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1
‘There’s been an
accident, and the road is blocked,’ said the policeman. ‘It
won’t be clear for some time. You’d better go round the
other way.’
2
‘Let’s light a fire and
cook our sausages over it,’ said the children.
3
‘I was thinking of going
by bus,’ said Paul.
‘I
shouldn’t go by bus (if I were you),’ said his aunt. ‘It’s
an awfully bad service.’
4
‘You’d better take
sleeping bags; you may have to sleep out,’ he warned us.
5
‘I’ve left some books on
your table,’ said Peter. ‘I think you’ll find
them
useful. You can keep them as long as you need them but I’d
like them back when you’ve
finished with them.’
‘Thank
you very much,’ I said. ‘I’ll take great care of them.’
6
‘If children can learn a
complicated language like Japanese by the time they are
five,’ said the Japanese professor, ‘they should be able
to learn the language of music. At the moment I’m teaching a
class of forty three-year-olds to play the
violin,’ he added.
7
‘The puppy can sleep on
our bed,’ said Tom.
‘I’d
rather he slept in a basket,’ said his wife. ‘That puppy
will soon be a very big
dog and then there won’t be room for all three of us.’
8
‘I’ll try by myself
first,’ said Ann, ‘and if I find that I can’t manage
I’ll ask Tom
to help me.’
9
‘Let’s camp by this
stream,’ said Mary. 'If we go on, it may be dark before we
find another good place.’
10
‘I wish we’d brought our
guitars,’ said the students. ‘Then we could have offered
to play in the restaurant and perhaps they’d have given us a
free meal.’
11
‘I booked a double room on
the first floor,’ said Mr Jones.
‘I’m
afraid we didn’t get your letter,’ said the receptionist,
‘and all the first and second
floor rooms have been taken. But we could give you two single
rooms on
the third floor.’
‘That
wouldn’t do me at all,’ said Mr Jones.
12
‘I’ve had gypsies on my
land for two years,’ said the farmer, ‘and they’ve given
nobody any trouble; but now the Council have asked me to tell
them to move
on. I don’t see why they should be asked to move and I’m
writing to my MP
about it.’
13
‘This letter is full of
mistakes!’ snorted Mr Jones.
‘I
did it in rather a hurry,’ admitted the typist. ‘I suppose
I’d better type it again.’
14
‘If you’d like to go on
any of these tours,’ said the receptionist, ‘the hotel will
arrange it.’
‘We’d
like to go on them all,’ said the American couple.
15
‘We’ll try to find your
passport,’ said the policeman, ‘but it’ll be very difficult
because a lot of suspicious characters sleep on the beach in
summer and
any one of them might have robbed you.’
16
‘Let’s go to the races!’
said Ann. ‘We might make our fortunes. I’ve been given
a very good tip for the 2.30.’
‘I’ve
had “good tips” from you before,’ said Paul. ‘And they
were disastrous.’
17
‘I don’t know why you
waste so much time polishing the car,’ said Mr Jones.
‘The
neighbours all polish their cars,’ said Mrs Jones, ‘and I
don’t want our Mini
to look like a poor relation. If you were any good you’d
help me instead of
standing there criticizing,’ she added.
18
‘I’m sorry for not
having a tie on,’ said Peter. ‘I didn’t know it was
going to be
a formal party.’
19
‘I’d have enjoyed the
journey more if the man next to me hadn’t snored all the
time,’ said Paul.
20
‘I was thinking of going
alone,’I said.
‘You’d
better take someone with you,’ said the old man. ‘It’s
safer with two. One can keep watch while the other sleeps.’
21
(Paul is speaking to Mary on
the phone, and Mary is repeating his jg words to Ann, who is
standing beside her.) a Paul: The plans have been changed.
We’re going tomorrow now, not on the next day. I want you
to meet me at Victoria tonight.
Mary: Paul says . .
.
22
‘If I want a hot bath I
have to put ten pence in the meter,’ said Tom ‘and even
then it’s not very hot.’
‘That’s
ridiculous,’ I said; ‘It’s high time you left that
place.’
23
‘I know the umbrella
belongs to you, but I thought it would be all right if I borrowed
it,’ said my nephew, ‘because you aren’t going out
tomorrow and I am.’
24
‘Let’s put your
tape-recorder under the table,’ said Tom, ‘and make a
recording of their conversation. It would be very useful to
know what they are planning.’
‘But
my recorder makes a distinct hum,’ I said. ‘They’d be
sure to hear it and look
under the table; and then they’d find the recorder and ask
all sorts of embarrassing
questions.’
25
‘Whenever my father was
unhappy,’ said the girl, ‘he would go out and buy
something, usually something large and useless. That’s why
our rooms are full of things we can’t use.’
‘I’m
sorry for your father,’ said Tom, looking round. ‘He must
have been a very unhappy man.’
26
‘You can leave your
motorcycle in my garage if you like,’ he said. ‘I’ll
keep an eye on it while you’re away.’
27
‘If you want a job you
should read advertisements and write letters and ring people
up,’ he said to Ann. ‘It’s no use sitting at home,
expecting employers to form a queue outside your door.’
28
‘This used to be a lovely
quiet street,’ he said, ‘but now it is impossible. When
summer comes you’ll have to keep the windows shut all the
time because of the noise.’
29
‘You must leave a note for
your mother,’ said Peter, ‘otherwise she’ll be terribly
worried when you’re not in at your usual time.’
30
‘A letter marked “Urgent”
has just arrived for Albert,’ said Mary, ‘and he’s on
holiday. I wonder if I should ring him up and tell him about
it or wait till he comes back.’
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