One day, an electricity (电力) generator (发电机) broke down. The electric lights went out all over the city.
Machines1, computers failed, fridges no longer worked, and frozen foods went2. There was no radio and no television. The situation was very3. As a result, the loss of power was costing the electricity company tens of thousands of dollars. It was costing industry and business in the town many more thousands of dollars.
Engineers worked for hours without a stop trying to get the generator to start again, but nothing4.
The generator had a mistake that no one understood. Hopelessly, the manager of the electric company invited a world-famous expert on generators. A few hours5, he flew into town. He drove to the6station and walked around the generator. He looked at it carefully and then took a smallhammer(锤子) out of his pocket and hit a part of the generator with it. Rapidly the generator started working again to the manager of the electric company.
The expert gave his7to the manager of the electric company. It said: "For restarting one generator: 5, 000." The manager was very8. "Five thousand dollars!" he shouted. "For hitting the generator with a hammer! It's too much money! I won't pay for it!"The expert took the bill back and9it slightly. Now it said: "For hitting one generator: $1. for knowing10to hit: 4,999."
