Lesson23??? A new house

I had a letter from my sister yesterday. She lives in Nigeria. In her letter, she said that she would come to England next year. If she comes, she will get a surprise. We are now living in a beautiful new house in the country. Work on it had begun before my sister left. The house was completed five months ago. In my letter, I told her that she could stay with us. The house has many large rooms and there is a lovely garden. It is a very modern house, so it looks strange to some people. It must be the only modern house in the district.

Lesson24??? It could be worse

I entered the hotel manager's office and sat down. I had just lost ￡50 and I felt very upset.' I left the money in my room,' I said, 'and it's not there now.' The manager was sympathetic, but he could do nothing.' Everyone's losing money these days,' he said. He started to complain about this wicked world but was interrupted by a knock at the door. A girl came in and put an envelope on his desk. It contained ￡5o. 'I found this outside this gentleman's room' she said. 'Well,' I said to the manager, 'there is still some honesty in this world!’

Lesson25??? Do the English speak English?

I arrived in London at last. The railway station was big, black and dark. I did not know the way to my hotel, so I asked a porter. I not only spoke English very carefully, but very clearly as well. The porter, however, could not understand me; I repeated my question several time sand at last he understood. He answered me, but he spoke neither slowly nor clearly. 'I am a foreigner,' I said. Then he spoke slowly, but I could not understand him. My teacher never spoke English like that! The porter and I looked at each other and smiled. Then he said something and I understood it. 'You'll soon learn English!' he said. I wonder. In England, each person speaks a different language. The English understand each other, but I don't understand them! Do they speak English?'

Lesson26??? 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 any one 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!

Nigeria /na????ri?/

complete /k?m?plit/

modern /?mɑd?rn/

district /?d?str?kt/ 街區(qū)

upset /?p?s?t/ 沮喪的咳秉；難過(guò)簇爆；

sympathetic /?s?mp??θ?t?k/ adj. 同情的节榜；有同情心的；表示同情的

wicked/?w?k?d/ adj.?邪惡的，惡毒的；缺德的

contain/k?n?te?n/ 包含；含有壤玫；容納；控制哼凯，克制欲间，抑制(感情)

honesty/?ɑn?sti/

porter /?p?rt?r/ 搬運(yùn)工

critic/?kr?t?k/ 批評(píng)家；評(píng)論家断部；評(píng)論員

pretend? /pri?t?nd/ 假裝,佯裝

pattern/?p?t?rn/ 圖案猎贴；模式；方式蝴光；范例她渴；典范；榜樣

material /m??t?ri?l/ 布料材料蔑祟。

appreciate /??pri?i?e?t/? 欣賞趁耗；賞識(shí)；重視疆虚；感激苛败；感謝满葛；歡迎；理解罢屈；

critically /?kr?t?k?li/ adv. 批評(píng)地嘀韧，批判地

昨晚身體抱恙，缺席了一天的學(xué)習(xí)儡遮，我檢討乳蛾。所以暗赶，今天把昨天的作業(yè)都補(bǔ)了鄙币。