Đang chuẩn bị liên kết để tải về tài liệu:
bài đọc Lesson 5

a day in the life of a stately home owner. | A day in the life of a stately home owner by Alan Townend A day in the life of a stately home owner The Pelham-Smiths are no longer as rich as they once were. At one time they owned a large house in London an estate in Scotland and Pelham Manor a seventeenth-century house standing in sixty acres of its own grounds near Gloucester. Now only Pelham Manor remains in the family. The present owner Sir John Pelham-Smith inherited Pelham Manor on the death of his father five years ago. Sir John was immediately faced with a bill for death duties which he was unable to pay. He did not want to sell Pelham Manor so he made an arrangement with the government to pay the bill over a number of years. Now he and his family live in one wing of the Manor and the rest of the house is open to the public. Sir John hopes to be able to pay the death duties from the entrance fees. Large old houses like Pelham Manor are known as stately homes especially when their owners find it necessary to open them to the public. Being a stately home owner is not easy but Sir John thinks it is worth the effort to keep Pelham Manor in the family. One day Sir John thought he had found the answer to some of his difficulties but things didn t quite turn out as he expected. That morning as always he got up at six o clock to make his daily tour of the house and grounds. Everything seemed to be in order. Then after breakfast he talked to the estate manager Cedric Hoskins who was an old friend of the family. Cedric looked glum. The accounts for this quarter don t look at all good he said. We may have to raise the entrance fee. But that will only discourage people from coming. Few enough come as it is said Sir John. But personally I m very hopeful about this American contract. If it comes off well be all right. Well that depends on how things go this afternoon Cedric reminded him. The agent for Americo-British Tours a Mr. Schulman is coming with a party of American tourists and he has promised to let us know by