Короткий английский текст для практики чтения и перевода.
This loud-mouthed guy was really drunk. He took a sudden dislike to the small well-dressed Filipino and began to order him to get away and not to crowd among the white people. lf he hadn’t been drunk no one would have bothereo to notice him at all, but he was causing a trouble, and while everyone seemed to be in sympathy with the Filipino, no one wanted to bother to help the boy, and the poor Filipino was becoming very frightened.
He stood among the people, and this drunkard kept pushing him and saying, «I told you to get back. Now get back. I’m a real American. I don’t want you standing here among white people.»
The boy kept politely out of the drunkard’s way, not saying anything and trying his best to be as decent as possible. As time went on the drunkard’s dislike grew and he began to swear at the boy. He swore a lot, and it got so bad that a lot of ladies had to imagine they were deaf and weren’t hearing any of the things he was saying.
The boy looked about for a place to hide, and rushed into the lavatory and bolted the door. The drunkard came to the lavatory, swearing and demanding that the boy come out.
«Go away,» the boy said. He wondered why none of the men had the decency to calm the drunkard, and then he realized there were no people around. «Go away,» he said. «l have a knife. I do not want any trouble.»
The drunkard said he was an American. Wounded twice. He would not go away. He wasn’t afraid of the dirty little Filipino with a knife.
The boy threw the door open and tried to rush beyond the man, the knife in his fist, but the drunkard caught him by the sleeves, then he caught the boy at the throat, and the boy began to thrust the knife into the side of the man many times. When the drunkard could no longer hold him and had fallen to the floor, the boy rushed from the room, the knife still in his hand.
Everyone knew what he had done, yet no one moved. Before the policeman arrived he stopped suddenly and began to shout at people.
«I did not want to hurt him! Why didn’t you stop him? You knew he was drunk! Why didn’t you stop him?»
After «The Filipino and the Drunkard» by W. Saroyan