[al:新概念英语（三）] [ar:MP3 同步字幕版（英音）] [ti:A Noble Gangster] [by:更多学习内容，请到chazidian.com搜索“新概念”] [00:01.47]Lesson 14 [00:03.54]A noble gangster [00:12.45]How did Hawkwood make money in times of peace? [00:18.07]There was a time when the owners of shops and businesses in Chicago [00:22.64]had to pay large sums of money to gangsters in return for 'protection'. [00:28.65]If the money was not paid promptly, [00:31.08]the gangsters would quickly put a man out of business by destroying his shop. [00:37.27]Obtaining 'protection money' is not a modern crime. [00:41.89]As long ago as the fourteenth century,an Englishman,Sir John Hawkwood, [00:47.91]made the remarkable discovery that people would rather pay large sums of money [00:52.68]than have their life work destroyed by gangsters. [00:56.46]Six hundred years ago,Sir John Hawkwood arrived in Italy with a band of soldiers [01:02.10]and settled near Florence. [01:04.63]He soon made a name for himself [01:06.73]and came to be known to the Italians as Giovanni Acuto. [01:12.24]Whenever the Italian city-states were at war with each other, [01:15.84]Hawkwood used to hire his soldiers to princes [01:19.21]who were willing to pay the high price he demanded. [01:22.55]In times of peace, [01:24.01]when business was bad, [01:25.81]Hawkwood and his men would march into a city-state, [01:29.49]and after burning down a few farms, [01:32.15]would offer to go away if protection money was paid to them. [01:36.77]Hawkwood made large sums of money in this way. [01:40.81]In spite of this, the Italians regarded him as a sort of hero. [01:45.90]When he died at the age of eighty, the Florentines gave him a state funeral [01:52.01]and had a picture painted which was dedicated to the memory of 'the most valiant soldier and most notable leader, [01:59.33]Signor Giovanni Haukodue'.