8.Be Quiet!（240）

Lesson 8 Be Quiet!

During the Great Depression, finding a job was really tough.

Joe, a former gym athlete, was lucky to land a job at a zoo.

He found out the zoo's star attraction had been a gorilla that suddenly passed away.

The zookeeper was worried about losing visitors, so Joe had to dress as the gorilla until they could get another one.

The more people he attracted, the more money he'd make.

So, he did everything possible to grab the visitors' attention, drawing large crowds on the first few days.

But gradually, the crowds grew bored of his tree-swinging and face-making.

He noticed people were more interested in the new lion in the cage next to his.

Not wanting to be ignored, he climbed to the top of his cage, crawled over a partition, and hung himself above the lion's cage.

He teased the angry lion below, which drew even larger crowds.

Impressed, the zookeeper gave him a raise for being such a great draw.

Then, one day, while hanging over the lion's cage again, he accidentally fell in.

The lion was on him in a flash, and Joe found himself on his back, staring up at the furious lion.

He barely managed to open his mouth to scream, "hel..." before the lion's paw covered it.

Terrified for his life, he then heard the lion whisper, "Be quiet, or we'll both be out of a job!"