John and Sylvia were quite rich. They had a large, beautiful
house full of expensive paintings.
  They had many friends and were not surprised when they
received two free tickets for a theater. They were surprised,
however, when they could not find out who had sent them the
tickets. There was no letter in the envelope with the tickets.
  “They’ve forgotten to put a letter in,” John said. “How
strange. We don’t know who to thank.”
  They phoned many of their friends and asked, “Did you
send us theater tickets?”

  “No,” their friends said. “We didn’t send them.”
  “It’s strange,” Sylvia told her husband, “but we shouldn’t
waste the tickets. Everyone says that the play is very good.”
  And so they went to the theater. They did not really enjoy
the play, however, because they were worrying all the time.
  The play started at eight o’clock and finished at half past
ten. When they got home it was after eleven.
  There was a note on their front door. It said, “We hope you
enjoyed the play.”
  Inside the house there was not a single painting. They had
all been stolen.

                 免　费　票
  约翰和西尔维亚非常有钱。他们拥有一座又大又漂亮的房子，房子里挂
满了昂贵的名画。
  他们有很多朋友，当他们收到两张剧院的免费票时，一点也没惊讶。但
他们不知道是谁送的，因为信封中没有信，这很奇怪。
  “他们一定是忘了把信放进去，”约翰说，“多奇怪呀，我们都不知道
该感谢谁。”
  他们给许多朋友打电话问：“你给我们寄戏剧票了吗？”
  “没有，”朋友回答说，“没寄过。”
  “真是奇怪，” 西尔维亚对丈夫说，“但是我们不能把票浪费了，大家
都说这部戏剧不错。”
  于是他俩来到了剧院。但他们没能真正享受这部戏剧，因为他们一直在
思考这件事。
  这部剧八点开始，十点半结束，当他们到家时，已经十一点了。
  他们发现家门上贴着一张纸条，上面写着：“希望你们喜欢这部戏剧。”
  而屋内所有的画都不见了，都被偷光了。