mary
||kde jinde by dokzala Mary t
||jestli by tam strvila zbytek ivota kdyby musela
||jestli ta pedchoz otzka dv smysl
ACOUPLE GETS DIVORCED Hey everyone, can Ihave your
attention for amoment? Ihave an announcement to make. LISA MUST-USE
You may have heard that my wife Suzanne and Iare getting di-
vorced. Oh, dont act like you had no idea. You knew very well Lisa wonders if shes got what it takes to be ateacher. In the
what was going on. Suzanne and Ihave been growing apart end she decides shes not cut out for teaching.
for years and by now the marriage is beyond saving.
|| NOT MUCH OF (ME TEACHER)
This was bound to happen sooner or later. It was along time || THINGS (BAD EXPLAIN)
coming. It turned out that the two of us are too different to || NEED TO DO (TEACHER KNOW EXPLAIN)
keep this relationship going for much longer. In fact, you could || WHAT ELSE (ME DO?)
say that it was never going to work and that we shouldnt have
gotten married in the first place. But you know what they say, She starts to think of teaching as afall-back option in case
you cant always get what you want. nothing better comes along.

Obviously, the divorce will be hard on the kids, but it beats || FIGURE (FIRST: EASY)
having to watch your parents fight all the time. Because thats || SEE IF (WAIT COME UP)
whats been happening over the past couple of years. We hate || AROUND TOWN (DAYS WALK)
to put our kids through all this. But theyre tired of dealing || NOT BE USED TO (DRINK BEER HELL)
with it and so are we. Weve both done our best to keep up || NOT UNTIL (OFTEN BED NOON)
appearances and pretend that everythings fine for as long as
we could. But reality just kept getting in the way.

It got to apoint where the kids couldnt ignore it anymore. They The way I see it, you
had to take sides and thats when we decided to call it quits.
Even though the children made it clear to us that they wanted
us to try and work things out, they soon realized that this was
want the rainbow, you
gotta put up with the
very unlikely. We told them we are going to take turns with
them and they seem fine with that. Were both perfectly capable
of taking care of children so its not abig deal.

Ialso want you to know that things are fine between me and
my wife so theres no need to feel sorry for either of us. Su-
zanne and Iwill get along fine despite the mess that we got
ourselves into. There are no hard feelings and no grudges. If
theres aproblem, we will be prepared join forces to sort it out.
Let me make one more thing perfectly clear to everybody.
Idont feel bad about the way we handled this and neither
does Suzanne. Running ahousehold in which people dont talk
to each other is astruggle and its just not worth fighting for.
Well both be better off this way. Dont worry about either of
us having ahard time coping. Iassure you, its not happening.
We are both responsible adults and weve had time to get used
to the idea of living apart.
rain.
ERRORS GALORE
Pauls old friend Jean happens to be visiting Czechia and he
decides to surprise Paul with aphone call.
Your cousin is SO OLD MAN? Idont know him,
Ithink. HOW IS HE LIKE? Is he some NORMAL MAN
or famous, SAME LIKE your dad?
He VERY MUCH changed IN THE LAST TIME.
It STARTED TO BE quite hard to talk with him.

Now, you must be wondering which of us gets to keep the SS meet | regular | lately | get
house. Well, that hasnt been decided yet. Were going to give
it some time so that we dont make adecision that were go- EXACTLY THIS happens IN this age to ALL, Ithink.
ing to regret. In the meantime Ill be staying at Norms place. TO MY BROTHER HAPPENED the same.
Norm, Iowe you big. But he was SO SYMPATHETIC man and AT PRESENT
he USE TO only sit and LOOK AT TV.
As for my plans, Ihavent made up my mind yet as to what my
next step is going to be. Either Ill rent aplace in the city or Ill SS thats what | cool | these days | all
move to Dallas. Iquit my job today, by the way, and frankly, its
ahuge relief. Where Im going to get ajob that pays as well, Yes, ITS STUPID. Idont WANT THAT IT HAPPEN
thats not amajor worry right now. Im basically starting over ME. So WILL BE SOME big party?
and Iwant you all to be happy for me. Imean, us. Yes. THERE IS already everything arranged.
Iam sorry that Icant stay here.
There will be agoodbye party next Saturday and youre all
invited. Dont bring gifts, unless youve got one for each of us. SS too bad | there is | wish
Feel free to bring booze, though. Take care and Im looking
forward to seeing you all soon.

