An Old Man And His Wife
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An Old Man And His Wife
By Alexander Derbaremdiker , Polytechnic College No. 8, Moscow
Long-long ago there lived an old man with his wife, and their married son.
They lived poorly. Once an old man told his son:
– Let’s go behind the Great Wall and start trading, otherwise we can’t make both
ends meet.
– That’s a good idea, – his son said.
After they’d made a decision, they told it to the old woman and her daughter-in-law.
They were both glad, and soon the old man and his son gathered some money and went behind
the Great Wall.
They stayed in the town called Guchine and started trading. Their business was really
good, and the profit was big enough.
Once they decided to send a letter to their relatives, but neither could write and so they
asked one man to do it. But he didn’t know the hieroglyphs well and instead of writing,
“The trade is good, we hired one man”, he wrote, “The trade is good, one man
died”.
They gave the letter to one traveler who was going to their native town and asked him,
“When you go back, please, bring us an answer”.
The traveler came to their relatives, gave them this letter and said, “Your relatives
asked you to write an answer. I’m going back to Guchine in a couple of days, and I’ll
come to you to get your answer”.
When the traveler was returning, he came for an answer, but he saw a funeral sign on the
gate and decided not to bother them.
On arriving to Guchine, he told the old man and his son that somebody had died. So they
were sad and tried to guess who had died. Then they decided to return back home. The next
day they left the town. Soon they reached the junction. One road led to the uncle (who was
his mother’s brother) and the other led to their own house.
The old man told his son, “Will you, please, go to your uncle and find out who had
died”. So the son went to his uncle and the old man went to the village.
The old man entered the yard and saw his daughter-in-law, but didn’t see his wife. The
daughter-in-law saw her father-in-law, but didn’t see her husband. An old man thought
that his wife had died, and his daughter-in-law thought that her husband had died. But
they didn’t say a word, and just started crying.
The son went to his uncle and saw his mother. The mother thought that her husband had died
and the son thought that his wife had died. They were crying loudly for a long time.
Soon his uncle said, “You can’t help your grief with tears. Let’s go home, and
I’ll go with you”.
When they arrived home they heard someone crying there. When they entered the hall, they
saw that everyone was alive. The uncle was surprised and asked: ”Who are you
mourning?” So they began to find out why that strange thing had happened and realized
that one hieroglyph had been mixed up in the letter.
Well, you see what might happen if a person who doesn’t know how to write, starts
writing a letter.
Exercise 1. Give the English equivalents:
давайте уйдём за Великую стену и
займёмся торговлей; доход был немалый; наняли
одного человека; они отдали письмо путнику; я
собираюсь уезжать в Гучыне и зайду за ответом; он
увидел на воротах траурный знак; слезами горю не
поможешь; оплакивать; в письме был перепутан
всего один иероглиф.
1) Where did the old man and his son want to go?
2) What did they tell their relatives?
3) Their relatives liked the idea of going behind the Great Wall, didn’t they?
4) What was their trade like?
5) What did the man who was writing the letter mix up?
6) Who gave an answer to the relatives?
7) Why did the traveler not enter their house when he came for the answer?
8) Who actually died?
9) Where did the son and his father go after they’d known about their relatives?
10) Why did the son think his wife had died?
Exercise 3. Focus on Grammar: The Past Perfect Tense.
1) The old man thought that his wife had died ,
2) I found out we had already been to this museum.
We use the Past Perfect Tense to show that an action happened in the past
before another action.
Open the brackets putting the verbs in the Past Simple or the Past
Perfect tenses:
1) The son (think) his wife (die).
2) When I (arrive) my mother (cook) already dinner.
3) George (say) he (be) never to Paris.
4) We (write) a dictation before our teacher (read) a new story.
5) My friend (see) a horse before we (come) to the restaurant.
6) Rachel (say) she (write) already an e-mail letter to her uncle.
7) I (go) to the supermarket after I (do) my homework.
8) Daniel (paint) a picture after he (buy) water-colors.
9) My sister (ask) me if I (be) to the clothes shop.
10) Our neighbor (tell) us he (hear) a strange noise upstairs.
Exercise 4. Discuss these questions:
1) Why is it necessary not to mix up any hieroglyphs or words?
2) What is the moral of the story?
Exercise 5. Retell the text as if you were the uncle.
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By Alexander Derbaremdiker | Four mistakes | Газета «Английский язык»...
An old retired man goes to his wife one day... - анекдот на английском
Русские сказки для изучения английского языка: 8+ сказок
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An old retired man goes to his wife one day, and says to her, "I don't know how to tell you this dear, but the stock market crashed, and I'm afraid we're broke."
The wife says, "No, we're not. Let's go for a drive into town."
Husband replies, "Our savings are all gone and you want is to go for a drive? Oh well, whatever. I guess you're crazier than me." So off they go into town.
When they get there the wife points and says, "See that office building? We own that."
Husband thinks his wife is nuts so he mumbles something unintelligible and drives to the next area of the city, which just happens to be the richest part of town.
Wife says again pointing, "See those five houses? We own those."
Husband is now sure his wife is certifiably crazy so he says, "What makes you think we own all this property?"
Wife replies, "Remember when we first got married and for jokes you would give me $5.00 every time we had sex? Well, I kept the money and invested it and 20 years later this is what has become of it all. Not bad, eh?"
Husband says, "Dammit woman, if I'd known you were this good with money I'd have probably given you all my business."
An old retired man goes to his wife one day... - анекдот на английском
