Once upon a time, there was an unlucky man. His home was very poor—a small and empty house, where mice made their nests and spiders (蜘蛛) made their webs.
People tried to avoid coming into his house—why should they go into those poor ruins? And the poor man thought that poverty (贫穷) is the reason for his bad luck.
Once, the poor man met a wizard (巫师) and complained (抱怨) to him about his poverty and unhappy life. The wizard felt sorry for the poor man and gave him a beautiful vase. And said, "This is a magical vase that will save you from poverty."
The poor man took the vase and wanted to sell it for wine at first, as usual, after all, why would he need such a beautiful thing? But then he started admiring the vase and wouldn't take it to the market. He brought it home, put it on the table and started admiring it again.
"It's not right for such a beautiful thing to be empty," the poor man thought. So he picked some wild flowers and put them into the vase.
It became even more beautiful.
"Not good," the poor man thought again, "that such a beautiful thing stands next to a spider web."
So the poor man started cleaning his house from spider webs, sweeping out mice, cleaning the dust, washing the floor and walls, whitening the ceiling.
And it became clear that his house wasn't poor, but rather warm and comfortable. And the man wasn't a poor man anymore, but a hard-working host, who had no time for the thoughts about bad luck.
a. The man cleaned his house.
b. The man wasn't poor anymore.
c. The man wanted to sell the vase.
d. The man got a vase from a wizard.
e. The man started to admire the vase.
