Nasreddin had an old shed it had no windows

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1

It was two weeks before Christmas, and Mrs Smith was very busy. She bought a lot of Christmas cards to send to her friends and to her husband’s friends, and put them on the table in the living-room. Then, when her husband came home from work, she said to him, ‘Here are the Christmas cards for our friends, and here are some stamps, a pen and our book of addresses. Will you please write the cards while I am cooking the dinner?’

Mr Smith did not say anything, but walked out of the living-room and went to his study. Mrs Smith was very angry with him, but did not say anything either.

Then a minute later he came back with a box full of Christmas cards. All of them had addresses and stamps on them.

‘These are from last year,’ he said. ‘I forgot to post them.’

When was Mrs Smith very	What did Mr Smith say ?
busy ?	What did he do ?
What did she do ?	How did Mrs Smith feel ?
Why did she buy the cards ?	What did she say ?
Where did she put them ?	What did Mr Smith do a
What did she say to her	minute later ?
husband ?	What did he say ?

4

Text 98

     It was two weeks before Christmas, and Mrs Smith was very busy. She bought a lot of Christmas cards to send to her friends and to her husband’s friends, and put them on the table in the living-room. Then, when her husband came home from work, she said to him, ‘Here are the Christmas cards for our friends, and here are some stamps, a pen and

our book of addresses. Will you please write the cards while

I am cooking the dinner?’

     Mr Smith did not say anything, but walked out of the living-room and went to his study. Mrs Smith was very angry with him, but did not say anything either.

     Then a minute later he came back with a box full of

Christmas cards. All of them had addresses and stamps on

them.

    ‘These are from last year,’ he said. ‘I forgot to post them.’

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

6.What did Mr Smith say?

7.What did he do ?

8.How did Mrs Smith feel?

9.What did she say?

10.What did Mr Smith do a minute later?

11.What did he say?

B)  Which words in the story  mean the opposite of:

1. after

2. free

3. enemies

4. get

5. into

6. happy

7. front

8. empty

9.  next

10. remembered

C) Which of these sentences are true (T) and which are false (F)?

1. It was four weeks after Christmas.

2. Mrs. Smith  was free

3. She bought a lot of presents.

4.  She wanted to send presents to her parents

5. She put cards on the desk in the kitchen.

6. Mrs. Smith’s husband came home from disco club.

7.  She asked him to fix  a faucet.

8.  Mr. Smith went to take his neighbour.

9.   He brought tools to fix a faucet. 

10.  He wrote all the cards.

Text 99

     Mrs Jones was waiting for an important telephone call, but she had no bread in the house, so she left the baby at home and said to his five-year-old brother, ‘I am going to the shops, Jimmy, and I will be back in a few minutes.’ While she was out, the telephone rang, and Jimmy answered.        ‘Hallo,’ said a man, ‘is your mother there?’

    ‘No,’ answered Jimmy.‘Well, when she comes back, say to her, «Mr Baker telephoned».»‘

    ‘What?’

    ‘Mr Baker. Write it down. B-A-K-E-R.’

    ‘How do you make a B?’

    ‘How do I make … ? Listen, little boy, is there anybody else with you? Any brothers or sisters?’

    ‘My brother Billy is here.’

    ‘Good, I want to talk to him, please.’

    ‘All right.’ Jimmy took the telephone to the baby’s bed

and gave it to Billy. When their mother came back, she asked,

    ‘Did anyone telephone?’

   ‘Yes,’ said Jimmy, ‘a man. But he only wanted to talk to Billy.’

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

1What was Mrs Jones waiting for?

2.Why did she go out ?

3.What did she do with the baby when she went out?

4.What did she say to Jimmy?

5.How old was he ?

6.What happened while she was out ?

7.What did Jimmy do ?

8.What did the man say?

9.What did Jimmy answer?

10.What did the man say then ?

11.What did Jimmy say?

12.What was the man’s answer?

13.What did Jimmy ask him then ?

14.What did the man say then?

15.What did Jimmy answer?

16.What did the man say?

17.What did Jimmy say?

18.What did he do?

19.What did Jimmy’s mother do when she came home?

20.What did Jimmy answer?

B)  Which words in the story  mean the opposite of:

1. insignificant

2. came

3. front

4. into

5. asked

6. 

7.

8.

9.

10.

C) Which of these sentences are true (T) and which are false (F)?

