New+Concept+English+Book+II (六)
Lesson 26 | The best art critics
I am an art student and I paint a lot of pictures. Many people pretend that they
understand modern art. They always tell you what a picture is 'about'. Of course, many
pictures are not 'about' anything. They are just pretty patterns. We like them in the same
way that we like pretty curtain material. I think that young children often appreciate
modern pictures better than anyone else. They notice more. My sister is only seven, but
she always tells me whether my pictures are good or not. She came into my room
yesterday.
'What are you doing?' she asked.
'I'm hanging this picture on the wall,' I answered. 'It's a new one. Do you like it?'
She looked at it critically for a moment. 'It's all right,' she said, 'but isn't it upside
down?'
I looked at it again. She was right! It was!
Lesson 27 | A wet night
Late in the afternoon, the boys put up their tent in the middle of a field. As soon as this
was done, they cooked a meal over an open fire. They were all hungry and the food
smelled good. After a wonderful meal, they told stories and sang songs by the campfire.
But some time later it began to rain. The boys felt tired so they put out the fire and crept
into their tent. Their sleeping bags were warm and comfortable, so they all slept soundly.
In the middle of the night, two boys woke up and began shouting. The tent was full of
water! They all leapt out of their sleeping bags and hurried outside. It was raining heavily
and they found that a stream had formed in the field. The stream wound its way across
the field and then flowed right under their tent!
Lesson 28 | No parking
Jasper White is one of those rare people who believe in ancient myths. He has just
bought a new house in the city, but ever since he moved in, he has had trouble with cars
and their owners. When he returns home at night, he always finds that someone has
parked a car outside his gate. Because of this, he has not been able to get his own car into
his garage even once. Jasper has put up 'No Parking' signs outside his gate, but these have
not had any effect. Now he has put an ugly stone head over the gate. It is one of the
ugliest faces I have ever seen. I asked him what it was and he told me that it was Medusa,
the Gorgon. Jasper hopes that she will turn cars and their owners to stone. But none of
them has been turned to stone yet!
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090505
New Concept English, Book II
Lesson 29 | Taxi!
Captain Ben Fawcett has bought an unusual taxi and has begun a new service. The
'taxi' is a small Swiss aeroplane called a 'Pilatus Porter'. This wonderful plane can carry
seven passengers. The most surprising thing about it, however, is that it can land
anywhere: on snow, water, or even on a ploughed field. Captain Fawcett's first passenger
was a doctor who flew from Birmingham to a lonely village in the Welsh mountains.
Since then, Captain Fawcett has flown passengers to many unusual places. Once he
landed on the roof of a block of flats and on another occasion, he landed in a deserted car
park. Captain Fawcett has just refused a strange request from a businessman. The man
wanted to fly to Rockall, a lonely island in the Atlantic Ocean, but Captain Fawcett did
not take him because the trip was too dangerous.
Lesson 30 | Football or polo?
The Wayle is a small river that cuts across the park near my home. I like sitting by the
Wayle on fine afternoons. It was warm last Sunday, so I went and sat on the river bank as
usual. Some children were playing games on the bank and there were some people rowing
on the river. Suddenly, one of the children kicked a ball very hard and it went towards a
passing boat. Some people on the bank called out to the man in the boat, but he did not
hear them. The ball struck him so hard that he nearly fell into the water. I turned to look
at the children, but there weren't any in sight: they had all run away! The man laughed
when he realized what had happened. He called out to the children and threw the ball
back to the bank.