Lesson 29

Text conversation

Nora: Good afternoon, Mrs. Wood. You are looking pleased. Have you found

out who took your missing spoons?

Mrs. Wood: Yes, It’s really very fanny, I must tell you. Of course I’ve been

awfully nervous since yesterday, my husband being away and there being

nobody else in the house. And then coming back from shopping this afternoon I found the back gate open and suspicious noises coming from the house!

Nora: Goodness!

Mrs. Wood: Thinking that if I went for help the fellow would get away, I decided to catch him myself.

Nora: How very brave of you!

Mrs. Wood: And then, looking in through the kitchen window what should I see but –

Nora: A man?

Mrs. Wood: No – a monkey!

Nora: A monkey?

Mrs. Wood: Yes, a monkey, sitting on my kitchen table, and taking all my knives and forks out of the table drawer.

Nora: Where ever had it come from?

Mrs. Wood: I just couldn’t think at first. And then I suddenly remembered that the house at the end of the road has just been taken over by an old sailor who has all sorts of strange pets.

Nora: I know – Mr. Bendow, so the monkey sitting on the table was his. What an extraordinary creature – taking your spoons one day and coming back for your knives and forks the next! Did you manage to catch him?

Mrs. Wood: I couldn’t catch him myself, but I fetched Mr. Bendow and he soon did it.

Nora: And did you discover what the monkey had done with your spoons?

Mrs. Wood: Yes, we found them hidden at the end of our own garden!

Nora: How very funny! With the police hunting everywhere for a criminal too. Still, ‘All’s well that ends well!

Lesson 30

Text conversation

Nora: Hello, Peter. I thought you were cycling to Aunt Mary’s.

Peter: /Dolefully/ I got lost.

Nora: /Amused/ Surely you know the way to Aunt Mary’s?

Peter: Yes, but I’ve never been there from this house.

Nora: Oh no, of course not. Well, how far did you get?

Peter: Well, I went along the main road first and then turned off by the church.

But after that I must have gone wrong because I never got to Aunt Mary’s road at all. I had no idea where I was.

Nora: Didn’t you ask anybody the way.

Peter: Yes, I asked a man how to get to Heath Avenue, and he didn’t know what to answer. He just said, ‘Heath Avenue? Where’s Heath Avenue?’ Then I asked another man and he told me he was in too much of a hurry to help me.

Nora: You should have asked a policeman.

Peter: I did. I asked him where I was, and he some name I didn’t hear properly. Then he asked me where I had come from and what my name was.

Nora: And didn’t you ask him to show you the way to Aunt Mary’s?

Peter: Oh yes, I asked him which was the right way and he started to laugh. He said I had been going away from Heath Avenue for most of the time. Then he pointed to a house just behind him and said, ‘That’s the back of your own house, son!’

Nora: /Amused/ So that’s why you are here! Well, never mind, you can still go to Aunt Mary’s another day.

Peter: /Ruefully/ Yes, but don’t I look an idiot, cycling in a circle.