New+Concept+English+Book+II (九)

Lesson 41 | Do you call that a hat?
   'Do you call that a hat?' I said to my wife.
   'You needn't be so rude about it,' my wife answered as she looked at herself in the
mirror.
   I sat down on one of those modern chairs with holes in it and waited. We had been in
the hat shop for half an hour and my wife was still in front of the mirror.
   'We mustn't buy things we don't need,' I remarked suddenly. I regretted saying it
almost at once.
   'You needn't have said that,' my wife answered. 'I needn't remind you of that terrible
tie you bought yesterday.'
   'I find it beautiful,' I said. 'A man can never have too many ties.'
   'And a woman can't have too many hats,' she answered.
   Ten minutes later we walked out of the shop together. My wife was wearing a hat that
looked like a lighthouse!

Lesson 42 | Not very musical
   As we had had a long walk through one of the markets of old Delhi, we stopped at a
square to have a rest. After a time, we noticed a snake charmer with two large baskets at
the other side of the square, so we went to have a look at him. As soon as he saw us, he
picked up a long pipe which was covered with coins and opened one of the baskets. When
he began to play a tune, we had our first glimpse of the snake. It rose out of the basket
and began to follow the movements of the pipe. We were very much surprised when the
snake charmer suddenly began to play jazz and modern pop songs. The snake, however,
continued to 'dance' slowly. It obviously could not tell the difference between Indian
music and jazz!

Lesson 43 | Over the South Pole
   In 1929, three years after his flight over the North Pole, the American explorer, R.E.
Byrd, successfully flew over the South Pole for the first time. Though, at first, Byrd and
his men were able to take a great many photographs of the mountains that lay below, they
soon ran into serious trouble. At one point, it seemed certain that their plane would crash.
It could only get over the mountains if it rose to 10,000 feet. Byrd at once ordered his
men to throw out two heavy food sacks. The plane was then able to rise and it cleared the
mountains by 400 feet. Byrd now knew that he would be able to reach the South Pole
which was 300 miles away, for there were no more mountains in sight. The aircraft was
able to fly over the endless white plains without difficulty.

Lesson 44 | Through the forest
   Mrs. Anne Sterling did not think of the risk she was taking when she ran through a
forest after two men. They had rushed up to her while she was having a picnic at the edge
of a forest with her children and tried to steal her handbag. In the struggle, the strap broke

 

and, with the bag in their possession, both men started running through the trees. Mrs.
Sterling got so angry that she ran after them. She was soon out of breath, but she
continued to run. When she caught up with them, she saw that they had sat down and
were going through the contents of the bag, so she ran straight at them. The men got such
a fright that they dropped the bag and ran away. 'The strap needs mending,' said Mrs.
Sterling later, 'but they did not steal anything.'

Lesson 45 | A clear conscience
   The whole village soon learnt that a large sum of money had been lost. Sam Benton,
the local butcher, had lost his wallet while taking his savings to the post office. Sam was
sure that the wallet must have been found by one of the villagers, but it was not returned
to him. Three months passed, and then one morning, Sam found his wallet outside his
front door. It had been wrapped up in newspaper and it contained half the money he had
lost, together with a note which said: 'A thief, yes, but only 50 per cent a thief!' Two
months later, some more money was sent to Sam with another note: 'Only 25 per cent a
thief now!' In time, all Sam's money was paid back in this way. The last note said: 'I am
100 per cent honest now!'