Upper Intermediate Level >> Speaking and Conversation Materials/Discussion Starters >> Short reading that can be followed up with third conditional work. How would the story have been different if...
Marge's Day of Hell
Upper Intermediate
Read this story about Marge. How would the story have been different if...?
Marge is a woman of 55 who lives on her own in a small house in Scotland. She did not have a very nice day yesterday!
As she was leaving the house, she forgot her bus ticket. Only when she got to the bus stop did she realise this, so she had to hurry back to the house. She opened the door, put the keys on the telephone table, went into the kitchen to get her bus ticket and left again without her keys.
She caught the 8.42 a.m bus instead of her usual 8.30 a.m bus and arrived at work about ten minutes late. Mr. Jones, her boss, was in a bad mood yesterday and shouted at her when she arrived late. As a result, they had an argument in front of all the other people in the office. Mr. Jones told her she would have to stay behind for fifteen minutes at lunch to finish some important work.
At lunch, Marge only had time for a quick sandwich and didn't go to the office cafeteria with the others as normal. Everyone returned from lunch very happy because they had met a new employee who had told some very funny jokes. Marge was not happy. She was hungry and tired.
She was so hungry as she left the office at 5 o'clock that she bought a hot dog from the man on the street corner. Within an hour, she didn't feel very well and had a pain in her stomach. It was not her day!
She arrived home and realised she didn't have her keys, so had to walk two miles to her sister's house to get a spare set of keys. She went into her house, closed the door and went straight to bed.
