A merry group of friends was sitting on the terrace of a restaurant. The table was laid for four: two men and two women. The group of friends was eating fish and when dinner was finished one of the women said that very often diamonds and pearls were found inside fish. Everybody liked this topic, (1) ______An old man who was sitting in the corner of the terrace came up to the group of friends. He said that he had heard their conversation and wanted to tell them a real story about fish. Everybody agreed, so the old man continued: "When I was a young man, I worked for a large importing company in New York. At that time I was in love with a pretty girl, (2) ______. About two months before we got married I had to go to England. I left my girlfriend in New York and promised to write to her. She said that she'd wait for me. I had to stay in England longer than I'd planned, (3) _____. Just before my trip home, I had bought a very expensive diamond ring. It was a present for my future wife."On my way home to New York, I read in the morning paper that my girl was marrying another man. It made me so angry that I threw the ring into the sea."A few days later when I was in a restaurant in New York, fish was served. While I was eating it, I felt something hard in my mouth. What do you think it was? "The diamond ring! " cried the friends. "No," said the old gentleman, "it was a fish bone." why did he have to leave that place? why did the group of friends remember different stories about fish and diamonds?
