Short texts for reading

[Sergevna]

The Cat Who Loved Broccoli
cat

Luca and Naya loved cats. They had six of them.

One day Luca cooked a big pot of broccoli. It was way too much for the two of them. There was a lot left over.

Naya set a plate of broccoli on the floor hoping that the cats would eat it.

"There's no way the cats are going to eat that!" said Luca. "They only like fish, chicken, and their special treat of peanut butter on toast."

Five cats walked by the broccoli and turned up their noses. The sixth cat, Jack, stopped and tried a piece. Then another, and another. He loved it and kept on eating.

When the other cats saw Jack eating the broccoli, they came back to check it out. One by one, they all started eating the broccoli they passed up earlier.

All it took was for Jack to like it, and the others thought they were missing out on something.

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Charlie and the Frog

Charlie was walking home from school one day and saw a frog on the road. The frog hopped over to Charlie and started to speak.

"If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess," said the frog.

Charlie picked up the frog and put it in his pocket.

"Please kiss me," said the frog. "I'll love you forever!"

Charlie just looked at the frog and smiled.

The frog yelled, "If you kiss me and turn me into a princess, I'll clean your room, cook for you, do your homework, and love you forever!"

Charlie smiled at the frog, and put it back into his pocket.

"What is wrong with you?" shouted the frog. "I've told you that I'm a beautiful princess and will love you forever. Why won't you kiss me?"

"I'm just a 10 year old school boy," said Charlie. "I don't need a princess, but a talking frog is really cool!"

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A Harvest of Love
Long ago, Arild Ugerup, the son of a Danish nobleman, lived in Sweden. When King Erik of Sweden was crowned, Arild was a guest at the palace.

A war broke out between Denmark and Sweden and Arild was forced to go into the Danish navy. He was captured in battle and sent to prison in Sweden.

Arild had a childhood sweetheart named Thale. He promised Thale that they would marry when he returned from the war. Arild was afraid he would never get out of jail and that he would lose Thale forever. So he wrote King Erik a letter:
"I am in your prison now, but once I was your friend. Please grant me one wish. Let me go home to marry the girl I love. You have my word that I will return to prison as soon as I marry, plant one crop, and harvest it."

The King agreed. Arild went home and married Thale. He thought a lot about what he would plant in the spring.

In late fall, a royal messenger arrived. "The harvest is past," he said. "King Erik awaits your return."
"But my crop is not harvested," said Arild. "In fact, it hasn't even sprouted."
"What did you plant?" asked the messenger.
"Pine trees!" answered Arild.

When the King heard what Arild had done, he said, "You are clever and should not be in prison." Arild stayed at home with Thale and lived happily ever after. A beautiful pine forest stands there as a symbol of their love.

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Valentine's Day
There are many legends about St. Valentine. It is hard to know which ones are true.

One legend is that Valentine was a priest who lived in ancient Rome. The Emperor at that time, Claudius, decided that more men would join his army if they weren't married. So he passed a law to prevent young men from getting married.

The priest Valentine thought that the law was very unfair. So he secretly married young couples. When the Emperor found out, he had Valentine sent to jail and put to death.

Many young people visited Valentine in jail. They threw flowers and notes up to his window telling him that they believed in love. One of his frequent visitors was the prison guard's daughter. It is said that Valentine fell in love with her. Before he was sent to his death on February 14, he wrote the daughter a letter and signed it, 'Love from your Valentine' - words still used on cards today.

Valentine died on February 14 and was made a saint two hundred years later.

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The Seaside Travelers

SOME TRAVELERS, journeying along the seashore, climbed to the summit of a tall cliff, and looking over the sea, saw in the distance what they thought was a large ship. They waited in the hope of seeing it enter the harbor, but as the object on which they looked was driven nearer to shore by the wind, they found that it could at the most be a small boat, and not a ship. When however it reached the beach, they discovered that it was only a large faggot of sticks, and one of them said to his companions, "We have waited for no purpose, for after all there is nothing to see but a load of wood."

Our mere anticipations of life outrun its realities.

[Sergevna]

The Ass and His Shadow

A TRAVELER hired an Ass to convey him to a distant place. The day being intensely hot, and the sun shining in its strength, the Traveler stopped to rest, and sought shelter from the heat under the Shadow of the Ass. As this afforded only protection for one, and as the Traveler and the owner of the Ass both claimed it, a violent dispute arose between them as to which of them had the right to the Shadow. The owner maintained that he had let the Ass only, and not his Shadow. The Traveler asserted that he had, with the hire of the Ass, hired his Shadow also. The quarrel proceeded from words to blows, and while the men fought, the Ass galloped off.

