“Daddy, can I learn to play the violin?” young Sarah asked
her father. She was always asking for things and her father was
not very pleased.
  “You cost me a lot of money, Sarah,” he said. “First you
wanted to learn horseback riding, then dancing, then swimming.
Now it’s the violin.”
  “I’ll play every day, Daddy,” Sarah said. “I’ll try very hard.”
  “All right,” her father said. “This is what I’ll do. I’ll pay for
you to have lessons for six weeks. At the end of six weeks you
must play something for me. If you play well, you can have more
lessons. If you play badly, I will stop the lessons.”
  “OK, Daddy,” Sarah said. “That’s fair.”
  He soon found a good violin teacher and Sarah began her
lessons. The teacher was very expensive, but her father kept
his promise.
  Six weeks passed quickly. The time came for Sarah to play
for her father.
  She went to the living room and said, “I’m ready to play for
you, Daddy.”
  “Fine, Sarah,” her father said. “Begin.”
  She began to play. She played very badly. She made a
terrible noise.
  Her father had one of his friends with him, and the friend
put his hands over his ears.
  When Sarah finished, her father said, “Well done, Sarah.
You can have more lessons.”
  Sarah ran happily out of the room. Her father’s friend
turned to him. “You’ve spent a lot of money, but she still plays
very badly,” he said.
  “Well, that’s true,” her father said. “But since she started
learning the violin, I’ve been able to buy five apartments in this
building very cheaply. In another six weeks I’ll own the whole
building.”

                 小提琴课程
  “爸爸，我可以学拉小提琴吗？”小莎拉问爸爸。她总是向爸爸提很多
要求，可爸爸都不太乐意。
  “我已经在你身上花了很多钱了，莎拉，”他说，“你开始想学骑马，
后来是舞蹈，再后来是游泳。现在又想学小提琴。”
  “我会天天练习的，爸爸，”莎拉说，“我会非常用功的。”
  “好吧，”爸爸说，“我让你学六周，然后你拉给我听。如果拉得好，
我就让你接着学；如果不好的话，你就不能再学了。”
  “好的，爸爸，”莎拉说，“这非常公平。”
  他很快给莎拉找了一位非常优秀的小提琴教师，莎拉便开始学了。尽管
学费非常贵，但爸爸还是履行了诺言。
  六周很快就过去了，该莎拉给爸爸表演了。
  她走进客厅对爸爸说：“我已经准备好了，爸爸。”
  “好的，莎拉，”父亲说，“开始吧。”
  她开始演奏了，拉得非常糟糕，发出了刺耳的噪音。
  爸爸请来的一个朋友都捂住了耳朵。
  当莎拉结束时，爸爸说：“拉得很好，莎拉。你可以继续学习小提
琴。”
  莎拉高兴地跑了出去。他朋友转过身来，“你已经花了很多钱了，可她
演奏得很糟糕啊，”他说。
  “确实是，”父亲说，“但自从她学琴以来，我已经以很便宜的价格买
下了这座楼的五套房子。再过六周，整栋楼都会属于我了！”