Lesson 28 No parking
What is Jasper White's problem?
Jasper White is one of those rare people who believes in ancient myths.
he has just bought a new house in the city, but ever since he moved in,
he has had trouble with cars and their owners. When he returns home at night,
he always finds that someone has parked a car outside his gate. Because of this, he has
not been able to get his own car into his garage even once. Jasper has put up No Parking
signs outside his gate, but these have not had any effect. Now he has put an ugly stone
head over the gate. It is one of the ugliest faces I have ever seen. I asked him what it
was and he told me that it was Medusa, the Gorgon. jasper hopes that she will turn cars
and their owners to stone. But none of them has been turned to stone yet!
Lesson 29 Taxi
Does Captain Fawcett think any trip is too dangerous? Captain Ben Fawcett has bought
an unusual taxi and has begun a new service. The 'taxi' is a small Swiss aeroplane called
a Pilatus Porter. This wonderful plane can carry seven passengers. The most surprising
thing about it, however, is that it can land anywhere: on snow, water, or even on a
ploughed field. Captain Fawcett's first passenger was a doctor who flew from Birmingham
to a lonely village in the Welsh mountains. Since then, Captain Fawcett has flown
passengers to many unusual places. Once he landed on the roof of a block of flats and on
another occasion, he landed in a deserted car park. Captain Fawcett has just refused a
strange request from a businessman. The man wanted to fly to Rockall, a lonely island in
the Atlantic Ocean, but Captain Fawcett did not take him
because the trip was too dangerous.
Lesson 30 Football or polo
What happened to the man in the boat? The Wayle is a small river that cuts across the park
near my home. I like sitting by the Wayle on fine afternoons. It was warm last Sunday,
so I went and sat on the river bank as usual. Some children were playing games on the bank
and there were some people rowing on the river. Suddenly, one of the children kicked a
ball very hard and it went towards a passing boat. Some people on the bank called out to
the man in the boat, but he did not hear them. The ball struck him so hard that he nearly
fell into the water. I turned to look at the children, but there weren't any in sight
they had all run away! The man laughed when he realized what had happened.
He called out to the children and threw the ball back to the bank.