妙语短篇a1第十四课

14.No Elephants

Jill Jones got a new job in a different

part of the city. She had to go to work

every day by train.

There was only one other person in the

train with her. This was a well-dressed

man reading a newspaper.

Suddenly, about halfway through the

journey, the man began tearing his

newspaper into hundreds of small

pieces. Then he picked them up,

opened

the window and threw them all out.

This done, he sat down, closed his eyes, and slept for the rest of the journey. The next day, Jill Jones got into the same train. The same well-dressed man was there, reading a newspaper.

As before, about halfway through the journey, the man began tearing his newspaper into hundreds of small pieces. Then he picked the pieces up, opened the window and threw them all out.

This done, he sat down, closed his eyes, and slept for the rest of the journey. This happened every day for a week.

At last, on Friday, Jill Jones spoke to the man.

"Excuse me, sir," she said, "I don't want to be rude, but I must ask you a question. When we are halfway through our journey, you tear your newspaper into hundreds of pieces and then throw them all out of the window. Please tell me, sir. Why do you do this?"

The well-dressed man smiled. "There's a simple reason," he said. "I like to sleep for part of the journey, but I cannot sleep if the train is full of elephants. So I throw the pieces of paper out to the elephants. It stops them from coming into the train."

"But there aren't any elephants in the train," Jill Jones said. "I know," the man said. "It works well, doesn't it?"

New Words and Expressions

different不同的

train 火车

well-dressed穿着入时的

halfway半路的

tear撕碎

rude无理的

simple简单的

reason 理由

EXERCISE I

1. Choose the best answer a, b, c or d, to these questions about the story. .在a，b，c，d中选出一个最适合本故事的答案。

A. Who was in the train with Jill Jones?

(a) an old woman

(b) three children

(c) a well-dressed man

(d) a well-dressed woman

B. What did the other person in the train do?

(a) went to sleep

(b) tore a newspaper into small pieces

(c) talked to Jill Jones

(d) read a newspap

C. Why did the person in the train do this?

(a) He was playing a game.

(b) He wanted to get rid of elephants.

(c) He was angry.

(d) He couldn't sleep.

D. What is the point of this story?

(a) The man was crazy.

(b) There are no elephants in trains.

(c) People shouldn't tear up newspapers.

(d) The man was stopping the elephants from coming in.

2. Circle the following things you would probably find in a train.

你在火车上可以看到下列哪些东西，请把它们圈出来。

elephants windows seats people suitcases frogs tickets sandwiches newspapers trucks department stores

3. Fill in the missing letters to make words from the story.

在下列“_”处填上适当的字母，使之组成为故事中的单词。

(a) n______s____________r

(b) j--------------n---------

(c) r---------d_^---------

(d) c______s___d

(e) q---------st--------------er

4. Complete the sentences (a) to (e) with phrases from (f) to (j).

用（e）至（h）完成（a）至（d）的不完整句子。

(a) Jill Jones saw one other person (f) there were no elephants

in the train.