One day, Tony met his friend, Alan, in the street. Tony was
quite rich, but Alan was poor. The two boys walked along the
street together.
   They talked about many things. Tony liked to listen to music
and he told Alan about some new songs. Alan liked reading, and
he told Tony about some new books.
   They had same friends, and they talked about them, too.
   Then Tony remembered something. “I lent you ten dollars
last week,” he said. “Can you give it back to me?”
   “I’m very sorry, Tony,” Alan said. “I forgot about it.”
   Alan thought about this money for a minute.Then he said,

“I haven’t  got any money with me today. I’ll pay you back
tomorrow.”
   “All right,” Tony said,“I can wait another day.”
    At that moment a man rushed at them. He had a knife in his hand.

Alan and Tony were afraid. He was a dangerous man.
   “Give me your money,” he said to Tony.
   Tony took out his wallet and gave it to the robber.
   The robber took out the money and threw the wallet on to
the ground.
   “Now you give me your money,” he said to Alan.
   Alan thought quickly. He took out his wallet, but he did not
give it to the robber. He gave it to Tony and said, “I owe you
some money, Tony. Here it is.”

     敏捷的思维
   有一天，托尼在大街上碰到了他的朋友艾伦。托尼特别有钱，可艾伦却
很穷。两人便一起在大街上走着。
   他们谈了很多事。托尼喜欢听音乐，于是给艾伦推荐了一些新歌。艾伦
喜欢阅读，也给托尼推荐了一些新书。
   他们有相同的朋友，又谈了谈这些朋友。
   突然，托尼想起了什么。“我上周借给你十美元，”他说，“你能还给
我吗？”
   “不好意思，托尼。”艾伦说，“我忘了。”
   艾伦想了一会儿，说：“我今天没有带钱，明天还给你吧。”
   “好的。”托尼说，“但是不能再晚了。”
   正在这时，突然有个人冲向他们。他手里还拿了一把刀。他俩都很害
怕。那个人看起来非常危险。
   “把钱交出来，”那人对托尼喊道。
   托尼把钱包拿出来给了强盗。
   强盗把钱拿出来后就把钱包扔在了地上。
   “现在轮到你了。”强盗对艾伦喊道。
   艾伦灵机一动，拿出钱包，但没给强盗，而是给了托尼，说道：“托
尼，我欠你的钱都在这里。”