She Wanted to show oft In the 18th century young ladies in Italy usually had very poor knowledge of history and
geography. They hardly ever read a book about America, which was called the New World,
about Christopher Columbus or about his discoveries. Once a young lady was invited to the
King's palace. There was
a ball there. The lady belonged to a very rich and famous family. She knew a lot of important
and respectable people. She liked to talk to them though she seldom could understand the
subject of their talk. The ministers, lawyers, other political people knew that the young lady
was neither clever, nor bright but they often talked to her as they didn't want to offend her
because though she was rather dull, she was nice and pleasant. Well, that evening one of the
guests, a professor of history, was late. The young lady knew his name very well as his
political ideas were very famous. She came up to him and asked him why he was late. "Oh,
nothing important", said the professor, "I was delayed by my friend,
a professor of history from Mexico". "Is Mexico far from Italy?" asked the young lady. The
professor smiled and said it was in the New World. "In the New World?" repeated the young
lady who was surprised to hear that. "Yes", smiled the professor again. He had a good sense
of humour, so he said: "Mexico is in the New World which was discovered by Christopher
Columbus". When the young lady heard that she ran to the dancing hall and shouted as loud
as she could: "Ladies and gentlemen, have you heard the latest news? A new world has just
been discovered by a certain Christopher Columbus!”
the best variant.
