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Barry and Julia
Barry and Julia were in love, or at least in infatuation. They had been staring at each other since the ninth grade, and now in eleventh grade they had finally gotten over their shyness and talked to each other. After the first time they spoke, they never let any free moment go by without seeing each other and talking, if at all possible. They were the perfect picture of romantic bliss, right out of the movies.
 
One day Julia didn't show up at their favorite meeting spot. Barry was surprised, but didn't think much of it. He assumed she had been detained somewhere by a teacher or friends. However, she didn’t appear after school in front like she usually did, and didn't call him at home that evening. Then he started to worry. The next day he saw her in class, but she didn’t look at him. He tried to get her attention, but the teacher got in the way and yelled at him for not paying attention. After school he had an important band rehersal, so he couldn’t run over to her house and ask what was going on.
 
At band practice things got worse. His friends started to say things that didn't make him more comfortable. "Hey man, 'looks like you've been dumped!" one less-than-polite guy said. "What did you do to her, anyway?" they joked nastily. Some of Julia's friends were in the band, so Barry thought it best if he didn't say anything.
 
That night Barry felt terrible. He was sure that what his friends said was true. He knew that girls could just drop a guy like a stone, but he had never thought that Julia was like that. Barry thought that maybe she had changed her mind about him.
 
The next day he was very depressed, but he decided to go to school anyway and act like nothing was wrong. He didn’t look at Julia, and he assumed that she wasn’t looking at him. For the rest of high school he missed her and felt bad about what had happened, but thought, “that’s life!”
in love:  รักกัน
at least:  อย่างน้อย
infatuation:  หลงใหล
stare:  จ้องมอง
grade:  ชั้น
get over:  ทำใจได้
shyness:  ความอาย
free moment:  ช่วงเวลาที่ว่าง
if at all possible:  ถ้าเป็นไปได้
without:  ปราศจาก/ไม่มี
perfect picture of romantic bliss:  ภาพที่แสนโรแมนติก
show up:  มา/โผล่มา
meeting spot:  จุดนัดพบ
not think much of it:  ไม่ได้คิดมากมาย
assume:  เหมาเดาว่า
detain:  เหนี่ยวรั้ง
appear:  ปรากฏให้เห็น
get (someone's) attention:  เรียกร้องความสนใจ
get in the way:  มาขวางไว้
pay attention:  ตั้งใจเรียน
important:  สำคัญ
band rehersal:  ซ้อมวงดนตรี
what is going on:  กำลังเกิดอะไรขึ้น
get worse:  แย่ลงกว่าเดิม
comfortable:  อึดอัดไม่สบายใจ
‘looks like you’ve been dumped (= "it looks like you have been dumped"):  มันดูเหมือนว่า คุณถูกแฟนทิ้งแล้ว
less-than-polite:  ไม่สุภาพ
guy:  ชายหนุ่ม
nastily:  อย่างน่าเกลียด
think it best:  คิดว่าดีกว่า
drop a guy like a stone:  ทิ้งผู้ชายเหมือนทิ้งก้อนหิน
change her mind:  เปลี่ยนใจ
depressed:  สลดหดหู่
decide:  ตัดสินใจ
act like nothing was wrong:  ทำราวกับว่าไม่มีอะไรผิดปกติ
the rest:  ส่วนที่เหลือ
miss (someone / something):  คิดถึง(บางคน/บางสิ่ง)
that’s life:  นั่นแหละ ชีวิต
What do you think really happened?
จริงๆ แล้ว คุณคิดว่า เกิดอะไรขึ้น
What should Julia have done?
จูเลีย ควรจะ/น่าจะ ทำอะไร (แต่ไม่ได้ทำ)
What should Barry have done?
แบรี่ ควรจะ/น่าจะ ทำอะไร (แต่ไม่ได้ทำ)
Email us with your answers to these questions, in English. Write whatever you want, as long as it answers one or more of the questions. If we like it, we will put your response on this page with corrections. It would be nice if you sent us your name and school and town, but you don't have to; you can send us an alias if you are shy. Just try to write and have fun!
อีเมลล์ คำตอบของคุณ ส่งถึงเรา เราจะตรวจ และแก้ไขให้ หากเราชอบ เราจะ แปะติดโชว์ไว้ ในเว็บนี้ อย่าลืม ชื่อ ชั้น และ โรงเรียนของคุณด้วย นะ
 
Your answers can go here!
เขียน คำตอบของคุณ ตรงนี้
Write now!
 
 
Notes about the English in "Barry and Julia"

  • The word "infatuation" is not used normally here. People usually say "they were infatuated with each other" or "he was infatuated with her," but here it says "in infatuation" to jokingly match "in love".
  • You can see many good examples of Past Perfect Tense in this story (had + V3). Past Perfect Tense is used to talk about a time before a past time. The story is already in the past, so using Past Simple Tense for times before the story's time would not work. You need Past Perfect Tense to go one more step back. Look at this interesting sentence:
    "They had been staring at each other since the ninth grade, and now in eleventh grade they had finally gotten over their shyness and talked to each other."
    "Now" means "now" for the story, in other words, the past time when the story began. Using "had" + V3 shows us that the staring and the getting over of shyness and the talking to each other happened before that past time when the curtains opened on the story. It's like in the beginning of a movie when you see people walking down the street and a narrator talks about their life up to that time. What the narrator is talking about is just background information, not the beginning of the real story, just as the staring, getting over shyness and talking are not the beginning of this story. When we ask our students whether this story begins in ninth grade or in eleventh grade, most of them incorrectly say ninth. Look closely: the story begins in eleventh grade, when they were in love: "...now in eleventh grade they had finally gotten over their shyness and talked to each other."


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