Задание
The author asked his friend Hans for help because…Прочитайте текст. Для каждого
вопроса выберите верный ответ из предложенного списка.
This happened in Vienna at the beginning of
1922. I was slowly walking along one of the main streets of the city and though
the day was warm and sunny everything seemed gloomy to me as I was out of work.
I had no idea whom to ask for help. Suddenly I
remembered that a friend of mine, John Smith by name, had been working as an editor in
Vienna for the last few months. I got in touch with him and we made an
appointment for that evening.
When I told him my story he smiled and said happily,
“I can help you. Listen…” The matter was that his boss
wishing to get greater profits had decided to publish a number of detective
novels and these were to be translated from Spanish. They needed the man
who could do that.
“So you will do it”, he finished.
“How can I do it? I don’t know Spanish.”
“It doesn’t matter”, he answered. “Any translation
will do”. I protested, he insisted, I protested, he insisted and at last he got
me to agree to do it.
“Here is the novel and some money. You’ll get the rest
after you do the translation. I guarantee good money”, he added. “I give four
days. Not more”. With these words he left.
I was at a loss what to do. Then I went to a cheap
restaurant where I knew I would meet my friends. There I found Hans. We all
believed that he knew at least five or six languages including Spanish. I asked
him to translate the novel. After some time he said, “You see, I’ve been out of practice lately. But I’ll take the
novel, read it and then tell you its contents”. I liked the plan.
Some days later I wrote down the contents of the book
and went to the editor. Smith was too busy to listen to what I wanted to tell
him. “Here is your money. You have earned it honestly. See you one of these
days”, he said. Later on I met Hans and gave him half of the money.
“I think I ought to study Spanish”, he said taking the
money.
“But don’t you know it?” I asked him in great
surprise.
“Certainly, I don’t”, he said. “I told you the
contents of an English detective novel,
I only changed the English names for the Spanish ones”.
he could help him to find the job
he knew several foreign languages
he could lend him some money
he could introduce him to the editor