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高英3版第3课Blackmail-课文全文

高英3版第3课Blackmail-课文全文
高英3版第3课Blackmail-课文全文

Blackmail

Arthur Hailey

○1The chief house officer, Ogilvie, who had declared he would appear at the Croydons suite an hour after his cryptic telephone call actually took twice that time. As a result the nerves of both the Duke and Duchess were excessively frayed when the muted buzzer of the outer door eventually sounded.

○2The Duchess went to the door herself. Earlier she had dispatched her maid on an invented errand and, cruelly, instructed the moon-faced male secretary –who was terrified of dogs –to exercise the Bedlington terriers. Her own tension was not lessened by the knowledge that both might return at any moment.

○3 A wave of cigar smoke accompanied Ogilvie in. When he had followed her to the living room, the Duchess looked pointedly at the half-burned cigar in the fat man’s mouth. “My husband and I find strong smoke offensive. Would you kindly put that out."

○4The house detective's piggy eyes surveyed her sardonically from his gross jowled face. His gaze moved on to sweep the spacious, well-appointed room, encompassing the Duke who faced them uncertainly, his back to a window.

○5"Pretty neat set-up you folks got.” Taking his time, Ogilvie removed the offending cigar, knocked off the ash and flipped the butt toward an ornamental fireplace on his right. He missed, and the butt fell upon the carpet where he ignored it. ○6The Duchess's lips tightened. She said sharply, imagine you did not come here to discuss décor ".

○7The obese body shook in an appreciative chuckle . "No, ma'am, can't say I did. I like nice things, though." He lowered the level of his incongruous falsetto voice." Like that car of yours. The one you keep here in the hotel. Jaguar, ain't it?"

○8"Aah!" It was not a spoken word, but an emission of breath from the Duke of Croydon. His wife shot him a swift, warning glance.

○9"In what conceivable way does our car concern you?”

○10As if the question from the Duchess had been a signal, the house detective's manner changed. He inquired abruptly, "Who else is in this place?"

○11It was the Duke who answered, "No one. We sent them out."

○12"There's things it pays to check." Moving with surprising speed, the fat man walked around the suite, opening doors and inspecting the space behind them. Obviously he knew the room arrangement well. After reopening and closing the outer door, he returned, apparently satisfied, to the living room.

○13The Duchess had seated herself in a straight-backed Ogilvie remained standing. ○14"Now then," he said. "You two was in the hit-'n-run ."

○15She met his eyes directly." What are you talking about?"

○16"Don't play games, lady. This is for real." He took out a fresh cigar and bit off the end, "You saw the papers. There's been plenty on radio, too."

○17Two high points of color appeared in the paleness of the Duchess of Croydon's cheeks. "What you are suggesting is the most disgusting, ridiculous..."

○18"I told you –Cut it out!” The words spat forth with sudden savagery , all pretense of blandness gone. Ignoring the Duke, Ogilvie waved the unlighted cigar under his adversary 's adversary 's nose. "You listen to me, your high-an'-mightiness. This city's burnin' mad – cops, mayor, everybody else. When they find who done that last night, who killed that kid an' its mother, then high-tailed it, they'll throw the book, and never mind who it hits, or whether they got fancy titles neither. Now I know what I know, and if I do what by rights I should, there'll be a squad of cops in here so fast you'll hardly see 'em. But I come to you first, in fairness, so's you could tell your side of it to me." The piggy eyes blinked, then hardened. " 'f you want it the other way, just

say so."

○19The Duchess of Croydon – three centuries and a half of inbred arrogance behind her –did not yield easily. Springing to her feet, her face wrathful, gray-green eyes blazing, she faced the grossness of the house detective squarely. Her tone would have withered anyone who knew her well. “You unspeakable blackguard! How dare you!”○20Even the self-assurance of Ogilvie flickered for an instant. But it was the Duke of Croydon who interjected, "It's no go, old girl. I'm afraid. It was a good try." Facing Ogilvie, he said, "What you accuse us of is true. I am to blame. I was driving the car and killed the little girl."

○21"That's more like it," Ogilvie said. He lit the fresh cigar. "Now we're getting somewhere."

○22Wearily, in a gesture of surrender, the Duchess of Croydon sank back into her chair. Clasping her hands to conceal their trembling, she asked. "What is it you know?"

