Everyday English | страница 9

- Пока.

|10|

- Здравствуйте, господин Блэйк, пришел с Вами попрощаться.

- Добрый день, господин Иванов, Вы уезжаете?

- Да, возвращаюсь домой. Я закончил свою работу здесь.

- Как жаль, Вы нам очень понравились.

- Спасибо, Вы очень добры. Всего хорошего.

- Передайте привет Вашей жене.

- Спасибо, передам. До свидания.

Ех. 10. Introduce the following people to each other. They greet each other and start a conversation.

1. a fellow-student to your mother;

2. a guest professor to his audience;

3. yourself to a group of students;

4. a friend of your age to an elderly lady at the party;

5. a colleague (Robert Drawn) to your husband/wife;

6. your brother to the director of your company, you want him to get a job with the company;

7. one guest at the party (Linda Colgate, 40, married) to your friend (Vladimir Orlov, 35);

8. your Russian teacher to guest professor who wants to study Russian;

9. your friend (Marta Small, 30, unmarried) to your husband’s friend (Douglas Cord, 40, single), you want them to make friends.

FAMILY

(adapted and abridged)

by W. S. Maugham

George Meadows, the master of a prosperous farm, was then a man of fifty, and his wife was a year or two younger. Their three daughters were lovely and their two sons were handsome and strong. They were merry, industrious and kindly. They were happy and deserved their happiness. But the real master of the house was not George, it was his mother. She was about 70, tall, with grey hair and though her face was wrinkled, her eyes were dark, bright and shrewd.

I knew the story of George’s mother and his uncle, whose name was also George. About fifty years ago uncle George and his younger brother Tom had both courted Mrs Meadows when she was Emily Green. George was a goodlooking fellow, but not so steady as his brother, that’s why Emily chose Tom. George had gone away to sea for twenty years. Now and then he sent them presents. Then there was no news of him. When Tom died Mrs Meadows wrote George about it but they never got an answer and decided that he must be dead...

Some days ago to their greatest surprise they got a letter, which informed them that George Meadows, who was ill and felt that he had not much longer to live wanted to see the house in which he was born. I was invited Io come and see him.

It goes without saying I accepted the invitation. I found the whole family in the kitchen. I was amused to see that Mrs Meadows wore her best silk dress. I was introduced to the old captain. He was very thin and his skin hung on his bones like an old suit that was too large for him. He had lost nearly all his teeth. It was strange to see those two old people and to think that half a century ago he had loved her and she was in love with another.