2014年6月英语四级听力小故事之海蒂格林

同学们，还记得听力考试里提到的吝啬而富有的海蒂·格林吗？她可是一位被称为“华尔街女巫”的传奇女子，并被认为是19世纪美国最富有的女人。今天我们为大家介绍她和她丈夫之间的故事。

Hetty Green was born Henrietta Howland Robinson in 1834 in Massachusetts. On July 11, 1867, at the age of 33, Robinson married Edward Henry Green, a member of a wealthy Vermont family. She made him renounce all rights to her money before the wedding.
海蒂·格林于1834年出生于马萨诸塞州，娘家姓氏是罗宾逊。1867年7月11日，33岁的罗宾逊女士嫁给了爱德华·亨利·格林——他来自佛蒙特州的一个富裕家庭。海蒂·格林在婚前让对方放弃了对她财产的一切权力。

Hetty Green's frugality and discipline soon clashed with her husband's freewheeling speculation. She had to bail out her husband several times before unofficially separating from him.
爱德华·格林喜欢随心所欲的投机买卖。这很快就和简朴严格的海蒂·格林产生冲突。在他们非正式离婚之前，海蒂曾数次将他保释出来。

For most of the 1800s, Green kept a constantly rotating number of houses in different districts to avoid taxes in any single one. In 1885, however, her main bank attempted to seize her assets to cover her husband's trading debts.
在19世纪的大部分时间里，海蒂不停地在各个区之间换房以避免被课税。尽管如此，在1885年，她的主要往来银行尝试冻结她的财产来偿还她丈夫的债务。

They had two children, a daughter and a son, and both went to live with their mother. When her son, Edward Green, nicknamed Ned, injured his leg sledding, his mother tried to take him to a charity hospital to get free care. The leg was improperly treated and had to be amputated, as gangrene had set in.
他们生了一个男孩和一个女孩。孩子们都和海蒂·格林住在一起。当她的儿子爱德华·格林（小名内德）滑雪橇摔伤了腿，她带他去了慈善医院接受免费治疗。由于误诊，内德的腿上生了坏疽而不得不被截肢。

Green's relationship with her children was strained and would remain so until her death. Her daughter left after marrying, and her son worked unpaid for years as her clerk.
海蒂·格林在死前和孩子们的关系一直很紧张。她的女儿在婚后离开了她。她儿子则作为办事员为她工作了许多年，她却没有为此支付一个子儿。