Long, long ago there was a very foolish thief. Do you know what he did one day? When he wanted to steal (偷) the bell on his neighbor’s door, he walked up to the door, took hold of (抓住) the bell and pulled hard. The bell made a very loud noise. The thief was afraid and went home.
Then he sat down to think, “I must do something about the noise,” he said. He thought and thought. At last he had an idea. “Ah, I’ll put some cotton in my ears. Then I won’t be able to hear the noise.” The next day he went to the door of his neighbor, and took hold of the bell. This time he pulled even harder. The bell rang loudly, but the thief did not hear anything. With another hard pull he got the bell out. Just then the neighbor came running out. “Steal my bell? I’ll teach you a lesson (教训),”the angry man shouted. And he hit the thief on the nose.
The foolish thief did not know how the neighbor found out he was stealing the bell. “Why did he come out just then?” he wondered (感到疑惑).
【小题1】The thief was trying to get         .

Miss Evans was going to give a lecture (讲座) on Friday afternoon. But on Thursday night she was told that she had to go to an important meeting the next day at the same time. “No one can be in two places at the same time. What shall I do?” she thought. But soon, she had an idea. At five to three on Friday afternoon, Miss Evans went to the lecture room. There were twenty students waiting there for her. “I'm sorry,” she told them, “I won't be able to give my lecture today.” The students looked surprised. Miss Evans explained（解释） that she had an important meeting. “However,” she went on, “though I can't be with you myself, my voice can.” Then she put a small tape recorder (录音机) on the desk, “You see, I've recorded my lecture and you can listen to it without me.” Miss Evans turned on the recorder and left.
The meeting ended a little early. Miss Evans decided to go back to her students. She stood for a moment outside the lecture room, listening to her own voice. Then quickly, she opened the door. To her surprise, the room was empty. As she looked around, she saw a number of small recorders “listening” to her lecture!
“Well,” she thought, “If I can be in two places at the same time, why can't they?”
【小题1】Miss Evans had to __________ on Friday afternoon.