What day is it?

Text: Ashley LeyIllustration: Iris Tsoi

In the video gameworld, George, ourlittle hero in red, is on his wayto the magic castle to look for thedark dragon. A hint doc he hasdownloaded from a game forumsays he must accomplish severaltasks within a certain time framebefore he can get a map of the castle.

He has to finish all those tasks inthree days. He must go to GurglingFountain to get a herb with whichFancy Fairy will make a powerfulsyrup. After he has given Catty Cat thesyrup, it will give him a puzzle. After hehas solved it, he must find a key in FunkyForest and use it to open a box that contains ared gem. He will eventually get the map.

This is George's second trial because he failed todo the third task last night. He decides to use acheat to gain time. He rescales the time span.

George: Level up? No problem!

George is almost late for school again. He isshocked when he hears the mid-term maths testbegins soon.

George: What? Isn't the test on Monday?

Morrie: Today IS Monday! What's happened toyou? You've lost your mind in the videogame world, haven't you?

George: Yesterday was Wednesday, so today mustbe Thursday! I couldn't have missed thewhole weekend!

Morrie: I am sure you are mistaken.

George hasn't done any revision. He can solvenone of the questions. He is obsessed withsolving the puzzle on the new level. As hetries to work the puzzle out on thequestion sheet, he realises something hasgone wrong.

In January he counted the days that mustpass before his birthday arrives. He has putin his drawer 41 candies. He has consumedone a day so that there will be none left onhis birthday. He has counted the candies left anddecided that today is Thursday. He still has in thedrawer the candies he would have consumed ifThursday and Friday had passed.

George: What's happened? Who's mistaken? Am Ireally too obsessed with the game?

After the test, Morrie comes to George and hitshim on his back.

Morrie: Hey, next Wednesday is your birthday.How are you going to celebrate?

George makes no reply. He is still in a quandary.The Video Game Lesson, 2 of 4

Gobble Grammar:Conditional sentence (4)

Now let us introduce to you conditionals ofthe second type, which refer to imaginedsituations.

Counterfactual conditionals

The if-clause refers to an impossible eventin the present or the past.

Present: If Napoleon were alive now, hewould be fighting the terrorists.

(It is impossible that Napoleon isalive now.)

Form: the verb in the if-cause is in the pasttense or were for all persons, andthat in the main clause is wouldfollowed by an infinitive without to.

Past: If Napoleon had been alive in 1940,he would have been fighting theGermans.

(It was impossible that Napoleonwas alive and was fighting againstthe Germans in 1940.)

Form: the verb in the if-clause is in thepast perfect tense, and that in themain clause is would followed by aperfect infinitive without to.

Vocabulary

hint doc (n) ［電玩術語］ 攻略、遊戲提示

accomplish (v) 完成、實現

cheat (n) 作弊（在電玩中指以遊戲裏暗藏的指令或漏洞增加資源或過關）

quandary (n) 困惑