Arthur m. Jensen endorsed by the following professors of English

SELECTED SHORT STORIES
[1]
ENGLISH
BY THE NATURE METHOD
BY
ARTHUR M. JENSEN
Endorsed by the following professors of English:

S.R.T.T. D’ARDENNE University of Liege FRANZ DE BACKER University of Ghent FRANK BEHRE University of Gothenburg HELLUT BOCK University of Kiel C. A. BODELSEN University of Copenhagen G. BONNALD University of Lausanne KARL BRUNNER University of Innsbruck W. CLEMEN University of Munich L. ECKHOFF University of Oslo

OTTO FUNKE University of Berne P. N. U HARTING University of Amsterdam OTTO JESPERSEN (†) University of Copenhagen B. VON LINDHEIM Free University of Berlin H. LUDEKE University of Basle OLE REUTER University of Helsingfors K. SCHIBSBYE University of Copenhagen F. TH. VISSER University of Nijmegen MAX WILDI Institute of Technology, Zurich

R.W ZANVOORT
University of Groningen
The Nature Method Institute

AMSTERDAM • BRUSSELS•COPENHAGEN•HELSINGFORS MILAN•MUNICH•OSLO•STOLKHOLM•VIENNA•ZURICH
[2]
SELECTED
SHORT
STORIES
The Nature Method Institute

AMSTERDAM • BRUSSELS•COPENHAGEN•HELSINGFORS MILAN•MUNICH•OSLO•STOLKHOLM•VIENNA•ZURICH
DET BERLINGSKE BOGTRYKKERI
PREFACE
The purpose behind the present collection of short stories is a double one. Firstly, it has been my intention to give to those who have gone through the main part of “English by the Nature Method” a chance to continue their studies in an easy and natural way by simply reading stories written in a language that they already command. Thus, at the beginning of this book, the stories make use only of the 2300 words contained in “English by the Nature Method”. By degrees, new words are introduced, and these are explained by the help of the same 2300 words plus such new words as may have been taken into use in the stories already given. In this way the pupil's knowledge of words is increased little by little, until at the end of the book it includes 3700 words in all, carefully chosen among those most frequently used in the English language.
In the second place, I have had in mind to try to be of help to those who may in other ways have reached a certain amount of knowledge of English, but who feel that they cannot directly gain an entrance into the world of English writers without spending too much time and labour. The specially prepared short stories of this book make up a convenient bridge leading the reader by easy steps from the usual school knowledge of English to an under- standing of the language normally used by English writers. Thus the story printed at the end of the book is given entirely in the writer's (W. W. Jacobs’s) own language. As to the rest of the stories, the way in which they were written has been more or less changed, easier words and expressions having been used instead of more difficult ones, or, in some cases, the hard ones having simply been left out.
It is planned that seven book-length stories by well-known writers shall follow the present book, all of them prepared and explained in much the same way as here, until at last the reader commands at least 12,000 different words, and reads and un- derstands English as readily as he does his native tongue. Together with each of these books will appear, under separate cover, a short account of some interesting side of the English language itself or of the different ways of using it.
I wish to express my thanks to the writers whose stories appear in the following pages for permission to print their stories in this form. Thanks are also offered to Messrs. Richard Steele & Son for agreeing to use The Man of Mystery and Eliza by Barry Pain; to Messrs. J. W. Arrowsmith (London) Ltd. For Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome; to Messrs. Hughes Massie & Co. Ltd. For The White Line by John Ferguson and Philomel Cottage by Agatha Christie; to Mr. Adrian M. Conan Doyle and Messrs. John Murray for the RedHeaded League from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conon Doyle; and to The Society of Authors for Family Cares from Deep Waters by W. W. Jacobs.
In addition, I owe a debt of thanks to professors and teachers of English at the universities of Co- penhagen, Helsingfors, Oslo, and Stockholm for many helpful suggestions in connection with pre- paring the material for this book. I also take pleasure in thanking Major R.L. Taylor for his nevertiring help in getting together the accounts and stories here made use of, and fitting them for the purpose held in mind.
By way of finishing, I may, perhaps, be allowed to point to the fact that this preface is written entirely within the limits of the 2300 words taught and explained in “English by the Nature Method”.
ARTHUR M. JENSEN
Stockholm, January 1949.
CONTENTS
PAGE

THE MYSTERY OF ROOM 342 7
AN IMPORTANT PIECE OF WATER 25
THE MAN OF MYSTERY By BARRY PAIN 32
THE CARDS By BARRY PAIN 55
THE PLEASANT SURPRISE 59
THE TONIC PORT By BARRY PAIN 63
THE ENGLISHMAN AND HIS COUNTRY 67

Three Men in a Boat by JEROME K. JEROME 97
The White Line by JOHN FERGUSON 107
Wild Wales 137
A Modern Don Juan by R.L Taylor 142
Village Life in India 175
Courage 183
The Red-Headed League
By SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE 188
Philomel Cottage by AGATHA CHRISTIE 233
Family Cares by W.W JACOBS 273