学进去

Long long ago, there was a king. He liked to draw pictures and he thought his pictures were very good. No one liked his pictures but they were afraid of(害怕) him. So they said he drew very well.

One day he showed his pictures to an honest(诚实) man, and said, “How about my pictures?” The honest man said that they were bad. The king got angry and put him into prison(监狱).

After a month the king let the honest man be free. When the man came out of prison, the king asked him to have dinner with him. He showed him some new pictures and asked, “How about these new pictures?” The honest man said nothing and turned back to the soldiers(士兵), “Put me into prison.”

One day, a poor man was travelling with a horse. At lunchtime, he felt tired and hungry, so he tied (系) his horse to a tree to let it eat. Just at this time, a rich man came with his horse and he wanted to tie his horse to the same tree. “Don’t tie your horse here,” said the poor man. “My horse is very wild and it will kill your horse.” But the rich man didn’t listen.

A few minutes later, the poor man’s horse killed the rich man’s horse. The rich man was angry and took the poor man to judge. The judge asked the poor man, “Did your horse kill his horse?” The poor man didn’t say anything and the judge was worried. “He is dumb. What can I do?” “No. He can speak,” said the rich man. “He asked me not to tie my horse near his horse.” “If this is true, the poor man will not pay for your horse,” said the judge.

Once an old man was walking in a street with his horse. It was raining hard. The old man was cold because he was walking in the rain. He wanted to stay in a restaurant. It was a quarter past three in the afternoon. The old man got to a small restaurant. There were a lot of people in it. The old man couldn't come near the fire. He thought and thought, At last he said to the waiters, “Take some fish to my horse.” The waiter and the people were very surprised. The waiter said, “A horse doesn't eat fish.” The old man told the waiter, “This horse is very interesting. It can sing, dance and does all kinds of things. It can eat fish, too.” So the waiter brought the horse some fish.

All the people in the restaurant ran out to see the horse eat fish except the old man. Now the old man sat beside the fire. After a while the waiter came back and said. “Your horse didn't eat any fish.” The old man said, “All right, take the fish back and put it on the table. I'll eat it”.

A young officer was at a railway station. On his way home, he wanted to telephone his mother to tell her the time of his train, so that she could meet him at the station in her car. He looked in all his pockets, but found that he did not have the right money for the telephone, so he went outside and looked around for someone to help him.

At last an old soldier came by, and the young officer stopped him and said, “Have you got change for ten pence?”

“Wait a moment,” the old soldier answered, beginning to put his hand in his pocket, “I’ll see whether I can help you.”

“Don’t you know how to speak to an officer?” the young man said angrily. “Now let’s start again. Have you got change for ten pence? “No, sir.” The old soldier answered quickly.

A rich American went into a shop in London. He saw a watch. He liked it very much, but the owner of the shop (商店老板) asked five hundred (百) dollars for it. Suddenly a young man came into the shop, took the watch from the owner’s hand and ran out with it. When the owner ran out to the street, the young man already couldn’t be found among people.

The American left the shop and went on. At the next corner, he saw the young man with the watch in his hand. “Do you want to buy a fine watch, sir?” he said. “It’s only a hundred dollars.”

“The young man doesn’t know I saw him rob (抢劫) the watch,” he thought. The American bought the watch. His friend took a look at the watch and started laughing. He said, “You are a fool. This watch isn’t worth (值得的) even ten dollars. I’m sure the shop owner and the young man planned this together.