1.   Mrs. Jones was waiting for a present.

2.   She did not have cucumbers in the house.

3.   She left a baby with baby-sitter

4.   She had a 7 — years old brother.

5.   She said that she is going to come back in 1 hour.

6.   Somebody came and knocked at the door.

7.   Jimmy opened the door.

8.   Jimmy and a caller had a nice conversation.

9.   Jimmy gave a telephone receiver to Billy

10. A caller wanted to speak with Billy.

Text 100

     Nasreddin had an old shed. It had no windows, so it was very dark, and it was full of old things.

    One day Nasreddin went into this shed to get a ladder, but slipped on something and fell against a big garden fork. The fork hit him on the head and knocked him down. Then it fell on top of him and hit him hard on the left leg. The ends of the fork then went into his long beard. He fought with the fork fiercely, and at last threw it off him, jumped up and ran

out of the shed. He was very angry. He had an old sword under his bed, and he now ran and got this. Then he ran back to the shed, opened the door suddenly and shouted in a terrible voice, ‘All right, come out and fight, you and all the other forks in the world! I’m not afraid of you!’

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

Text 101

B)  Which words in the story  mean the opposite of:

Text 102

     Old Mr Black loved shooting bears, but his eyes were not good any more. Several times he nearly shot people instead of bears, so his friends were always very careful when they went out shooting with him.

    One day a young friend of his wanted to have a joke, so he got a big piece of white paper and wrote on it in very big letters ‘I AM NOT A BEAR’. Then he tied it to his back and went off. His friends saw it and laughed a lot.

    But it did not save him. After a few minutes Mr Black shot at him and knocked his hat off.

    The young man was frightened and angry. ‘Didn’t you see this piece of paper ?’ he shouted to Mr Black. ‘Yes, I did,’ said Mr Black. Then he went nearer, looked carefully at the paper and said, ‘Oh, I am very sorry. I did not see the word NOT.’

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

1.What did Mr Black love ?

2.What was the matter with him ?

3.What happened several times?

4.What did his friends do when they went out shooting with him ?

5.What did one of his young friends want to do one day?

6.What did he do ?

7.What did he write on the piece of paper ?

8.What did he do then ?

9.What did his friends do ?

10.What happened then ?

11.Did the paper save the young man ?

12.How did he feel?

13.What did he shout ?

14What did Mr Black do?

15.What did he say?

B)  Which words in the story  mean the opposite of:

1. hated 

2. bad

3. enemy

4. into 

5. scaried

6.  black

7.  cried

8.  before

9.  whispered

10.carelessly

C) Which of these sentences are true (T) and which are false (F)?

1.   Mr. Black hated shooting ducks.

2.   He could see very far.

3.   He nearly shot deers instead of bears. 

4.   His friends liked shooting with him

5.   His friend wanted to have a joke one day.

6.   His friend wrote «Here is a beer» on the piece of paper.

7.   He tied this piece of paper  near bear’s den.

8.   Mr. Brown and his friends  had lunch time.

9.   When Mr. Brown saw this piece of paper, he came into the bear’s den.

10.  The paper did not save a young man.

Text 103

     Mrs Brown’s old grandfather lived with her and her husband. Every morning he went for a walk in the park and came home at half past twelve for his lunch.

     But one morning a police car stopped outside Mrs Brown’s house at twelve o’clock, and two policemen helped Mr Brown to get out of police car  and  one of them said to Mrs Brown, ‘The poor old gentleman lost his way in the park and telephoned us for

help, so we sent a car to bring him home.’ Mrs Brown was very

surprised, but she thanked the policemen and they left.

‘But, Grandfather,’ she then said, ‘you were to that

park nearly every day for twenty years. How did you lose

your way there?’

The old man smiled, closed one eye and said, ‘I didn’t

quite lose my way. I just got tired and I didn’t want to walk

home!’

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

Text 104

     Helen’s eyes were not very good, so she usually wore glasses. But when she was seventeen and she began to go out with a young man, she never wore her glasses when she was with him. When he came to the door to take her out, she took her glasses off, and when she came home again and he left, she put them on.

    One day her mother said to her, ‘But Helen, why do you never wear your glasses when you are with Jim? He takes you to beautiful places in his car, but you don’t see anything.’

   ‘Well, Mother,’ said Helen, ‘I look prettier to Jim when I am not wearing my glasses- and he looks better to me too!’

1.What did Helen usually wear ?

2.Why did she do this?

3.What did she begin to do when she was seventeen ?

4.What did she do when she was with the young man ?

5.Why did the young man come to the door? 

6.What did Helen do then ?

7.What did she Ho when she came home?

8.What did her mother say to her one day?