○23"Well now, I'll spell it out." The house detective took his time, leisurely putting a cloud of blue cigar smoke, his eyes sardonically on the Duchess as if challenging her objection. But beyond wrinkling her nose in distaste, she made no comment.

○24Ogilvie pointed to the Duke. "Last night, early on, you went to Lindy's Place in Irish Bayou. You drove there in your fancy Jaguar, and you took a lady friend. Leastways, I guess you'd call her that if you're not too fussy."

○25As Ogilvie glanced, grinning, at the Duchess, the Duke said sharply, "Get on with it!"

○26"Well" – the smug fat face swung back – "the way I hear it, you won a hundred at the tables, then lost it at the bar. You were into a second hundred –with a real swinging party – when your wife here got there in a taxi. "

○27"How do you know all this?"

○28"I'll tell you, Duke –I've been in this town and this hotel a long time. I got friends all over. I oblige them; they do the same for me, like letting me know what gives, an’ where. There ain't much, out of the way, which people who stay in this hotel do, I don't get to hear about. Most of ’em never know I know, or know me. They think they got their little secret tucked away , and so they have – except like now."

○29The Duke said coldly, "I see."

○30"One thing I'd like to know. I got a curious nature, ma’ am. How'd you figure where he was?"

○31The Duchess said, "You know so much... I suppose it doesn't matter. My husband has a habit of making notes while he is telephoning. Afterward he often forgets to destroy them. ”

○32The house detective clucked his tongue reprovingly . "A little careless habit like that, Duke – look at the mess it gets you in. Well, here's what I figure about the rest. You an' your wife took off home, you drivin', though the way things turned out it might have been better if she'd have drove."

○33"My wife doesn't drive."

○34Ogilvie nodded understandingly. "Explains that one. Anyway, I reckon you were lickered ( = liquored ) up, but good..."

○35The Duchess interrupted. "Then you don't know! You don't know anything for sure! You can't possibly prove..."

○36"Lady, I can prove all I need to."

○37The Duke cautioned, "Better let him finish, old girl."

○38"That's right," Ogilvie said. "Just sit an' listen. Last night I seen you come in –through the basement, so's not to use the lobby. Looked right shaken, too, the pair of you. Just come in myself, an' I got to wondering why. Like I said, I got a curious nature."

○39The Duchess breathed, "Go on."

○40"Late last night the word was out about the hit-'n-run. On a hunch I went over the garage and took a quiet look-see at your car. You maybe don't know – it's away in a corner, behind a pillar where the jockeys don't see it when they're comin' by."

○41The Duke licked his lips. "I suppose that doesn't matter now."

○42"You might have something there," Ogilvie conceded. "Anyway, what I found made me do some scouting -- across at police headquarters where they know me too." He paused to puff again at the cigar as his listeners waited silently. When the cigar tip was glowing he inspected it, then continued. "Over there they got three things to go on. They got a headlight trim ring which musta come off when the kid an’ the woman was hit. They got some headlight glass, and lookin’ at the kid's clothin', they reckon there'll be a brush trace. "

○43"A what?"

○44"You rub clothes against something hard, Duchess, specially if it's shiny like a car fender, say, an' it leaves a mark the same way as finger prints. The police lab kin pick it up like they do prints –dust it, an’ it shows."

○45"That's interesting," the Duke said, as if speaking of something unconnected with himself. "I didn't know that."

○46"Not many do. In this case, though, I reckon it don't make a lot o' difference. On your car you got a busted headlight, and the trim ring's gone. Ain't any doubt they'd match up, even without the brush trace an’ the blood. 0h yeah, I should a told you. There's plenty of blood, though it don't show too much on the black paint."

○47"Oh, my God!" A hand to her face, the Duchess turned away.

○48Her husband asked, "What do you propose to do?"

○49The fat man rubbed his hands together, looking down at his thick, fleshy fingers. "Like I said, I come to hear your side of it."

○50The Duke said despairingly, “What can I possibly say? You know what happened.” He made an attempt to square his shoulders which did not succeed. “You'd better call the police and get it over.”

○51“Well now, there's no call for being hasty .” The incongruous falsetto voice took on a musing note. “What's done's been done. Rushing any place ain't gonna bring back the kid nor its mother neither. Besides, what they'd do to you across at the headquarters, Duke, you wouldn't like. No sir, you wouldn't like it at all.”