In quarreling about the shadow we often lose the substance.

[Sergevna]

Aesop's Fables
The Ass and His Masters

AN ASS, belonging to an herb-seller who gave him too little food and too much work made a petition to Jupiter to be released from his present service and provided with another master. Jupiter, after warning him that he would repent his request, caused him to be sold to a tile-maker. Shortly afterwards, finding that he had heavier loads to carry and harder work in the brick-field, he petitioned for another change of master. Jupiter, telling him that it would be the last time that he could grant his request, ordained that he be sold to a tanner. The Ass found that he had fallen into worse hands, and noting his master's occupation, said, groaning: "It would have been better for me to have been either starved by the one, or to have been overworked by the other of my former masters, than to have been bought by my present owner, who will even after I am dead tan my hide, and make me useful to him."

[Sergevna]

Aesop's Fables

The Father and His Sons

A FATHER had a family of sons who were perpetually quarreling among themselves. When he failed to heal their disputes by his exhortations, he determined to give them a practical illustration of the evils of disunion; and for this purpose he one day told them to bring him a bundle of sticks. When they had done so, he placed the faggot into the hands of each of them in succession, and ordered them to break it in pieces. They tried with all their strength, and were not able to do it. He next opened the faggot, took the sticks separately, one by one, and again put them into his sons' hands, upon which they broke them easily. He then addressed them in these words: "My sons, if you are of one mind, and unite to assist each other, you will be as this faggot, uninjured by all the attempts of your enemies; but if you are divided among yourselves, you will be broken as easily as these sticks."

[Sergevna]

Read this small story; Hope that makes a BIG change in YOU

The Professor began his class by holding up a glass with some water in it. He held it up for all to see & asked the students “How much do you think this glass weighs?”

’50gms!’….. ’100gms!’ …..’125 gms’ …the students answered.

“I really don’t know unless I weigh it,” said the professor, “but, my question is:
What would happen if I held it up like this for a few minutes?”…. .
‘Nothing’ …..the students said.
.
‘Ok what would happen if I held it up like this for an hour?’ the professor asked.
‘Your arm would begin to ache’ said one of the student

“You’re right, now what would happen if I held it for a day?”
“Your arm could go numb; you might have severe muscle stress & paralysis & have to go to hospital for sure!”
….. Ventured another student & all the students laughed

“Very good.
But during all this, did the weight of the glass change?” Asked the professor.
‘No’…. Was the answer.
“Then what caused the arm ache & the muscle stress?”

The students were puzzled.
“What should I do now to come out of pain?” asked professor again.
“Put the glass down!” said one of the students

“Exactly!” said the professor.
Life’s problems are something like this.
.
Hold it for a few minutes in your head & they seem OK.
Think of them for a long time & they begin to ache.

Hold it even longer & they begin to paralyze you. You will not be able to do anything.

It’s important to think of the challenges or problems in your life, But EVEN MORE IMPORTANT is to ‘PUT THEM DOWN’ at the end of every day before you go to sleep…

That way, you are not stressed, you wake up every day fresh &strong & can handle any issue, any challenge that comes your way!

Moral
So, when you start your day today, Remember friend to ‘PUT THE GLASS DOWN TODAY! ‘

[Sergevna]

THE BEST DRIVER
Can you guess the last line of this story?
One of the largest construction companies in the States wanted a truck
driver and advertised for one in the national newspapers. A week later ten candidates
applied for the job. They all brought excellent references from their
former employers and were invited to the first interview. Not all the applicants
were successful and after the first interview there were only three candidates on
the final shortlist.
The Personnel Manager asked the first man:
“How near can you drive to the edge of a precipice without going over?”
The driver said, “Within an inch.”
“Very well,” said the manager, “you can go now and I’ll let you know about
the chances to get the job.” 6
The second man answering the same question said, “I can drive within half
an inch of the edge, in fact I have done it more than once.”
When the third man came, the manager said: “Well, my man, and how near
can you drive to the edge of a precipice without going over?”
“Indeed, sir, I have never tried and I don’t want to.”
“Ah”, said the manager, “……..”.