9.What did Helen answer?

10.

Text 105

      A man was trying to build an electric motor-car. He worked in an office in the town during most of the week, but on Saturdays and Sundays he stayed at home in the country and worked on his electric car. Every Monday he told his friends at the office about his work on the car, but his news about it was never very good. Then at last one Monday morning he came to the office and said to his friends, ‘I have done it! I have driven from my home to here by electricity!’

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

1.What was the man in this story trying to do?

2.What did he do most of the week?

3.What did he do on Saturdays and Sundays?

4.What did he do every Monday?

5.What was his news about the car like?

6.What happened at last one

7.Monday morning ?

8.How did his friends feel?

9.What did they say?

10.What did the man answer?

Text 106

1.Where did the artist go for his holiday?

B)  Which words in the story  mean the opposite of:

1. ugly 

2. after 

3. take 

4. asked

5. light 

6. front 

7. last 

8. started

9. left

10. cried

C) Which of these sentences are true? Write the correct ones down.

1. An artist  went to the city.

2. An artist visited all disco clubs every day.

3. He came back to the farm when it got morning

4.  He had  a cup of black tea for dinner

5. An artist  paid a lot of money to the farmer.

6.The farmer did not want money.

7. The farmer wanted a picture.

8. The farmer had a daughter.

9. The farmer’s son lived in New York.

10.The farmer’s son wanted to be an architect.

Text 107

      Mr Jones was very angry with his wife, and she was very angry with her husband. For several days they did not speak to each other at all. One evening Mr Jones was very tired when he came back from work, so he went to bed soon after dinner. Of course, he did not say anything to Mrs Jones before he went upstairs. Mrs Jones washed the dinner things and

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

1.Why did not Mr and Mrs Jones speak to each other for several days?

2.Why did Mr Jones go to bed soon after dinner?

3.Did he speak to his wife before he went upstairs ?

4.What did Mrs Jones do after dinner?

5.When did she go to bed?

6.What did she find when she went to bed?

7.Where did she find it?

8.What did she read?

9.At what time did Mr Jones wake up the next morning?

10.What did he see when he woke up ?

11.What did he read?

12.Why did not  Mr Jones  wake up at 7 a.m. ?

Text 108

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

1.Why did the old man stop his car?

2.What did he wait for?

3.What happened while he was waiting ?

4.What people were there in the police car?

5.What did the old man do ?

6.How did the policemen feel about it?

7.Why were they surprised?

8.How old was the man ?

9.What did he do then ?

10.What did he say?

Text 109

       Mrs Williams loved flowers and had a small but beautiful garden. In the summer, her roses were always the best in her street. One summer afternoon her bell rang, and when she went to the front door, she saw a small boy outside. He was about seven years old, and was holding a big bunch of beautiful roses in his hand.

       ‘I am selling roses,’ he said. ‘Do you want any? They are

quite cheap. Five pence for a big bunch. They are fresh.

I picked them this afternoon.’

       ‘My boy,’ Mrs Williams answered, ‘I pick roses whenever I want, and don’t pay anything for them, because I have lots in my garden.’

      ‘Oh, no, you haven’t,’ said the small boy. ‘There aren’t any roses in your garden-because they are here in my hand!’

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

1.What did Mrs Williams love ?

8.How old was he?

9.What was he holding ?

10.What did he say to Mrs Williams?

11.What did Mrs Williams answer?

12.What did the small boy say then ?

13.Why weren’t there any roses in Mrs Williams’s garden?

Text 110

B)  Which words in the story  mean the opposite of:

1. benefit

2. New

3. Asked

4. Questions 

5. Forget

6. Divorce 

7.

8.

9.

10.

C) Which of these sentences are true (T) and which are false (F)?

1.She went to see her friend.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Text 111

       One day Mrs Jones went shopping. When her husband came home in the evening, she began to tell him about a beautiful cotton dress. ‘I saw it in a shop this morning,’ she said, ‘and …’

     ‘And you want to buy it,’ said her husband. ‘How much

does it cost?’

     ‘Fifteen pounds.’

     ‘Fifteen pounds for a cotton dress? That is too much!’

     But every evening, when Mr Jones came back from work, his wife continued to speak only about the dress, and at last, after a week, he said, ‘Oh, buy the dress! Here is the money!’ She was very happy.

     But the next evening, when Mr Jones came home and asked, ‘Have you got the famous dress?’ she said, ‘No.’

     ‘Why not?’ he said.

