The Best Christmas Present
Anna: What do you think is the best Christmas present you ever got?
James: Uh… OK, so I was in the fifth grade, uh, maybe I was 10 or 11, and I got the Playstation game console system.
Anna: Ooh.
James: It was my first video game system. Uh, they also bought me Final Fantasy 7, and, uh, and some books to go along with it, yeah, and like, I was so excited, that- that was like, my best Christmas ever!
Anna: That’s really cool. So it was, like, a new gaming console at that time?
James: Yeah, it was like ’90… I don’t know, ’98 or ’99?
Anna: Yeah.
James: Maybe ’97? And yeah, like, the first Playstation came out, and, uh, it was, like, so cool back then.
James: And it was like, I- I had never had a video game system before, and this was, like, my first one. So I was like “Oh my God!” Like, uh, my favorite game was, uh, “Crash Bandicoot.”
Anna: Oh yeah?
James: Yeah, you were, like, this little hedgehog, like, little rat thing, and then, uh, you would just, like, jump around. It- it was like their version of Mario, but I really liked him. He did spin kicks.
Vocabulary:
fifth grade – the fifth year of elementary school in the North American school system, typically for children aged 10 to 11, “In the fifth grade, my favorite subject was science because we got to do hands-on experiments.”
game console system / gaming console – an electronic device designed primarily for playing video games on a television screen, “He saved up his birthday money for months to buy the newest gaming console.”
to go along with it – as an addition to or accompanying a main item, “She bought a new winter coat and picked up a matching scarf to go along with it.”
back then – at a particular time in the past, often used when comparing the past to the present, “My grandfather remembers when a movie ticket cost less than two dollars back then.”
version of – a specific form of something that varies slightly from other forms of the same basic thing, “The local bakery makes a delicious, gluten-free version of their famous chocolate cake.”