THE STORY OF ACOMPANY Running acompany is atough

job. Not only does it drain you mentally and unnerve you, but
it also makes you lose weight, gives you ulcers, keeps you
from spending quality time with your family and it can get you
in big trouble with the law. When you finally decide to bail
out, youre lucky if youre still alive and have afamily and some
friends left.
SPECIAL
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38/38
ABOUT AGIRL
When people ask me to help them with something that
they think Im good at, Im always afraid Ill steer them
wrong.
FILL-IN (14)
ADAM: Adam had to get up early, little
thing. we didnt have his laptop ( is
what he uses for an alarm) we had both of
our phone alarms. Normally when the alarm
goes , I my fingers through his hair
or his back. This time Ipushed him and ,
time to get up. He must have where that
sweet girl had gone. Well, that girl was tired
and not to get up. Adam dressed, sat
down to me (if he didnt, it upset me) and
kissed me .
SS DEAD | LAST | MATTER | MIGHT |
MUMBLE | RUB | SINCE | TEMPT
YOGA: the time Iarrived the class
the instructor already introduced herself.
Iremember there was agirl Gail and
two people names Ididnt . I know
them later on in the class but that on
how long I (or them, for that ). The
instructor asked me if I back problems.
Isaid no, that Iknow of. Iwas to add that
Iexpect to be some the yoga progresses,
but then Ithought Id better that to myself.
GISTS MM
Dvacetkrt si nahlas eknte otzku what is shesupposed
to do? Devatenctkrt what do you want them to do?
trnctkrt what do wedo? Jedenctkrt what am Igoing
to do? Cel opakujte tikrt
Vechny varianty pouvejte, ato zhruba podle
nsledujcho receptu: be supposed to pro esk takov je
pln/ tohle se oekv; want me to vnabdkch pomoci;
jednoduch otzky sdo vppad bezradnosti ohledn
dalho postupu; budouc be going to pro polozoufal
otzky typu ajak mm jako?
Zkrcenou otzku typu You want me to? mjte neustle
po ruce (podobn jako napklad spojen Mind if I?) a
ukonete tak trpen chadnoucho shall I?
You never really hear
the truth from your
subordinates until
after 10 in the evening.
VERBI ET ORBI (10)
SS bite | warn | threaten | blow up | wipe | say | sign |
belong | fit in
||Trenr chce, abych ti ukousnul ucho,
ber to jako varovn.
||Ten mladk hrozil, e ns vechny vyhod do vzduchu.
||On vs podal, abyste ten npis seteli?
Co na nm bylo?
||Nepodepisujme to. My tam nepatme,
nezapadli bychom.
SS build | measure | burn | put out | throw up |
burst | bury | take
||Postav tu tyi dal obchodky. U to tady m.
||Jak rychle ho tenhle papr? Jak se ten ohe pak uhas?
||Zrovna jsem vaut zvracel, kdy praskla pneumatika.
||Chtl bys, aby t pohbili vmoi? To vyaduje ppravu.
ZEPTEJTE SE MARY
||kolikrt se jim podailo se od t doby potkat
||kdy se to zlep ajestli vbec nkdy
||jestli by se Mary lbilo, kdyby se u nevidly
||kolik je vc, okterch se mou bavit
Iwas fresh out of college when Igot talked into starting my
own business. The guy who roped me into it insisted it was
afoolproof plan. He made it sound like asurefire way to
become rich. If Id suspected that the guy would get cold feet
soon after and leave me hanging, Iwould have run. But he was
very persuasive and he didnt look like someone who chickens
out at the first sign of trouble. Also, Im asucker for people
who have away with words. After afew discussions over
drinks Iwas hooked.
The plan was to make spare parts for car-makers. It made
sense and it did strike me as aprofitable venture so Isaid to
count me in. Ive had alot of time to regret the decision. The
reason the other guy eventually quit on me was because he
had three other projects going. He explained that he was
afraid he would be spreading himself too thin. After he
jumped ship, it was left to me to get the company off the
ground and make it grow and expand.
LISA SPIN-OFF
SOUR GRAPES (2) Two young sales clerks are standing in
an aisle in ashopping mall, eavesdropping on Mary and
Lisa.
Ialso wish TO go to Europe. But ITHINK IWILL NOT
GO, not in this life, WHAT is kind of sad. ONLY IF Iwin
alottery or something.
FOR ME IT IS SIMILAR. Looks like we WILL STUCK
in this job until we die.
Thats areally scary thought. DONT WE talk about it!
Whatever. We should START TO WORK TO MOP
the floor. Icant afford TO FIRED right now.
SS same here | not unless | lucky | same here |
keep | get busy | age | whatever

