was a fight between teacher and pupil, so they knew very well what the other could do ---- and they were fighting with bare fists. Each of the boxers fought well for most of the match,but in the end Humphries was too strong and too experienced for the young Mendoza. He knocked him down once: Mendoza got up. He knocked him down again, and although Mendoza tried to get up, he just couldn't.The referee counted ten and that was the end of the match.

When Mendoza got up, he was very angry, but eventually congratulated Humphries. However, his defeat made him determined to go on and fight his teacher again so that he could finally become champion. (229 words)

Lesson 22 By heart 熟记台词 Six short weeks

A couple of years ago, a new play called The World Tomorrow was going to be shown in our local theatre. There was a great deal of advertising for it and there was considerable public interest, mainly, I think, because the cast contained a number of famous actors and actresses.

Most actors and actresses are usually nervous on the first night of any play, and no one really knows what can go wrong or how the audience will react. In the case of The World Tomorrow, no one forgot their lines, but the play was not well received. It was a comedy, so it was supposed to be funny, but nobody laughed----not in the right places anyway----and people

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even walked out before the end. The cast suspected that they would get bad reviews the following day, and they did. One review described it as ?the saddest comedy I've ever seen?; another thought it was ?the most professionally acted disaster we have ever seen on our local stage?. In spite of the reviews, however, the play still ran for six weeks. The last performance, on the last Saturday evening, attracted a small audience, and the actors struggled through to the end. At the end of six terrible weeks, however, there was one final moment of relief. When the last line was spoken: ?Our six short weeks have hastened to their end,? the audience saw the funny side of it and laughed. Even the actors and actresses laughed. (248 words)

Lesson 23 One man?s meat is another man?s poison 各有所爱 Snails, snails, snails!

The snails had escaped from the paper bag and they were everywhere----on the walls, on the ceiling, on the carpet, and even on the large hall mirror. When we began to look carefully, we found that they were even in coat pockets in the clothes hanging on the clothes hooks in the hall. It was disgusting! Snails move slowly, but it's amazing how far they can travel in a couple of hours!

It took Robert and me ages to collect them. He fetched a pair of steps for me and ladders for himself, and we collected them in two buckets. There

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were snail marks everywhere, too, and it took hours to clear up the mess----remember, there were several dozen of them. Snails may not be fast, but we had been talking for a couple of hours, and they can travel. Even now I am sure we didn't find them all: some are still crawling round Robert's house.

The ones that we did not find were lucky! Robert was amused, but I wasn't. He decided to cook the snails and invited me to stay. I said before that I didn't fancy the idea, so I left him to his meal for one. I just couldn't look at the snails and have never been able to face them since then. (220 words)

Key to Letter writing A possible answer (body of letter only)

It was really nice to see you last week after such a long time. I was so pleased that you are well and that you have a good job now.

I'm hoping that we can get together again soon, so how would you like to come and spend a weekend with me and my family here in the country sometime in the next month or two? You've never been to our house before, but I'm sure you would enjoy it. Please let me know what you think.

I look forward to hearing from you. (94 words)

Lesson 24 A skeleton in the cupboard “家丑”

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A weekend with Sebastian

Now that George had explained about the skeleton, I felt better, but I still didn't want to sleep in the room with a skeleton hanging in the cupboard. I asked George to remove him, but he refused. ?There's nowhere else to put him,? said George, ?so he'll have to stay.?

I couldn't disagree of course, but the moment I lay down to sleep, I knew it was going to be an uncomfortable night. In the end, I decided that I would take Sebastian somewhere for the night and bring him back up to my room early in the morning. So I took him out of cupboard and walked around the house with him trying to find somewhere to put him.

George's maid was just going to bed as I walked along the landing. She saw Sebastian apparently walking around, screamed and fainted. She had obviously woken Carlton who appeared from his bedroom and, when the girl had regained consciousness, explained everything to her. He accused me of being stupid and sent me and Sebastian back to ?our? room where I hung him up in the cupboard again.

Imagine my surprise when I picked up one of Carlton's detective stories two years later. There I was, with Sebastian the skeleton, as the main characters in one of his stories for the whole world to read. Still, he didn't use my real name, so I should be glad of that! (240 words )

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