White Manna Hamburgers

 

My boyfriend, my son, and I had a couple of eventful things to do this weekend.  My boyfriend's parents came from Puerto Rico, so we picked them up at the airport.  They live in Puerto Rico, but they have a wedding to attend, so they are able to visit for about a week.  After picking them up from the airport, we went to New Jersey because his father had to get fitted for his tuxedo.  We decided to eat dinner at White Manna Hamburgers in Hackensack, New Jersey.  We have seen this place on a TV show, Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives featuring Guy Fieri on the Food Network Channel.  People said they loved their burgers because they were made from fresh ground beef that they have delivered every morning.  My boyfriend absolutely loves burgers, so he was dying to eat there.

The place smelled so good as we pulled into the parking lot.  It was very small and crowded.  We waited an extended amount of time for our burgers.  I noticed that there were only three workers: one working the grill, one making the drinks, and one in charge of the fries.  My son was getting very impatient as we waited for our food.  We were served our fries first, but they were not as hot as they should have been.  After that, they gave us our sodas, and finally, our burgers.  The burgers were small, like the ones from White Castle.  They had cheese and onions on them, and I asked if they could put pickles on the side.  They were scrumptious, except I did not like the potato rolls.  Overall, I thought they were alright, but I would not go out of my way to eat there again.  We also realized the next day that our coats all smelled like burgers and onions, so we had to put them all in the laundry as well!  I think Guy Fieri made the place a bit overrated.

After eating dinner, we all came home and spent the rest of the night conversing with the family.  It was a pleasant weekend and I am happy that we were all able to spend quality time with each other.

Click here to learn about the TV show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives!

Guy Fieri

Vocabulary:

1. eventful (adjective) - momentous, full of events or happenings
2. attend (verb) - go to, to be present
3. feature (verb) - to play an important part, show
4. extended (adjective) - drawn out in length, especially in time; extra long
5. impatient (adjective) - restless, not wanting to wait
6. scrumptious (adjective) - delicious
7. overrate (transitive verb) - to estimate too highly
8. converse (intransitive verb) - to talk
9. pleasant (adjective) - delightful, nice

*The term "get fitted" refers to when someone gets measurements taken in order to get the clothing to fit as close to perfect as possible.


Cloze Exercise (Multiple Choice - Choose the correct answer to fill in the blank.)

1.   We had a very _________________ night.  We were able to do a lot of different things.
     a) eventness     b) scrumptious     c) eventful     d) attend

2.  Can you _______________ my birthday party next week?
     a) attend     b) overrate     c) attended     d) converse

3.  The late night television show will _____________ some of the funniest comedians.
     a) pleasant     b) feature     c) pleasantful     d) features

4.  During the football game, the time was _________________ because the score was tied.
     a) extended     b) extend     c) eventful     d) conversing

5.  I was very ___________ while waiting for my mail to arrive.
     a) pleasant     b) impatient     c) impatientness     d) extend

6.  Our fudge brownie dessert was ____________!
     a) featuring     b) extended     c) scrumptious     d) scrumptiously

7.  The Super Bowl is extremely _______________.
     a) overrating     b) scrumptious     c) pleasant     d) overrated

8.  We _____________ for a little while before we went to work.
     a) conversing     b) converse     c) feature     d) conversed

9.  The candle had a ___________  flowery scent.
     a) pleasant     b) featuring     c) converse     d) pleasanted


Grammar Point:

The sentence, "We have seen this place on a TV show, Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives featuring Guy Fieri on the Food Network Channel" displays the use of present perfect tense.  Present perfect tense is used to say an action that happened at an unspecified time before now.  You can only use this tense when using a general expression such as: never, once, many times or already.  It is used when you do not know the exact time the event happened.  Present perfect tense usually is associated with experiences, changes over time, accomplishments, something that is not completed yet, or something that has happened multiple times. 
The form is has/have + past participle.
Examples:  You have seen that movie many times.
                 Have you seen that movie many times?
                 You have not seen that movie many times.

For more examples, visit this website.


Grammar Exercise (Using the words in the parenthesis, complete the text below with the appropriate tenses.) :

1.  I (have, not) ____________ this much fun since I was a kid.
2.  She (have) ______________ seen this movie many times.
3.  Toni Morrison (have) _________________ written many great books.
4.  My car (have, not) _____________ been giving me any problems yet.
5.  Our school teams (have) ____________ won many awards.
6.  The company (have, only) ______________ six employees working today.
7.  Joseph (have, dream) _______________ of going on a vacation for many years.
8.  In the last few years, jobs (have, become) ________________ much harder to find.

For more practice, click the link.