The Watch in the Second Drawer

Story 35 of 80

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Highlighted words are key vocabulary — tap one to see its translation. Colors show the part of speech:

Verb Adjective Adverb Expression

On Saturday evening Bekzod stood in the kitchen door and said six words: "I have lost Grandfather's watch."

The kitchen went quiet. That watch is silver, older than the house, and there is a name engraved inside the back: his grandfather's father.

His mother asked the only useful question. "When did you lose it?"

"I took it off at the riverbank on Tuesday," Bekzod said. "The strap is loose. I put it in my shoe and then we played football."

So on Sunday four people searched the riverbank. They found a spoon, a bicycle bell and half a kite. No watch.

Bekzod didn't sleep that night. He was ashamed in a way that has no words: his grandfather gave him that watch in May and showed him how to wind it, slowly, every morning.

On Monday his little sister came home from her music lesson and heard the story from the door.

"Oh," she said. "I have put it in the second drawer. For safety."

She found it in his shoe on Tuesday evening, and she carried it to the drawer with two hands.

It has stopped, of course. Nobody wound it for six days.

Bekzod has worn it every day since that Monday, and he hasn't taken it off once — not at the river, not for football, not in his shoe.

Vocabulary from this story

Tap a card to flip it.

silver
kumush
engraved
oʻyib yozilgan
riverbank
daryo boʻyi
strap
tasma
loose
boʻsh
spoon
qoshiq
bell
qoʻngʻiroq
kite
varrak
ashamed
uyalgan
wind
qurish, dam berish
drawer
tortmacha
safety
ehtiyot uchun

Grammar from this story

Key patterns that appeared in the text.

Perfect = the result · Past simple = the when

I have lost the watch — hozir yoʻq, muhimi shu. I lost it on Tuesday — vaqt aytildi, demak oddiy oʻtgan zamon. Bitta hikoyada ikkisi navbatma-navbat ishlaydi.

  • I have lost Grandfather's watch.
  • I took it off at the river on Tuesday.

The test question: does it say WHEN?

Gapda yesterday, on Tuesday, in 2019, an hour ago, when I was small kabi tugagan vaqt bor boʻlsa — oddiy oʻtgan zamon. Vaqt yoʻq va natija muhim boʻlsa — perfect. Bu bitta savol koʻp xatoni toʻgʻrilaydi.

  • Have you seen it? — Yes, I saw it on Tuesday.

News in the perfect, details in the past

Xabar perfektda beriladi, keyin tafsilotlar oddiy oʻtgan zamonga oʻtadi: They have found the watch! Dilnoza put it in the drawer on Tuesday. Gazeta ham, oila ham aynan shunday gapiradi.

  • We have found it! It sat in that drawer for four days.

Check your understanding

Read the story, then choose the best answer. Tap a choice to check it.

1. Where was the watch all week?

2. Why does Bekzod say "I have lost the watch" but "I took it off on Tuesday"?

3. Which pair is correct English?