大學英語綜合教程第一冊 Unit 1b

[00:00.00] on purpose in advance comprise motion [00:02.65]故意的\預先\包含\以動作示意 [00:05.30]adjust think up in the meantime generally [00:07.82]適應\想出\在此期間\通常 [00:10.34]appeal clash represent decent [00:12.56]吸引力\沖突\代表\正派 [00:14.79]evil voluntary assume [00:17.95]As a summer job the author used to cut Mr.Ballou's lawn. [00:23.07]The only problem was that Mr.Ballou never seemed to have any money to pay for it [00:29.23]But what he did have to give was something that turned out to be for more valuable. [00:35.08]When I was fourteen,I earned money in the summer by cutting lawns, [00:40.20]and within a few weeks I had built up a body of customers. [00:44.75]I got to know people by the flowers they planted [00:49.21]that I had to remember not to cut down, [00:52.45]by the things they lost in the grass or stuck in the ground on purpose. [00:57.70]I reached the point with most of them [01:00.76]when I knew in advance what complaint was about to be spoken, [01:05.46]which particular request was most important. [01:09.51](1) And I learned something about the measure of my nieghbors [01:13.72]by their preferred mehtod of payment:by the job,by the month-or not at all [01:19.39]Mr.Ballou fell into the last category,and he always had a reason why. [01:25.21]On one day he had no change for a fifty, [01:29.29]on another he was flat out of checks, [01:32.60]on another,he was simply out when I knocked on his door. [01:37.33]Still,except for the money part,he was a nice enough old guy, [01:42.27]always waving or tipping his hat when he'd see me from a distance. [01:48.30]I figured him for a thin retirement check,maybe a work-related injury that [01:54.34]kept him from doing his own yard work. [01:57.50]Sure,I kept track of the total,but I didn't worry about the amount too much. [02:03.95](2)Grass was grass,and the little that Mr.Ballou's property comprised didn't take long to trim. [02:10.82]Then,one late affernoon in mid-July,the hottest time of the year, [02:16.46]I was walking by his house and he opened the door,montioned me to come inside [02:22.52]The hall was cool,shaded,and it took my eyes a minute to adjust to the dim light [02:29.19]"I owe you,"Mr.Ballou began, "but…" [02:33.00]I thought I'd save him the trouble of thinking up a new excuse. [02:37.02]"No problem.Don't worry about it." [02:40.18]"The bank made a mistake in my account,"he continued,ignoring my words. [02:46.40]"It will be cleared up in a day or two [02:49.33]But in the meantime [02:51.36]I thought perhaps you could choose one or two volumes for a volumes for a down payment." [02:57.01]He gestured toward the walls and I saw that books were stacked everywhere. [03:02.94]It was like a library,except with no order to the arrangement. [03:08.87]"Take your time,"Mr.Ballou encouraged. [03:12.10]"Read,borrow,keep.Find something you like.What do you read?" [03:17.56]"I don't know."And I didn't.I generally read what was in front of me, [03:22.27]what I could get from the paperback stack at the drugstore, [03:25.79]what I found at the library,magazines,the back of cereal boxes,comics. [03:33.16]The idea of consciously seeking out a special title was new to me, [03:39.04]but,I realized,not without appeal-so I started to look through the piles of books [03:46.17]"You actually read all of these?" [03:49.33]"This isn't much,"Mr,Ballou said. [03:52.65]"This is nothing,just what I've kept,the ones worth looking at a second time [03:59.62]"Pick for me,then." [04:01.48]He raised his eyebrows,cocked his head, [04:05.00]and regarded me as though measuring me for a srit. [04:08.76]After a moment,he nodded,searched through a stack, [04:13.39]and handed me a dark red hardbound book,fairly thick. [04:18.64]"The Last of the Just,"I read. "By Andre Schwarz-Bart.What's it about?" [04:26.76]"You tell me,"he said, "Next week." [04:30.60]I started after supper,sitting outdoors on an uncomfortable kitchen chair. [04:36.38](3)Within a few pages,the yard,the summer,disappeared, [04:42.23]and I was plunged into the aching tragedy of the Holocaust, [04:46.59]the extraordinary clash of good,represented by one decent man,and evil. [04:53.51]Translated from French,the language was elegant,simple,impossible to resist. [05:00.56]When the evening light finally failed I moved inside,read all through the night [05:07.28]To this day,thirty years later,I vividly remember the experience. [05:14.51]It was my first voluntary encounter with world literature, [05:19.16]and I was stunned by the concentrated power a novel could contain. [05:24.13]I lacked the vocabulary,however, [05:26.92]to translate my feelings into words,so the nest week, [05:31.39]when Mr.Balloul asked, "Well?"I only replied, "It was good." [05:37.53]"Keep it,then,"he said."Shall I suggest another?" [05:41.42]I nodded,and was presented with the paperback edition of Margaret Mead's Coming of Age in Samoa [05:49.13]To make two long stories short, [05:52.55]Mr.Ballou never paid me a cent for cutting his grass that year or the next, [05:59.03]but for fifteen years I taught anthropology at Dartmouth College. [06:04.46]Summer reading was not the innocent entertainment I had assumed it to be,not a light-hearted [06:11.77]instantly forgettable escape in a hammock [06:15.12](though I have since enjoyed many of those,too) [06:18.59]A book,if it arrives before you at the right moment,in the proper season, [06:24.44]at an interval in the daily business of things, [06:28.55]will change the course of all that follows.

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