English Grammar through Stories. cowardice and thought I was depriving a young child of his Christmas present from some loving relative
by Alan Townend
cowardice and thought I was depriving a young child of his Christmas present from some loving relative. I rubbed the package with a towel and ran back to number 56. Running down the path in the true spirit of the season, clutching the precious bundle in my hand I thrust it through the letter box expecting to hear a happy yelp of surprise from young Richard. As I ran away to the sound of the barking dog, I ran by accident into the garden gate just in time to hear a voice shouting: «Master Richard! When will that woman realise I'm over fifty and can't stand hand knitted socks!»
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English Grammar through Stories
by Alan Townend
Phrasal verb fall
It was one o'clock in the morning, I had no money and I had just missed the last through train to where I was living at the time. The people I was with fell aboutlaughing at my predicament as they had only lived a few minutes' walk away. I phoned home to see if there would be any chance of a lift from the station where the train would stop but that little plan fell throughas the car had broken down and was in the garage for repair. I had no alternative but to fall backon my own initiative. Whatever that meant. I even thought of persuading the train driver to fall in withwhat I thought was an original idea namely just this once to go the extra twenty miles to where I lived. Then I dismissed the idea and thought that if I put it to him I might fall out withhim and then I wouldn't even be able to go the forty miles already scheduled.
The train left punctually, stopping at all the minor stations on the way. By the time we were approaching the end of the journey the number of passengers had fallen offconsiderably. Finally there seemed to be about six passengers left in my carriage, two of whom I casually fell intoconversation with, desperately hoping that one of them had a car waiting to take them and possibly me on to my desired destination. I fell onone of them who mentioned he had a car but it turned out that it was falling apart. He wasn't too happy about this as he had only just bought it and admitted that he had been stupid enough to fall forthe salesman's glib talk that it was in good condition. My own initiative did not prove very resourceful as things had fallen outand there I stood on a deserted platform twenty miles from home without a penny in my pocket.
To make matters worse it was really falling down. Rather then risk contracting double pneumonia I rushed into the town centre in the hope of finding inspiration. Two things caught my eye. One was a poster advertising a new film with a picture of an actress with whom I and the whole nation had fallen inlove and the other much more practical: a sign announcing the existence of a police station. I remembered hearing a long time ago that if you were really stranded, you could always fall back onthe local police station which could give you shelter for the night. As I walked in, the officers were just falling outafter a period of duty and a new squad were taking over. My reason for being there did not elicit much sympathy. The officer at the main desk did not exactly fall overhimself to offer help. There was no food available, the cells were all full and the only possibility was a chair in the waiting room or rather several wooden chairs arranged alternately in a line so that the backs prevented me from falling off. There was little chance of that happening since each time I was on the point of falling offto sleep, I was brought back to consciousness by the sound of the messages coming in from police officers in the area. I had certainly fallen amongsome very unfriendly people.
At six o'clock in the morning I caught the scent of bacon and eggs coming under the door. At the sound of the door opening I rolled off my chairs ready to fall toin the expectation of a full English
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