Dentist’s appointment

 When John came home on Thursday, his mother told him that she had made an appointment for him with the dentist. It was on Friday at 4 o’clock. John was not happy. He had football training on Fridays and did not have time to go to the dentist. 

“Mum, I have told you thousands of times not to make appointments for me!” said John.

“But you were up all night with toothache,” said his mother.

“Mum, I’m 17 years old, so I can make my own appointments. And, I no longer have toothache.”

So before his mother went shopping, she called the dentist and cancelled the appointment.

Half an hour later his father came home. John looked at his father and saw that his hair was very short. His father had been to the hairdresser. They talked about how John’s mother had always made appointments for the two of them. Although John’s father was always happy with this, John didn’t like it so much.

John went up to his room with a bowl of ice cream to do his homework and then chat with his friends on Facebook. He had just finished his ice cream when he felt a pain in his mouth. “Oh, no, the toothache is back,” he thought. He went into the bathroom, found the painkillers and took two. “Perhaps it will be better in the morning,” John said to himself. But that night the pain got worse. John couldn’t sleep. When he returned to the bathroom for the third time he met his mother.

“Is there a problem?” she asked. “Can’t you sleep?” Then she saw the bottle of painkillers in his hand.

“Has the toothache come back?” she asked.

“Yes, it has. Maybe that appointment was not a bad idea after all. You didn’t cancel it, did you?” asked John.

“Sorry John, but yes I did. You will have to make a new appointment in the morning.”

In the morning a very tired John rang the dentist and asked for an appointment to see the dentist. The receptionist told him that he could see the dentist next Thursday at 10 o’clock. When John asked for an earlier appointment, she told him that next Thursday was the first available appointment.

“I have terrible toothache and it is getting more and more painful. Is there nothing you can do? My mother made an appointment for me for this afternoon but I told her to cancel it. And now I really need to see the dentist fast,” John said.

The receptionist checked her appointment book and told John that the appointment his mother had made was still available, so he could come that afternoon. John was relieved. He put the phone down, looked at his mother and said, “This afternoon at 4 o’clock.”

词汇讲解

译文

预约看牙

约翰周四回到家时，母亲告诉他她给他约好了牙医，预约的是周五下午四点钟。约翰很不高兴，因为他每周五都有足球训练，没时间去看牙医。

“妈妈，我和你说了多少次了，不要为我预约！”约翰说道。

“但是你牙痛得整晚都睡不着。”妈妈答道。

“妈妈，我已经17岁了，自己能预约。再说，我牙又不痛了。”

就这样，妈妈打电话给牙医取消了预约，然后去买东西了。

过了半小时，父亲回来了，约翰看了父亲一眼，说父亲的头发很短。其实父亲去理过发了。父子俩说起约翰妈妈总是为他们俩预约。约翰爸爸对此总是美滋滋的，可约翰并不喜欢这样。

约翰端着一罐冰淇淋上自己房间去做作业，随后和朋友们在脸书上聊天。可他刚吃完冰淇淋，就感到嘴里一阵疼痛。“哎哟，不，牙又疼起来了，”他想。他走进浴室，找到止疼药吃了两颗。“或许明天早上就会好些了，”约翰心想。可是当晚牙疼得更厉害了，根本睡不着觉。当他第三次去浴室的时候，遇到了妈妈。

 “出什么事了？”妈妈问。“你睡不着吗？”然后她就看到了约翰手中的止痛药瓶。

“牙又疼了？”她问。

“嗯，又疼了。可能预约去看一下是对的。你没取消预约，对吗？”约翰问道。

“对不起，约翰，我取消了。你要早上自己去预约了。”

一大早，困乏至极的约翰给牙医打电话，要求预约看牙医。可是服务台的人却告诉他说他只能下周四10点去看牙医。约翰要求预约早一些的时间，却被告知下周四已经是可供预约最早的时间了。

“我牙疼得很厉害，而且越来越难受。难道你就没有办法了吗？我母亲之前曾给我预约过今天下午来看牙的，但我让她取消掉了。现在我真的需要赶紧来看牙。”

服务台的人查了一下预约登记簿，然后告诉约翰他妈妈之前为他所做的预约还在，他可以那天下午去。约翰终于松了一口气。他放下电话，望着母亲，说，“今天下午四点”。