大学英语综合教程 第四册 Unit 5A

[00:00.00]Some people seem easy to understand:their character appears obvious on first meeting.
[00:08.91]Appearances,homwever,can be deceptive.
[00:14.29]A FRIEND IN NEED                                                by Somerset Mauqham'
[00:19.91]For thirty years now I have been studying my fellownmen.I do not know very much about them.
[00:28.73]I shrug my shoulders when people tell me that their first impressions of a person are always right
[00:36.62]I think they must have small insight or great vanity.
[00:42.34]For my own part I find that the longer I know people the more they puzzle me.
[00:49.03]These reflections have occurred to me because I read in this morning's paper that Edward Hyde Burton had died at Kobe
[00:58.75]He was a merchant and he had been in business in Japan for many years.I knew him very little
[01:06.82]but he interested me because once he gave me a great surprise.Unless I had heard the story from his own lips
[01:16.77]I should never have velieved that he was capable of such an action.It was more starling
[01:24.77]because both in appearance and manner he suggested a very definite type.Here if ever was a man all of a piece
[01:34.54]He was a tiny little fellow,not much more than five feet four in height ,and very slender
[01:42.32]with white hair,a red face much wrinkled ,and blue eyes.I suppose he was about sixty when I knew him
[01:51.75]He was always neatly and quietly dressed in accordance  with his age and station.
[01:58.86]Though his offices were in Kobe,Burton often came down to Yokohama.
[02:05.05]I happened on one occasion to be spending a few days there, waiting for a ship,
[02:11.55]and I was introduced to him at the British Club,We played bridge together.He played a good game and a generous one
[02:20.70]He did not talk very much,either then or later when we were having drinks,but what he said was sensible
[02:29.52]He had a quiet.dry humor.He seemed to be popular at the club and afterwards,when he had gone
[02:38.41]they described him as one of the best.It happened that we were both staying at the Grand Hotel
[02:46.77]and next day he asked me to dine with him.I met his wife,fat,elderly,and smiling,and his two daughters
[02:57.35]It was evidently a united and affectionate family.I think the chief thing that struck me about Burton was his kindliness
[03:08.45]There was something very pleasing in his mild blue eyes.His voice was gentle;you could not imagine
[03:17.41]he could possibly raise it in anger;his smile was benign.Here was a man who attracted you
[03:26.81]because you felt in him a real love for his fellows.At the same time he liked his game of cards and his cocktail
[03:37.68]he could tell with point a good and spicy story ,and in his youth he had been something of an athlete.
[03:46.35]He was a rich man and he had made every penny himself.I suppose one thing
[03:54.58]that made you like him was that he was so small and frail;he aroused your instincts of protection
[04:02.52]You felt that he could not bear to hurt a fly.
[04:06.99]One afternoon I was sitting in the lounge of the GrandHotel whenBurton came in and seated himself in the chair next to mine
[04:16.00]'What do you say to a little drink?'
[04:19.74]He clapped his hands for a boy and ordered two gin fizzes.As the boy brought them a man
[04:28.56]passed along the street outside and seeing me waved his hand.
[04:34.39]'Do you know Turner?'said Burton as I nodded a greeting.
[04:39.01]'I've met him at the club.I'm told he's a remittance man.'
[04:44.60]'Yes,I believe he is.We have a good many here.'
[04:49.70]'He plays bridge well.'
[04:53.02]'They generally do.There was a fellow here last year,
[04:58.00]oddly enough a namesake of mine,who was the best bridge player I ever met