Lesson 73 The record-holderDid the boy go where he wanted to?Children who play truant1 fro
m school are unimaginative. A quiet day's fishing, or eight hours in a cinema seeing the s
ame film over and over again, is usually as far as they get. They have all been put to sha
me by a boy who, while playing truant, travelled 1,600 miles. He hitchhiked to Dover and,
towards evening, went into a boat to find somewhere to sleep. When he woke up next morning
, he discovered that the boat had, in the meantime3, travelled to Calais. No one noticed t
he boy as he crept4 off. From there, he hitchhiked to Paris in a lorry. The driver gave hi
m a few biscuits and a cup of coffee and left him just outside the city. The next car the
boy stopped did not take him into the centre of Paris as he hoped it would, but to Perpign
an on the French-Spanish border. There he was picked up by a policeman and sent back to En
gland by the local authorities5. He has surely set up a record for the thousands of childr
en who dream of evading6 school.Lesson 74 Out of the limelightWhy was their disguise1 'too
perfect'?An ancient bus stopped by a dry river bed and a party of famous actors and actre
sses got off. Dressed in dark glasses and old clothes, they had taken special precautions3
so that no one should recognize them. But as they soon discovered, disguises4 can sometim
es be too perfect.'This is a wonderful place for a picnic,' said Gloria Gleam5.'It couldn'
t be better, Gloria,' Brinksley Meers agreed. 'No newspaper men, no film fans! Why don't w
e come more often?'Meanwhile, two other actors, Rockwall Slinger6 and Merlin Greeves, had
carried two large food baskets to a shady7 spot under some trees. When they had all made t
hemselves comfortable, a stranger appeared. He looked very angry. 'Now you get out of here
, all of you!' he shouted. 'I'm sheriff here. Do you see that notice? It says "No Camping"
-- in case you can't read!''Look, sheriff,' said Rockwall, 'don't be too hard on us. I'm
Rockwall Slinger and this is Merlin Greeves.''Oh, is it?' said the sheriff with a sneer8.
'Well, I'm Brinksley Meers, and my other name is Gloria Gleam. Now you get out of here fas
t!'Lesson 75 SOSHow did the woman get help?When a light passenger plane flew off course so
me time ago, it crashed in the mountains and its pilot was killed. The only passengers, a
young woman and her two baby daughters, were unhurt. It was the middle of winter. Snow lay
thick on the ground. The woman knew that the nearest village was miles away. When it grew
dark, she turned a suitcase into a bed and put the children inside it, covering them with
all the clothes she could find. During the night, it got terribly cold. The woman kept as
near as she could to the children and even tried to get into the case herself, but it was
too small. Early next morning, she heard planes passing overhead1 and wondered how she co
uld send a signal2. Then she had an idea. She stamped out the letters 'SOS' in the snow. F
ortunately, a pilot saw the signal and sent a message by radio to the nearest town. It was
not long before a helicopter3 arrived on the scene to rescue the survivors5 of the plane
crash.