(After Mark Twain)
Years ago I arrived one day at Salamanca near New York, where I was to change trains and take the sleeper. There were a lot of people on the platform, and they were all trying to get into the long sleeper train which was already packed.
(After Mark Twain)
(After O. Henry)
(Level of difficulty: 5 of 10)
SUE and Johnsy were poor artists who lived in a little New York district west of Washington Square. They painted pictures which they hoped to sell. Their studio was on the third floor of an old brick house.
(After Stephen Leacock)
Of all the different ideas that have been started lately, I think that the very best is the notion of celebrating once a year “Mother’s Day”.
A man sat at a metro station in Washington D. C. and started to play the violin [ˌvaɪəˈlɪn]; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
A large river-boat was going down the Mississippi on its way to New Orleans. One of the passengers on the boat was a young gentleman, St. Clare by name. He had with him a daughter between five and six years of age. The child was so beautiful that people turned and looked after her as she went by.
If you are invited to an English home, at five o’clock in the morning you get a cup of tea. You must not say ‘Go away’. On the contrary, you have to say, with your best five o’clock smile, ‘Thank you so much. I love a cup of early morning tea, especially early in the morning.’
I was one of six children. I have two younger brothers and three elder sisters. My father was not a wealthy man and we lived in a three-bedroom house, so conditions at home were always quite cramped and there was little privacy. Yet I consider that I was extremely fortunate. The house was on the outskirts of a small town. Meadows, woods and even a friendly stream lay within walking distance of our home.
In 1996, a stray calico cat named Scarlett became a true legend in Brooklyn. When a fire broke out in an abandoned garage, she did the unthinkable — walking through flames five separate times to rescue each of her five kittens.
Sir:
I haven’t got a computer, but I was told about Facebook and Twitter and am trying to make friends outside Facebook and Twitter while applying the same principles.