     ‘Well, it was still in the window of the shop after a weekso I thought, «Nobody else wants this dress, so I don’t want it either».»

1.What did Mrs Jones do one day?

2.When did her husband come home?

3.What did Mrs Jones do when he came home?

4.What did she say to him?

5.What did he answer?

6.What did she say?

7.What did Mr Jones say then ?

8.What happened every evening after that?

9.What happened after a week ?

10.What did Mr Jones ask the next evening?

11.What did Mrs Jones answer?

12.What did her husband say then ?

13.What was her answer?

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

1.What happened one day?

Text 113

      Nasreddin had a shed behind his house. It had no lights in it. One night he went out to the shed to get his ladder, and lost his ring there. He left the ladder, went out into the street and began to look around.

     One of his friends saw him in the street outside his house,

and said to him, ‘Hullo, Nasreddin. What are you looking for?’

    ‘My ring,’ answered Nasreddin. ‘It fell off my finger. It is a silver ring with a red stone in it.’

     ‘Oh, yes,’ said his friend. ‘I remember it. I will help you

to look for it. Where did you lose it?’

     ‘In my shed.’

     ‘But why don’t you look for it there?’

     ‘Don’t be stupid! It is quite dark in my shed, so how will I find my ring there? Here there is light from the lamps in the street.’

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

1.What did Nasreddin have behind his house?

2.What was his shed like?

3.What did he do one night?

4.Why did he do this?

5.What happened?

6.What did Nasreddin do then ?

7.Who saw him in the street ?

8.What did this person say?

9.What was Nasreddin’s answer?

10.What did his friend say then  

11.What did Nasreddin answer?

12.What did his friend say now ?

13.What did Nasreddin say to him ?

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

1.What had Mrs Andrews got?

8.What did she say?

Text 115

    One morning Nasreddin left his house with six donkeys to go to the market. After a time, he got tired and got on to one of them. He counted the donkeys, and there were only five, so he got off and went to look for the sixth. He looked and looked but did not find it, so he went back to the donkeys and counted them again. This time there were six, so he got

on to one of them again and they all started.

     After a few minutes he counted the donkeys again, and again there were only five! While he was counting again a friend of his passed, and Nasreddin said to him, ‘I left my house with six donkeys; then I had five; then I had six again; and now I have only five! Look! One, two, three, four, five.’

    ‘But, Nasreddin,’ said his friend, ‘You are sitting on a donkey too! That is the sixth! And you are the seventh!’

1.What did Nasreddin do one morning ?

2.How many donkeys did he have with him ?

3.What happened after a time?

4.What did Nasreddin do then ?

5.How many donkeys did he count?

6.What did he do then ?

7.Did he find the donkey ?

8.What did he do then ?

9.How many donkeys were there this time?

10.What happened then ?

11.What did Nasreddin do after a few minutes ?

12.How many donkeys did he count this time?

13.Who passed just then?

14.What did Nasreddin say to him ?

15.What did his friend answer?

B)  Which words in the story  mean the opposite of:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

C) Which of these sentences are true (T) and which are false (F)?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

1.What was Nasreddin’s friend like?

2.What happened to him soon?

3.What happened one day?

4.What was Nasreddin’s friend doing when this happened?

5.What did the rich man’s friends do?

6.What did one of them do ?

7.What did he say?

8.What happened then ?

9.What did another friend do?

10.What happened?

11.What did Nasreddin say then ?

12.What did the rich man do?

13.What did Nasreddin do ?

14.What did he say?

Text 117

Text 118

      Nasreddin wanted to buy some new clothes, so he went to a shop. First he asked for some trousers and put them on, but then he took them off and gave them back to the shopkeeper and said, ‘No, give me a coat instead of these.’

     The man gave him a coat, and said, ‘This one costs the same as the trousers.’ Nasreddin took the coat and walked out of the shop with it. The shopkeeper ran after him and said, ‘You have not paid for that coat!’

     ‘But I gave you the trousers for the coat,’ said Nasreddin. ‘They cost the same as the coat, didn’t they?’

     ‘Yes,’ said the shopkeeper, ‘But you didn’t pay for the trousers either!’

    ‘Of course I didn’t!’ answered Nasreddin. ‘I did not takethem. I am not stupid! Nobody gives things back and then pays for them!’

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

Text 119

       One day, the boys of Nasreddin’s village said to him, ‘You have a nice, fat sheep. Will you invite us to a party to eat it with you?’

      Nasreddin did not want the boys to eat his sheep, so he said, ‘It is not fat enough yet.’

