Read the story and answer the questions after it.

Short Stories to Read

Text 1

TRUTH IS ALWAYS STRANGE, SRANGER THAN FICTION!

Read the story and answer the questions after it.

I would like to tell you a story about my uncle Theo. He’s my oldest uncle, a tall, thin, grey-haired man whose thoughts were always on learning and nothing else. He is quiet and gentle and absent-minded and with about as much sense as a child where money is concerned.

Well, he applied for a post in Camford University. It was a very good post and there were hundreds of candidates who applied for it, and about fifteen, including Theo, were asked to go to be interviewed.

Now Camford is a very small town; there is only one hotel in it, and this was so full that they had to put many of the applicants two in one room. Theo was one of them - he shared the room with a man who was a self-confident fellow, called Adams, about twenty years younger than Theo, with a loud voice, and a laugh that you could hear all over the hotel. But he was a clever fellow all the same and had a good post in Iscariot College, Narkover.

The Dean and the committee interviewed all the candidates and as a result of the first interview the number was reduced to two, Uncle Theo and Adams. The committee couldn’t decide which on e the two to take, so they decided to make their final choice after each candidate had given a public lecture in a college lecture hall. The subject they had to speak on was “The Civilization of the Ancient Greeks”, and the lecture had to be given in three day’s time.

For three days Uncle Theo never left his room. He worked day and night at that lecture, writing it out and memorizing it, almost without eating or sleeping. Adams didn’t seem to do any preparation at all. You could near his voice and his laughter at the bar where he had a crowd of people round him. He came to his room late at night, asked Uncle Theo how he was getting on with his lecture, and then told him how he had spent the evening playing billiards, or at the theatre or music-hall. He ate like a horse and slept like a log, and Uncle Theo sat up working at his lecture.

Finally, the day of the lecture arrived. They all went into the lecture-hall and Theo and Adams took their seats on the platform. And then, Theo discovered, to his horror, that the typewritten copy of his speech had disappeared! The Dean said he would call on the candidates in alphabetical order, Adams first: and with despair in his heart, Theo watched Adams calmly take the stolen speech out of his pocket and read it. When Adams finished there was a great burst of applause. Adams bowed and sat down.

Now it was Theo’s turn. But what could he do? He had put everything he knew into that lecture. His mind was too much upset to put the same thoughts in another way. With a burning face he could only repeat, word for word, in a low dull voice the lecture that Adams had spoken so eloquently. There was hardly any applause when he sat down.

The Dean and the committee went out to decide who the successful candidate was, but everyone was sure what their decision would be. Adams leaned across to Theo and patted him on the back and said smilingly, ‘Hard luck, old fellow, but after all, only one of us could win’.

Then the Dean and the committee came back. ‘

Gentlemen,’ the Dean said, ‘the candidate we have chosen is Mr. Theo Hobdell.’ Uncle Theo had won! The audience was completely taken by surprise, and the Dean continued, ‘I think I ought to tell you how we arrived at that decision. We were all filled with admiration at the learning and eloquence of Mr. Adams. But you remember, Mr. Adams read his lecture to us. When Mr. Hobdell’s turn came, he repeated that speech word by word from memory, though of course he couldn’t have seen a line of it before. Now a fine memory is absolutely necessary for this post, and what a memory Mr. Hobdell must have! That is why we decided that Mr. Hobdell was exactly the man we wanted!

As they walked out of the room, the Dean came up to Uncle Theo, who was so confused but so happy that he hardly knew whether he was standing on his head or his heels, and as he shook Uncle Theo’s hand he said, “Congratulations, Mr. Hobdell! But my dear fellow, when you are on our staff, you must be more careful and not leave valuable papers lying about!”

· Who are the main characters of the story? What have you learned about them?

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· Where does the story take place?

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· How did the story start?

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· Why couldn’t the committee decide on the candidate after the first interview? What did they suggest so that they could make a decision?

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· How did the candidates prepare for the lecture?

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· What happened on the day of the lecture?

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· What was Theo’s reaction to the situation? What did he do?

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· Who got the post in the end?

