Hi everyone! Thank you for tuning in to Time for English.

One of the first things a lot of people do at the start of a year is to take a look at the calendar and mark all the long weekends in the year.

When a holiday falls on a Friday or Monday, or both, we have a long weekend. If you want to be specific about how many days you get off from work or school, you can say 3-day weekend or 4-day weekend.

In Japan, when a public holiday falls on a Sunday, we get the following Monday off, which also constitutes a long weekend. But generally, this rule doesn't apply to Saturday holidays. So, when a holiday falls on a Saturday, we feel somehow ripped off.

Anyhow, in 2018, three holidays fall on a Saturday and we have nine long weekends, which is slightly better news especially for travelers because there were four Saturday holidays and eight long weekends in 2017.

Now. Would you like to try a quiz? You'll be given three options. Please listen carefully and choose the one that is TRUE. Ready?

1. When a public holiday falls on a Saturday, we get the following Monday off.

2. Three public holidays fell on a Saturday in 2017.

3. A long weekend includes Saturday and Sunday with at least one extra day added.