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CALL ME MOTHER
A friend of mine and her new husband were enjoying a romantic evening at
a restaurant. They were still in love and sat looking into each other’s eyes. But
soon they noticed an elderly lady dining alone at the opposite table. She was
gazing at them with love and admiration. They smiled back politely and the old
dear came up to their table. “I’m sorry to trouble you”, she began sadly. “I have
never seen such a beautiful couple in my life. I’ve been watching you all the
evening. You know, my dear, your wife looks so much like my daughter. She
was killed last year and I’ve been so miserable ever since. I miss her terribly. I
wonder if you will be able to do me a great favour?” The couple said that they
would do so. “It will give me so much joy if just as I leave you will say “Goodbye,
Mum!” Certainly they couldn’t refuse her this. A few minutes later the old
lady stood up to leave and the two diners did as she had asked. Soon their bill
was brought.
They checked and rechecked it and finally made the manager explain why it
was so massive.
“Your bill includes the old lady’s meal”, was the answer. “She expected her
daughter to pay for her. Isn’t that natural?”

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THE DOG
Linda Robinson was very thirsty so she went into a café. There was an old
woman in the café. She was sitting at a table near the door. At her feet, under
the table, there was a small dog. Linda bought a large glass of lemonade and
some biscuits. She sat down at the table next to the old woman. The old woman
sat quietly. She looked lonely. Linda decided to talk to the old woman. She
said, “It is very hot today”.
“Yes, but it is nice and cool inside the café”, replied the old woman.
Linda looked at the little dog and she asked, “Does your dog like people?”
“Oh, he is very friendly.”
Linda wanted to give the dog one of her biscuits so she asked, “Does your
dog like biscuits?”
“They are his favourite food”, said the old woman.
Linda was afraid of dogs so she said, “Does your dog bite?”
The old woman laughed and said, “No. My dog is very tame. He is afraid of
cats.”
Linda took a biscuit from her plate and she put it near the dog’s mouth.
However, the dog didn’t bite the biscuit, it bit Linda’s hand. Linda jumped out
of the chair and screamed in pain. In an angry voice, she shouted at the old
woman, “You said that your dog didn’t bite”.
The old woman looked at Linda and at the dog. Then she said, “I didn`t tell you that it was my dog!"

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The Beard by G. Clark

I was going by train to London. I didn't have the trouble to take anything to eat with me and soon was very hungry. I decided to go to the dining-car to have a meal.

As I was about to seat myself, I saw that the gentleman I was to face wore a large beard. He was a young man. His beard was full, loose and very black. I glanced at him uneasily and noted that he was a big pleasant fellow with dark laughing eyes.

Indeed I could feel his eyes on me as I f umbled with the knives and forks. It was hard to pull myself together. It is not easy to face a beard. But when I could escape no longer, I raised my eyes and found the young man's on my face.

"Good evening," I said cheerily, "Good evening," he replied pleasantly, inserting a big buttered roll within the bush of his beard. Not even a crumb fell off. He ordered soup. It was a difficult soup for even the most barefaced of men to eat, but not a drop did he waste on his whiskers'. He kept his eyes on me in between bites. But I knew he knew that I was watching his every bite with acute fascination.

"I'm impressed," I said, "with your beard."

"I suspected as much," smiled the young man.

"Is it a wartime device?" I inquired.

"No," said he; "I'm too young to have been in the war. I grew this beard two years ago."

"It's magnificent," I informed him.

"Thank you," he replied. "As a matter of fact this beard is an experiment in psychology. I suffered horribly from shyness. I was so shy it amounted to a phobia. At university I took up psychology and began reading books on psychology'. And one day I came across a chapter on human defence mechanisms, explaining how so many of us resort to all kinds of tricks to escape from the world, or from conditions in the world which we f ind hatef ul. Well, I j ust turned a thing around. I decided to make other people shy of me. So I grew this beard.

The effect was astonishing. I found people, even tough, hard-boiled people, were shy of looking in the face. They were panicked by my whiskers. It made them uneasy. And my shyness vanished completely."

He pulled his fine black whiskers affectionately and said: "Psychology is a great thing. Unfortunately people don't know about it. Psychology should help people discover such most helpful tricks. Life is too short to be wasted in desperately striving to be normal."

"Tell me," I said finally. "How did you master eating the way you have? You never got a crumb or a drop on your beard, all through dinner."

"Nothing to it, sir," said he. "When you have a beard, you keep your eyes on those of your dinner partner. And whenever you note his eyes fixed in horror on your chin, you wipe it off."