We did pretty well at first, getting alot of business from car-
makers who put their faith in our ability to produce things on
the cheap. Thankfully, there was plenty of skilled labor in the
region so we could take our pick and not settle for second-rate
workers. We were getting applications not only for entry-level
positions and menial jobs, but also from highly-skilled profes-
sionals. These people didnt need to be trained, meaning no
extra costs, which was asignificant saving.
Its weird, though. Imean, theyre SO OLD LIKE WE.
And theyre going to Europe. HOW IS IT POSSIBLE
THAT were working so MUCH in such acrummy job
and those two just do ALL WHAT they want to do.
THE LIFE is not fair, USED TO IT. Well BE HAPPY IF
WE CAN STAY IN this damn job.

For awhile things looked up and Ibecame confident that we

could actually pull this off. At one time Igot so carried away The cream rises to the
that Istarted to think of our factory as sort of amom-and-pop
business where people trust each other and dont mind work-
ing late or taking pay cuts when things go bad. Then some
top. So does the scum.
major deals went wrong and as aresult we had to let afew
people go. It broke my heart to see them pack up their stuff
and walk away, but it had to be done.
ERRORS DEBUGGED
Then the real crisis came and hit us hard. We began losing
business as car factories started going belly-up. First we had to Pauls old friend Jean happens to be visiting Czechia and he
cut salaries and then lay off adozen more workers. We simply decides to surprise Paul with aphone call.
couldnt afford to pay people to stay home, twiddling their
thumbs and waiting for things to get better. Even after we Your cousin is such an old guy? Idont think
got rid of all the dead weight, we struggled to keep our head Ive met him. What is he like? Is he just aregular
above water. guy or is he famous like your dad?
Actually, he has changed alot lately.
Our competitors didnt make it any easier for us, either. They Hes getting harder and harder to talk to.
actually went and persuaded some of the workers who had Thats what happens to everyone at that age.
been fired that they should sue us. It was clear that they were The same thing happened to my brother.
out to put us out of business for good. It took alot of effort
and some underhanded tactics on my part to make them drop SS thats too bad (thats ashame) | Iwould hate it if that
the charges. By then it was too late, though. The damage had happened to me | its all set
been done.
He used to be such anice guy, though.
Every day Ifound myself frustrated to learn of deals that were These days all he does is sit around and watch TV.
off or unlikely to materialize. When acustomer canceled on That sucks. Idont want that to happen to me.
us Ididnt hold it against them. Iknew they were all in atough So is there going to be abig party?
spot. None of us was in the business of providing charity. We Yep. Everything has been set up. Iwish Icould
all had to look after number one first. What kept me awake stay here and talk to you but
at nights was that our creditors wouldnt go away. We owed
alot of money at that point that we had no way of paying
back. Ihired some experts to think of away to lose the debts
without declaring bankruptcy. These guys cost me afortune
but failed to come up with anything that had any real chance
of working out.

