John Steinbeck
This thing fills me with pleasure. I don’t know why, I can see it in the smallest detail. I find myself recalling it again and again and each time remembering brings the curious warm pleasure.
It was very early in the morning. The eastern mountains were black-blue, but behind them the light stood up faintly colored at the mountain rims.
(After M. Twain “My Watch”)
My beautiful watch kept perfect time. But one night I forgot to wind it up and went to a watchmaker as I wanted my watch to be set by the exact time.
It was raining hard, but when I went to get an umbrella, I found out that all the five umbrellas we had at home were broken and needed repairing. I decided to take them to an umbrella-maker.
(after R. Sisson)
In the early days of history (50 – 450) England was known as Britain and the people who lived there were the Britons. There were no big towns on the British Isles at that time. People lived in small villages along the rivers or near the sea. The Britons caught fish, grew wheat and had many pigs, cows and sheep in the meadows near the rivers and on the sides of the mountains. Later they learned to make things of wool and metal and sold them to the people who came across the sea.
(After Mark Twain)
The man lives in Philadelphia, who, when young and poor, entered a bank, and said: “Please, sir, don’t you want a boy?” And the bank man said:
“No, little boy, I don’t want a little boy.”
(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”.
