[al:新概念英语（三）] [ar:MP3 同步字幕版（英音）] [ti:A Spot of Bother] [by:更多学习内容，请到yingyu.chazidian.com搜索“新概念”] [00:01.46]Lesson 58 [00:03.29]A spot of bother [00:12.00]What did the old lady find when she got home? [00:17.98]The old lady was glad to be back at the block of flats where she lived. [00:23.54]Her shopping had tired her and her basket had grown heavier with every step of the way home. [00:30.57]In the lift her thoughts were on lunch and a good rest; [00:34.98]but when she got out at her own floor, [00:37.66]both were forgotten in her sudden discovery that her front door was open. [00:43.41]She was thinking that she must reprimand her home help the next morning for such a monstrous piece of negligence, [00:50.74]when she remembered that she had gone shopping after the home help had left and she knew that she had turned both keys in their locks. [01:00.57]She walked slowly into the hall and at once noticed that all the room doors were open, [01:06.95]yet following her regular practice she had shut them before going out. [01:12.07]Looking into the drawing room, she saw a scene of confusion over by her writing desk. [01:18.68]It was as clear as daylight then that burglars had forced an entry during her absence. [01:25.16]Her first impulse was to go round all the rooms looking for the thieves, [01:30.17]but then she decided that at her age it might be more prudent to have someone with her, [01:35.57]so she went to fetch the porter from his basement. [01:39.02]By this time her legs were beginning to tremble, [01:42.71]so she sat down and accepted a cup of very strong tea, while he telephoned the police. [01:49.46]Then, her composure regained, she was ready to set off with the porter's assistance [01:55.05]to search for any intruders who might still be lurking in her flat. [02:00.55]They went through the rooms, being careful to touch nothing, [02:04.45]as they did not want to hinder the police in their search for fingerprints. [02:09.08]The chaos was inconceivable. [02:11.99]She had lived in the flat for thirty years and was a veritable magpie at hoarding: [02:17.86]and it seemed as though everything she possessed had been tossed out and turned over and over. [02:24.44]At least sorting out the things she should have discarded years ago was now being made easier for her. [02:31.11]Then a police inspector arrived with a constable [02:34.62]and she told them of her discovery of the ransacked flat. [02:38.82]The inspector began to look for fingerprints, [02:41.44]while the constable checked that the front door locks had not been forced, [02:46.44]thereby proving that the burglars had either used skeleton keys or entered over the balcony. [02:53.64]There was no trace of fingerprints, [02:55.90]but the inspector found a dirty red bundle that contained jewellery which the old lady said was not hers. [03:04.32]So their entry into this flat was apparently not the burglars' first job that day and they must have been disturbed. [03:13.00]The inspector then asked the old lady to try to check what was missing by the next day, [03:18.70]and advised her not to stay alone in the flat for a few nights. [03:23.64]The old lady thought he was a fussy creature, [03:26.80]but since the porter agreed with him, she rang up her daughter and asked for her help in what she described as a little spot of bother.