○52The other two slowly raised their eyes.

○53“I was hoping,” Ogilvie said, “that you folks could suggest something.”

○54The Duke said uncertainly, “I don't understand.”

○55“I understand,” the Duchess of Croydon said. “You want money, don't you? You came here to blackmail us.”

○56If she expected her words to shock, they did not succeed. The house detective shrugged. “Whatever names you call things, ma'am, don't matter to me. All I come for was to help you people out of trouble. But I got to live too.”

○57”You'd accept money to keep silent about what you know?”

○58”I reckon I might.”

○59”But from what you say,”the Duchess pointed out, her poise for the moment recovered, “it would do no good. The car would be discovered in any case.”

○60”I guess you'd have to take that chance. But there's some reasons it might not be. Something I ain't told you yet.”

○61“Tell us now, please.”

○62Ogilvie said, “I ain't figured this out myself completely. But when you hit that kid you was going away from town, not to it.”

○63”We'd made a mistake in the route,” the Duchess said. “Somehow we'd become

turned around. It's easily done in New Orleans, with the street winding as they do. Afterward, using side streets, we went back. “

○64“I thought it might be that,”Ogilvie nodded understandingly. “But the police ain't figured it that way. They’re looking for somebody who was headed out. That's why, right now, they're workin' on the suburbs and the outside towns. They may get around to searchin' downtown, but it won't be yet. “

○65“How long before they do?”

○66“Maybe three, four days. They got a lot of other places to look first.”

○67“ How could that help us --- the delay‘?”

○68“It might,” Ogilvie said. “Providin' nobody twigs the car – an' seein' where it is, you might be lucky there. An' if you can get it away.”

○69“You mean out of the state?”

○70“I mean out o’ the South.”

○71“That wouldn't be easy?”

○72“No, ma'am. Every state around – Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, all the rest'll be watching for a car damaged the way yours is.”

○73The Duchess considered. “Is there any possibility of having repairs made first? If the work were done discreetly we could pay well. “

○74The house detective shook his head emphatically. “You try that, you might as well walk over to headquarters right now an' give up. Every repair shop in Louisiana's been told to holler 'cops' the minute a car needing fixin' like yours comes in. They'd do it, too. You people are hot.”

○75The Duchess of Croydon kept firm, tight rein on her racing mind. It was essential, she knew, that her thinking remain calm and reasoned. In the last few minutes the conversation had become as seemingly casual as if the discussion were of some minor domestic matter and not survival itself. She intended to keep it that way. Once more,

she was aware, the role of leadership had fallen to her, her husband now a tense but passive spectator of the exchange between the evil tat man and herself. No matter. What was inevitable must be accepted. The important thing was to consider all eventualities. A thought occurred to her.

○76“The piece from our car which you say the police have. What is it called?”

○77“A trim ring.”

○78“Is it traceable?”

○79Ogilvie nodded affirmatively. “They can figure what kind o' car it's from --- make, model, an' maybe the year, or close to it. Same thing with the glass. But with your car being foreign, it'll likely take a few days.”

○80“But after that,”she persisted, “the police will know they're looking for a Jaguar?”

○81“I reckon that 's so. “

○82Today was Tuesday. From all that this man said, they had until Friday or Saturday at best. With calculated coolness the Duchess reasoned: the situation came down to one essential. Assuming the hotel man was bought off, their only chance -- a slim one -- lay in removing the car quickly, If it could be got north, to one of the big cities where the New Orleans tragedy and search would be unknown, repairs could be made quietly, the incriminating evidence removed. Then, even if suspicion settled on the Croydons later, nothing could be proved. But how to get the car away?

○83Undoubtedly what this oafish detective said was true: As well as Louisiana, the other states through which the car would have to pass would be alert and watchful. Every highway patrol would be on the lookout for a damaged head-light with a missing trim ring. There would probably be road-blocks. It would be hard not to fall victim to some sharpeyed policeman.

○84But it might be done. If the car could be driven at night and concealed by day. There were plenty of places to pull off the highway and be unobserved. It would be

hazardous, but no more than waiting here for certain detection. There would be back roads. They could choose an unlikely route to avoid attention.

