Once there was a poor woman, who lived with her little daughter after her husband died. She worked long hours each day, but only made enough 1 to live on.
One day, her little daughter came back from school 2 . She said that her teacher was full of praise for her 3 for singing and suggested that she should be trained as a singer. The woman was very pleased to hear that at first. 4 the pleasure soon turned to worry as she realized that she didn't have the money to afford the training.
She 5 long and hard, and finally decided to borrow some money from a merchant (商人), who her husband had been friends with. When the merchant 6 their situation, he felt sorry for them and decided to help them.
"How much do you need, Madam?" asked the merchant.
"One hundred pounds will be enough, Sir. " said the woman, 7 to ask for money. "I'll find another job and pay you back as soon as possible. "
The merchant sat down at his desk, wrote a cheque (支票), gave it to the woman with the words, "Take this to the 8 , Madam. You don't need to pay me back. " The woman was very 9 , but she insisted on (坚持) writing an IOU (借条) to the merchant.
The woman handed the cheque to the bank teller. But to her surprise, the teller counted out one thousand pounds, 10 one hundred, and passed them to her.
"There is a mistake here," the woman said. "You have given me one thousand pounds, and I only asked for one hundred. "
The teller looked at the cheque 11 , and said, "The cheque is for one thousand pounds. "
"It's a mistake. I am sure of that. " said the woman. She took the cheque back and returned to the merchant.
"I did make a mistake, Madam," said the merchant, when he had heard the woman's words.
"I should 12 you a job rather than just giving you one thousand pounds. It would be my pleasure to work with a person as honest as you. "
