Name: The Day Before Christmas | A Touching Animated Story
Uploaded: 2020-03-18T07:14:03.000Z
Duration: 10 min 9 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Adverbs of degree

Oh, the weather outside is frightful… but Christmas is so delightful!

Leslie felt it in the air as she walked down the street, wrapping up in her shawl against

She was headed to her favorite store that only opened nearer to the winter holidays

She cherished this knowledge as something very close and personal: the store was small

and not really well-known because of its peculiar schedule, so Leslie felt as if she was touching

But her singing mood was brought up short when she saw the “For rent” sign on the

She had been so engrossed by anticipation that she couldn’t believe her eyes.

Despite the obvious absence of anyone inside, she still knocked tentatively and waited…

It seemed to her that the world suddenly stopped spinning.

Upset and downtrodden, she already turned to leave, thinking about what she would do

now, when she noticed a small piece of paper tucked between the door and the jamb.

*** Alec wasn’t really fond of Christmas — too

much hustle, everyone around seems to be so happy for no good reason, and the overall

air of it didn’t bring him lots of joy; rather, anxiety because of the imminent expenses.

His birthday was on 29th, and that was twice as inconvenient: he had lots of friends, and

most of them would be offended if he didn’t throw a party for everyone.

The prospect was harrowing: buy presents for everybody (especially for Jane: he was going

to propose to her on New Year’s Eve), invite friends over to his place for a party…

He wondered where to take all that money.

Deep in these anxious thoughts, Alec barely noticed stepping onto something soft but springy.

When he finally registered the weird sensation, he turned around and saw it.

Alec hesitated, but then took a step back and picked it up.

Inside was a hefty stack of hundred-dollar bills… and a photograph.

*** Marissa woke up covered in cold sweat and

Another nightmare, this time about Ben — she didn’t exactly remember what it was about,

Come on, even sleeping pills didn’t help any longer!

She fetched her phone and called Ben, just in case.

One, two, three long beeps… and he picked up.

She jumped out of the bed and started looking frantically all over the place.

He couldn’t have… oh, no, it wasn’t there.

She hung up, telling him she’d call back in five, and began shoveling up every inch

She thought it was Ben again, but the number wasn’t on her contacts list.

Voice she didn’t recognize called her by her name.

*** Leslie took the sheet and unfolded it.

Inside was a note from the owner of the store that read, “Whoever finds this, please call

Her heart suddenly racing for some reason, she produced her phone from her bag and dialed

After five tones she was already going to hang up, when something clicked and a voice

of the man she remembered from previous years started talking — answering machine.

If you hear this, then you’ve probably found my note in the door of the store.

I understand your frustration, but unfortunately, I’ve got no loan this year, so I probably

I have all the stock on me, though, so if you’d really like to order something, it

would be my pleasure to call you back and arrange delivery.

If you’re interested, please stay on the line until the signal and tell me your phone

number and/or email, whatever you prefer, and I’ll contact you as soon as I can.

Leslie was surprised, but waited for the signal and spelled her email — she wasn’t fond

It showed a young African American woman, closer to her thirties, smiling and beautiful.

Alec turned over the card and saw name and a phone number on the other side: Marissa.

Clearly she wasn’t the owner of the wallet, but she probably knew who was.

Yes, my name’s Alec, I’ve found a wallet in the street with your photo and phone number

Well, there’s… like, a lot of money in here, and I thought it would be nice if the

Lots of money, more than enough for all the presents… and that other stuff.

Alec picked up, heard the voice and couldn’t believe it.

*** Marissa let out the air from her lungs with

She’d immediately told Ben to call him and went to dress up.

She had a short day today, but there was some stuff she needed done at the office — a

mortgage and a business loan that she couldn’t get her hands on for a long time now.

When she arrived at the office, she remembered something and took out that loan request form.

No, that would be too much of a coincidence.