听播客学英语 74 失去

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　　“Miss” is a word which we can use in several different ways. Here are some of them.

　　Kevin is at a football match. United¹, the team which he supports, is losing 1-0, and there is only five minutes before the final whistle². Then United’s star striker gets the ball. He runs down the field, past one, two, three of the players from the other team. Now he is only 10 meters from the goal. He kicks. Does he score a goal? No, he misses. The ball goes over the cross-bar. Kevin groans³ and buries his head in his hands. United have scored only three goals since Christmas.

　　You can miss other things too. You can miss your English class – that means⁴, you do not go to your English class. Perhaps you are ill. Perhaps you forgot to do your homework. You can miss a meal. If you wake up late, perhaps you rush out of the house without eating anything. You miss your breakfast. And, of course, you can miss a bus or a train, if you arrive too late at the station.

　　Here is another way of using the word “miss”. Imagine you have come to England for three months to learn English. There are probably lots of things about England that you like. But there are probably some things as well that make you sad or anxious. Perhaps you miss your friends – you would like to be able to meet them and chat to them. Perhaps you miss the food of your country – English food is awful! And perhaps you miss hearing people speaking your own language.

　　Now lets look at the word “missing⁵”. If something is missing, it is not where it should be. It is gone.

　　Joanne’s niece Sarah is seven years old. Her milk teeth (that is, her baby teeth) have started to fall out and her adult teeth have started to grow. At the moment, she has a big hole where her front teeth should be. She has two front teeth missing.

　　Joanne is shopping in the supermarket. At the till, she gets out her purse to pay. She looks in her purse. “That is strange,” she says to herself. “I am sure that I had a ??10 note. The ??10 is missing. Did I loose it? Did someone steal it?” Then she remembers. She spent the ??10 note yesterday.

　　It is not just money or teeth which can be missing. People can be missing, too. Every year in Britain, the police deal with over 200,000 cases of missing people, or missing persons.

　　What sort of people go missing? Many of them are children or young people. Perhaps they had an argument with their parents, and ran away from home without saying where they were going. Perhaps they were frightened, or badly treated.

　　Adults can be missing too. If you are an adult, you can leave home if you want to. You can run away from your family and your job without saying where you are going. It may not be a responsible⁶ thing to do, but it is not illegal⁷. Some adults gradually⁸ lose touch with their friends or family – they never write or telephone, and after a time the family does not know where they are. Some missing adults are people with drugs problems or mental health problems.

　　Happily, most missing persons are not missing for ever. Angry young teenagers calm down and return home. Adults get in touch with their families again, or send a message to say that they are safe and well. There are charities⁹ that help to find missing people, and which help people who have left their homes and families. There are only a very few missing persons cases which end with the police finding¹⁰ a body on a railway line or in an abandoned¹¹ house.

　　So now you know all about the words “miss” and “missing”. Listen to the podcast again, to make sure that you did not miss anything! Then do the quiz¹² on the website, which is all about missing words.

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