英語(yǔ)播客 A Cup of English Japanese Koi.

way to the basketball game at the weekend, we stopped at a restaurant for dinner. The consensus was that we wanted asian food. So, as we drove along, half of us in the car looked out in one direction, and the rest of us looked in the other, until someone spotted a chinese restaurant. We turned into the parking lot and looked at the building. It was pink, it had colorful (ourful) accent colors (ours), and its style was very chinese. "I have a bad feeling about this place," said my husband all of a sudden. "What do you mean? Why, just because it's pink?" was my question. He told me to trust his instincts, and to let him drive us to a different restaurant. We turned up at another, very large chinese restaurant that immediately caught our attention because of the huge fish tank full of koi. Wow! There were at least ten, large, brightly colored (oured) koi, swimming around gracefully. The history of koi is interesting. About 1000 years ago, the carp was bred in China specifically for certain colors, resulting in the goldfish. About four hundred years later, the carp was introduced into Japan. It wasn't until the 1820's that carp were bred for color in Japan. By the 20th century, the famous red and white koi had been established, and were revealed to the world in the Tokyo exhibition in 1914. Koi can live easily for more than 100 years. The longest living recorded koi lived 226 years, and outlived several owners! While the children and I gazed at the fish and oohhed and aahhed, my husband looked up the restaurant on his droid to see what the food was like. Well, it turns out that the food was not worth eating, and the previous restaurant was highly recommended. So, we had a last look at the incredible koi, and then sneaked out and headed off to the pink restaurant which, in the end, turned out to be the perfect place for chinese food.

Grammar notes.

Useful common verbs: To spot, to turn (into), to outlive, to sneak out.

1. As I looked through the binoculars, I spotted a golden eagle.

2. The bus slowed down and turned into the parking lot.

3. The parrot outlived two owners before it eventually died.

4. "Children, it's dark. Don't let me catch you sneaking out!"