Базовый курс английского языка - Эккерсли К.Э.
ISBN 5-7871-0174-X
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However, I got to my little hotel at last, and the first thing that took my eye was the porter, a big fat man with a round pink face like an advertisement for babies' food. Then I met the manager. He rubbed his hands all the time as if he was washing them, and smiled without stop-
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ping. What he said I could not understand, though I had learned English at school. I said to myself, "Perhaps he doesn't speak it very well-some English people don't. But I told him my name, and he smiled again and told one of the little boys with brass buttons to show me up to my room. Ten minutes later I was lying in a hot bath washing off the last dusty reminders of the Continent; another ten minutes and I was under the bedclothes and fast asleep.
When I woke next morning, I felt hungrier than I had ever felt in my life before; I seemed to have a hole instead of a stomach. I dressed quickly and hurried down to the dining-room. It was a big room with six tall windows and the ugliest wallpaper I had ever seen. However, I had been told that the hotel was not beautiful but that you were better fed there than in any other hotel in London;-and that was what I wanted just then.
The waiter came hurrying up. Before I came downstairs I had prepared myself very carefully for what I must say. I had looked three times in my dictionary to make sure that "breakfast" really meant "breakfast". I had tried to get the right pronunciation and had stood in front of a mirror and twisted my mouth until it ached.
The waiter asked me something I could not understand, but I spoke only my one prepared word, "Breakfast". He looked at me in a puzzled way, so I repeated it. Still he did not understand. It was unbelievable that English people didn't understand their own language. The waiter shook his head, bowed and went away, but he came back in a minute and brought the manager with him. I was feeling slightly annoyed, but I said, "Breakfast". The manager smiled and washed his hands, but looked as helpless as the waiter, so I took out a pencil and wrote on the table napkin, "Breakfast". I have never seen such surprised faces in my life-so perhaps I did not pronounce it correctly after all.
A little later the waiter brought a tray with tea, toast, butter and marmalade-enough to feed a small army-and went away. But I was hungry, and I left nothing; I am sure I drank at least two pints of tea, ate almost a loaf of toasted bread and large quantities of butter and
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marmalade with it. When the waiter came back I thought his face showed a little surprise, but you can never tell what a waiter's face really shows. In another minute he brought another tray with a huge portion of bacon and eggs. He must have misunderstood me, but I thought it was no use explaining to people who don't understand their own language, so I just set to work on the bacon and eggs and ate on steadily, wondering all the time whether 1 could possibly clear that plate.
Well, I finished the bacon and eggs, and was just trying to get up out of the chair when here was the waiter again with another tray. This time it was a whole fish in a thick white sauce. Surely this must be a joke, I thought; but before I could tell him anything, he had put down the tray and gone away. There was nothing for it but to face that fish with what little courage I had left, but all the time I was eating it I was trying to think of what I could say to that waiter when he returned. I had brought my grammar book with me in case of need, but have you noticed how all these grammar books give you sentences like this:
The little girl gave the pen of my aunt to the gardener.
- but not the essential English about breakfasts big enough to feed an army?
But at last I had made up two sentences in my mind-avoiding verbs as much as possible, because I was never sure which were irregular. I called the waiter to me. He bowed, and then I told him in very correct English what I thought of English breakfasts. I told him that only a man who was dying of hunger could eat such a breakfast. He must have understood me at once. I felt very proud of my English, especially "dying of hunger"; that was a grand expression. I have never seen anyone clear away the empty plates as fast as he did; he almost ran out of the room, but in a minute he was back again-with a big plateful of sandwiches. This was too much. I gave up the struggle. I got up and made my way slowly and heavily to my room-at least five pounds heavier. I never believed until then that any meal could defeat me, but on that day I met my Waterloo.1
1 To meet one's Waterloo=to be completely defeated. Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo in IS 15.
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УПРАЖНЕНИЯ
(В упражнениях 2-7 повторяется грамматический материал из Книги II).
1. Придумайте предложения со следующими словами и словосочетаниями:
expect; connected with; struggle; traffic; dusty; umbrella; advertisement; brass; ugly; twist; bow; loaf; tray; burst; in case of need; avoid; dying of hunger; big enough; defeat; marmalade; sauce