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Letters in the Mail by E. Caldwell

Almost everybody likes to receive letters. And perhaps nobody in Stillwater liked to get letters more than Ray Buffin. But unfortunately Ray received fewer letters in his box at the post-office than anybody else.

Guy Hodge and Ralph Barnhill were two young men in town who liked to play jokes on people. But they never meant anything bad. One afternoon they decided to play a joke on Ray Buffin. Their plan was to ask a girl in town to send Ray a love letter withoutsigning it, and then tell everybody in the post-office to watch Ray read the letter; then somebody was to ask Ray if he had received a love letter from a girl. After that somebody was to snatch the letter out of his hand and read it aloud.

They bought blue writing paper and went round the corner to the office of the telephone company where Grace Brooks worked as a night telephone operator. Grace was pretty though not very young. She had begun working for the company many years ago, after she had finished school. She had remained unmarried all those years, and because she worked at night and slept in the daytime it was very difficult for her to find a husband.

At first, after Guy and Ralf had explained to her what they wanted to do and had asked her to write the letter to Ray, Grace refused to do it.

"Now, be a good girl, Grace, do us a favour and writethe letter." Suddenly she turned away. She didn'twant the young men to see her crying. She remembered the time she had got acquainted with Ray. Ray wanted to marry her. But she had just finished school then and had started to work for the telephone company; she was very young then and did not want to marry anybody. Time passed. During all those years she had seen him a few times but only a polite word had passed between them, and each time he looked sadder and sadder.

Finally she agreed to write the letter for Guy and Ralph and said that she would send it in the morning.

After they left the telephone office Grace thought about Ray and cried. Late at night she wrote the letter.

The next day Guy and Ralph were in the post-of-fice at 4 o'clock. By that time there was a large crowd in the post-office. When Ray came in and saw a letter in his box he looked at it in surprise. He couldn't believe his eyes. He opened the box, took out the blue envelope and went to the corner of the room to read it. When he finished he behaved like mad. He smiled happily and ran out of the room before Guy and Ralph had time to say anything to stop him. Ray hurried round the corner to the telephone office.

When Guy and Ralph ran into the room where Grace worked they saw Ray Buffin standing near the girl with the widest and happiest smile they had ever seen on his face. It was clear they had not spoken a word yet. They just stood in silence, too happy to worry about Guy and Ralph watching them.

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A Foul Play by R. Ruark

In 1943 Lieutenant Alexander Barr was ordered into the Armed Guard aboard the merchant ship, like many other civillian officers with no real mechanical skills — teachers, writers, lawyers.

His men were the rag-tag' of merchant service and knew very little of it. Lieutenant Alec Barr had his crew well in hand except one particularly unpleasant character, a youngster called Zabinski. Every ship has its problem child, and Zabinski was Alec's cross. If anybody was drunk and in trouble ashore, it was Zabinski. If anybody was smoking on watch, or asleep on watch, it always was Zabinski. Discipline on board was hard to keep and Zabinski made it worse.

Alec called the boy to his cabin. "I've tried to reason with you'," he said. "I've punished you with everything from confinement to ship' to extra duty. I've come to the conclusion that the only thing you may understand is force. I've got some boxing gloves. Navy Regulations say they should be used for recreation.

We are going to have some.

"That's all right", Zabinski said smiling.

Alec announced the exhibition of boxing skill. A lot of people gathered on deck to watch the match.

It didn't take Lieutenant Barr long to discover that he was in the ring with a semiprofessional. They were fighting two-minute rounds. But from the first five seconds of the first round Alec knew that Zabinski could knock him out with a single punch if he wanted to. But Zabinski didn't want to, he was toying with his commander, and the snickers' grew into laughter.

In the third round Alec held up a glove. "Time out!", he said. "I'm going to my cabin, I'll soon be back". He turned and ran up to his cabin. In the cabin there was a safe. Alec's duty was to pay wages to his personnel. Alec Barr opened the safe and took out a paper-wrapped roll of ten-cent coins. He put this roll of silver coins into his glove and returned on deck.

"Let's go!" he said and touched gloves with Zabinski. It had pleased Zabinski before to allow the officer to knock him from time to time because it gave him a chance for a short and painful punch. But now the silver-weighted glove crashed into the boy's chin and Zabinski was out. He was lying on the floor motionless.

Alec Barr looked briefly at the boy. "Somebody throw some water on him," he said coldly to the seamen. And he went up to his room to clean his cuts' and put the roll of coins back to the safe. After that Lieutenant Alexander Barr had no more personnel trouble aboard ship.