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2. Your answers to the questions help you to summarize the story, which means to tell what happens in it without going into details. A good way of organizing such a summary is a story frame. Read the explanation in the box and fill out a frame for this story. You are only supposed to take notes.

A good story always has some basic elements you need to know for a story to be a story. They are the title, the setting, the initiating event, the conflict, the climax and the resolution. The setting of the story tells us about the place and the time when the story happens and introduces and identifies the main characters. What is important is that the characters are shown living their normal lives. It is important to see what is normal. The conflict is some special problem that makes it impossible for the characters to continue their normal behaviour. Without a conflict, it isn’t a story, but a narration. Conflict must always show the contrast between normal life and the problem. In every story, events lead up to a moment when something changes and the conflict starts to be resolved. This part of the story is called the climax. The resolution of the story tells us how the problem is finally worked out so that life can return to normal.

Story Frame

Text 2

You are going to read a short story about a robbery. Eight sentences are missing from it. Study sentences A-I and choose one that fits each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0). Notice that there is one sentence which you DO NOT need to use.

1. I heard them whispering in the corridor.
2. Luckily, or so I thought, the friend who had given me the jumper had also given me the receipt for it, and I had it with me.
3. If I had done so, I might have received a lot of money, but I just didn’t want to be reminded of what had happened.
4. Without thinking, I put it and the receipt back in my bag, and dashed outside.
5. My astonished friends stared as she and the man with the moustache marched me back into the store.
6. He seemed totally uninterested in what I had to say.
7. It was dark green, which happens to be my favourite colour.
8. ‘Do you admit that you had this in your bag when you left the store?’ she asked accusingly.
9. It seemed like an excellent idea.

The jumper I had been given for my birthday was too small for me and I wanted to exchange it for a larger one. One day some friends with a car came to visit me. They suggested dropping me off near the department store where the jumper had been originally bought. [0 - I ] I jumped out of the car and they drove off, saying they would be back in ten minutes.

The girl I spoke to at the counter was extremely helpful. Unfortunately, however, they had no other jumpers in my size and I decided to leave with the original gift. [1 - ] I was standing there, looking for my friend’s car, when someone suddenly grabbed one of my arms from behind.

I tried to turn around to see who it was but a man shouted ‘Don’t try to run away!’ I caught a glimpse of a man with a moustache behind me. As I turned, the jumper fell out of the bag. Then a woman suddenly appeared in front of me and told me she and the man were store detectives. She picked up the jumper. [2 - ]

I was so shocked I could hardly concentrate.

‘Don’t try to deny it!’ she whispered.

Just at that moment, my astonished friends arrived in their car. One of them jumped out and asked the woman who she was and what was going on. She ignored him.

‘You’d better come with us,’ she told me. [3 - ] They took me up some stairs and into an office.

‘What am I supposed to have done?’ I demanded when they asked me to give them my name and address. The woman smiled.

‘Why don’t you admit what you’ve done?’ she said. I had realized by this time that they thought I had stolen the jumper, so I began to explain that it was a gift. [4 - ] The woman smiled again when I showed it to her.

‘Why did you try to throw the jumper away if you didn’t steal it and if this is really the receipt for it?’ she asked.

‘I didn’t try to throw it away. It fell out of my bag when your friend here grabbed me,’ I protested.

The next person I spoke to was another man who was obviously the boss of the two store detectives. [5 - ] I insisted that he should go and find the shop assistant I had spoken to earlier. Eventually, he and the woman reluctantly agreed to do so.

‘Keep an eye on her,’ the woman said to the man with the moustache as she left. The woman came back a few minutes later, looking very embarrassed. She asked the man with the moustache to step outside with her. [6 - ] Then the manager of the store arrived, and apologized for what had happened. I told him that nothing he could say or do would compensate for the rudeness and insensitivity of his employees.

My friends later urged me to sue the store, but for some reason I never did. [7 - ]

2. Find the words or phrases in the text which mean:

a) proof that you have bought something ___________________

b) demand money from someone who’s hurt you in some way ___________________

c) take someone in a car and let them out ___________________

d) see only for a moment ___________________

e) unwillingly ___________________

f) very surprised ___________________

g) suddenly put your hands around ___________________

h) pay money to or do something for someone

after you have done something wrong ___________________

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