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SEPTEMBER
There are twelve months throughout1 the year.
From January to December —
And the primest2 month of all the twelve,
Is the merry3 month of September.
NICK IS HUNGRY
One day mother looked at Nisk’s shoes and said, «Nick, look at your shoes. How dirty they are! You must clean them.»
«Oh, Mother, but I cleaned them only yesterday,» said the boy.
«They are dirty now.
You must clean them again.»
«I do not want to clean them to-day. Even if I clean them to-day, they will be dirty again to-morrow.»
Nick’s mother thought for a moment and said, «All right. Do not clean them.»
In the evening, Nick came back from school. He was very hungry.
«Mother, give me something to eat, please,» he said.
1 throughout [6ru:'aut] — здесь во всём
2 primest ['praimist] — лучший
3 merry ['meri] — весёлый
«You had your breakfast in the morning, Nick, and you had a lunch at school/* his mother said.
«I am hungry again/* cried the boy.
«Oh, hungry? But if I give you something to eat to-day, you will be hungry again to-morrow.»
WHY TAKE IT HOME?
Alec and Mike are schoolboys, and they study at the same school. They spend a lot of time together.
One day Alec comes to Mike and says, «Mike, you have so many good books. Can you give me a book to read?’*
Mike does not want to give a book to his friend, and he says, «Why do you want to take my book home? You can read it here in my house.»
Alec sees that his friend is very selfish,1 but he does not say anything.
Next week Mike comes to Alec and says, «Alec, you have a good garden-knife. I want to work in my garden to-morrow. Can you give it to me for two days?»
Alec answers, «Why do you want to take my garden-knife home? You can work with it in my garden.»
IN A SMALL TOWN
Toscanini1 2 was a great musician.3 He lived in America. Once he came to a very small town. He was walking along a street and in one of the windows of a house he saw a piece of paper. He came up to the window and read the following:
Mrs. Smith Music Lessons 2 dollars a lesson4.
1 selfish ['selfif] — эгоистичный
2 Toscanini [tos'kanimi] — Тосканини — знаменитый дирижёр (жил в США)
8 musician [mjui'zijn] — музыкант
4 2 dollars a lesson — два доллара за урок
Suddenly Toscanini heard the music. Somebody was playing Tchaikovsky.1
«It must be Mrs. Smith,» thought Toscanini. «She is not a very good musician. She does not play Tchaikovsky well. I must show her how to play it.»
He went up to the door of the house and knocked.
The music stopped, and in a few minutes a woman opened the door.
«Are you Mrs. Smith?» asked Toscanini. «My name is Toscanini, and I want to show you how to play Tchaikovsky.»
Mrs. Smith was very happy to meet the great musician and asked him to come in.
Toscanini played Tchaikovsky for her and went away.
A year passed, and Toscanini had to visit the same town again. When he went up to the house where he
1 Tchaikovsky ftfaikov’ski] — Чайковский (здесь музыка Чайковского)
played Tchaikovsky, he again saw a piece of paper. Now he read:
Mrs. Smith (Pupil of Toscanini) Music Lessons 4 dollars a lesson.
HOW TO FIND A GOOD WORKER
Mr. Todds and his wife, Mrs. Todds, lived in a house with a beautiful fruit-garden around it. Oh, what a beautiful garden it was! So many fruit-trees and so many flowers grew in the garden! Mr. Todds loved his garden very much.
«My dear Mrs. Todds,» said Mr. Todds one day (he was a very polite man and he always called his wife Mrs. Todds). «My dear Mrs. Todds, I must do something about my garden. It is spring now. I want to plant some more apple-trees, but I have not enough time to work in my garden. 1 must get a man to help me.»
«You are right, Mr. Todds,» answered his wife (she always called her husband Mr. Todds, because she was a very polite lady too). «You are quite right. You must get a good worker for your garden. Do you remember the man who worked in your garden last spring? He was so big and so strong, but he worked very little. He did not like to plant your apple-trees; he liked to rest under them.»
«Oh, yes, I remember that man very well. I don’t think that there’s a tree in my garden under which he did not sit or sleep,» said Mr. Todds, «but now I know better how to choose my workers.»
Next day, when Mr. Todds and his wife were walking in their garden, two men came up to them. They were workers.
Mr. Todds talked to them and said to one of them,
«I think you will be a good worker. You may come to-morrow, and begin your work here.»
The two men went away.
«Why did you choose that man?» asked his wife. «I like the other man better. He has such a nice face.»
