New Concept English III - 22 (08/30/09)

Lesson 22 By heart

Listen' to the tape' then answer' the question' below.

Which actor' read the letter'' in the end', the aristocrat' or the jailer?

Some plays' are so successful' that they run' for years' on end, In many' ways, this is unfortunate' for the poor actors who are required to go on repeating the same lines /night after night. One would expect them to know their parts by heart/ and never have cause to falter. Yet this is not always the case.

A famous actor in a highly successful play /was once cast /in the role of /an aristocrat /who had been imprisoned in the Bastille/ for twenty years. In the last act, a jailer would always come on to the stage with a letter/ which he would hand to the prisoner. Even though the noble was expected to read the letter at each performance, he always insisted that it should be written out in full.

One night, the jailer decided to play a joke on his colleague to find out if, after so many performances, he had managed /to learn the contents of the letter /by heart. The curtain went up on the final act of the play and revealed the aristocrat/ sitting alone behind bars /in his dark cell. Just then, the jailer appeared with the precious letter in his hands. He entered the cell and presented the letter to the aristocrat. But the copy he gave him had not been written out in full /as usual. It was simply a blank sheet of paper. The jailer looked on eagerly, anxious to see if his fellow actor had at last/ learnt his lines. The noble stared at the blank sheet of paper /for a few seconds. Then, squinting his eyes, he said: 'The light is dim. Read the letter to me'. And he promptly handed the sheet of paper to the jailer. Finding that he could not remember a word of the letter either, the jailer replied: 'The light is indeed dim, sire, I must get my glasses.' With this, he hurried off the stage. Much to the aristocrat's amusement, the jailer returned/ a few moments later/ with a pair of glasses /and the usual copy of the letter /with he proceeded to read to the prisoner.

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I took the advices from ZhiJun about the stress. I put some notes of the stresses and pauses in the article as reminders. It seems helpful.

I read an article in English-use .com about the reading. It said one needs to read an article at least 60 times to master all the aspects in one article. I am not sure I can do that but I tried my best.

After listening to my audio a couple of time, I guess slowing down speed may be better. What do you think?

Have a nice week, folks.

所有跟帖： 

• the pace is very good. -checkingaround- ♂ (639 bytes) () 08/30/2009 postreply 19:55:37

• Thanks Checkingaround. 看来要闭关了。 -eyeyey- ♀ (117 bytes) () 08/31/2009 postreply 05:14:13

• Good work! -天泽园- ♀ (159 bytes) () 08/30/2009 postreply 21:19:12

• Thanks Tian. -eyeyey- ♀ (313 bytes) () 08/31/2009 postreply 05:16:29