Ill on Thursday,

Worse on Friday,

Died on Saturday,

Buried on Sunday.

That was the end of

Solomon Grundy.

• Oh, it is a very sad story… But now I know all the days of the week: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.

• Quite right. Now tell me what day it is today.

• Today is Friday, I believe.

• Yes, and what day will tomorrow be?

• Saturday.

• And the day after tomorrow?

• Sunday.

• What day was yesterday?

• It was Thursday, I’m sure.

• And the day before yesterday?

• Wednesday.

• You are right again. Now let’s deal with the time. If we want to know the time we look at clocks or watches. Mechanical clocks and watches have faces with figures and hands that point to the hours and minutes. Digital clocks and watches show the time as a set of numbers. I don’t think you’ll find it very difficult to tell the time in English. As for the hours we say, for instance, it’s one o’clock, two o’clock, three o’clock and so on. We can say it’s midnight or midday instead of twelve o’clock. Then for the quarters we say it’s a quarter past five, half past five, a quarter to six. We say other times as follows: five minutes past five (or simply five past five), ten past five, twenty past five, twenty-five past five, twenty-five to six, twenty to six and so on. Now could you tell me the right time, please?

• Well, our kitchen clock says it’s a quarter past ten. But it is about five minutes slow. So it is twenty minutes past ten now. And what time is it by your watch?

• My watch is going very well because I don’t forget to wind it up regularly. And it says it is nineteen minutes past ten now. Now let’s assume that it’s eight o’clock now. In how many minutes will my first lesson begin?

• It usually begins at half past eight, and now, as you say, it is eight o’clock sharp. It will begin in half an hour, or in thirty minutes.

• Absolutely perfect! By the way, I know the time is not the same all over the world.

• Isn’t it?

• Sure. Europe, including Great Britain, lives by Central European Time. In England there’s also Greenwich Mean Time which is one hour behind Central European Time. But it is not used. So when it is 10 a.m. in Paris or in London it’s already midday in Moscow, 5 p.m. in Beijing, 1 a.m. in Alaska and 6 a.m. in Brazil.

• Oh, it’s so interesting!

• Yes, it is. Now let’s have the names of the months.

• Certainly. January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December. Look, what a nice rhyme about the names of the months I know:

Thirty days have September,

April, June and November.

All the rest have thirty-one.

February has twenty-eight alone,

Excepting leap-year, that’s the time,

When February days are twenty-nine.

• Very well, Fluffy. Now tell me, please, what date it is today.

• Today is the 10^th of November 2011. Yesterday was the 9^th of November. Tomorrow will be the 11^th of November.

• Splendid, Fluffy! And the last question. Do you know the day of your birth?

• Of course I do! I was born on the 29^th of February 2007.

• You’re lucky because you were born in a leap-year. Now our lesson is over. I must say you’re a very clever pupil!

• Thank you, Mary.

• Be ready for your next lesson. And don’t be late!