BOOK ONE · LESSON 143

A walk through the woods

林中散步

A story lesson. The narrator lives in a very old town surrounded by beautiful woods, a famous beauty spot. On Sundays, hundreds of people come from the city to see the town and to walk through the woods. Visitors have been asked to keep the woods clean and tidy, and litter baskets have been placed under the trees, but people still throw their rubbish everywhere. Last Wednesday, the narrator went for a walk in the woods and was made very sad by what he saw: seven old cars and three old refrigerators, empty litter baskets, and the ground covered with pieces of paper, cigarette ends, old tyres, empty bottles and rusty tins. Among the rubbish he found a sign which said, 'Anyone who leaves litter in these woods will be prosecuted!' The lesson introduces the passive voice with present and past perfect ('have been asked', 'have been placed', 'have been painted'), the relative clauses 'which is surrounded', 'which said', and the noun clause 'What I saw made me very sad'. The workbook drills story comprehension and short answers; the grammar workbook practices giving correct replies with 'I don't need to ... . It/They have already been ...'.