Автор Тема: Short texts for reading  (Прочитано 781054 раз)

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Оффлайн Sergevna

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Re: Short texts for reading
« Ответ #237 : 04 ноября 2014, 21:48:50 »
The Pack of Biscuits
One night there was a woman at the airport who had to wait for several hours before catching her next flight. While she waited she bought a book and a pack of biscuits to spend the time. She looked for a place to sit and waited. She was deep into her book, when suddenly she realized that there was a young man sitting next to her who was stretching his hand, with no concern whatsoever, and grabbing the pack of cookies lying between them. He started to eat them one by one. Not wanting to make a fuss about it she decided to ignore him.

The woman, slightly bothered, ate the cookies and watched the clock, while the young and shameless thief of biscuits was also finishing them. The woman started to get really angry at this point and thought, «If I wasn’t such a good and educated person, I would have given this daring man a black eye by now.» Every time she ate a biscuit, he had one too. The dialogue between their eyes continued and when only one biscuit was left, she wondered what was he going to do. Softly and with a nervous smile, the young man grabbed the last biscuit and broke it in two. He offered one half to the woman while he ate the other half. Briskly she took the biscuit and thought, «What an insolent man! How uneducated! He didn’t even thank me!»

She had never met anybody so fresh and sighed relieved to hear her flight announced. She grabbed her bags and went towards the boarding gate refusing to look back to where that insolent thief was seated. After boarding the plane and nicely seated, she looked for her book which was nearly finished by now. While looking into her bag she was totally surprised to find her pack of biscuits nearly intact. If my biscuits are here, she thought feeling terribly, those others were his and he tried to share them with me. Too late to apologize to the young man, she realized with pain, that it was her who had been insolent, uneducated and a thief, and not him!

Оффлайн born to be wild

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Re: Short texts for reading
« Ответ #236 : 29 октября 2014, 00:24:05 »
Present Perfect Continuous - очень употребимое время в английском языке. Означает действие, которое началось давно и продолжается до сих пор. Переводится на русский язык настоящим временем.
     See how Present Perfect Continuous is used in the following funny stories.

                                            1. BAD MANNERS
     Mother:      Jessie, don't interrupt me. Haven't I told you again and again not to speak when older persons are talking, but wait until they stop?
     Jessie:        I HAVE  BEEN WAITING  for such a long time, mummy, but you never stop tallking.

                                             2.THE WORLD'S INGRATITUDE
     Old man:     Why are you looking so sad, dear boy?
     Young poet: Brown doesn't know who Shakespeare was.
     Old man:      How does it concern you?
     Young poet:  I HAVE BEEN THINKING that one day I may be forgotten, too.


                                             3. PUPPIES NEVER SEE TILL THEY ARE
                                                           NINE DAYS OLD
     Tutor:        Wait a bit, young men! I HAVE BEEN WATCHING YOU  for  about  an hour.  Why don't you take off your hats when you meet your  tutors?
     One of the undergraduates: We beg your pardon, sir. We are just freshmen
     here. We haven't seen you.
     Tutor:     How long HAVE YOU BEEN STAYING  in Cambridge?
     One of the undergraduates: We HAVE BEEN STAYING here for only eight days, sir.
      Tutor:     In this case I have been too strict, for puppies never see till they are nine days old

Оффлайн born to be wild

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Re: Short texts for reading
« Ответ #235 : 29 октября 2014, 00:22:21 »
  Enjoy the story and see how  Continuous  is used in it

"Thomas? What is the matter with your brother?" asked the mother of the boys.
"He is crying", replied Thomas,"because I am eating my  cake and won"t give him any."
"Is his own cake finished?" asked the mother.
"Yes, and he cried while I was eating that, too."

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Re: Short texts for reading
« Ответ #234 : 29 октября 2014, 00:20:33 »
         Read the following funny story and see how Past Continuous is used in it.

                                               NO DRIVERS
    A group of drunken soldiers involved in a сar accident were brought to the military police."Who was driving when the accident happened?" asked a police officer.
    One of the drunkards replied triumphantly."No one. We were all sitting in the back seat".
     I read this funny story again and I LIKE it.

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Re: Short texts for reading
« Ответ #233 : 24 октября 2014, 18:04:47 »
Two Brothers

Once there were two brothers, Peter and Bernard. Both of them liked to ride horses. One day they both went to buy a horse. Bernard bought a horse and Peter bought a horse, too.
"Oh, dear!" said Bernard. "How are we going to tell our horses apart? How shall I know which is my horse and which is your horse?"
"It isn't difficult," said Peter, "you cut the tail of your horse shorter than that of mine."
So Bernard cut the tail of his horse and now they could see which horse was his. But then the tail of Bernard's horse grew and the brothers began to think again.
"I know!" said Bernard. "You cut the mane of your horse very short and so we'll see which horse is yours."
But soon the mane of his horse grew.
"Do you know what we must do?" asked Peter. "We must see whose horse is longer. Perhaps, one is longer than the other."
And at last they found that the black horse was three centimetres longer than the white horse.