«My dear,» answered Mr. Todds, «I like his face too, but, if we want to get a good worker for our garden, you
must not look at his face but at his trousers. The knees1 of the trousers of the man with a nice face are clean. The knees of the trousers of the man I asked to come are all dirty, so I know that he worked a lot in a garden,»
A SAD1 2 STORY
Three men came to New York for a holiday. They came to a very large hotel3 and took a room there. Their room was on the forty-fifth floor.
In the evening the three men went to the theatre and came back to the hotel very late.
«I am very sorry,» said the clerk4 of the hotel, «but our lifts do not work to-night. If you do not want to walk up to your room, we shall make beds for you in the hall.»
«No, no,» said one of the three men, «no, thank you. We do not want to sleep in the hall. We shall walk up to our room.»
1 knee [ni:] — колено
2 sad — печальный, грустный
3 hotel [hou'tel] — отель, гостиница
4 clerk [kla:k] — здесь служащий в гостинице
Then he turned to his two friends and said,
«It is not easy to walk up to the forty-fifth floor, but I think I know how to make it easier. On our way to the room I shall tell you some jokes; then you, Andy, will sing us some songs; then you, Peter, will tell us some interesting stories.»
So they began to walk up to their room. Tom told them many jokes; Andy sang some songs. At last they came to the thirty-fourth floor. They were tired and decided to have a rest
«Well,» said Tom, «now it is your turn,1 Peter. After all those jokes we heard on our way here tell us a long and interesting story with a sad ending.»
«I shall tell you a sad story you ask me for,» said Peter, «it is not long, but it is sad enough.
WE LEFT THE KEY2 TO OUR ROOM IN THE HALL.»
1 it is your turn — теперь твоя очередь
2 key [ki:] — ключ
HE IS A BRICK1 (A Spartan1 2 story)
If you are in England, you will often hear an Englishman say about his friend, «Oh, he is a brick.» And what does he mean by that? He wants to say that this man is honest3 ane brave4 and is always ready to help his friends.
Many hundred years ago a foreign prince came to visit5 Sparta.6 He visited many cities and towns and at last came to the capital.
«How do you like my cities and towns?» asked the king of Sparta.
«They are beautiful and rich,» answered the foreign prince, «but one thing I do not understand. Why are there
1 brick — кирпич, брусок
2 Spartan I'sportan] — спартанский
3 honest ['anist] — правдивый
4 brave — смелый
5 саше to visit — посетил
6 Sparta ['spa:ta] — Спарта
no walls round your cities and towns? Are your people not afraid to live in the cities without walls? Haven’t you bricks in your country?»
«We have very good bricks,» laughed the king, «and there are walls around every city and town of Sparta. Come with me to-morrow and I shall show you the walls of Sparta.»
Next day the Spartan king and the foreign prince came to a great field. There were thousands and thousands of soldiers there.
«Look at these walls of Sparta,» said the king, «thirty thousand men, and every man is a brick.»
Once a foreign king came to Sparta with a great army.1
He sent a man with a letter to the Spartan king. In this letter he wrote:
«Your soldiers are good, but you have very few of them. My army is so strong that you cannot fight it.1 2 If you try to fight it, you will die. If I win,3 4 I shall kill all your soldiers. If I win, I shall break up everything in your cities and towns. If I win, I shall make every woman and every child my slave.*
The Spartans sent him their answer. There was only one word in it, «If».
Xerxes,5 the king of Persia,6 wanted to conquer 7 Sparta.
There was only one road from Persia to Sparta and that road was between the high mountains and the deep sea. Only three hundred soldiers guarded8 this road.
Xerxes sent his men to these soldiers.
«You cannot fight our king and his army,» they said to the Spartan soldiers. «Our king has so many soldiers that their arrows 9 will make the sky dark.»
1 army — армия
8 to fight it — бороться с ней
8 to win — одерживать победу
4 slave — раб
5 Xerxes [’za:ksi:z] — Ксеркс
6 Persia ['рэ:|э] — Персия
7 to conquer ['korjkaJ — завоевать
8 to guard [ga:d] — охранять
8 arrow — стрела
«So much the better,»1 answered the Spartans, «we shall fight in the shade1 2 then.»
Only when the last Spartan died, Xerxes’ army could go along this road. But Xerxes lost one day and now the people of Sparta had their army ready.
1 So much the better — тем лучше
2 shade — тень
KOHEЦ ФPAГMEHTA КНИГИ
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