Lesson 21 Daniel Mendoza
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The first fight
The first fight between Humphries and his pupil Mendoza, after a quarrel, was held at Stilton and attracted a lot of attention. At the time, Richard Humphries was the most eminent boxer in England and had many supporters. But the young Mendoza had his supporters, too.
The atmosphere before the fight was electric. Half of the people there made bets on Humphries, the other half bet on Mendoza. When the two fighters entered the ring, there was a lot shouting and cheering
The referee called both fighters to the middle of the ring, spoke to them an the fight started. At first, both men were very wary. After all, this was a fight between teacher and pupil, so they knew very well what the other could do — and they were fighting with bare fists. Each of the boxers fought well for most of the match, but in the end Humphries was too strong and too experienced for the young Mendoza- He knocked him down once: Mendoza got up. He knocked him down again, and although Mendoza tried to get up, he just couldn't. The referee counted ten and that was the end of the match.
When Mendoza got up, he was very angry, but eventually congratulated Humphries. However his defeat made. him determined to go on and fight his teacher again so that he could finally become champion. (229words)
Lesson 22 By heart
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Six short weeks
A couple of years ago, a new play called The World Tomorrow was going to be shown in our local theatre. There was a great deal of advertising for it and there was considerable public interest, mainly, I think, because the cast contained a number of famous actors and actresses.
Most actors and actresses are usually nervous on the first night of any play, and no one really knows what can go wrong or how the audience will react. In the case of The World Tomorrow, no one forgot their lines, but the play was not well received. It was a comedy, so it was supposed to be funny, but nobody laughed — not in the right places anyway — and people even walked out before the end. The cast suspected that they would get bad reviews the following day, and they did. One review described it as "the saddest comedy I've ever seen"; another thought it wa3 "the most professionally acted disaster we have ever seen on our local stage".
In spite of the reviews, however, the play still ran for six weeks. The last performance, on the last Saturday evening, attracted a small audience, and the actors struggled through to the end. At the end of six terrible weeks, however, there was one final moment of relief. When the last line was spoken: "Our six short weeks have hastened to their end, " the audience saw the funny side of it and laughed. Even the actors and actresses laughed.
(248 words)
Lesson 23 One man's meat is another man's poison
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Snails, snails, snails!
The snails had escaped from the paper bag and they were everywhere — on the walls, on the ceiling, on the carpet, and even on the large hall mirror. When we began to look carefully, we found that they were even in coat pockets in the clothes hanging on the clothes hooks in the hall. It was disgusting! Snails move slowly, but it's amazing how far they can travel in a couple of hours!
It took Robert and me ages to collect them. He fetched a pair of steps for me and ladders for himself, and we collected them in two buckets. There were snail marks everywhere, too, and it took hours to clear up the mess — remember, there were several dozen of them. Snails may not be fast, but we had been talking for a couple of hours, and they can travel. Even now I am sure we didn't find them all: some are still crawling round Robert's house.
The ones that we did not find were lucky! Robert was amused, but I wasn't. He decided to cook the snails and invited me to stay. I said before that I didn't fancy the idea, so I left him to his meal for one. I just couldn't look at the snails and have never been able to face them since then.
(220 words)
Lesson 24 A skeleton in the cupboard
Key to Composition
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A weekend with Sebastian
Now that George had explained about the skeleton, I felt better, but I still didn't want to sleep in the room with a skeleton hanging in the cupboard. I asked George to remove him, but he refused. "There's nowhere else to put him, " said George, "so he'll have to stay. ”
I couldn't disagree of course, but the moment I lay down to sleep, I knew it was going to be an uncomfortable night. In the end, I decided that 1 would take Sebastian somewhere for the night and bring him back up to my room early in the morning. So I took him out of cupboard and walked around the house with him trying to find somewhere to put him.
George's maid was just going to bed as I walked along the landing. She saw Sebastian apparently walking around, screamed and fainted. She had obviously woken Carlton who appeared from his bedroom and, when the girl had regained consciousness, explained everything to her. He accused me of being stupid and sent me and Sebastian back to "our" room where I hung him up in the cupboard again.
Imagine my surprise when I picked up one of Carlton's detective stories two years later. There I was, with Sebastian the skeleton, as the main characters in one of his stories for the whole world to read. Still, he didn't use my real name, so I should be glad of that!
(240 words)
Lesson 25 The Cutty Sark
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Ships of the past
Men have always wanted to cross water. Thousands of years ago, men made simple dug-out canoes so that they could cross rivers or go out into takes to fish. At first, then, man's earliest boats were small and simple and were powered and steered by paddles or oars.
When men wanted to travel greater distances, across very large lakes or small seas; for example, boats needed to be larger. We have all seen pictures of ancient ships with rows of oars at each side and slaves to row them. In fact these galleys were just a larger version of the single-man rowing boat, still made of wood and very much the same design as very early boats.
Early ships might have been primitive, they might have been made of wood and might have been powered through the water with oars, but they managed to cross oceans. The Viking ships that invaded Britain hundreds of years ago also reached North America. Later sailing ships, like those that Columbus sailed in, the galleons that formed the Spanish Armada or those that Nelson sailed in, were an advance.
But perhaps the greatest development in the history of ships was when steam engines replaced sails. For centuries, ships had depend on the wind to sail across the seas and oceans. At last, with an engine to drive a propeller, seamen did not have to rely totally on the weather. From then on, ships like the "Great Eastern" could be larger, safer and more manoeuvrable in the water. (254words)
Lesson 26 Wanted: a large biscuit tin
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The last question
The other evening I listened to a quiz show on the radio which was organised by a firm of soap manufacturers. A member of the audience was invited to answer ten questions to win money. He could take a money prize after each correct answer or go on to a more difficult question. Each new question was worth twice the last question.
