Jonathon and the Watermelon Crime

30-04-24 00 / episode: 384

This Extensive English Listening story is about a watermelon crime, and Jonathan. Listen to the story as Jonathon has misadventures with watermelons and discovers the watermelon crime. At the end, you’ll find out how watermelons can be dangerous.

Hi and welcome to the Les Perras Podcast episode number 384. This episode is about watermelons and the watermelon crime.

Carved Watermelon Project

Jonathon wanted to make a carved watermelon like he saw on youtube and facebook. You know, the kind where they make a cute animal or maybe a completely red watermelon ball. He didn’t know how watermelons could be dangerous.

So Jonathon went online to find a good guide to buying watermelons. The online guides said to check the colour of the watermelon, tap it, and look for a yellow spot.

The First Watermelon

He went to the store and found one just like they said online. It was big, and green and looked ripe. It had a nice yellow spot on the bottom. He knew the yellow spot meant that it had been sitting getting ripe for a long time and was probably gonna be really sweet. You won’t believe what he found with this watermelon.

He took it home and invited a friend to come over and carve it up with him. His idea was to also take videos and photos while they were making it.

They cut it open and to his surprise there was a great big hollow spot inside it. His friend said that it was not good for doing the watermelon carving. He took a photo of it and sent it to his mom. She responded quickly, telling him to not eat it. It was probably contaminated and could be dangerous.

He was disheartened but decided to listen to his mother. After all, she had years of knowledge, especially about food. She safely cooked for him all his life. But he was in for a surprise with the next watermelon.

The second Watermelon

The second watermelon was super red. He cut it open and he thought, wow!

I bet it’s really sweet. He was lucky this time too. His friend was with him, and said he read that super red watermelons were dangerous. He got a tissue and touched the watermelon. The tissue turned red. His friend said, “Yup! It’s no good. I read that if the tissue turns red it’s bad for you, it’s got some chemicals in it.”

By the time he got to the third watermelon he had learned a few signs to look for. He found one that looked good. But he knew what to do with the watermelon before eating it.

The Third Watermelon

In the store the melon looked fine. He took it home and his friend said, “Let’s cut it open to check it right now!”

But Jonathon decided to wait a few days after he brought it home. That was because he read that if something bad happened to the watermelon, you might not know it right after buying it but if you waited a few days, you could tell if it was safe.

On the third day there was some foam on part of the watermelon. He looked really carefully at it and found a small hole in the centre of the foam, and the foam was coming out of the hole. Indeed when he cut the melon open the inside was no good.

It had been injected with a chemical that was causing the watermelon to ferment after a few days. That was causing the foam. He was lucky he did not eat it. Jerry had learned that some people put the chemicals into the watermelon with a needle, and it can be difficult to find when you buy it.

Jonathan decided to wait until next year and then grow his own watermelons so he could be sure they were good.