Pen friends on adventures
Fabian Horlacher
Fabian Horlacher

"I think a letter has arrived from your friend in Switzerland, Tori." Says Tori's mother.

"Great," Tori shouts back. She is always very happy to receive the letters. She has already collected a lot and she keeps them all.

How many letters can you count?

1

Tori receives the letters from her pen pal Thomas in Switzerland. And Switzerland is a long way away.

Tori knows that her mother must drive an hour to get to the airport in Cape Town. It takes 15 hours to fly from Cape Town to Switzerland. Tori calculates... how long would it take her to get to Switzerland?

2

Tori now opens the letter she has received from Thomas. Thomas writes that his birthday is coming up and Tori should visit him.

3

Tori is very happy. But she is a little worried. The plane tickets are very expensive. They cost 7500 ZAR and Tori is still missing 1250 ZAR. How much money does Tori currently have?

4

Tori is sad because she does not have enough money. Tori's mother comes up to her and presses an envelope into her hands. "Here, Tori, your father and I have a little present for you."

5

Tori opens it and almost cries with joy. It is a plane ticket to Switzerland. The plane leaves in 3 days and 3 hours. So in how many hours will Tori be on the plane?

6

After the long flight, Tori lands in Zurich. Thomas has been waiting for 30 minutes until Tori finally arrives and waves at him. Thomas is so excited to meet and hug her for the first time.

7

Together they get on the train to go home. Thomas is sure it is the right train, so they get on it. The train leaves and Thomas says to Tori, "We have to get off at four stations". They must wait for 4 minutes at each station. How long are they on the train?

8

After the second station Thomas is uncertain. He is no longer sure if it was the right train. He does not know these stations. So, he shouts: "Tori we took the wrong train!" Tori answers: "Oh no, what shall we do?" and the adventure begins.

9

Tori and Thomas decide to visit Berne because Thomas knows that there are some bears in the city. They are not wild bears. Both walk to the bear enclosure and count them. They see 3 bears. One big bear and two little bears.

10

Tori smells something and hears circus music. She asks Thomas, if they can follow the scent and the music. Obviously, Thomas knows what she is speaking about, and he takes Tori to see the famous fair in Switzerland.

11

What can you see in this picture?

12

Tori wants to buy a candy bag. She has 10 Swiss Francs and the candy bags costs 4 Swiss Francs. How many Swiss Francs does Tori have left?
Thomas mentions, "Tori, so many sweets are bad for your stomach, you will feel sick afterwards." Tori's answers, "That is no problem for me."

13

After a long day visiting the fair, Tori and Thomas decide to go home. They check when the train leaves. The train leaves at 4.10 pm and now it is 4pm. How long do they have to find the right train?

14

Tired but happy they sit on the train home. After 60 minutes they arrive at home. There is a surprise waiting for them.

15

Tori's parents and Thomas' parents are sitting in the living room waiting with a big cake for the two of them to finally celebrate Thomas' birthday together. Because they are 6 people, the cake gets divided into 6 and everybody gets 1 piece of it.

16
You are free to download, copy, translate or adapt this story and use the illustrations as long as you attribute in the following way:
Pen friends on adventures
Author - Fabian Horlacher, Joelle Fuchs
Illustration - Fabian Horlacher
Language - English
Level - Longer paragraphs