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新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第三册 te-unit01-a
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[00:00.00]喜欢hxen.net,就把hxen.net复制到QQ个人资料中!The Expensive Fantasy of Lord Williams
[00:-1.00]1 Tomintoul, Scotland--On Saturday night at The Grouse's Nest,
[00:-2.00]they're still willing to raise a glass or two to "Lord Williams",
[00:-3.00]though now his title prompts laughter.
[00:-4.00]And now they just call him "Tony".
[00:-5.00]2 There are those in this beautiful village
[00:-6.00]in the mountains of Scotland
[00:-7.00] (population, 320) who say they were never quite sure about Anthony Williams,
[00:-8.00]the soft-spoken,
[00:-9.00]wealthy noble who arrived in 1986 with his well-dressed wife.
[00:10.00]3 And there are other who say their suspicions were aroused over time,
[00:11.00]as the 55-year-old Mr.Williams,
[00:12.00]who appeared on weekends turned out in fine suits,
[00:13.00]bought up property after property,
[00:14.00]providing such a large injection of cash into the village
[00:15.00]that he single-handedly brought me community back to life.
[00:16.00]4 But no one could have possibly guessed the truth
[00:17.00]--that the man with endless money and a friendly manner was not a lord at all
[00:18.00]but a government employee living out a fantasy
[00:19.00]that he was a Scottish noble
[00:20.00]and paying for it by stealing funds from Scotland Yard.
[00:21.00]5 About two weeks ago, a regreful Mr.Williams,
[00:22.00]who had worked for the London police since 1959
[00:23.00]and had risen to a 65,000 a year position as deputy director of finance,
[00:24.00]was brought into court and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison.
[00:25.00]6 Estimates are that he poured nearly 5 million of the stolen money
[00:26.00]into the village and gave jobs to 43 people.
[00:27.00]And now that he has fallen upon dark days
[00:28.00]at least some villagers are sticking by him.
[00:29.00]7 "I found him a very charming man,
[00:30.00]very friendly, considerate --not at all proud,"
[00:31.00] said Georgie McAllister, 70, the manager of the local museum
[00:32.00]whose family has been farming the surrounding hills for generations.
[00:33.00] "It's hard to understand how a clever person like him
[00:34.00]could mislead people like that.
[00:35.00]It's sad. Of course, it did benefit the village.
[00:36.00]A lot of the properties were beautifully restored."
[00:37.00]8 A few doors down the square,
[00:38.00]barber Donald Corr sat inside his shop
[00:39.00]and described how suspicions began to grow.
[00:40.00]"Everyone wondered where the money was coming from.
[00:41.00]Why was he spending it in a little place in the mountains?
[00:42.00]Christ, he wouldn't have gotten it back in 100 years."
[00:43.00]9 According to the court,
[00:44.00]Mr.Williams stole more than 8 million over eight years.
[00:45.00]Most of it came from a secret fund that had been placed under his sole authority
[00:46.00]and that was supposed to be used to pay spies
[00:47.00]and conduct secret activities against the Irish Republican Army.
[00:48.00]10 Instead, it went to create one more British lord.
[00:49.00]11 Mr.Williams bought an estate with a fine brick house in England.
[00:50.00]He bought a beautiful home with white walls and a pool in Spain.
[00:51.00]He bought noble titles at auctions,
[00:52.00]spending 95,000 to become the Lord of Chirnside,
[00:53.00]and then adding on 10 more Scottish titles.
[00:54.00]12 But most of all,
[00:55.00]he sunk his dishonest gains into this village
[00:56.00]that captured his heart with its fine stone cottages,
[00:57.00]its central area of green grass,
[00:58.00]green rows of hedges,
[00:59.00]and its fantastic view of rolling fields
[-1:00.00]and pine forests disappearing into the distance
[-1:-1.00]like the men of an ancient army marching over the horizon.
[-1:-2.00]13 He bought multiple cottages and fixed them up.
[-1:-3.00]He purchased the pub
[-1:-4.00]and made it into a fine place to have a glass of Glenlivet Scotch whiskey,
[-1:-5.00]produced only 10 miles (16 kilometers) to the north.
[-1:-6.00]And most of all,