중학교 영어 3 (NE능률 김성곤) 연계 글

Last October, a strong wind turned my umbrella inside out. Two ribs snapped, so I took it to the trash can by the school gate. The can was already full of broken umbrellas. It was hard for me to drop mine in, because my aunt had given it to me. My friend Yeonwoo looked at the pile and said, "My grandmother could fix half of these." That gave us the idea for Fix-It Day, an afternoon of fixing broken things together.

At first, it seemed impossible for two ninth graders to gather enough helpers. Yeonwoo's grandmother agreed to bring her sewing kit. Mr. Tak, our school custodian, offered tools from the basement room where he repairs old desks. Our science teacher, Ms. Okafor, promised to check anything with batteries. We chose the empty classroom at the end of the hallway, where no class had met for two years.

On the last Friday in November, students brought twenty-four broken things. Each owner sat beside a helper and did most of the work. Yeonwoo's grandmother sat by the window, where the light was best for threading needles. She showed us that it is easy for anyone to sew on a button. With Mr. Tak's help, I replaced the two broken ribs in my umbrella. Ms. Okafor showed one boy how to clean the rusty springs in his calculator, and its screen lit up again.

Only one thing went home broken. A seventh grader named Imogen brought an alarm clock that had belonged to her great-grandfather. Inside, Ms. Okafor found a cracked gear no bigger than a fingernail. Nobody had a gear like it, and the clock was too old for any of us to repair.

We are planning a second Fix-It Day for next spring in Ms. Okafor's science room, where the tables are bigger. Imogen has already offered to help at the sewing table.