18. Motor Fun.
A . An Automobile Story.
A tourist who was going by car through the country saw a man followed by a dog. As the car drew near them the dog suddenly began to cross the road. The poor animal was hit by the car and killed. The automobile stopped his car and approached the man.
“I am very sorry that this has happened,” he said. “Will ten dollars be enough?”
“Oh, yes,” said the man, “ten dollars will be quite enough!”
The man put the money in his pocket and as the car disappeared in the distance, he looked down at the dead animal and thought: “I wonder whose dog it was.”
B. Two Drivers.
Two motorcars met in a very narrow lane in London. Neither of the drivers wanted to reverse and clear the road.
The driver of the first car took out a newspaper and began reading.
In an hour the second driver asked politely:
“When you finish reading, won’t you give the newspaper to me?”
C. “I say, porter, where is this train going to?”
“This train goes to Liverpool in ten minutes, Madam.”
“Good gracious! Last time I went to Liverpool it took four hours.”
19. Grammar Revision. Degrees of Comparison. Study and compare the emblems. Use the words from the table below to describe the cars. You can find some historical information in the Supplementary File at the back of the book. (Mind that “5” means better than “0”). Make as many comparisons as possible.
|
cheap |
expensive |
reliable |
easy to drive |
economical |
spacious |
fast |
good-looking |
1) Audi |
3 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
2) BMW |
3 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
4 |
5 |
3 |
1 |
3) Ford |
2 |
3 |
5 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
4 |
4) Porshe |
4 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
5) Rover |
1 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
5 |
3 |
5 |
6) Volga |
1 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
4 |
2 |
3 |
20. Test Yourself V (Psychological Aspects). Read the fragment of the novel “Very Far Away from Anywhere Else” by an American writer Ursula K. Le Guin. Imagine you are the boy’s father or mother. What would they say? Discuss it with your group-mate.
“My father is a CPA, and we don’t have that kind of money for unnecessary things. For that kind of money I could have lived for a year or more at MIT, if I got a tuition scholarship. That’s what came into my head right away, before he’d even opened the shiny little door. He could have put the money into savings. Of course, I could sell the car and not take too bad a loss on it if I did soon. That came into my head too, and that was when he put the keys in my hand and said, “She’s all yours, son!” and his face twisted up that way. And I smiled. I guess.
I don’t know if I fooled him. If so, it was probably the first time I ever succeeded in fooling anybody; but I think so, because he wanted so badly to be fooled, to believe that I was struck dumb with joy and gratitude. That sounds as if I was scornful of him. I don’t mean it that way.
We took the car out for a ride right away, of course. I drove up into the park, and he drove it back – he was itching to get hands on the wheel – and all that was fine. The trouble came when he found out on Monday that I hadn’t driven my new car to school. Why not?
I couldn’t tell him why not. I only half understood it myself. If I drove the thing to school and parked it in the school lot, I’d given in. I owned it. It owned me. I was the owner of a new car with all the extras. People at school would say, “Hey wow. How about Fastback Griffiths!” Some of them would sneer, but some of them would honestly admire it, and maybe me for being lucky enough to own it. And that’s what I couldn’t take. I didn’t know who I was, but I knew one thing: I wasn’t the seat-fixture of an automobile. What I was the type who walks to school (it’s 2.7 miles by the shortest route) because walking is the kind of exercise I like, and I really like the streets of he city. The sidewalks, the buildings, the people you pass. Not the brake lights on the back of the car in front of yours.
Well, anyhow, that was where I drew the line, I’d already tried very ingeniously to hide the line, by driving errands for Mother on Saturday, and volunteering to take both my parents for a drive in the country on Sunday in “my new car.” But Monday evening he found the line. Didn’t you take the car to school? Why not?”
(to be continued)