A
Narrator: … Greg and the professor discovered that the first tape and translation both contained the expression “to hand in one’s notice”.
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Newsboy: Galaxy News! Galaxy News! Latest on the Air Crisis! Galaxy News!
Prof: (to herself) Oh, I must stop and get a paper before I go up to the lab.
Newsboy: What can I do for you, miss?
Prof: Well… a Galaxy News, please.
Newsboy: Here you are.
Prof: How much is it?
Newsboy: Same as always, one and a half galaxy pieces. Sorry miss, haven’t you got anything smaller? I’m right out of change.
Prof: I’m afraid I’ve only got this 10 piece note.
Newsboy: Well, I’ll see what I can do, miss… O.K., here’s your change.
Prof: Thanks a lot, bye.
Newsboy: What’s your hurry, miss! You’ve forgotten your paper!
Greg: Hello, fancy finding you out of the lab!
Prof: Oh hello, Greg. I just stopped to buy a paper, there’s something about the air crisis in it.
Greg: Oh it’s nothing interesting. Just some new statistics and a speech telling people not to panic. The usual thing.
Prof: Is that all? Well, let’s go up to the lab then, and try solving our code. Then there may really be no need to panic.
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B
Prof: Now, let’s get down to work. Tape No 2 this evening.
Greg: Incidentally Prof, I’ve been wondering about that expression we found last time. Surely 13 tapes, each with an expression, would make the code too long.
Prof: That crossed my mind, too. But let’s see what we can find, and then play with them a bit. Here’s the second tape.
Greg: First we should listen to the cassette, shouldn’t we?
Prof: Yes, of course. Here it is.
N. O. Hope: The second tape is about a department store, or about a rather funny experience in a department store. I’ve done quite a lot of research into life in the 20th century and shopping seems to have been quite a job. A lot of women went out to work in those days, like today, but when they got home, they still had to do all the domestic chores, too. And shopping was one of them. They often did it on the way home, picking up the children from the nursery school on their way. Home delivery wasn’t very widespread, and the housewives seemed to prefer doing their shopping themselves, even in small, overcrowded shops. So every day they bought bread, milk and the basic food for supper and breakfast. Most of the food shops were self-service supermarkets, which made it easier, but they still had to queue up to pay at the cash desk. And when they wanted to buy clothes or anything else, it meant a separate expedition, and still more of their leisure time lost. Thank goodness those times are past and we can enjoy our free time.
Prof: He knew a lot about life at that time, didn’t he?
Greg: He was a dedicated man, no doubt.
Prof: Well, let’s listen to the tape.
Greg: And pay attention to the expressions.
Prof: Pay attention to everything. We might be wrong about the expressions, you know.
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C
(Tape)
Single Sells, Single Sells
Stores in every town,
Oh what fun it is to shop
Where no one lets you down.
Chairman: Ladies and Gentlemen, competitors and guests of honour, I have the pleasure of welcoming you here today, and thanking you for your eager participation in the Single Sells Chain Department Stores “Best Story” competition. I shall now hand over to our general manager, Miss Penelope Bazaar.
Miss Bazaar: Ladies and Gentlemen. Amusing stories often come to our ears from regular shoppers at our Single Sells Chain Stores. So we decided to organize this competition to find the best story. We have had 432 entries, all of which have been carefully studied by our panel of judges.
The grand prize is a two week shopping spree in Paris. The second prize is a voucher worth double your salary, and the third prize winner gets the chance to shop for 5 minutes blindfolded in whatever department he likes.
Now I’ll hand back to the chairman to call out the three finalists.
D
Chairman: Thank you, Miss Bazaar. Ladies and Gentlemen. The third prize goes to Tommy Black, a schoolboy, from Swagshire, for his story about the unisex school-bag.
Tommy: Thank you, thank you.
Chairman: The second prize winner is Lady Carrington-Smithsbottom from the Upper Counties. Her story was about the trolley that ran away.
Lady Carrington-Smithsbottom: Thank you so much.
Chairman: These two stories will be published shortly in our weekly Single Sells Magazine. But now for the grand prize winner. Will Mrs. Pastry from Doughnut Lane, Overhampshire please come up and read her story: The day I painted the town red.
Chairman: How do you do, Mrs. Pastry?
Mrs. Pastry: How do you do?
Chairman: Now Mrs. Pastry, would you be so kind as to read out your story.
Mrs. Pastry: Oh, it’s a pleasure… “Last summer we took our caravan to a seaside site near Liverpool. I had to go all the way to Liverpool to find out just how much Single Sells Stores means to me. One day I went into Liverpool to do my weekend shopping and my husband asked me to buy a tin of red paint to cover the scratches I made when I drove into the caravan. When I looked at my list I nearly cried… I had to find a grocer’s, a greengrocer’s, a fish shop, a butcher’s, a chemist’s, an ironmonger’s for the paint, and a stationer’s, not to mention the haberdasher’s. Then suddenly a little tune popped into my mind – and I knew the answer. When I got into Liverpool I left the car in a car park and walked into the centre to the nearest Single Sells Stores. I had never been to Liverpool before but I didn’t have much trouble finding it – there must be dozens in a town that size. So I did all my shopping under one roof. It was the most modern department store I’ve ever been in. I had to go into every department. I ended up buying everything but the kitchen sink – though I was in the kitchenware department and they had a lovely range of kitchen stuff. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I bought all the odds and ends on my list including the paint, went back to the car, and drove back to the caravan site.”
“Got the paint?” my hubby said right away. “Course, duck,” I said, “it’s in the car. But where’s my purse?” “Lord, it’s leaking,” I heard my hubby say. But I was much too busy looking for my purse. “Fred, have you seen my purse, is it in the car?” I called. “I can’t see it – but look at this paint, it’s all over the place, half the tin’s gone.” “Never mind the paint,” I said, “where’s my purse?” “Did you put it in your pocket?” he asked. I looked but it wasn’t there. “What about your handbag, isn’t it there?” No, it wasn’t. Then suddenly I realized I had left it in the shop. I had no trouble getting back to the car park, but I couldn’t remember the way to the Single Sells Stores. What was I to do? How could I find my way back to the shop? A tear dropped from my eye, and as I looked down I saw it was red. “The paint!” I cried and knew every cloud had a silver lining. So I began following the paint marks. The paint led me all the way back to the department stores – my Single Sells. The assistant was very helpful but she hadn’t seen my purse. So she called the manager, he took me to the cash desk and there it was. When I told them how I’d found the shop again, they immediately gave me ten free samples of all shades of red paint. So you see, even if you get bad goods at the Single Sells, there’s always a reason – Single Sells never lets you down.”
(End of Tape)
* * *
Prof: Now, have you time to listen to the Expression Extractor?
Greg: Yes, I think so. Shall I turn it on?
Prof: Yes, do.
Ex.Ex.: to get the chance to, to paint the town red, to do the shopping, to do one’s shopping under one roof, everything but the kitchen sink, to cut a long story short, odds and ends, to let somebody down.
Greg: I wonder which of these our expression can be?
Prof: We’ll have to keep our eyes wide open when we do the translation.
Greg: O.K. I’ll come over again soon.
Prof: Fine, and thanks a lot, Greg.
Greg: Bye, Prof. I hope I’ll live to see the President’s eyes wide open when we do find the code.
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