     ‘But have you not heard?’ they said. ‘The world is going to end tomorrow, so the sheep will never get fat!’

      Nasreddin was getting tired of this, so he said, ‘All right, boys, we will have a picnic tomorrow, and eat the sheep.’

      So the next morning they all went to the river, the boys took off their clothes and jumped into the water, and Nasreddin killed the sheep.

     When the boys came their clothes were not there.

    ‘Where are our clothes, Nasreddin?’ they asked.

    ‘Oh,’ he answered, ‘I made the fire to cook the sheep with your clothes. You will not need them again. The world is going to end today, don’t you remember?’

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

1.What did the boys of Nasreddin’s village say to him ?

2.What did Nasreddin not want ?

3.What did he say to the boys ?

4.What did they answer?

5.How did Nasreddin feel about this?

Text 120

      Whenever it rained, water came through Nasreddin’s roof, so one day he got his ladder, climbed up on to the roof and began to mend it. It was quite difficult and dangerous work.

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

B)  Which words in the story  mean the opposite of:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

C) Which of these sentences are true (T) and which are false (F)?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Text 121

Text 122

Text 123

5.What did he say?

6.What did his uncle answer?

7.What did Peter ask him then ?

8.What was his uncle’s answer?

9.

10.

Text 124

Text 125

       Many years ago, an English family were living in China. One evening an important Chinese officer came to visit them. It got later and later, and he still did not go, so his hostess invited him to have dinner with them. But she had very little food in the house, so she quickly went to the kitchen and spoke to her Chinese cook. He said, ‘It is all right. You will have a very good dinner.’ 

     When they all sat down to eat, the lady was very surprised, because there was a lot of very good food on the table.

     After the dinner, the hostess ran to the kitchen and said to the cook, ‘How did you make such a good meal in half an hour?’

    ‘I did not make it, madam,’ he said. ‘I sent one of the servants to the Chinese officer’s house, and he brought back the Chinese officer’s dinner.’

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

1.When did this story happen?

2.Where were the English family living?

3.What happened one evening ?

4.What did the hostess do ?

5.Why did she do this?

6.Why did she go to the kitchen ?

7.What did the cook say?

8.What did the English family and the Chinese officer do then ?

9.How did the lady feel?

10.Why did she feel like this?

11.What did she do after the dinner?

12.What did she say to the cook?

13.What was his answer?

Text 126

       One day Nasreddin went to a big dinner party. He was wearing old clothes, and when he came in, nobody looked at him and nobody gave him a seat at a table. So Nasreddin went home, put on his best clothes, and then went back to the party. The host at once got up and came to meet him. He took him to the best table, gave him a good seat, and offered

him the best dishes.

     Nasreddin put his coat in the food and said, ‘Eat, coat!’

     The other guests were very surprised and said, ‘What are you doing?’

     Nasreddin answered, ‘I was inviting my coat to eat. When I was wearing my old clothes, nobody looked at me or offered me food or drink. Then I went home and came back in these clothes, and you gave me the best food and drink. So you gave me these things for my clothes, not for myself.’

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

Text 127

     Nasreddin wanted a big pot for a party, so he borrowed one from a neighbour. After the party he took it back with another small pot inside.

    ‘Your pot had a baby while it was with us,’ he said.

    Of course, the neighbour was very pleased, and when Nasreddin came to borrow the big pot again for another party, he lent it to him very gladly.

     This time Nasreddin did not bring the pot back, so after a few days the man went to Nasreddin’s house.

    ‘What has happened to my big pot?’ he asked. ‘Why have you not brought it back yet?’ ‘Oh, the big pot?’ said Nasreddin. ‘It died while it was with us.’

   ‘Died?’ said the neighbour angrily. ‘But pots do not die!’

   ‘Why do you say that?’ answered Nasreddin. ‘When I said, «The pot has had a baby», you did not say, «Pots do not have babies», did you?’

1.What did Nasreddin want?

2.What did he want it for ?

3.What did he do ?

4.What did he do after the party?

5.What did he say?

6.How did his neighbour feel?

7.What did Nasreddin do after that in the story?

8.What did his neighbour do?

9.What happened to the pot this time ?

10.What did the neighbour do then ?

11.What did he say to Nasreddin ?

12.What was Nasreddin’s answer?

13.What did the neighbour say then ?

14.How did he say it?

15.What did Nasreddin answer?

B)  Which words in the story  mean the opposite of:

C) Which of these sentences are true (T) and which are false (F)?

