英语中级听力课程Lesson 35

Lesson 35

Tom: ... when I was living ... in North Africa,

and I had a cook, and I'd been there for several

years, you see. And I was just going to come on

leave to England, you see, and obviously it was

quite

a

long

leave,

you

know.

I

was

coming

for

...

three months, I think it was. So I had to, I had

a house and I had to sort of close the house up,

obviously,

and,

erm,

this

chap

who

worked

for

me,

who

was

a

sort

of ...

cook,

erm,

he

was ...

obviously going to go off, you know, for three

months- there

wasn't

any

point

in

him

staying

there-so

it

was,

I

was

getting

everything

ready,

anyway. And I had a lot of things to fix up, so

I'd

got

rather

a

lot

of

cash

out

of

the

bank.

You

know,

I

had

a

lot

of

bills

to

pay

(Yes)

and

things

to do, and, erm, I had about sixty-five pounds,

I

think

it

was.

And

one

particular

evening,

I

was

just

sort

of,

you

know,

clearing

up

the

sitting-room and going to go to bed, I put the

sixty-five

quid

under

the

papers

in

the

top

left-hand drawer of my desk and then I went out

of

the

door

on

to

the

veranda

and

locked

the

door.

And

the

point

was,

all

the

rooms

of

the

house

sort

of opened on to a veranda, on to a courtyard, if

you

see

what

I

mean.

There

weren't

passages

inside

the house. And, erm, then I went to bed. So, the

next

morning

I

got

up,

and,

erm

...

after

I'd

had

my

breakfast,

I

was

going

out

into

the

town

to

do

various things for which I

needed the money, you

see (Yes) and, erm, I went to the drawer to get

it

...

and

it

wasn't

there!

I

immediately

thought,

well

maybe

my

cook,

Idris,

has

taken

this,

because,

the

thing

was,

that

the

rooms

were

all

locked

and

you

couldn't

have

got

in

to

the,

erm,

to

the

room,

or

any

of

the

rooms

of

the

house,

without

showing

some

sort

of

sign

of

entry,

if

you

see

what

I

mean.

(Yes) And, er, he had access to all the keys in

the

house,

you

know.

(Oh,

I

see.)

So,

erm,

I

went

to

his

room.

And,

erm,

he'd

gone

off

already.

He'd

gone shopping, in fact. In fact, his room was

locked.

Erm,

I

got

the

keys,

unlocked

it,

went

in,

sort of searched the room, ... felt rather sort

of

...

guilty,

you

know,

at

sort

of

going

through

his personal possessions in this way. But there

was

nothing

there.

So,

you

know,

I

thought,

'Well,

hell, what do I do next? I'd better go to the

police'.

And,

erm,

my

mind

was

still

very

much

on

him,

that

...

it

must

be

him.

Erm,

so

I

went

down

to the police station and, erm, said that the

money'd been stolen and would the police please

come

to

the

house,

and

investigate.

And

would

they

also ... investigate my cook, whom I suspected.

And they said, erm, well, they wouldn't come and

search the cook or look round the house unless I

made a definite accusation against him. And if I

made a definite accusation against him, they'd

come along and, er, take him back to the police

station and really sort it out. Well, I wasn't

very happy about that, because I felt, erm, I

didn't really

have any evidence, you know, I was

just extremely suspicious of him because of the

circumstances. So, erm, I said, 'No,' and, but

felt pretty desperate about it then. So I went

back to the house ... Anyway, later in the day,

I

said

to

him,

'You

know,

I

had

sixty-five

pounds,

which I put in the desk, and it's disappeared.'

And he sort of said, 'Oh, yeah'. You know, he

didn... didn't register anything at all. Er, so

I said, 'Yes, sixty-five pounds has disappeared

and

nobody

seems

to

have

come

into

the

house'.

And

he sort of said, 'Oh yeah, well', (you know). So

I said, 'Yes, I'm going to get the police'. And

he still didn't sort of register anything, you

know. He just

sort of shrugged his shoulders. So

then

I

thought,

'Well,

the

only

thing

to

do

is

that

I'll have to tell him that, erm, that's it, you

know, I don't want him to work for me any more'.

But,

erm,

being

a

coward

over

these

sort

of

things,

I

let

it

drift

for

about

a

couple

of

days,

and

then,

the

day

I

was

actually

going,

erm,

I

said

to

him,

er,

you

know,

'Idris,

I'm

afraid

that,

er,

I

don't

want

you

to

come

back

after

the

holidays.

I

think

it's better if you don't work for me any more.'

And,

er,

he

immediately

made

a

tremendous

speech,

he said what the hell did I think I was doing,

etcetera, etcetera, why, what were my reasons,

etcetera,

etcetera.

So

I

said,

probably

very

stupidly,

but

I

said

to

him,

'Well,

you

know

about

that sixty-five pounds that disappeared, well,

I'm not saying you took it, but I just think you

might've taken it, and therefore I don't feel I

can trust you any more and, er, so I just don't

think

you

can

go

on

working

for

me.'

So,

of

course,

that was it! He absolutely went through the roof

at this! And, erm, you know, gave me a sort of

tremendous

...

tirade.

Anyway,

I'd

quite

made

up

my

mind,

although

I'd

taken

so

long

to

tell

him

...

And

I

said,

'Well,

sorry',

you

know,

'that's

it.'

Then,

in

fact,

erm,

a

friend

dropped

in,

erm,

who,

who,

who

was

a

great

friend.

He,

he,

he

lived

there,

he

was

a

local

person.

And,

erm,

Osman

came

in

and

he sort of ... started getting involved in the

conversation,

...

anyway,

I

wasn't

going

to

change

my

attitude

over

it.

Then

Idris

got

terribly upset and was all sort of sad about it

and

upset

about

it

and

started

to

cry,

said

I

was

ruining his life, etcetera. But, anyway, I was

completely

sort

of

hard- hearted

about

it

and

didn't do anything about it and that was it. And

he

went.

I,

er,

I

mean

I

...

paid

him,

...

you

know,

quite

a

bit

of

money

in

lieu

of

notice

and

everything but, I mean, he still felt extremely

upset,

and

it

was

one

of

those,

erm,

very

kind

of

unpleasant

things,

which

left

one

...

feeling

...

rather ... upset about it and not knowing... I

never

knew

whether

I'd

done

quite

the

right

thing

or

not.

Well,

I

worked

there

for

a

couple

of

years

more and when I was finally leaving after two

years I was throwing out lots and lots of things

like magazines, books and so on, and this chap,

Osman, who'd actually been there the afternoon

Idris had finally left amidst all these rows, I

gave

him

some

old

magazines,

including

actually,

er,

an

old

Encounter

and,

erm,

he

came

back

a

few

days later and he said, 'You know, I didn't know

whether

to

actually

come

and

tell

you

or

not,

but

I was looking

through that copy of Encounter you

gave

me

and

I

found

sixty-five

pounds

(laughter)

in

the

back

of

the

magazine.'

Terribly

difficult

because I was

leaving the country, never to come

back,

you

know,

in

about

twenty-four

hours

after

that

...

feeling

that

one

had

done

something

wrong

which one couldn't put right! And I didn't have

any idea what had happened to Idris, in fact.

Pretty unfortunate!

In the summer of 1933, the world's first

drive-in

movie

theatre

opened

in

Camden,

New

Jersey.

Drive-ins

became

popular

after

World

War

II

and

in

the

'50s

there

were

nearly

five

thousand

theatres

across

the

country.

But

today,

less

than

three

thousand

remained.

Drive-ins

are

in

trouble.

Land

values

near

cities

are

increasing

and

drive-ins are being torn down to make way for