○85But there would be other complications ... and now was the time to consider them. Traveling by secondary roads would be difficult unless knowing the terrain. The Croydons did not. Nor was either of them adept at using maps. And when they stopped for petrol, as they would have to, their speech and manner would betray them, making them conspicuous . And yet ... these were risks which had to be taken.

○86Or had they?

○87The Duchess faced Ogilvie. “How much do you want?”

○88The abruptness took him by surprise. “Well ... I figure you people are pretty well fixed.”

○89She said coldly, “I asked how much.”

○90The piggy eyes blinked. Ten thousand dollars.”

○91Though it was twice what she had expected, her expression did not change. “Assuming we paid this grotesque amount, what would we receive in return?”

○92The fat man seemed puzzled. “Like I said, I keep quiet about what I know.”

○93“And the alternative ?”

○94He shrugged. “I go down the lobby. I pick up a phone. “

○95“No,” The statement was unequivocal . “We will not pay, you.”

○96As the Duke of Croydon shifted uneasily, the house detective's bulbous countenance reddened, “Now listen, lady…”

○97Peremptorily she cut him oft. “I will not listen. Instead, you will listen to me.”Her eyes were riveted on his face, her handsome, high cheek boned features set in their most imperious mold. “We would achieve nothing by paying you, except possibly a few days' respite . You have made that abundantly clear.”

○98“That's a chance you gotta...”

○99“Silence!” Her voice was a whiplash. Eyes bored into him. Swallowing, sullenly , he complied .

100 What came next, the Duchess of Croydon knew, could be the most significant thing she had ever done. There must be no mistake, no vacillation or dallying because of her own smallness of mind. When you were playing for the highest stakes, you made the highest bid. She intended to gamble on the fat man's greed. She must do so in such a way as to place the outcome beyond any doubt.

101 She declared decisively, “We will not pay you ten thousand dollars. But we will pay you twenty-five thousand dollars.”

102 The house detective's eyes bulged.

103 “In return for that,” she continued evenly, “You will drive our car north.”

104 Ogilvie continued to stare.

105 “Twenty-five thousand dollars,”she repeated. “Ten thousand now. Fifteen thousand more when you meet us in Chicago.”

106 Still without speaking, the fat man licked his lips. His beady eyes, as if unbelieving, were focused upon her own. The silence hung.

107 Then, as she watched intently, he gave the slightest of nods.

108 The silence remained. At length Ogilvie spoke. “This cigar bother in' you, Duchess?”

109 As she nodded, he put it out.

(from Hotel, 1965)