1. Nasreddin wanted a small pot to сook the food.

2. He borrowed a pot from his neighbour. 

3. The neighbour  took the pot back after cinema.

4. Nasreddin took the pot  back with candy inside to his neighbour.

5. The neighbour was very glad.

6. Nasreddin came to borrow  the chicken  second time. 

7. He did not  bring the pot back to the neighbour.

8. The  neighbour  went to Nasreddin’s cafe  a few days later.

9. The pot was alive.

10. The pot had a baby second time.

Text 128

       Every Saturday, Nasreddin went to the market to buy food and other things. He put them in a big basket, but he was old and weak, so he always paid another man to carry the basket home for him. But one Saturday, while he was walking home in front of the man with the basket, the man ran away with it.

      The next Saturday, when Nasreddin went to the market again, a friend of his said, ‘Look, there he is! That man stole your things last week!’

     Nasreddin at once hid behind a shop, and stayed there until the man left the market. His friend was very surprised. ‘Why did you do that?’ he

asked.

    ‘Well,’ said Nasreddin, ‘that man was carrying my basket when he left me a week ago. He will want me to pay him for seven days’ work, and that will cost me more than a basket full of things!’

1.What did Nasreddin do every Saturday?

2.Why did he do this?

3.What did he do with the things ?

4.What did he do then?

5.Why did he do this ?

6.What happened one Saturday ?

7.What was Nasreddin doing when this happened?

8.What did Nasreddin do the next Saturday?

9.What did a friend of his say?

10.What did Nasreddin do?

11.When did he come out ?

12.How did his friend feel about this?

13.What did he say?

14.What was Nasreddin’s answer?

Text 130

7.What happened after an hour?

8.What did Nasreddin’s uncle say?

9.What did Nasreddin answer?

10.What did his uncle say then ?

11.What did Nasreddin do then ?

12.What did he think?

13.What did he do at last?

Text 131

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions: 

1.What was Nasreddin doing at the beginning of this story?

6.What were the people doing?

7.What were the women doing?

8.What were they saying?

9.What did Nasreddin say?

10.Whom did he say this to ?

B)  Which words in the story  mean the opposite of:

1. night 

2. summer 

3. few(little)

4. alive 

5. dark

6. hot

7. full

8. love 

9. with

10. (be) silent 

C) Which of these sentences are true (T) and which are false (F)?

1. Nasreddin sat near  the door.

2. He sat near the window in his mother’s house

3. He heard men’s cry outside.

4. He put his head on the table.

5. He saw a lot of animals.

6. A lot of people went to their house.

7. They carried alive man.

8. The women were crying.

9. Nasreddin said to his wife that they carry alive man.

10. 

Text 132

       One day when Nasreddin was travelling, he came to a village. The people there said to him, ‘We have had no rain for three months, and we have no water. Our corn is dying. Please help us! Pray for rain!’

      Nasreddin wanted to help these poor people, so he asked for a bucket of water. There was very little water in the village, but each family gave a little, and they filled a bucket and gave it to Nasreddin.

      Then Nasreddin took off his shirt and began to wash it. The people were surprised and angry. ‘That water was for our children to drink, and you are washing your shirt in it!’

       But Nasreddin said, ‘Wait!’ He hung the shirt up to dry, and at once it began to rain.

      ‘I have only one shirt,’ he said to the surprised people, ‘and when I wash it and hang it up to dry, it always rains.’

1.What was Nasreddin doing at the beginning of this story?

2.What happened one day?

3.Who spoke to him ?

4.What did they say?

5.What did Nasreddin want to do ?

6.What did he ask for?

7.What did the people do ?

8.Was this easy for them ?

9.Why?

10.What did Nasreddin do then?

11.How did the people feel?

12.What did they say?

13.What did Nasreddin answer?

14.What happened then?

15.How did the people feel?

16.What did Nasreddin say to them ?

Text 133

Text 134

      One day when Nasreddin was having a bath, he began to sing. The bathroom was small and had a stone floor, so his song was very beautiful, he thought.

     ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘I sing very well. I will sing to other people too, and perhaps I will become a famous singer, and everybody in the world will want to hear me.»

     So after his bath Nasreddin went up on to the flat roof of the house and began to sing his song very loudly. But he did not like it very much when he sang it there.

      A man was walking across the square in front of the house,

and when he heard Nasreddin, he said, ‘What are you doing? You are making a terrible noise. Nobody wants to hear it.’

    ‘Oh, you think so, do you?’ answered Nasreddin. ‘Well, I really sing very beautifully. Come to my bathroom and you will hear me.’

