The Best Car
One day, Randy decided to buy a car. With a car, he could carry a lot of garbage and take it anywhere he wanted.He went to the car dealership and asked about the best car for him.
"You are smaller than a person," said the salesperson, "so I think you need a sports car. It's smaller and faster than other cars."
"Oh," said Randy, "The most important thing is that the car is big so I can carry lots of garbage!"
"Hmmm..." said the salesperson, "Maybe you need a van or a jeep. They are bigger than sports cars. They are also safer if you have a crash.
"Bigger is better," said Randy as he looked around. "Oooh! What kind of car is that? It's the prettiest one here."
"That's a luxury car. It's a more expensive car, but also more comfortable," said the dealer.
"I don't have a lot of money," Randy said.
"How much do you have?" asked the salesperson?
"I have 25 cents. And some shiny foil!"
"You can't buy a car then. You need more money," the salesperson told Randy.
"Oh," Randy said, "Sorry to bother you."
Randy went home, but he felt sad because he couldn't buy a car. He decided to eat because eating makes raccoons feel better. So he went out to the garbage. But there wasn't any garbage in the first can. Or the second. Or the third.
"This is strange," Randy thought, "There's no garbage and it's louder here than usual. He looked at the fourth can and he saw a big truck next to it, lifting it up in the air with robot arms. When the can got very high, the garbarge fell out of it into the back of the truck. Inside the back of the truck was more garbarge than Randy had ever seen before!
"Wow!" he thought, "This is the best car I have ever seen because it can carry so much garbage."
He went to the driver and said, "Excuse me. Can I bother you?"
"What do you want?" asked the driver.
"Is your truck for sale?"
"No," said the garbage man.
"Oh. I just like it so much that I wanted to buy it."
"Well," said the garbage man, "I know that raccoons love garbage best. So if you want, you can come with me and help me pick up all the garbage."
"Wow!" said Randy, "That would be very good."
So Randy and the garbage man went around to all the buildings and collected all the garbage in the town. And Randy was happier than he had ever been. When they finished, the man took Randy back home. He said, "I'll be back next week if you want to ride in my truck again."
"Yes, please!" Randy said. "This is the best day of my life. I found the best
Glossary of Words
to decide: when you think about something and then think you will do something, you have decided. "I had a difficult choice but I finally decided to have chocolate cake, not lemon pie."car dealership: the store where they sell cars.
salesperson: A person who sells things.
sports car: A kind of car made to go fast and to look cool.
van: A big car with a lot of seats or space in the back.
jeep: A big car that is made to drive off the road.
crash: When two cars hit each other by accident, they have a crash.
luxury car: An expensive car that has many comfortable features like leather seats.
shiny: Bright, glows in the light
to bother: To waste someone's time, to distract them from work, to annoy them
truck; A very large car, usually used to carry a lot of things.
for sale: Something for sale is able to be bought. My house is not for sale because I don't want to sell it.
Grammar Spot: Comparing
Look at the words in purple in the story. They are all adjectives, or describing words. Some of them are comparing adjectives. With many adjectives we add -ier to the end to make it compare.Randy is small. He is not big. He is smaller than a person. A person is bigger than a raccoon.
Sometimes we add more in front of the adjective, like when the adjective is long.
A luxury car, like a Mercedes, is more expensive than a van.
A few adjectives are strange. Like, Good. We don't say "more good." We say better.
Try it yourself! Try to figure out the regular or comparative forms from the story. Fill in the missing words in the table below. Wherever you see a question mark (?) fill in the adjective or the comparative form.
| Adjective | Comparing |
|---|---|
| big | ? |
| ? | smaller |
| fast | ? |
| important | ? |
| ? | better | ? | prettiest | safe | ? | ? | more comfortable | ? | louder | happy | ? |
Comprehension
- What kind of car does the salesman say is faster?
- safer?
- prettier?
- more comfortable?
- more expensive?
- Why can't Randy buy a car?
- Why does Randy say, "Sorry" to the car salesman?
- What kind of car does Randy like best?
- Why does he like that kind of car?
Speaking
- The story mentions different types of cars. Can you think of a brand name for each type of car?
For example, A Mercedes is a luxury car. Note: Brands of cars are always capitalized, just like other brand names. Types of cars are not capitalized. - What kind of car do you have?
- What kind of car do you like best? Why?
- Imagine you are going to open a car dealership. What kinds of cars would you sell? What brands? Why?
- Is it better to own a car or is it better to use a friend's car?