Unit 13 阅读材料.docVIP

A young painter lived in a small narrow house, living on painting portraits before he became famous. ?One day, a rich man came by and found the painter painting so carefully that he liked it and asked him to draw a portrait. They agreed on the fee of 10,000 dollars. ?After a week, the portrait was done. The rich man came to take the painting as agreed on. At this moment, the rich man came up with an evil idea of bullying the unknown young artist, so he refused to pay the fee. ? The rich man thought the man in the painting is me. If I don not buy this painting, no one will buy it. Why should I pay so much money for it? So the rich man said “I will only pay 3,000 dollars to buy this painting.” ? The young artist was surprised, for he had never come across such things. He strongly argued on just grounds, expecting the rich man to abide by the agreement and to be a trustworthy man. “I can only pay 3,000 dollars to buy the painting. Speak no more.” The rich man thought he had won,” I ask you at last, will you sell it 3,000 dollars or not？”The young artist knew the rich man deliberately broke his promise, so he felt angry. H e said in a firm tone, “No. I would prefer not to sell the painting rather than to be humiliated by you . Today you break your word and someday you must pay 20 times.” “What a joke! 20 times will be 200,000! I won’t be stupid to pay 200,00 dollars to buy the painting!” “Well, we, d better wait and see, the young artist said to the rich man who left angrily.” After the stimulation(刺激) of such an incident, the painter moved out of this sad place, formally? acknowledged knowledge and worked hard night and day. More than a dozen years later, he finally started a new way and became popular in the circle of art. ? After he left the studio, the rich man had forgotten the artist’s painting and words the next day. Until one day, some friends of the rich man came to tell him, “Something is so strange! We paid a visit to a famous artist’s exhibition of paint