Section 2 narrative dictations

Dictation 1

Good Advice

Once early in the morning a farmer arrived at the nearest town to sell some eggs and butter. He stayed at a small hotel. The charge for a single room was not very high. It suited the farmer as he was planning to stay in the town only for two days.

In the afternoon when he sold his goods he decided to have lunch at a café, where people were talking about a lawyer who was very clever and gave everybody good advice. The farmer decided to go and see him. "I've heard a lot about you. Could you advise me anything?" said the farmer. "What advice would you like to have?" "Any," replied the farmer. The lawyer smiled, took a piece of paper and wrote something on it. The farmer thanked him and left his office. The next day he went to purchase some presents for his family. When he bought everything he went to the station, got on the train and came back home. It was broad noon. He was going to read a newspaper, but his wife told him to gather the hay. The farmer was exhausted and desired to put off

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the work. But suddenly he remembered that he had the lawyer's advice. He took the paper and read: "Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today." "All right, let's gather the hay," said the farmer and all his family began working. In the evening it started raining heavily.

Dictation 2

The Witty Farmer

Sam was an old farmer. He was born on his farm and lived on it all his life. He married his neighbour's daughter, and they grew fruit and vegetables. Sam got up at five o'clock every morning to gather them and take a load off to the market in his truck. There were few vehicles on the country roads at that time of the morning, and Sam knew how to get to the market perfectly well, so as he was going along, he was always thinking about everything except his driving.

One morning his mind was engaged with the ideas what crops to plant for the next year's harvest, and whether to try something else. A lot of other farmers were cultivating the same things which he produced, so the prices in the market were coming down and he was getting less money.

After a few kilometres, Sam came to a place where a small road which went in the direction of the market crossed a bigger one, and he continued over it without stopping. He always crossed the place like that, because there was never any traffic on. So there was no fear of having an accident, and anyway he was regularly in a hurry, because he wanted to get to the market in time for its opening.

But that morning a young policeman whom he had never seen before signalled to him to stop a hundred metres beyond the crossroads. Sam stopped beside the man, and the latter enquired, "Didn't you know that there was a sign telling you to stop at the crossroads before going over the main road?"

"Oh, yes, «answered Sam, "I knew that it was there, because I go to the market along this road every morning. But what I unfortunately was not aware of was the fact that you were hiding there".

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Dictation 3