C O N T E N T S
1. Not Stupid 4
2. A Day at the Beach 6
3. Grandmother’s Problem 8
4. An E-mail 10
5. Meeting People 12
6. When I Was Your Age 14
7. Movies of the Week 16
8. Not My Fault 18
9. At the Airport 20
10. A Puzzle 22
11. Choosing a Pet 24
12. Not My Job 26
13. An Invitation to Visit 28
14. Replying to an Invitation 30
15. A Bicycle Made for Two 32
16. On the Telephone 34
17. Too Expensive 36
18. Playing a CD 38
19. A Birthday Party 40
20. On TV 42
21. The Interview 44
22. Choosing a Movie 46
23. Rainfall 48
24. Old Age 50
25. A Good Tip 52
26. Asking for Directions 54
27. Write About What You See 56
28. Letter to a New Pen Pal 58
29. Replying to a Letter from a New Pen Pal 60
30. A Bus Ride to the Country 62
31. Choosing a TV Program 64
32. Making and Playing a Board Game 66
33. Too Much Dirt 68
34. Titanic 70
35. Watching a Race 72
36. Meeting a Famous Person 74
37. Speech 76
38. Classified Ads 78
39. A Class Schedule 80
40. Buying a Watch 82
U NIT 1 Not Stupid
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red and Ted were not very smart. They were always getting things wrong. The only work they could get was digging holes and painting. They were easy jobs but Fred and Ted still made mistakes. They dug holes in the wrong places, or painted things the wrong color. Once they painted a floor and then walked on it while the paint was still wet.One day their boss asked them to paint a flagpole outside the office building. “This
shouldn’t be too difficult for them to do,” their boss thought.
“All they need is paint and brushes.”
Their boss told them where the paint and brushes were and went away. An hour later he came back. Fred and Ted were not painting the flagpole. They didn’t even have the paint and brushes. Fred was standing against the flagpole and Ted was standing on his shoulders, trying to reach the top of it with a ruler.
“What are you two men doing?” their boss asked.
“We have to find out how much paint we need,” Ted said, “so we’re measuring the flagpole.”
“That’s not the way to do it,” their boss said. “Pull the flagpole out of the ground, and lay it down.
“Ha!” Fred said, “We’re not stupid. We can’t measure how high it is that way. We can only measure how long it is.”
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Vocabulary Review Vocabulary Review
Reading Comprehension Reading Comprehension
Summary Summary
5 Match each word with its meaning.
1. wet a. tool used for painting
2. mistake b. something done wrong
3. brush c. having water on or in something
Choose the best answer.
1. What is this story about?
a. a famous paint company b. a hard-working farmer
c. two bad painters d. a mean boss
2. In this story, what are the men trying to paint?
a. a hole b. a flagpole
c. the floor d. a building
3. What stupid thing do the men do?
a. measure the wrong pole b. do an easy job a difficult way c. take too long for a small job d. paint the pole the wrong color
4. What does “measure” mean?
a. find the length b. look closely at
c. put paint on d. tell how to do
Fill in each blank with the correct word.
A boss wanted to find an easy job for two workers to do. The workers were not very _____. The boss told the men to _____ a flagpole. The two men tried to measure the _____. Their boss told them to lay the flagpole on the _____. The men said, “That will tell us how _____ it is, not how high.”
flagpole ground long paint smart
