NARRATIVE TEXT

The Swindle

by Yearning for Rainy

NARRATIVE TEXT

Text Organization	Language Features
Orientation : The crew-cut man stood ramrod straight in a western-style suit in front of the waiting room at the Guangzhou train station. He was wearing a pair of sunglasses and had a black leather briefcase stuck under his arm; a cool-looking dude. He was watching carefully all around him. There were a lot of people, some napping, some chatting. He found an empty space and sat down right next to a middle-aged man in his forties, with big eyes and bushy eyebrows. He seemed like a good-natured fellow. The man looked closely at him and decided he was kind-hearted and straightforward. From his clothing he looked to be getting along quite well.	Who ? Crew-cut man Middle-aged man Young man Doctor Mom Where ? Guangzhou train station Action verb
Complication : He gave the man a cigarette and struck up a conversation. They chatted about all kinds of things, and then the talk turned serious. He asked what time the man’s train left and said they were on the same train. He reached out and shook the man’s hand, and said what good luck it was to meet a kindred spirit, how invigorating to meet a new friend. It was like meeting someone from home in a faraway place, making both very happy. Slowly the defenses began to soften.         All of a sudden he shouted, “My ticket’s gone.” The middle-aged man said, “Look again.” He went through all his pockets but still couldn’t find it. Not only was his ticket gone, his wallet was, too. He just had twenty or thirty Yuan in his pocket, not enough to buy another ticket. What could he do now?           He told the middle-aged man, “Hey, look, man, I’ve lost my wallet and my ticket. How about this: I’ll sell you my cell phone, cheap, whatever price you say.” He took out his phone and the middle-aged man looked at it, and said, “Not a bad phone.” The young man said, “It’s a Nokia. I paid 1,000 Yuan for it last month. I wouldn’t let it go for a bargain price if I hadn’t lost my wallet and need money to get home. There’s still over a hundred Yuan of credit on the phone.” The middle-aged man said, “How about 500 Yuan?” They negotiated and finally agreed on 600 Yuan. He said, “You’re a good guy, man, thanks. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get home. Say, maybe there’s one more thing you could help me with. My mom has cancer, and the reason I’m going home is to get her to see a doctor. I didn’t figure on getting my wallet stolen. With no money, I don’t know how I’ll get her to the doctor.”           He sighed and his eyebrows pinched together while he was speaking. The middle-aged man only half believed him and no one spoke for a moment. Then the young man slapped his thigh and said, “How stupid of me! I’ve got some more new phones in my bag. Suppose I give you a really good price, my friend. I thought I could make a little money off them, but who would’ve thought I’d run into this problem and have to use them to get out of it.”            The middle-aged man looked at the phones. They settled on a price and he counted out the money from his wallet. He didn’t have enough, but said, “I’ve got this piece of jade. It’s red jade. How about taking it instead, what’d’ya think? A friend of mine bought it in Cambodia. It’s first class good jade. If you weren’t offering such a good price for the phones, I wouldn’t let loose of it.” The young man took the jade in his hand and turned it over and over, and couldn’t see a problem. As he was whispering to himself, is it real or fake, a man maybe 30 years old came along. He said, “Wow, that’s good jade, really rare. This is my thing. I take one look at any kind of jade and can tell what kind it is. This was bought in Cambodia, right? It’s top grade. Tell me how much and I’ll take it.” The middle-aged man said, “This young man bought it. Ask him if he’ll sell it.” When he heard this the young man stopped doubting whether it was real. He told the 30-year-old, “We’ll talk about the jade in a minute. I’ve got some business with my friend here. Wait for me here, I’ll be back in a bit.”            They went to a secluded place outside the waiting room. He brought out several phones and said, “I’ll put the phones I’m giving you in this new bag, my friend. I’ve got no use for it, anyway. “OK.” The middle-aged man pulled out his money and counted it, and gave the money and the jade to the young man. The young man didn’t count it, just stuffed it into his fanny pack and said, “Thanks. My mom can get some treatment now. I thank you on her behalf.” “You’re welcome.”           He felt pretty pleased with himself for having hooked another fish. He went somewhere where no one was around to count the money, but when he did, the paper didn’t feel right. “Don’t tell me it’s fake. And the jade, too?” He went back to the waiting room to look for the 30-year-old man but there wasn’t a trace of him. Only then was he sure he’d been taken. He had a friend who knew something about jade take a look, and the friend confirmed that it wasn’t close to real. The young man had conned more people than he could count, and never suspected that this time he’d get conned himself. As the saying goes, try and steal a chicken, end up with a handful of rice.           The middle aged man walked quickly into an alley where the 30-year-old was already waiting for him. They took the phones out from the bag to have a look. One was a real phone, but the rest were toys worth about 10 Yuan. They turned the bag upside down hoping there still might be more real ones and a piece of paper appeared before their eyes: “Stop looking, old buddy, you got one real one but the rest are fakes. See you.”           When they read the note they said, “That’s OK, at least we got a little something out of it.”	Linking words Xpecif.partcpts
Resolustion : the solution is we should never trust people easily because not everyone acts well from his behavior could be that person has a certain intent so we must be wary of people we just know

QUESTION :
1. who is the main character of the story?
a.Crew-cut man

b.Middle-aged man

c.Young man

d.Doctor

e. Mom

2. where is the background of the story ?
a. Bus Station
b. Hospital
c. Park
d. Train Station
e. Street 

3. what has been stolen by the thief ?
a. Wallet and ticket
b. wallet and phone
c. phone and ticket
d. wallet and laptop
e. laptop and ticket

4. how old people are in the story?
a. 21 years
b. 41 years
c. 30 years
d. 81 years
e. 45 years

5. what he offers to the middle-aged person ? 
a. blue jade
b. green jade
c. red jade
d. purple jade
e. black jade