The man was very nervous in front of the audience, but he got the first question right. Then he slowly answered all the questions correctly — spelling questions, history questions, general knowledge, mathematics, . . . The audience was getting very excited as the question master got to question number 9.
"And your ninth question, " he said, "is worth ? 1, 024. Here it is. Which nineteenth-century sailing ship won a race from Shanghai to England?"
"It was the Thermopylae" the man said confidently. "She beat the Cutty Sark. "
"Correct, '' said the question master, and the audience went mad. The question master had to ask them to be quiet. ?
"And here is your tenth and last question, " the host said, "which is worth ?2, 048 exactly. "Advertisement": how do you spell it?"
The man paused and then said: "I think this is a trick question. I can spell "advertisement" . but I can also spell "it". The answer is "l-T. "
"You're absolutely right, " the host said, "and you have won ?2, 048! Congratulations!"
(239 ?words)
Lesson 27 Nothing to sell and nothing to buy
Key to Composition
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Tramps are parasites
The majority of adults in society contribute to society by working. They work, earn money and pay taxes for the things we all need — hospitals, schools, public transport, the fire brigade, law and order and so on. We don't expect children or very. old people to work and pay taxes. But everyone else should. So why should people like tramps and beggars be different?
Tramps say all they want is their freedom. Well, they may be free, but their freedom is paid for by everyone else in society. There are many unemployed people who simply cannot get a job — but they would work if they could. And many beggars are people who have turned to begging because they cannot find a job. Tramps are not like them. Tramps lead a very selfish way of life and it is a way of life that shows an unwillingness to assume responsibility for others. The rest of us have a home, children, work, and so on. But not tramps!
Tramps are lazy parasites on society, and if we all had their mentality, society would not exist, for them or anyone else.
Although we might in some ways be envious of tramps, and although we might envy their freedom, how many of us could be as selfish as them? How many of us could say "I'm going to live exactly as I want, and damn the rest of society !"? I couldn't.
(236 words)
Lesson 28 Five pounds too dear
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The bargain
The writer had only just got rid of a man who was trying to sell a diamond ring when another man approached him with some expensive pens and watches. When he held them up for the writer to look at, the writer showed quite a lot of interest.
"Can I see one of the pens?" the writer asked the man. They all looked genuine. The man handed the writer one and said: "It's a beautiful pen, sir. It's worth ? 50, but you can have it for ? 30. "
hen the writer offered him just ? 5, there was an argument about the price, but eventually the man said: "You can have it for ? 10, sir. That's the least I can take. "
As the writer walker away shrugging his shoulders, the man followed him. “I can’t ready do it, sir-I am almost giving it away, ” he said, ‘but you can have it for $5. ’
The writer was obviously very pleased. he gave the man $5, took the pen, and the man disappeared quickly into the crowd. The writer was extremely pleased: he had bought a very expensive pen for just $5. What a bargain! Later, back on board ship, the writer discovered why the man had been in such a hurry to get away: you couldn’t fill the pen with ink and just didn’t work! It wasn’t such a “bargain” after all! (235words)
Lesson 29 Funny or not?
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The gasman
An aunt of mine lives in a small village in the country and tells this story of what happened to her once. In order to understand the story, you should know a little about life in an English village. For example, people often enjoy afternoon tea together, they still leave doors unlocked, and certain tradesmen are used to delivering goods and, with permission, leaving them inside the owner's house.
One clay my aunt had invited some friends round for afternoon tea. She had put some cakes in the oven to bake, and had gone upstairs to do some cleaning. When she finished, she decided to have a bath before her friends arrived She was just about to get into the bath when she suddenly remembered the cakes. She wrapped a bath towel round her, went down to the kitchen and took the cakes out of the oven. Just then, there was a knock on the back door. She was sure it was the baker, who would open the door, come in and leave the bread on the kitchen table.
She panicked, dashed into the cupboard under the stairs and closed the door. Then, horrified, she heard footsteps coming to the cupboard. The door opened and there stood the gasman who had come to read the meter— which was in the cupboard. My aunt blushed and said, "I'm very sorry. I was expecting the baker. " "Oh, " the gasman said. "Sorry, madam. " He closed the door gently and left. (250words)
Lesson 30 The death of a ghos
Key to Composition
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The ghost of Endley
When I came in to work one morning 1 noticed that work had been done overnight — some hay had been cut and the cowsheds and other buildings had been cleaned, so I decided to stay up all the next . night to try to solve the mystery. (I didn't tell Joe and Bob, of course, ) 1 hid in the bam and waited.
Obviously I fell asleep because I suddenly woke up to find that it was dark. I went straight to the cowshed and found that it had already been cleaned. Then 1 went out to the fields where I could just see a figure working; I couldn't see whether it was a man, or a woman, or perhaps a ghost. I was scared, so 1 rushed back to the farmhouse and woke up the others. We all went out to the fields to see who it was, but when we got there, there was no one there.
When I was in the fields before, 1 didn't know what or who the figure was. But now I was sure in was a ghost so I immediately decided not to work at Endley Farm any longer and handed in my resignation. When I told my story to the villagers, many of them still didn't believe me, even though they knew that something strange had been going on at Endley Farm for years. (230words)
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