A Good Shirt

Dave married, and when his new wife saw the clothes in his cupboard, she said:

‘Dave, you have only got one good shirt. The others are very old, and they’ve got holes in them. I’m going to buy you a new one this afternoon.’

Dave liked his old shirts, but he loved his wife too, so he said, ‘All right, Beryl, but please don’t throw any of the old ones away.’

Dave went to work, and when he came back in the evening, Beryl said to him, ‘Look, Dave, I’ve bought you a nice shirt. Here it is. Put it on.’

Dave put the shirt on, and then he said, ‘Look at the sleeves, Beryl. They’re too long.’

‘That’s all right,’ Beryl answered. ‘They’ll get shorter when I wash the shirt.’

Then Dave said, ‘But the neck’s too small.’

‘That’s all right,’ Beryl answered. ‘It’ll get bigger when you wear the shirt, Dave.’

A. Answer these questions.

1. Why did Beryl want to buy Dave a new shirt?

2. Why didn’t Dave want his wife to throw any of his old shirts away?

3. Why didn’t Dave like the sleeves of his new shirt?

4. What did Beryl say about the sleeves?

5. Why didn’t Dave like the collar of the shirt?

6. What did Beryl say about the collar?

B. Opposites. Write these sentences. Put one word in each empty place.

1. New clothes do not have holes in them, but _______ ones sometimes do.

2. Sleeves don’t get _______ when you wash them. They get shorter.

3. Good shirts are not cheap. They are _______ .

4. The neck of Dave’s shirt wasn’t too big. It was too _______ .

5. Dave loved his old shirts, but he _______ his new one.