Оффлайн Mari

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Re: Short texts for reading
« Ответ #232 : 21 октября 2014, 22:52:19 »
Умный   мальчик)

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Re: Short texts for reading
« Ответ #231 : 21 октября 2014, 18:25:03 »
English

A young boy was playing with a ball in the street. He kicked it too hard, and it broke the window of a house and fell inside. A lady came to the window with the ball and shouted at the young boy, so he ran away, but he still wanted his ball back.
A few minutes later he returned and knocked at the door of the house, and when the lady answered it, he said, "My father's going to come and fix your window very soon."
After a few more minutes a man came to the door with tools in his hand, so the lady let the boy take his ball away.
When the man finished fixing the window, he said to the lady, "That will cost you exactly ten dollars."
"But aren't you the father of that young boy?" the woman asked, looking surprised.
"No," he answered, equally surprised. "Aren't you his mother? "
________________________________________
Русский

Маленький мальчик играл с мячем на улице. Он пнул его слишком сильно и мячик, пробив окно в доме, упал на пол. Женщина выглянула в окно с мячиком и так ругала мальчика, что тот убежал, но ему хотелось вернуть свой мячик обратно.
Через несколько минут он постучал в дверь дома, где жила женщина и сказал ей: "Мой папа собирается прийти и починить ваши окна".
Через несколько минут пришел мужчина с инструментами в руках, женщина пропустила его и отдала мальчику мячик.
Когда мужчина закончил с окнами, он сказал: "Это будет стоить вам ровно десять долларов".
"Но разве вы не отец того мальчика?" - спросила женщина, удивившись.
"Нет", он тоже был удивлен, "А разве вы не его мать?"

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Re: Short texts for reading
« Ответ #230 : 16 октября 2014, 14:34:03 »
The Frogs and the Well

Two Frogs1 lived together in a marsh2. But one hot summer the marsh dried up3, and they left it to look for another place to live in: for frogs like damp4 places if they can get them. By and by5 they came to a deep well6, and one of them looked down into it, and said to the other, "This looks a nice cool place. Let us jump in and settle7 here." But the other, who had a wiser head on his shoulders, replied, "Not so fast, my friend. Supposing this well dried up like the marsh, how should we get out again?"

Moral: Look before you leap8.


1 Frogs — лягушки (a frog — лягушка)
2 marsh (= wet area, pond) — пруд, заболоченное место
3 to dry up (= to loose all water) — высохнуть
4 damp (= humid, wet) — влажный
5 by and by (= overtime, eventually) — долго ли, коротко ли; со временем
6 well — колодец
7 to settle (= to begin living in a new place) — осесть, поселиться
8 to leap (= to jump into) — прыгать

Оффлайн Sergevna

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Re: Short texts for reading
« Ответ #229 : 12 октября 2014, 23:54:51 »

A FUNNY STORY’

A nervous man, who lived in one of suburbs of a big town in England, was walking home from the railway station. The road was dark and lonely. Suddenly he heard footsteps approaching him from behind and thought he was being followed. He walked quickly. The footsteps continued to follow. The man started running. The footsteps still followed him. The man jumped over a wall and, running into an old cemetery, threw himself on the grass near one of the graves.

“If he comes here”, he thought, “there will be no doubt he wants to rob me”.

The man behind was following. He also got over the wall and came up to the grave. The nervous man stood up and asked:

“What do you want? Why are you following me?”

“I say”, answered the other man, “do you always go home like this?
Or are you having some special sort of jumping, exercises tonight?
I am going to Mr. Ro­bertson’s and the man I at the railway station told me to follow you, as you lived next door. Excuse my asking you, but will you have some more gymnastics or will you go straight home?”

Оффлайн Рина З.

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Re: Short texts for reading
« Ответ #228 : 30 июля 2014, 16:03:40 »
К сожалению, в этой теме мне точно делать нечего! Только английский...

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Re: Short texts for reading
« Ответ #227 : 09 июля 2014, 11:46:49 »
English Traditions

If you arrive in Great Britain you'll hear the word “tradition” everywhere. Englishmen have sentimental love for things and traditions. They never throw away old things.

In many houses in Great Britain they have fire-places and though their bedrooms are awfully cold, the English people do not want to have central heating because they do not want to have changes.

Therefore the Yeomen-Warders are dressed in traditional medieval clothes and the traditional dress of the Horse Guards regiment has existed since the twelfth century.

In the House of Lords of the British Parliament there are two rows of benches for lords and a sack of wool for the Lord Chancellor to sit on it. This is so because in the old times wool made England rich and powerful. In the House of Commons you will see two rows of benches for the two parties: the government on one side and the opposition — on the other. In front of the benches there is the strip on a carpet and when a member speaking in the House puts his foot beyond that strip, there is a shout “Order!”. This dates from the time when the members had swords on them and during the discussion might want to start fighting. The word “order” reminded them that no fighting was allowed in the House.

