VOA慢速英語聽力:你在排隊買寵物蛋嗎

2024年3月17日發(作者：誤闖春秋變霸主)

VOA慢速英語聽力：你在排隊買寵物蛋嗎

Are You Standing in Line to Buy a Hatchimal?

This is What’s Trending Today.

Do you know someone who is looking for a Hatchimal?

If you do not, you probably will soon.

Hatchimals are popular gifts for children this holiday

ason. A Hatchimal is a small, soft toy that comes inside a

plastic egg.

The owner is suppod to care for the egg, holding it in

their hands and keeping it warm. After a while, the toy will

break open holes in the surface.

Hatchimals are able to move and light up. They can also

play simple games and repeat sounds made by the owner.

Hatchimals arrived in stores across the United States in

October. Since then, Americans have been buying them as

holiday gifts for children. Each one lls for about $60.

But some people predicted the plaything would be a

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trendy gift this year. Tho wi investors purchad veral

Hatchimals. They are now re-lling them at three or four

times the price.

A lot of parents who hope to buy the playthings as gifts

are not happy about that.

There are stories of parents sleeping outside of stores that

claim to have Hatchimals for sale, only to find out that very

few are actually available.

A news reporter collected stories from over the weekend.

One New York woman reportedly waited outside a store from

11:30 at night until 8 the next morning. She was the venth

person in line. The store let the people in front of her buy two

toys each. The store only had 12 for sale, so she misd out.

The woman said her 8-year-old child will not be happy this

Christmas.

Many people are reacting to reports that writer Sara

Gruen bought $23,000 worth of the toys. Gruen wrote the

popular novel “Water for Elephants.” She bought 156

Hatchimals. She is lling them to rai money for the lawyers

reprenting a man she said is in jail for a crime he did not

commit.

Some people are reacting on social media to the stories.

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One woman in Manchester, England posted on Facebook in

November.

She said the toy was not worth the money, and once her

children played with her gift for a few hours, they did not want

to play with it again.

Her post was forwarded

attracted over 40,000 respons.

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almost 80,000 times and