Name: SanMing_B3L1_Reading
Uploaded: 2014-09-22T16:26:23.000Z
Duration: 3 min 33 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Past continuous

He was driving his battered old car home on a country road one evening.

Past simple

Ever since the Levi's factory closed, he'd been unemployed.

With winter raging on, the chill had finally hit home.

The afternoon was slowly fading into twilight.

and he almost missed the elderly lady who was   stranded on the side of the road.

Fortunately, even in the dim light of day,

So, he pulled up in front of her Mercedes-Benz and got out.

"No one has stopped over the past few hours,   except for this man," she thought to herself.

the lady rolled down the window and started to talk to him.

She told him that she was only passing through.

She was grateful that he came to her aid.

Joe just smiled as he put the flat tire in the trunk.

The elderly lady asked him how much she owed him,

and she added that any amount would be all right.

Joe, however, did not give the money a thought.

but rather a way to help someone in need,

just like those who had left him a hand in the past.

He told her that if she really wanted to repay him,

she could help someone else who was in need.

He waited until she had started her car and driven off.

but Joe felt uplifted as he headed for home.

the lady saw a small, dingy-looking cafe.

She went in to grab a bite and take the chill   off before making the final leg of her trip home.

A waitress came over and brought a clean towel   for her to dry her wet hair.

one that even being on her feet for the entire day couldn't erase.

The lady then noticed that the waitress was heavily pregnant.

She wondered how a person, like this waitress, could   be so giving to a perfect stranger.

While the waitress went to get the change from a hundred-dollar   bill that the elderly lady had given her,

When the waitress returned, the lady was no longer in sight.

The lady had paid almost fifty times as   much as the cost of the meal.

Then the waitress noticed something written on a napkin.

"Someone once helped me out in the way I'm helping you now.

If you really want to pay me back, don't   let the chain of love end with you."

That night, after returning home from work,

thinking about the money and what the lady had written.

especially with our baby due next month?" she wondered.

Her husband, who was sleeping beside her,

"Everything will be all right. I love you, Joe."