三十三. Jimmy and His Sons Funny Stories
Jimmy is our new neighbor. He speaks with strange accent, but we like to talk with him. He told me an interesting story about himself.
He said he liked growing flowers in his garden in his spare time. And one Sunday morning, after breakfast he put on his old clothes and began digging in his garden. He dug and dug. After half an hour he suddenly found a coin near his foot. He put it in his right pocket. A few minutes later, he found another one. He put it in the same pocket, too. The same thing happened for the third, the fourth and the fifth time. He was very happy and told his wife about it. She was very happy, too. She said,A thief(小偷) stole a lot of coins from a shop a few days ago. The police caught him but they didnt find any coins.
Then Jimmy went on digging and found some more coins, but just when he began to dig, he felt something cold in his trousers. It ran down one of his legs. He put his hand down quickly and the coin came into his hand. Now he knew there was a hole in his pocket.
Jimmy also told me something even funnier about his son, Jack. One day he took his son Jack to a boys clothing shop. That shop was giving away（赠送）balloons to buyers children. Jack asked if he might have two balloons.Sorry,the salesperson said,but we give only one balloon to each child. Do you have a brother at home?Jack was always honest. He didnt tell lies, but he wanted another balloon badly.No.he replied regretfully,but my sister has a brother, and Id like one for him.
What a lovely boy Jack is!
【汉语翻译】
吉米和他儿子的有趣故事
吉米是我们的新邻居。他讲话带着奇怪的口音(accent)，但我们喜欢和他交谈。他告诉过我一个关于他自己的有趣故事。
他说他喜欢在空闲的(spare)时间在他的花园(garden)里种花。一个星期天的早上，吃过早饭后，他穿上(put on)旧衣服，就在花园里开始挖土。他挖啊挖，半个小时后，突然他发现脚边有一枚硬币。他把硬币放进右边的衣服口袋里。几分钟后(a few minutes later)，他又发现了另一枚。他还是放入同一个口袋。相同的事情又发生了，第三次、第四次、第五次。他非常高兴，然后告诉了他的妻子。她也很高兴，她说，几天前有个小偷从一家商店里偷走(steal)好多硬币。警察(the police)抓住(catch)他但没找到硬币。
然后吉米继续挖(go on digging)。找到了更多的硬币，但就在他开始挖掘时，他感觉有什么凉凉的东西掉进他的裤子里。这个东西顺着他的腿往下滑。他迅速放下手硬币在他手上了。现在他知道了他的口袋里有个洞(hole)。
吉米还告诉我一个更有趣的(funny)故事，是关于他儿子杰克的。一天，他带着儿子杰克去一家男孩服装店。那家店铺正在给顾客的孩子赠送气球(balloon)。杰克问是否他可以得到两个气球。对不起，销售人员说，每个孩子我们只给一个。你家里有弟弟吗？杰克一直是诚实的(honest)。他不说谎话，但他非常想再要一个气球，于是他颇感遗憾地说，没有，但我姐姐有一个弟弟，我想为他要一个。
杰克真是个可爱的男孩！?
三十四. Buying a House
As house prices have risen too much these years, many people find it hard to afford a house. But all the people who do not have a house dream of the day when theyll pick up the keys to their own home. The idea of owning a home is wonderful.
Buying a house will cost you a lot of money, so never do it in a hurry. Whatever themarket condition is, when you are planning to buy a house，there are many things to consider，whatever your intention is, to buy or only rent(租). After all, it is going to be your home, perhaps for quite a long time, and you want to be happy with it. You have to decide correctly what kind of house you want, how much you can afford to pay, and the type of area you wish to live in. However, its always easy to forget all above, because its most probably that youll fall in love with the house for sale when you first see it.
【汉语翻译】
买房子
这些年由于房价(house price)上涨过多，许多人发现很难买得起(afford)房子。但所有无房者都梦想有一天拿起他们自己家(their own home)的钥匙(key)。拥有(own)一个家的想法太美妙了。
买房子会花费你很多钱，因此决不能匆忙(in a hurry)。无论市场条件(market condition)如何，你在计划(plan)购房时都要考虑很多事情，无论你的意图(intention)如何，买还是只租。毕竟(after all)这要成为你的家了，或许(perhaps)会在里面住上很长一段时间，你当然想开心地在房子里生活。那么，你必须正确地(correctly)做决定，你想要什么样的房子，你能担负得起什么样的房子，以及你希望住在什么类型的区域(area)。然而，人们又很容易忘记(forget)以上所有问题，因为很可能当你第一次看到出售中的房子，你就会爱上它(fall in love with it)。