4.4

Listen to the conversation between Mrs. Parker and her granddaughter and answer the questions.

Granny, can you tell me what life was like when you were a kid?

I mean, was it different?

Yes, honey.

Far more different.

What are those differences?

Can you tell me?

I have a school project about life in the past.

For instance, I used to play with my dolls when I was a kid.

Didn't you do that?

I did, of course.

But the difference is that we used to make our dolls ourselves.

Wow, that's incredible.

Why did you not buy them?

Well, we used to live in a small town.

And there didn't used to be a lot of shops and toys.

Moreover, we couldn't afford them.

My family used to be a poor one.

Now I live in a big city, but it wasn't like that then.

I see.

What about school?

Did you go to school by too?

No, I didn't.

I used to go to school on foot.

We used to stay at school the whole day.

But at lunchtime, we used to come home to eat lunch and go back to school.

Wasn't it boring?

I mean, to stay at school all day can't be interesting.

No, not at all.

We used to play games and have fun at school.

We did not used to have personal computers, though.

We used to have our books and notebooks, and we used to do a lot of homework.

And we didn't used to have calculators like you have today.

We used to count with abacusis.

Abacusis? What's that?

Of course, you don't know what an abacus is.

It is a frame -holding small beads on metal rods.

We used it for counting.

Did you used to go to the cinema with friends, Granny?

No, we didn't because the cinema was too far.

Instead, we used to go to open air to have a picnic or swim in the lake.

So, all in all, how can you compare the school system today with the one in the past?

Well, as far as I can see, you are more confident than we used to be.

And you know more things than we used to learn, because we didn't have many alternatives then.

But now you learn from TV, the internet, and so on.

I think you enjoy life more than we used to.

But there is one thing for sure.

There used to be less danger for kids in the past.

But now it is not like that.

But all in all, I think you are luckier than we used to be.

You must be aware of that fact and appreciate it, honey.

Thank you, Granny. Love you so much.