Welcome to mr. Aslanov’s pre-ielts lessons 40 stories to retell

 
 
STORY 36. 
A man and his wife had a small bar near a station. The bar often stayed open until after midnight, 
because people came to drink there while they were waiting for trains. At two o’clock one morning, one man 
was still sitting at a table in the small bar. He was asleep. The barman’s wife wanted to go to bed. She looked 
into the bar several times, and each time the man was still there. Then at last she went to her husband and said 
to him, ‘You’ve woken that man six times now, George, but he isn’t drinking anything. Why haven’t you sent 
him away? It’s very late.’ ‘Oh, no, I don’t want to send him away,’ answered her husband with a smile. ‘You 
see, whenever I wake him up, he asks for his bill, and when I bring it to him he pays it. Then he goes to sleep 
again.’
 
 
 
 
 
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STORY 37. 
Two friends were camping together. Their names were Jim and Tim. Tim was very lazy. The first 
evening of their holiday, Jim said to Tim, ‘Here’s some money. Go and buy some meat.’ ‘I’m too tired,’ 
answered Tim. ‘You go.’ So Jim went to buy the meat. When he came back, he said to Tim, ‘Now, here’s the 
meat. Please cook it.’ But Tim answered, ‘No, I’m not good at cooking. You do it.’ So Jim cooked the meat. 
Then Jim said to Tim, ‘Cut the bread,’ but Tim answered, ‘I don’t want to,’ so Jim cut the bread. Then he said 
to Tim, ‘Go and get some water, please.’ ‘No, I don’t want to get my clothes dirty,’ Tim answered, so Jim got 
the water. At last Jim said, ‘The meal’s ready. Come and eat it.’ ‘Well, I’ll do that,’ answered Tim. ‘I don’t like 
saying “No” all the time.’
 
 
STORY 38. 
One morning a man was crossing a narrow bridge when he saw a fisherman on the shady bank of 
the deep, smooth river under him, so he stopped to watch him quietly. After a few minutes, the fisherman 
pulled his line in. There was a big, fat Fish at the end of it. The fisherman took it off the hook and threw it back 
into the water. Then he put his hook and line in again. After a few more minutes he caught another big fish. 
Again he threw it back into the river. Then, the third time, he caught a small fish. He put it into his basket and 
started to get ready to go. The man on the bridge was very surprised, so he spoke to the fisherman. He said, 
‘Why did you throw those beautiful, big fish back into the water, and keep only that small one?’ The fisherman 
looked up and answered, ‘Small frying-pan.’