Текст для аудіювання How we Tried to Buy Shoes

How we Tried to Buy Shoes

Two Englishmen decided to travel to Germany. “How can we travel about Germany without knowing a word in German?” I said.

“Oh, it’s all right”, said Harris. I have bought a conversation book. Here it is. It gives you a lot of useful phrases, and we shall look into it and speak to the Germans.” Do you think it works?

“Oh, let’s try. I have an idea. Let’s go to London on Wednesday morning”, said George and spend an hour or two in shoe shop. We shall try to buy shoes using phrases from this book.”

We thought it was a fine plan. The next morning we came to a little shoe shop. Near the door, on the floor and on the shelves there were boxes of boots and shoes. We saw shoes of different kinds everywhere – both for men and women, black and brown, large and small. The man who kept the shop was just going to open another box of shoes.

George raised his hat and said, “Good morning.” He hoped, in answer to his politeness, to hear the polite “Welcome to our shop”, as this was the answer in the conversation book. But the man did not even look at us. He went on with his work.

Then George said, again in the words of the book: “Mr. X, whom I hope you know, has told me about your remarkable shop”.

To these words the conversation book gave the answer: ”Mr.X is a very fine young man . I’ve known him for years, and I’ll be happy to be useful to his friends”.

But what the man said was this: ”Don’t know him; never heard of him”.

That was a nice beginning! George looked into the conversation book again and read the next sentence which it gave: ”They say you have boots to sell”.

For the first time the man raised his eyes and looked at us.

“And what do you think I keep all these boots here for: to eat them?”

He was one of those men who become more and more angry as they go on talking.

“What do you think I am doing here?” he shouted. “Collecting boots for pleasure? What do you think it is – a museum of boots? Have you ever heard of a man who has a shoe shop and doesn’t sell boots? What do you think I am? An idiot?”

“We had better leave,” said Harris and started for the door. But at that moment George suddenly found an answer in the book, the cleverest answer he could find at that moment. “We shall come again, when you have some more boots to show us”, he said. “Till then – good-bye.”

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