Passage G1d

 11

Shop Assistant: Good afternoon, what can I do for you?

Abraham: Could you do me a favour, please, and change this note for me?

Shop Assistant: Well, I don't know ...

Abraham: I've got to phone someone, and I need some small change.

Shop Assistant: Hm, and I thought you wanted to buy something in my shop.

Abraham: Sorry, but I don't need anything except some change.

Shop Assistant: All right, I' ll see what I can do for you.

Abraham: That's very kind of you.

Shop Assistant: Well, let's see. Oh, oh, I'm rather short of change myself. But there's a bank across the road.

Abraham: Well, thanks, anyway. I'll go to the bank.

Shop Assistant: Bye-bye ... and come back sometime.

Abraham: Yes, I certainly will. Bye-bye.

12

NOISE

Mr and Mrs Kay have gone to live in the country after living for twenty years in a noisy London suburb. They are talking about the move after breakfast on Saturday morning.

Mr Kay: I think I was very lucky to get that job. Now we are able to live in a little village.

Mrs Kay: Ah, but it won't be a little village forever. This is a developing area. There'll be a lot more people here in about five years' time.

Mr Kay: Yes, but there won't be any factories. Just two or three office buildings, and they'll be hidden behind that woodland over there.

Mrs Kay: How did you sleep last night, by the way?

Mr Kay: Like a log! Never slept better. I'd forgotten how refreshing the country air could be. And it was so quiet!

Mrs Kay: I didn't sleep too well, actually. I couldn't get used to the silence. The only noise I heard last night was an owl screeching at about two o'clock in the morning.

Mr Kay: Well, the silence was perfect for me.

13

MAKING A BOAT

One day Crusoe decided to go to the lifeboat. He wanted to try to float it, so that he could leave the island. But the boat was too heavy to move. So he left it lying in the sand.

But he did not give up hope. He thought, "I will make a boat."

He searched and found a tree with a thick trunk. He set to work chopping it down.

Crusoe worked on the boat for many weeks and at last the boat was finished. He was very proud of it.

His next work was to roll the boat down to sea. But it would not move. It was too heavy for him.

Then he thought to himself, “If my boat will not go to the sea, I will have to bring the sea to my boat.”

So he began to dig a channel down to the sea. But it was much too far and he could not dig the channel deep enough.

He realized that he had made his boat much too large and too heavy. All his work was wasted. He felt unhappy.

But he still wanted to get away from the island. He decided to make another boat, this time a smaller one.

He chose a tree nearer to the sea, and chopped it down. Then he set to work for the second time. After many weeks the boat was finished and ready to go into the water.

He dug a short channel six feet wide and four feet deep, from the sea to his boat. When the tide came in he floated it down his channel.