高英第2课课文

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高级英语第六课Blackmail译文

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高级英语课文翻译

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高英6-7-beauty-译文

高英6-7-beauty-译文

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高英课文翻译2

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高级英语第六课

1. When she was eleven, Clara, like her brother Alan before her, acquired a Grammar School place. Her mother, although of the mentality that refuses such places because of the price of the uniform, was luckily not in a social or financial position where she could reasonably do so, and although she was often unreasonable enough, she did not like to appear to be so in the eyes of the whole neighbourhood, so she constrained her parsimony and her innate distrust in education into selecting the less distinguished of the schools available, on the grounds that the bus fare was cheaper. It was a large, rather forbidding and gloomy building, called Battersby Grammar School, and it was on the fringe of that decayed, desolate, once-grand grey fringe that surrounds the centres of most cities; the houses in this area, large and terraced and of some dignity, had been long abandoned by the middle classes, and were now occupied by families who could not afford to live anywhere else. An occasional member of the fugitive genteel stuck it grimly out until death; once Clara was accosted by an old lady, battered and ragged and bent, who said as she walked along, and in accents of refined madness, that once the people that lived there had held their heads up high. Clara, a poor audience with her twisted knee socks, did not know what she meant. 克莱拉11岁时,像她哥哥艾伦一样,进入一所公立中学。按她母亲的想法,是反对她上这类学校的,因为学校制服费太贵。幸亏她的社会地位和经济情况都还过得去,她也就没有充足的理由反对女儿入学。她办事常常不讲情理,可又不愿意在左邻右舍的眼里看来是个不讲道理的人。因此,她终于抑制住她的吝啬和天生的对教育的怀疑,给她女儿选了一所不那么有声望的中学,理由是往返的公共汽车费比较便宜。学校叫巴特斯比中学。那是一幢高大、阴暗、令人望而生畏的建筑,坐落在市中心的边缘。这些围绕市中心建造起来一栋栋房屋,多少年前还巍巍壮观,如今却一片凋零、衰败、荒凉。那些高大的、建有路台、颇有气势的座座住宅早已被一度居住的中产阶级所遗弃。新来的这些住户嫌别处房租贵,住不起,才搬到这里来。偶尔,在逃离此地的上流家族中,也会有个把人在这里硬顶下去,直到老死。有一次,一个萎靡不振,衣衫褴褛,弯腰驼背的老妇同克莱拉搭话。她一边走一边用一种典雅的迷恋之情的口吻说,过去住在这一带的可都是些很神气的人。克莱拉,这个穿着一双扭歪了的长袜的不善于领会的听者,根本不明白她说的是什么意思。 P1 1. Jerusalem: 耶路撒冷板凳(伊斯兰教,犹太教和基督教的“圣地”) 2. mentality: characteristic attitude of mind; mind, understanding, judgment, perception, intelligence 3. unreasonable: irrational, illogical, absurd, nonsensical, stubborn 4. in the eyes of=in one’s eyes: in the judgment of 在……心目中,在……看来 5. constrain: to make someone do something by force or by strongly persuading, (of conscience, inner forces) compel 6. on the grounds of: (for saying, doing, or believing sth.) because of… 7. on the fringe of: edge, the part further from the center 8. stick it out: to continue in spite of, difficulties, refuse to yield 9. in accents of : in tender accents, in a kind of voice 10. battered: worn out or shapeless (clothes

高级英语课文翻译

Never Give In, Never, Never, Never Almost a year has passed since I came down here at your Head Master's kind invitation in order to cheer myself and cheer the hearts of a few of my friends by singing some of our own songs. The ten months that have passed have seen very terrible catastrophic events in the world - ups and downs, misfortunes - but can anyone sitting here this afternoon, this October afternoon, not feel deeply thankful for what has happened in the time that has passed and for the very great improvement in the position of our country and of our home? Why, when I was here last time we were quite alone, desperately alone, and we had been so for five or six months. We were poorly armed. We are not so poorly armed today; but then we were very poorly armed. We had the unmeasured menace of the enemy and their air attack still beating upon us, and you yourselves had had experience of this attack; and I expect you are beginning to feel impatient that there has been this long lull with nothing particular turning up! But we must learn to be equally good at what is short and sharp and what is long and tough. It is generally said that the British are often better at the last. They do not expect to move from crisis to crisis; they do not always expect that each day will bring up some noble chance of war; but when they very slowly make up their minds that the thing has to be done and the job put through and finished, then, even if it takes months - if it takes years - they do it. Another lesson I think we may take, just throwing our minds back to our meeting here ten months ago and now, is that appearances are often very deceptive, and as Kipling well says, we must "…meet with Triumph and Disaster. And treat those two impostors just the same." You cannot tell from appearances how things will go. Sometimes imagination makes things out far worse than they are; yet without imagination not much can be done. Those people who are imaginative see many more dangers than perhaps exist; certainly many more than will happen; but then they must also pray to be given that extra courage to carry this far-reaching imagination. But for everyone, surely, what we have gone through in this period - I am addressing myself to the School - surely from this period of ten months this is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. We stood all alone a year ago, and to many countries it seemed that our account was closed, we were finished. All this tradition of ours, our songs, our School history, this part of the history of this country, were gone and finished and liquidated. V ery different is the mood today. Britain, other nations thought, had drawn a sponge across her slate. But instead our country stood in the gap. There was no flinching and no thought of giving in; and by what seemed almost a miracle to those outside these Islands, though we ourselves never doubted it, we now find ourselves in a position where I say that we can be sure that we have only to persevere to conquer. You sang here a verse of a School Song: you sang that extra verse written in my honour, which I was very greatly complimented by and which you have repeated today. But there is one word in it I want to alter - I wanted to do so last year, but I did not venture to. It is the line: "Not less we praise in darker days." I have obtained the Head Master's permission to alter darker to sterner. "Not less we praise in sterner days." Do not let us speak of darker days: let us speak rather of sterner days. These are not dark days;

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