大学英语精读听力第一册 unit10

[00:00.00]Unit Ten　　Text
[00:23.04]I first heard this story a few years ago
[00:26.28]from a girl I had met in New york's Greenwich Village.
[00:29.83]Probably the story is one of those mysterious bits of folklore
[00:34.27]that reappear everyfew years,
[00:36.73]to betold anew in oneform or another.
[00:40.07]However,I still like to think that it really did happen,
[00:43.86]somewhere,sometime.
[00:46.45]GOING HOME
[00:49.29]They were going to Fort Lauderdale--
[00:52.74]three boys and three girls--
[00:55.09]and when they boarded the bus,
[00:57.08]they were carrying sandwiches and wine in paper bags,
[01:01.05]dreaming of golden beaches and sea tides as the gray,
[01:05.49]cold spring of New York vanished behind them.
[01:09.17]As the bus passed through New Jersey,
[01:12.88]they began to notice Vingo.
[01:15.18]He sat in front of them,
[01:17.53]dressed in a plain,ill-fitting suit,
[01:20.40]never moving,his dusty face masking his age.
[01:24.69]He kept chewing the inside of his lip a lot,
[01:23.69]frozen into complete silence.
[01:26.56]Deep into the night,outside Washington,
[01:30.90]the bus pulled into Howard Johnson's,
[01:33.46]and everybody got off except Vingo.
[01:36.33]He sat rooted in his seat,
[01:39.23]and the young people began to wonder about him,
[01:42.29]trying to imagine his life:
[01:44.85]perhaps he was a seacaptain,
[01:47.59]a runaway from his wife,
[01:49.73]an old soldier going home.
[01:50.81]When they went back to the bus,
[01:53.97]one of the girls sat beside him and introduced herself.
[01:57.60]"We're going to Florida," she said brightly.
[02:01.76]"I hear it's really beautiful."
[02:04.34]"It is," he said quietly,
[02:07.37]as if remembering something he had tried to forget.
[02:11.03]"Want some wine?" she said.
[02:14.51]He smiled and took a swig from the bottle.
[02:17.85]He thanked her and retreated again into his silence.
[02:22.42]After a while,she went back to the others,
[02:26.08]and Vingo nodded in sleep.
[02:28.64]In the morning,they awoke outside another Howard Johnson's,
[02:33.84]and this time Vingo went in.
[02:36.45]The girl insisted that he join them.
[02:39.82]He seemed very shy,
[02:42.17]and ordered black coffee and smoked nervously
[02:43.57]as the young people chattered about sleeping on beaches.
[02:42.57]When they returned to the bus,
[02:45.53]the girl sat with Vingo again,and after a while,
[02:49.18]slowly and painfully,he began to tell his story.
[02:53.73]He had been in jail in New York for the past four years,
[02:59.85]and now he was going home.
[03:02.38]"Are you married?"
[03:04.97]"I don't know."
[03:03.97]"You don't know?"she said.
[03:06.61]"Well,when I was in jail I wrote to my wife," he said.
[03:11.62]"I told her that I was going to be away a long time,
[03:15.91]and that if she couldn't stand it,
[03:17.92]if the kids kept asking questions,
[03:20.40]if it hurt her too much,well,she could just forget me.
[03:24.79]I'd understand.
[03:26.83]Get a new guy,I said--
[03:29.07]she's a wonderful woman,really something
[03:32.26]--and forget about me.
[03:34.30]I told her she didn't have to write me.
[03:37.54]And she didn't.
[03:39.00]Not for three and a half years."
[03:41.87]"And you're going home now,not knowing?"
[03:46.13]"Yeah," he said shyly.
[03:48.69]"Well,last week,
[03:50.94]when I was sure the parole was coming through,
[03:53.81]I wrote her again.
[03:55.48]We used to live in Brunswick,
[03:58.02]just before Jacksonville,
[04:00.05]and there's a big oak tree just as you come into town.
[04:03.92]I told her that if she didn't have a new guy and if she'd take me back,
[04:09.30]she should put a yellow handkerchief on the tree,
[04:12.46]and I'd get off and come home.
[04:15.10]If she didn't want me,forget it--
[04:18.26]no handkerchief,and I'd go on through."
[04:21.81]"Wow,"the girl exclaimed.
[04:25.00]"Wow." She told the others,
[04:28.24]and soon all of them were in it,
[04:30.12]caught up in the approach of Brunswick,
[04:32.37]looking at the pictures Vingo showed them of his wife and three children--
[04:37.20]the woman handsome in a plain way,
[04:40.05]the children still unformed in the much-handledsnapshots.
[04:44.38]Now they were 20 miles from Brunswick,
[04:47.47]and the young people took over window seats on the right side,
[04:51.12]waiting for the approach of the great oak tree.
[04:54.68]Vingo stopped looking,tightening his face,
[04:58.28]as if fortifying himself against still another disappointment.
[05:02.46]Then Brunswick was 10 miles,and then five.
[05:06.80]Then,suddenly,
[05:08.26]all of the young people were up out of their seats,
[05:10.92]screaming and shouting and crying,
[05:13.17]doing small dances of joy.
[05:15.63]All except Vingo.
[05:15.70]Vingo sat there stunned,looking at the oak tree.
[05:20.19]It was covered with yellow handkerchiefs
[05:23.04]--20 of them,30 of them,maybe hundreds,
[05:26.12]a tree that stood like a banner of welcome billowing in the wind.
[05:26.23]As the young people shouted,
[05:28.50]the old con slowly rose from his seat
[05:27.50]and made his way to the front of the bus to go home.