《劍橋雙語分級閱讀·小說館（第3級 套裝共12冊）》：
　　Carl had always been a serious person. He'd worked very hard and did well in his exams. When I used to try and make him go out for the evening he often said that
　　he had too much work to do. I thought that Linda would soon get tired of him. Sometimes Linda and I went out together to have fun and left Carl with his books.
　　She must have liked the fact that he was serious because a year after they had finished at university Carl and Linda got married. It was a great wedding and they both looked so happy. They were obviously very much in love.
　　Had something happened to their marriage? Something must have happened to them since then, but I was afraid to ask.
　　Carl now looked at me in a serious way. I could see he wasn't happy. He was wearing a suit, but he wasn't wearing a tie and I wanted to ask him if he was working at the moment. But I didn't ask him and, as we drank our beer, I told him about what I'd been doing for the last four or five years. I told him how I'd found it difficult to get a job when I first left university.
　　‘You know, Carl, I was never able to study like you did,and when I had to go and get ajob I found it really hard. For a couple of years I worked on small newspapers all over the place. I spent two years in Devon. Beautiful but very quiet...'
　　I thought that Carl might want to know how I moved to a big national newspaper, how hard I now worked, but I could see he wasn't very interested. He kept looking out of the window at the river.
　　‘...so finally, about six months ago, I decided it was time to come to London, There was nothing to keep me in Devon. No family, you know? I haven't been able to find
　　a girl who wants to marry me yet. Perhaps I never will!'I said. For the first time since I had started telling him about myself Carl seemed to be listening.
　　‘Don't work too hard if you do get married...' Carl said. 'I worked too hard and it finished my marriage.'
　　‘Oh dear,' I replied. 'What happened, Carl? You don't look very happy. Where's Linda?'
　　‘Happy? You're right, John. No, I'm not happy and I'm not sure I ever will be again...' He stopped talking and looked out of the window again. He finished his beer and then said, 'But you don't want to hear my story...'
　　But I did want to hear his story. After all, I was a journalist. I wrote stories as a job. I was always interested in stories. And I was especially interested in Carl's story. He was my friend. So was Linda. Ofcourse I wanted to know.
　　‘Tell me what happened with you and Linda,'I said.He looked at me for a minute to see ifl was serious and then said, 'You know, when Linda agreed to marry me I thought I had everything. It was wonderful. I got a good job in London as soon as we left university. It was hard work - I was working most weekends - and for a couple of years we didn't take a holiday. But it was good money and we soon had enough to buy a fiat. Linda had her friends and she seemed to like her job as well.We liked doing the same things, I thought, and I hoped that I'd soon have more time for us to spend together...' He stopped talking for a few seconds.
　　‘It was Linda's idea to buy the house by the sea. It was going to be a place we could go to together at weekends.She loved the place. I understand why now,' he said, and
　　then laughed in a sad way.
　　‘Linda said London was dirty and noisy and the flat was boring. You know Linda, John. If she didn't like something she always said it was boring.'
　　……