Lesson 40 Food and talk

Last week at a dinner-party, the hostess asked me to sit next to Mrs. Rumbold. Mrs. Rumbold was a large, unsmiling lady in a tight black dress. She did not even look up when I took my seat beside her. Her eyes were fixed on her plate and in a short time, she was busy eating. I tried to make conversation.

A new play is coming to" The Globe" soon,' I said. 'Will you be seeing it ?' ' No,' she answered. 'Will you be spending your holidays abroad this year ?' I asked.' No,' she answered. 'Will you be staying in England?' I asked. ' No,' she answered. In despair, I asked her whether she was enjoying her dinner.

Young man,' she answered,' if you ate more and talked less, we would both enjoy our dinner!'

Lesson 41    Do you call that a hat?

'Do you call that a hat ?' I said to my wife. 'You needn't be so rude about it,' my wife answered as she looked at herself in the mirror. I sat down on one of those modern chairs with holes in it and waited. We had been in the hat shop for half an hour and my wife was still in front of the mirror. 'We mustn't buy things we don't need,' I remarked suddenly. I regretted saying it almost at once. 'You needn't have said that,' my wife answered.' I need not remind you of that terrible tie you bought yesterday.' 'I find it beautiful,' I said. 'A man can never have too many ties.' 'And a woman can't have too many hats,' she answered. Ten minutes later we walked out of the shop together. My wife was wearing a hat that looked like a lighthouse !

Lesson 42    Not very musical

As we had had a long walk through one of the markets of Old Delhi, we stopped at a square to have a rest. After a time, we noticed a snake charmer with two large baskets at the other side of the square, so we went to have a look at him. As soon as he saw us, he picked up along pipe which was covered with coins and opened one of the baskets. When he began to play a tune, we had our first glimpse of the snake. It rose out of the basket and began to follow the movements of the pipe. We were very much surprised when the snake charmer suddenly began to play jazz and modern pop songs. The snake, however, continued to 'dance' slowly. It obviously could not tell the difference between Indian music and jazz!

hostess /ˈhoʊstəs/  女主人;女房东;

next to 旁边;紧邻;在…近旁;

a large, unsmiling lady 身形高大、表情严肃的女士

tight 紧身的

fixed   v. 使固定;安装;    adj.固定的;不变的;

fix on 决定;确定;

conversation  [ˌkɑːnvərˈseɪʃn]

despair  [dɪˈsper] 绝望

remark [rɪˈmɑːrk] 评论;言论;

can never have too many 有再多也不过分

can't have too many

lighthouse 灯塔

charmer [ˈtʃɑːrmər] 使人着迷的人;有吸引力的人;

snake charmer 耍蛇人; 固定搭配

pipe 管乐器;

tune [tuːn]  曲调;曲子

 glimpse [ɡlɪmps]   n. 一瞥;一看;     v. 瞥见;看一眼;

obviously [ˈɑːbviəsli]  明显地;

继续追赶进度。要查的单词和词组越来越多了。不过，一旦习惯了每天的朗读，习惯就会变成身体中的一种信号，时刻督促着自己，这件事今天一定要做。