大学英语综合教程 第三册 6textA

[00:00.00]When Johnsy fell seriously ill, she seemed to lose the will to hang on to life.
[00:07.78]The doctor held out little hope for her. Her friends seemed helpless. Was there nothing to be done?
[00:16.22]THE LAST LEAF                   By O,Henry
[00:26.15]At the top of a three-story brick building, Sue and Johnsy had their studio. “Johnsy” was familiar for Joanna.
[00:35.87]One was from Maine; the other from California. They had met at a cafe on Eight Street and found their tastes in art,
[00:43.55]chicory salad and bishop sleeves so much in tune that the joint studio resulted.
[00:51.23]2 That was in May. In November a cold, unseen stranger, whom the doctors called Pneumonia, stalked about the district,
[01:01.88]touching one here and there with his icy fingers. Johnsy was among his victims. She lay, scarcely moving on her bed,
[01:12.07]looking through the small window at the blank side of the next brick house.
[01:17.66]3 One morning the busy doctor invited Sue into the hallway with a bushy, gray eyebrow.
[01:24.56]4 “She has one chance in ten,” he said. “And that chance is for her to want to live.
[01:31.32]Your little lady has made up her mind that she’s not going to get well. Has she anything on her mind?”
[01:38.80]5 “She—she wanted to paint the Bay of Naples some day,” said Sue.
[01:45.56]6 “Paint?—bosh! Has she anything on her mind worth thinking about twice—a man, for instance?”
[01:55.70]7 “A man?” said Sue. “Is a man worth—but,no,doctor;there is nothing of the kind.”
[02:04.84]8 “Well,” said the doctor. “I will do all that science can accomplish.
[02:09.88]But whenever my patient begins to count the carriages in her funeral procession
[02:15.58]I subtract 50 per cent from the curative power of medicines.”
[02:20.43]After the doctor had gone Sue went into the workroom and cried.
[02:25.63]Then she marched into Johnsy's room with her drawing board, whistling a merry tune.
[02:31.93]9 Johnsy lay, scarcely making a movement under the bedclothes, with her face toward the window.
[02:39.06]She was looking out and counting—counting backward.
[02:44.23]10 “Twelve,” she said, and a little later “eleven”; and then “ten,” and “nine”; and then “eight” and “seven,” almost together.
[02:56.17]11 Sue looked out of the window. What was there to count? There was only a bare, dreary yard to be seen,
[03:03.82]and the blank side of the brick house twenty feet away.
[03:07.92]An old, old ivy vine climbed half way up the brick wall.
[03:13.38]The cold breath of autumn had blown away its leaves, leaving it almost bare.
[03:19.55]12 “Six,” said Johnsy, in almost a whisper. “They’re falling faster now. Three days ago there were almost a hundred.
[03:29.87]It made my head ache to count them. But now it’s easy. There goes another one. There are only five left now.”
[03:39.53]13 “Five what, dear?”
[03:42.01]14 “Leaves. On the ivy vine. When the last one falls I must go, too. I’ve known that for three days. Didn’t the doctor tell you?”
[03:53.51]15 “Oh, I never heard of such nonsense. What have old ivy leaves to do with your getting well”
[04:00.59]Don’t be so silly. Why, the doctor told me this morning that your chances for getting well real soon were ten to one! 
[04:09.03]Try to take some soup now, and let Sudie go and buy port wine forher sick child.”
[04:16.50]16 “You needn’t get any more wine,” said Johnsy, keeping her eyes fixed out the window. “There goes another.
[04:26.00]No, I don’t want any soup. That leaves just four.
[04:31.39]I want to see the last one fall before it gets dark. Then I’ll go, too. I’m tired of waiting.
[04:39.35]I’m tired of thinking. I want to turn loose my hold on everything,
[04:45.18]and go sailing down, down, just like one of those poor, tired leaves.”
[04:52.47]17 “Try to sleep,” said Sue. “I must call Behrman up to be my model for the old miner. I’ll not be gone a minute.”