欠的課越來越多,今天讀兩課! If could be worse & A new house

 Lesson 24  If 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 $50. 'I found this outside this gentleman's room,' she said. 'Well,' I said to the manager, 'there is still some honesty in this world!'

    我走進飯店經理的辦公室，坐了下來。我剛剛丟了50英鎊，感到非常煩惱。“我把錢放在房間裏，”我說，“可現在沒有了。”經理深表同情，但卻無能為力。“現在大家都在丟錢，”他說。他開始抱怨起這個邪惡的世道來，卻被一陣敲門聲打斷了。一個姑娘走了進來，把一個信封放在了他桌上。它裏麵裝著50英鎊。“這是我在這位先生的房門外撿到的，”她說。“是啊，”我對那位經理說，“這世界上還是有誠實可言的！”  

 Lesson 23    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.

    昨天我收到了姐姐的一封信，她住在尼日利亞。在信中她說她明年將到英國來。如果她來了，她會感到非常驚奇了。我們現在住在鄉間的一棟漂亮的新住宅裏。這棟房子在我姐姐離開之前就已動工了，是在5個月以前竣工的。我在信中告訴她，她可以和我們住在一起。這棟房子裏有許多房間，還有一個漂亮的花園。它是一棟非常現代化的住宅，因此在有些人看來很古怪。它肯定是這個地區唯一的一棟現代化住宅。