Text 136

       The police in the big city were looking for a thief. At last they caught him. But while they were taking photographs of him from the front, from the left, from the right, with a hat, without a hat-he suddenly attacked the policemen and ran off. They tried to catch him, but he got away. 

      Then a week later the telephone rang in the police-station, and somebody said, ‘You are looking for Bill Cross, aren’t you?’

     ‘Yes.’

     ‘Well, he left here for Waterbridge an hour ago.’ Waterbridge was a small town 150 kilometres from the city. The city police at once sent four different photographs of the thief to the police in Waterbridge.

     Less than twelve hours later they got a telephone call from the police in Waterbridge. ‘We have caught three of the men,’ they said happily, ‘and we will catch the fourth this evening, we think’.

1.Where were the police ?

2.What were they doing?

3.What happened at last?

4.What did the man do?

5.When did he do this ?

6.What did the police do?

7.What happened?

8.What happened a week later ?

9.What did someone say over the telephone ?

10.What did the police answer?

11.What did the man say then ?

12.Where and what was Waterbridge?

13.What did the city police do ?

14.What happened less than twelve hours later?

15.What did the police in Waterbridge say?

Text 137

       Mrs Jones was still cleaning the house when her husband came back from work. She was wearing dirty, old clothes and no stockings, her hair was not tidy, she had dust on her face, and she looked dirty and tired. Her husband looked at her and said, ‘Is this what I come home to after a hard day’s work?’

      Mrs Jones’s neighbour, Mrs Smith, was there. When she heard Mr Jones’s words, she quickly said goodbye and ran back to her house. Then she washed, brushed and combed her hair carefully, put on her best dress and her prettiest stockings, painted her face, and waited for her husband to come home.

     When he arrived, he was hot and tired. He walked slowly into the house, saw his wife and stopped. Then he shouted angrily, ‘And where are you going this evening?’

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

1.What was Mrs Jones doing?

2.What happened while she was doing this ?

3.What was Mrs Jones wearing ?

4.What did her hair look like?

5.What did her face look like?

6.What did Mrs Jones look like?

7.What did her husband say ?

8.Who was there too?

9.What did Mrs Smith do when she heard Mr Jones’s words?

10.How was her husband when he arrived ?

11.What did he do ?

12.What did he shout ?

13.How did he shout this ?

Text 138

      Billy was four years old, and he was a very bad boy. Everyday after lunch his mother took him to his bedroom and put him on his bed to rest for an hour, but Billy never slept and usually he made a lot of noise and got off his bed every few minutes.

      One afternoon, Billy’s mother put him on his bed and then went to her bedroom to do some sewing. After ten minutes, she heard a noise so she went to Billy’s room. He was not there, but his trousers were lying on his bed.

     She looked in the other rooms upstairs, but he was not there either, so she went to the top of the stairs and shouted down angrily, ‘Are you running about down there without your trousers?’

    ‘No, madam,’ answered a man’s voice. ‘I have brought

your vegetables and I am wearing my trousers.’

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

1.How old was Billy?

2.What kind of boy was he?

3.What happened every day?

4.When did it happen?

5.Why did Billy’s mother put him on his bed ?

6.What did Billy do then ?

6.What happened one afternoon?

7.Why did Billy’s mother go to her bedroom?

8.What happened after ten minutes ?

9.What did Billy’s mother do then ?

10.What did she see in Billy’sroom?

11.What did she do then?

12.What did she see?

13.What did she do after that?

14.What did she shout?

15.How did she shout this ?

16.Who answered ?

17.What did he say?

Text 139

      An old lady in an aeroplane had a blanket over her head and she did not want to take it off. The air hostess spoke to her, but the old lady said, ‘I have never been in an aeroplane before, and I am frightened. I am going to keep this blanket over my head until we are back on the ground again!’

     Then the captain came. He said ‘Madam, I am the captain of this aeroplane. The weather is fine, there are no clouds in the sky, and everything is going very well.’ But she continued to hide.

    So the captain turned and started to go back. Then the old lady looked out from under the» blanket with one eye and said, ‘I am sorry, young man, but I don’t like aeroplanes and I am never going to fly again. But I’ll say one thing,’ she continued kindly, ‘you and your wife keep your aeroplane very clean!’

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

1.Where was the old lady?

2.What was she doing at the beginning of this story?

3.Who spoke to her ?

4.What did the old lady say?

5.Who came then ?

6.What did this person say?

7.What did the old lady do ?

8.What did the captain do?

9.What did the old lady do then ?