So thats where we are right now, just muddling through,

barely making ends meet and delivering more promises than
profits. As if all that werent enough, weve had to deal with
the IRS, who seem to think that we cooked the books in the
SPECIAL
PAGE
40/40
ABOUT AGIRL
Iwould love to go to the Olympics, either winter or
summer. Its adream of mine and Ihope to make it come
true one day. Not anytime soon, though.
FILL-IN (15)
TEACHING: The teachers all hated their jobs
and -smoked and talked about . They
told me that basically the school was by
the parents and you had to up to them
if you wanted to hold to your job. it
became that this was in fact the ,
Ifigured, that. Ileft and am now starting my
own . Ihave no , except maybe Iwish
Id teaching much sooner than that.
SS CASE | ONCE | RETIRE | SCREW
CAR DOOR: Yesterday I into afight with
someone in aparking . Im sitting in my
car, my voice-mail, and of asudden Ifeel
someone crash door into the side of my car.
Isee this chick out of her car and walking
away as nothing happened. Iam usually
pretty mild-mannered (with everyone my
husband) but something came me.
Imarched out of the car and up with the girl.
Isaid, Excuse me, you just hit my car your
door. She looked at me wide-eyed and said,
Idid not! This just me see .
GISTS JIN
Nepouvejte another smnonm slem ani samotn
other sjednotnm: Idont care about another girls, Icare
about you/ there was other man there, too
esk jin je obas nutn pekldat slovem different,
obzvlt je-li pouito samostatn: shes not like her sister,
shes different
Co je mon nejpodstatnj: nezapomnejte, e ve spojen
se slovy jako someone/ nowhere/ everything/ what/
who se pouv else: but no one other knew/ well, what
else can we do?
The future isnt what it
used to be.
OUT LOUD & INQUIRY (5)
Luckily, it turns out the job isnt as hard
as Ithought it would be.
Iguess Im pretty much done here,
unless theres another task.
The short films are almost good enough
to be sold on their own.
My wifes not willing to work on the
marriage and neither am I.
Tina uses her cell in the car, and so
does everyone else in LA.
Idont mind paying for it as long as it works,
but what if it doesnt?
THE BELLY SOUND: Whats the word for the
sound that your belly makes after areally good
dinner? Whats it called? You know what Im
talking about, right? Does the sound even have
aname? Theres aword for it in Czech. Ijust
wonder what its called in English.
past and avoided paying taxes. Proving we did nothing wrong
is ahassle and avery time-consuming one. LISA KEYWORDS
Sometimes Icatch myself wishing Ihadnt listened to the Lisa shows up in Toms class to talk to his students.
guy back when we first started. Inever should have gotten First she and Tom set some ground rules.
involved, Ithink to myself. Sure, when its good its good. But
when things go south in this business, you dont want to be || NICE SEE, GOOD COME
there. || TOO, INVITE! FORWARD HELP
|| LATE? NO WAIT?
HARVEY PEKAR, ALIFE Hey there. My name is Harvey Pekar. || OK, SOON, QNA: OK?
Chances are, you have never heard of me or my work. But || YES: REASON, STUDENTS?
dont let that bother you. This is agood time to catch up. As || TALK: WONDER, PROMISE
you can probably tell by my last name, my ancestors came
to the States from Eastern Europe. But neither my mom nor When the students come in, Lisa introduces herself
my dad ever bothered to tell me what country exactly, so Im and starts talking.
guessing it was either Poland or Czechoslovakia. Imake my
living drawing cartoons. Not cartoon strips like you see in || HI, MEET, TALK + ASK
newspapers. No, Iwrite actual books or long stories based on || WANT 90S, 2 YEARS
my life and character.

Speaking of my character, Im not an easy guy to get along

with, let alone live with. There have been alot of ups and Im tough, ambitious,
downs in my life, like in most peoples. Actually, now that
Ithink about it, there havent been that many ups. Most of the
time, my life has stunk. It wasnt too good to start with and it
and I know exactly
what I want. If that
pretty much went downhill ever since. There were times when
Iseriously thought of checking out altogether, you know, kill-
ing myself, just getting it over with. Idont really know what
stopped me.
makes me a bitch, fine.
Sometimes you have to
Ive been married three times. My first two wives left me be-
cause they couldnt take any more of my constant worrying.
They said they were tired of hearing me grumble all the time
about how the moneys running out and how were going
broke and how Im at the end of my rope, unable to cope. Im
aworrier, theyre right about that. Now, its nothing that Im
be a bitch to get things
too proud of, but at the same time theres not much that Ican
do about it.
done.
Then again, Im pretty frank about my flaws and shortcomings.
If nothing else, Ideserve some credit for that. Idont mind de-
scribing myself as acheapskate because thats the kind of per- ERRORS ULTIMATE TEST
son Iam. For instance Ihate spending money on well, Ihate
spending money, period. As acartoonist, Idont really make Tvj bratrnek je tak star chlap? J ho myslm neznm.
awhole lot of money anyway. There are people out there who Jak je? Normln kluk, nebo slavn jako tvj otec?
love my books but there arent enough of them for me to make
acomfortable living. Posledn dobou se hodn zmnil. Je m dl t
si snm vykldat.
What this means is that Iam constantly worried about going
broke. The way Ideal with the stress is by panicking or whin- To se vtom vku stv vem. Mmu brchovi
ing to anyone who will listen. You might say that Irespond se stalo to sam.
to acrisis by turning into amajor pain in the ass. Like Isaid, On ale bval skvl lovk. Jedin, co te dl, je,
my first two wives found this too much to stomach and they e um na televizi.
walked out on me. Icouldnt really blame them, to be honest.
To je na prd. Tak bych nechtl skonit.
Im living with my third wife now. Shes an angel, she really is. Bude njak velk verek?
Shed better be, too, because Ihavent changed abit. Im still Vechno je u pichystan. Je mn lto,
the same ass Ive always been, only more so. By now my wife e tu nemu zstat, ale
must have figured out that theres no point in trying to change
me. Shes had to put up with alot, poor thing, and every once
in awhile Ifind myself feeling amazed that she hasnt kicked
me out yet. If she does one day, Ill be the first one to congratu-
late her on making the right decision.