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 the same friends, and they talked about
these, 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. “Iforgot about it.”
  Alan thought  about this money for aminute . 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 ran up. 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，突然有个人跑过来。他手里还拿了一把刀。他俩都
很害怕。那人看起来非常危险。
  “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。”