10.What did she say?

Text 140

        A young air force officer had a very beautiful wife. Early each morning he left his house and went to the airport, and an hour later his wife always left the house too, with a big white towel, and went for a walk on the beach.

       Her husband always flew over every morning, and when she saw his aeroplane, she held the white towel high above her head. When her husband saw it, he made either the left wing or the right wing of his aeroplane go down. The left wing meant, ‘I will be busy tonight and won’t be home.’The right wing meant, ‘In eight hours I will be holding you

in my arms.’

      One morning he flew over with eight other aeroplanes, and his left wing went down. Before his wife had time to feel sad about this, all the other aeroplanes flew over, and each of them turned its right wing down.

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

1.Who are the two people at the beginning of this story?

2.When did the man in this story leave his house?

3.Where did he go?

4.When did his wife leave the house?

5.What did she take with her ?

6.Where did she go?

7.What happened every morning after that?

8.What did the officer’s wife do ?

9.When did she do it?

10.What did her husband do then ?

11.When did he do this?

12.What did the left wing mean?

13.What did the right wing mean?

14.What happened one morning ?

15.Which wing went down ?

16.What did the other aeroplanes do ?

Text 141

       An artist had a small daughter. Sometimes he painted women without any clothes on, and he and his wife always tried to keep the small girl out when he was doing this. ‘She is too young to understand,’ they said.

       But one day, when the artist was painting a woman with no clothes on, he forgot to lock the door, and the little girl suddenly ran into the room. Her mother ran up the stairs after her, but when she got to the top, the little girl was already in the room and looking at the woman. Both her parents waited for her to speak.

      For a few seconds the little girl said nothing, but then she ran to her mother and said angrily, ‘Why do you let her go about without shoes and socks on when you don’t let me?’

1.What was the small girl’s father?

2.What did he sometimes do ?

3.What did he and his wife do then ?

4.What did they say?

5.What happened one day ?

6.When did it happen?

Text 142

     It was a small factory, and there was nowhere to eat near it, so the workmen took food from their homes and ate it in the factory at midday.

    One of the workmen always had fish sandwiches. Every day he took one of them out of his bag, bit it, and then threw all the sandwiches angrily away.

    At last, one day one of the workmen said to him, ‘But, Bill, don’t you like fish sandwiches?’

   ‘No,’ said Bill, ‘I hate them.’

   ‘Then why does your wife make them for you every day? There are lots of other nice things for sandwiches. Tell your wife, and she will make other sandwiches.’ 

   ‘It isn’t as easy as that,’ answered Bill. ‘I haven’t got a wife. I make the sandwiches myself.’

1.Where did the workmen in the story work ?

2.What did they take to the factory?

3Why did they do this?

4.When and where did they eat their food?

5.What did one of the workmen always have?

6.What did he do every day?

7.How did he feel?

8.What did another workman say to him one day?

9.What did Bill answer?

10.What did the other workman say then?

11.What was Bill’s answer to this?

B)  Which words in the story  mean the opposite of:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

C) Which of these sentences are true (T) and which are false (F)?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Text 143

10.What did Mrs Brown’s son shout?

11.What did Mrs Brown do ?

12.What happened to the vegetables ?

13.How did Mrs Brown’s neighbour feel?

14.What happened a few days before Christmas ?

15.What was in the parcel?

16.What were the words on the piece of paper ?

Text 144

      The ladies’ club always had a meeting every Friday afternoon and someone came to talk to them about important things. After that, they had tea and asked questions.

     One Friday, a gentleman came and talked to the club about food. ‘There is not enough food in the world for everybody,’ he said. ‘More than half the people in the world are hungry. And when they get more food, they have more babies, so they never stop being hungry. Somewhere in the world, a woman is having a baby every minute, day and night. What

are we going to do about it?’ He waited for a few seconds before he continued, but before he began to speak again, one of the ladies said, ‘Well, why don’t we find that woman and stop her?’

Exercises:

A) Answer these questions:

1.What happened every Friday afternoon ?

2.What happened at the meeting?

3.What happened after that?

4.What happened one Friday ?

5.What did the man say?

6.What question did he ask?

7.What did he do then?

8.What did one of the ladies say?

Text 145

      A man had some work to do in Switzerland, so he said goodbye to his wife at the airport, got into an aeroplane and left. After ten days, his work in Switzerland was finished, so he bought a ticket for his journey back home, and then went to the post-office to send a telegram to his wife. He wrote the telegram, gave it to the clerk and said, ‘How much will