丁凡: It's Back-To-School Day!

(我剛剛開始幫國語日報的語文版編寫週四的兒童英語教室。這是第一篇。以後不定期刊出。）

學校開學囉！看看美國的孩子要怎樣準備開學呢？
It's that time of the year again!
It's Back-To-School season! Summer is finally almost over! What shall we do to welcome the new school year?
Mom took us shopping in the Mall for some back-to-school stuff. They are having a big back-to-school sale over there. Mom bought me new shirts and pants from the clothing store and new pencils and erasers from the bookstore. I also got a brand new lunch box with Spice Girls' picture. It looks so cool!
I can't wait to go to school and show my friends what I got. It's so nice to be back to school!

註釋：
back-to-school day 字面上是「返校日」，但是其實美國學校都不用返校，這是指「開學日」———回到學校的日子。
back-to-school sale 指的是百貨公司八月舉行的「開學特賣」，包括衣服、文具、午餐盒等等上學物品，一般家庭都會帶孩子去大肆採購，讓孩子開學的時候有一身新行頭，高高興興的上學去。
lunch box 午餐盒，美國的小學生都會拎一個方形的午餐盒上學，盒子上面會印著各種卡通圖案或偶像照片。裡面放媽媽準備的午餐，通常是三明治、披薩、小餅乾、水果和飲料，他們不蒸午餐，是吃冷的。

Mind twister (腦筋急轉彎):
Question: Why did John walk backwards to school? （問題：為甚麼約翰要倒著走路到學校？）
Answer: It was back-to-school day!（答案：因為是開學日！）

小劇場：
Adam: Where are you going?（你要去哪裡？）
Betty: I am going to the back-to-school sale with my Mom. （我要跟我媽媽去買開學用品。）
Adam: Great! I went shopping yesterday too. They really have a lot of good stuff. （太棒了！我昨天去買了。他們真的有很多好東西。）
Betty: I will see you in school then. （我們在學校見囉。）
Adam: Yeah, see you. （是啊，再見了。）