8. Read and retell the stories:

High Hopes

One day a young country girl was going to town with a bucket of milk on her head. She said to herself, "When I come to the market, I will sell the milk at a high price and buy twenty eggs with the money. Out of these eggs I'll get twenty chickens. As soon as the chickens are large enough, I'll sell them and buy a new

dress for myself. It'll be a yellow dress to match my hair. On May Day, if the weather is fine, if it doesn't rain, I'll put on the yellow dress and go to town. Everybody will look at me and say: 'What a beautiful girl!' But I'll pass by without looking at them. I'll only shake (трясти, встряхивать) my head like that." And she shook her head and down came the milk, the eggs, the chickens and the yellow dress.

A Parrot

A man had a speaking parrot. But the parrot could only say one phrase. The phrase was, "There is no doubt about it (Несомненно. Можете не сомневаться в этом)." The man got tired of the parrot and decided to sell it. He took the parrot to the market in the cage and shouted, "Who wants my speaking parrot, twenty pounds for my parrot!"

A man who was walking by and heard these words came up to the cage and asked, "Parrot, are you really so clever that you cost twenty pounds?'' ``There is no doubt about it!" said the parrot.

The man liked the answer so much that he paid for the parrot and brought him home. But time passed and the parrot never said anything else. The man came up to the cage one day and said, "What a fool I was when I bought you once at twenty pounds!" "There is no doubt about it," said the parrot.

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