10 shorts stories by O. Henry. Книга для чтения на английском языке

There he was found |его нашли|. He was picked up |его подобрали. Это все пассивные залоги, над чем-то или кем-то совершают действие: его нашли, его подобрали. Сам он ничего не делал. Все действия были над ним| and taken to a hospital. They put him on a bed, and began to try to discover what strange sickness had made him fall |заставила его упасть. В английском два глагола означают “заставить”: to make и to force. Главное после них поставить еще глагол, который и будет означать, что именно вас заставляют делать: don’t make me go there/не заставляй меня туда идти|.

And an hour later the Old Gentleman was brought to the same hospital. And they put him on another bed, and began to try to discover what his sickness could be.

After a little time one of the doctors met another doctor, and they talked.

“That nice old gentleman over there,” he said. “Do you know what’s wrong with him? He is almost dead for need of food. A very proud old man, I think. He told me he has had nothing to eat for three days.”

The Last Leaf

In a small part of the city west of Washington Square, the streets have gone wild |улицы сошли с ума|. They turn in different directions. They are broken into small pieces called “places.” One street goes across itself |пересекает саму себя| one or two times. A painter once discovered something possible and valuable about this street. Suppose |Представим…| a painter had some painting materials for which he had not paid. Suppose he had no money. Suppose a man came to get the money. The man might walk down that street and suddenly meet himself coming back, without having received a cent |он встречает самого себя, не получившего ни цента|!

This part of the city is called Greenwich Village. And to old Greenwich Village the painters soon came. Here they found rooms they like, with good light and at a low cost. Sue and Johnsy lived at the top of a building with three floors. One of these young women came from Maine |штат Мэн в США|, the other from California. They had met at a restaurant on Eighth Street. There they discovered that they liked the same kind of art, the same kind of food, and the same kind of clothes. So they decided to live and work together.