When the Americans were getting ready to send their first men to the moon, an old Irishman was watching them on television in the bar of a hotel.
There was an Englishman in the bar too, and he said to the Irishman, ‘The Americans are very clever, aren’t they? They’re going to send some men to the moon. It’s a very long way from our world.’
‘Oh, that’s nothing,’ the Irishman answered quickly. ‘The Irish are going to send some men to the sun in a few months’ time. That’s much farther away than the moon, you know.’
The Englishman was very surprised when he heard this. ‘Oh, yes, it is,’ he said, ‘but the sun’s too hot for people to go to.’
The Irishman laughed and answered, ‘Well, the Irish aren’t stupid, you know.
We won’t go to the sun during the day, of course. We’ll go there during the night.’
A. Answer these questions.
- Who were in the bar of the hotel?
- What was the Irishman watching on television?
- What did the Irish want to do?
- Why was the Englishman surprised?
- Is the sun really cool during the night?
B. Opposites. Write these sentences. Put one word in each empty place.
- The Irishman in this story was not . . . : he was old.
- The Irishman did not speak . . . . He spoke quickly.
- The sun is not . . . than the moon: it is farther away.
- The sun isn’t . . . . It is very hot.
- The Irishman said, ‘The Irish aren’t stupid: they’re . . . .’
