A Bowling Party.

Bowling is, I think, an underestimated sport. It's often just considered entertainment. The nearest bowling alley to us is across the river, and is a place for both serious entertainment and serious sport. Half of the day is devoted to parties, and includes bowling for an hour, pizza, and a huge amount of pepsi or root beer. That all comes as part of a package that you can buy online. If a member of your family, or a friend, has a birthday, for example, you can arrange the party on your computer, invite your friends, bring a cake, and have the party at the bowling alley. The other half of the day is serious bowling: High School groups or semi-professional bowlers. The professional bowlers in this country can earn between 100 and 150 thousand a year. So what might have started out as a hobby, occasionally ends up as a career! I've never met a professional bowler, and if we ever go bowling it's just for fun. My son Robert took a group of his best buddies (1)bowling a few weeks ago. They competed against each other, but for the most part(2) laughed and goofed around(3). I noticed how each player has a very different style of holding and rolling the ball. Sometimes all the pins would explode and fly in all directions with the perfect hit, but most of the time just a few of them would fall over on one end of the line, and the boys would groan or laugh. The goal, as you probably know, is to roll the bowling ball down the wooden lane so it hits the bowling pins in such a way that they all fall down. That is called a 'strike'. You have two chances to knock down one line of pins; these two chances are called 'a frame'. There are ten frames in a game. There are many strange terms for parts of the game, but the two I like most are: 'hambone' and 'turkey'. 'Turkey' is when you make three strikes in a row, and 'Hambone' is when you make four. Well, I don't think I'll ever be using those words about my bowling performance. For a change, it's nice to be able to laugh when you perform badly! 1.'Best buddies'. 'Buddy' is a synonym for 'friend'. It is mainly an American term, but is usable in other English speaking countries. It is sometimes used to imply that two people are involved secret or bad activities, or it can be used in a negative or defensive sense. a. Tom and his baseball buddies ate hot dogs and talked about the game. b. Hey, take your hands off that phone buddy! That's not yours! c. I don't know about him and his buddies; they always seem like they're up to no good. 2. 'For the most part' is very similar to 'mainly' or 'generally.' a. Our business does well, for the most part. b. She is good humored, for the most part, apart from when she's very tired. 3. 'To goof around' is to play about and be silly.  a. Hey, I'm trying to explain something. Quit goofing around! b. The worst thing about being a substitute teacher is how the students goof around. c. The character Goofy in Mickey Mouse films is called that because he is silly.