Fun Zone

         

          Last weekend, my boyfriend and I brought our son to Fun Zone in Farmingdale.  Fun Zone is an indoor place, combined with arcade games, a few rides, food, bowling, mini golf, a bouncy castle, and more.  My son has been asking to go, because my stepfather took him there a while ago, and he wanted to go there again.  He was especially excited about the bouncy castle. 
          When we got there, I noticed that most of the rides weren't even in service.  They looked as though they were completely understaffed.  My son asked about the bouncy castle, and it took a while to even find someone to help us get to it.  Most of the employees were hanging around the redemption center (where you cash in your tickets for prizes).  It looked very unprofessional.  But anyway, he was able to play, and he had the whole castle to himself.  He had a blast!  The best part was it was only five dollars for a whole hour!
          Everything else was pretty horrible, considering most games didn't work.  I used to manage an arcade, so it was very difficult for me to see how unorganized, unprofessional, and run-down this place was.  Although the place was not that great, my son was happy.  And that is all that matters! 


Vocabulary:

1. Arcade Game (noun): a coin-operated machine that is used for entertainment. (Newer arcade games can be operated with cards).

Arcade Game

2. Ride (noun): a machine that people can go in, that moves around in some way.  It is usually operated by an employee, and it is for fun.

Example of a ride - Roller Coaster

3. Bowling (noun): a sport, where the player tries to knock down ten pins with a heavy ball (bowling ball).

Bowling

Mini Golf

4. Mini golf (noun): a sport, where the player tries to get the ball (golf ball) into a hole with the use of a golf club.
5. Bouncy Castle (noun): a big, air-filled structure, in the shape of a castle.  Since there is a lot of air inside, the kids can jump inside and bounce.

Bouncy Castle

6. Understaff (verb): not enough workers for a business to run correctly.

Redemption Center

7. Redemption Center (noun): a place where tickets that are won from arcade games can be turned in, and the person can get a prize, depending on the amount of tickets they have won.
8. Unprofessional (adjective): not meeting standards of a job, or sloppy.

Examples of Unprofessional Attire

9. Horrible (adjective): unpleasant, not good.
10. Manage (transitive verb): to be responsible for, a supervisory position in a job.
**In service means working at the moment.  The rides were not in service, because they were not working at the moment.


Vocabulary Cloze Exercise (Match the word with the correct definition.):

1. _____Redemption Center                a. To be responsible for employees and important job tasks
2. _____Bouncy Castle                       b.  An example of this would be a roller coaster
3. _____Manage                                 c. A machine that is operated with a coin or card to play a game
4. _____Mini golf                               d. To have a limited amount of workers
5. _____Unprofessional                      e. Unpleasant
6. _____Arcade game                        f. A sport that consists of a heavy ball and ten pins
7. _____Understaff                            g. A big structure filled with air that children can bounce on
8. _____Bowling                                h. A sport where the goal is to get the ball into the hole
9. _____Ride                                     i. The place where tickets can be cashed in for prizes
10.____Horrible                                j. sloppy


Grammar Point (Subjective Pronouns):
          A pronoun replaces the name of someone or something, with the use of words such as: he, she, it, you, we, and they.  For example, look at this sentence: Laura loves apples.  We could replace "Laura" with "she".  She loves apples.  "She" replaces a girl, while "he" would replace a boy.  This makes sentences less repetitive (using the same word over and over again).
          A subjective pronoun indicates that the pronoun is acting as the subject in the sentence.  For example, I wrote: He was especially excited about the bouncy castle.  "He" is the subject, which could be replaced with "my son".

For more help on pronouns, check out this website.


Grammar Cloze Exercise:

          I gave you an example of a subjective pronoun within my blog entry.  Find the rest of the subjective pronouns.  Then, write a short story, making sure to include at least 3 different kinds of subjective pronouns.  (He, she, we, they, it, you)


For more practice with subjective pronouns, click here.