新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第一册 unit07a_new

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[00:00.00]喜欢hxen.net，就把hxen.net复制到QQ个人资料中！Face to Face with Guns
[00:-1.00]Like most city folks, I'm cautious.
[00:-2.00]I scan the street and pathways for anything
[00:-3.00]—or anyone—unusual before pulling into the garage.
[00:-4.00]That night was no exception.
[00:-5.00]But,as I walked out of the garage,
[00:-6.00]KFC chicken in hand,a portly,unshaven young man
[00:-7.00]in a stocking cap and dark nylon jacket emerged from the shrub by the parking pad
[00:-8.00]and put his pistol between my eyes.
[00:-9.00]"Give it up, mother—,"he threatened."Give it up."
[00:10.00]"Hey,"I said,"just take it."
[00:11.00]As I spoke,I set the KFC box on the planter beside the pathway,
[00:12.00]contriving as I did so to toss my house keys into a bush.
[00:13.00]"Where's your money? Where's your money?"he barked.
[00:14.00]Everything he said during our encounter was repeated;
[00:15.00]instinctively,I did the same.
[00:16.00]"It's in my wallet.It's in my wallet,"I said.
[00:17.00]He moved behind me,put his gun on my neck and began to search my trousers' pockets.
[00:18.00]"Where's your wallet?"he asked.
[00:19.00]"It's in my back pocket."
[00:20.00]"Where's the rest of your money?"
[00:21.00]"I don't have any more money."
[00:22.00]"Where's your watch?"
[00:23.00]"Here,"I replied, extending my left arm sideways.
[00:24.00]Just then,his partner appeared.
[00:25.00]Slight and shorter,he held an enlarged blue steel pistol.
[00:26.00]His dark eyes shone like polished glass;
[00:27.00]his arms and legs moved unexpectedly,as if attached to unseen wires.
[00:28.00]His voice snapped,"Stop looking at us.Stop looking at us."
[00:29.00]He wasn't stupid.
[00:30.00]I've seen enough criminal trials to know victims of armed attacks are seldom able to identify their offenders
[00:31.00]because their attention focuses on the guns,rather than on their users.
[00:32.00]I consciously noted details of their faces.
[00:33.00]"I'm not looking at you,"
[00:34.00]I lied as the big one ripped the watch from my wrist.
[00:35.00]"Get down.Get down,"the thin one ordered.
[00:36.00]He grabbed my glasses and tossed them onto the lawn.
[00:37.00]By then,I was flat on my face on the pathway,its dirt against my forehead.
[00:38.00]The big one's gun dug into the back of my head,
[00:39.00]the thin one's pistol into my left temple.
[00:40.00]I thought,"I am going to die.
[00:41.00]This is going to kill Leslie.
[00:42.00]Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner."
[00:43.00]"What's this?"the big one asked.
[00:44.00]I rolled my head to the right.
[00:45.00]"It's KFC chicken,"I said.
[00:46.00]"We'll take it,"the big one snapped.
[00:47.00]And,suddenly—wallet,watch and chicken in hand
[00:48.00]—their footsteps faded down the darkened street.
[00:49.00]I turned to see their shadows get into a car and speed away.
[00:50.00]I had been spared, but by what? Mercy?
[00:51.00]A short attention span? Hunger?
[00:52.00]"How peculiar,"I thought,"to have your life saved by fried chicken.
[00:53.00]I saw eternity; they saw food."
[00:54.00]I got to my feet, found the keys, entered and called 911.
[00:55.00]The operator took a description of the robbers and sent a police car.
[00:56.00]I poured a stiff drink and soon two uniformed officers of the LAPD arrived.
[00:57.00]They took a report and admitted the "important thing" was nobody was hurt.
[00:58.00]"But,"one officer said on leaving,"taking your chicken,that's rough."
[00:59.00]Later,an officer telephoned for additional details.
[-1:00.00]He said the pair's methods suggested they might be the same men
[-1:-1.00]who had committed a number of robberies in the area over the past few months.
[-1:-2.00]He asked me to come to the station and look through mug shots.
[-1:-3.00]So,last Monday I looked through album-sized books of pictures mostly of young men
[-1:-4.00]—an amazing number of them actually children.
[-1:-5.00]Turning those pages and studying their photographs
[-1:-6.00]is like flowing on a sad current that, like Blake's Thames,
[-1:-7.00]seems to "mark in every face, marks of weakness, marks of woe."