Another old custom remains from the time when there was a lot of robbers in London. In those days the shouting “Who goes home?” was often heard in the Houses of Parliament and the members went in groups along the dark narrow streets of the old city. In modem London with its well-lit streets the shouting “Who goes home?” is still heard.

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Re: Short texts for reading
« Ответ #226 : 07 июля 2014, 11:22:41 »
Walt Disney and his heroes

Walt Disney was born in Chicago, his father being Irish Canadian, his mother of German-American origin. He revealed a talent for drawing and an interest in photography early on and after service with the American Red Cross in the First World War. In 1923 he left with his brother Roy for Hollywood and for some years struggled against poverty while producing a series of cartoon films. In 1927 he had some success with the series called "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit", but it was not until September 1928, when "Steamboat Willie" appeared, the first "Mickey Mouse" with sound, that he achieved lasting success. Mickey Mouse became a household word together with such companions as Minnie, Pluto, and — perhaps the favourite of them all — Donald Duck.

"The Three Little Pigs" and " Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", with their still familiar songs by Frank Cherchill, immediately spring to mind. After the Second World War Disney turned his attention to real-life nature studies and non-cartoon films with living actors. After a rather unsuccessful feature cartoon "The Sleeping Beauty", he made a triumphant come-back with the very successful "Mary Poppins".

In 1955 he branched out into a different enterprise —"Disney-land", a huge amusement park in southern California.
Disneyland is situated 27 miles south of Los Angeles, at Ana-heim. Of all the show-places none is as famous as Disneyland. This superb kingdom of fantasy linked to technology was created by Walt Disney.

The park is divided into six themes and there is so much to see and do in each that no one would attempt to see all of them in one visit. For extended visits, there are hotels nearby.

Walt Disney died in California at the age of 65. His works have given so much pleasure for many years to many people, young and old, in many countries.

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Re: Short texts for reading
« Ответ #225 : 04 июля 2014, 09:17:30 »
The Policeman and the Thief

In a small town a man stole1 some money from a house. The police began to look for the thief. Soon they found him and brought him to the police station.
There was a new policeman at the police station and they wanted to give him some work.
"Take this thief to the city," said one of the policemen. "You must go there by train."
The policeman and the thief went to the station. On their way to the station they came to the shop where bread was sold
"We have no food and we must eat something in the train," said th° thief. "It's a long way to the city and it'll take us a long time to get there. I'll go into the shop and buy some bread. Then you and I can eat in the train. Wait for me here."
The policeman was glad to have some food in the train. "Be quick," he said to the thief, "we don't have much time."
The thief went into the shop and the policeman waited in the street for a long time. At last he went into the shop.
"Where is the man who came in here to buy some bread?" asked the policeman
"Oh, he went out the back door," said the owner of the shop.
The policeman ran out but he could not see the thief. So he went to the police station and told the others about it. They were very angry with him. All the police of the town began to look forthe thief again and soon they found him. They brought him back to the police station and called the same policeman.
"Now," said one of them, "take him to the city and do not lose him again."
The policeman and the thief went to the station and came up to the same shop.
"Wait here," said the thief. "I want to go into the shop and buy some bread there."
"Oh, no," said the policeman, "you did that once and ran away. Now I'll go into the shop and you'll wait for me here."

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Re: Short texts for reading
« Ответ #224 : 02 июля 2014, 12:10:41 »
Big Ben

The big clock on the tower of the Palace of Westminster in London is often called Big Ben. But Big Ben is really the bell of the clock. It is the biggest clock bell in Britain. It weighs 13.5 tons.
The clock tower is 318 feet high. You have to go up 374 steps to reach the top. So the clock looks small from the pavement below the tower.
But its face is 23 feet wide. It would only just fit into some classrooms.
The minute-hand is 14 feet long. Its weight is equal to that of two bags of coal. The hour-hand is 9 feet long.
The clock bell is called Big Ben after Sir Benjamin Hall. He had the job to see that the bell was put up.
Sir Benjamin was a big man. One day he said in Parliament, "Shall we call the bell St. Stephen's?" St. Stephen's is the name of the tower.
But someone said for a joke, "Why not call it Big Ben?" Now the bell is known all over the world by that name.

Оффлайн Andy

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Re: Short texts for reading
« Ответ #223 : 27 июня 2014, 08:43:17 »
A man really loved a woman, but he was just too shy to propose to her. Now he was up in his years and neither of them had ever been married. Of course, they dated about once a week for the past six years, but he was so timid he just never got around to suggesting marriage much less living together.
But one day, he became determined to ask her the question. So he calls her on the phone, "June."
"Yes, this is June."
"Will you marry me?"
"Of course I will! Who's this?"
Отличная история  :) Она согласилась выйти замуж, не зная от кого было предложение.

 
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