[al:新概念英语（三）] [ar:MP3 同步字幕版（英音）] [ti:The Silent Village] [by:更多学习内容，请到chazidian.com搜索“新概念”] [00:01.50]Lesson 48 [00:03.21]The silent village [00:11.20]Why was the village silent? [00:16.27]In this much-travelled world, [00:18.47]there are still thousands of places which are inaccessible to tourists. [00:23.30]We always assume that villagers in remote places are friendly and hospitable. [00:29.32]But people who are cut off not only from foreign tourists, but even from their own countrymen can be hostile to travellers. [00:38.02]Visits to really remote villages are seldom enjoyable--as my wife and I discovered during a tour through the Balkans. [00:47.75]We had spent several days in a small town and visited a number of old churches in the vicinity. [00:55.71]These attracted many visitors, for they were not only of great architectural interest, but contained a large number of beautifully preserved frescoes as well. [01:07.05]On the day before our departure, several bus loads of tourists descended on the town. [01:13.61]This was more than we could bear, so we decided to spend our last day exploring the countryside. [01:21.89]Taking a path which led out of the town, we crossed a few fields until we came to a dense wood. [01:29.65]We expected the path to end abruptly, but we found that it traced its way through the trees. [01:36.17]We tramped through the wood for over two hours until we arrived at a deep stream. [01:41.67]We could see that the path continued on the other side, but we had no idea how we could get across the stream. [01:49.49]Suddenly my wife spotted a boat moored to the bank. In it there was a boatman fast asleep. [01:56.92]We gently woke him up and asked him to ferry us to the other side. [02:02.08]Though he was reluctant to do so at first, we eventually persuaded him to take us. [02:08.06]The path led to a tiny village perched on the steep sides of a mountain. [02:13.80]The place consisted of a straggling unmade road which was lined on either side by small houses. [02:20.80]Even under a clear blue sky, the village looked forbidding, as all the houses were built of grey mud bricks. [02:30.27]The village seemed deserted, [02:32.42]the only sign of life being an ugly-looking black goat on a short length of rope tied to a tree in a field nearby. [02:40.77]Sitting down on a dilapidated wooden fence near the field, we opened a couple of tins of sardines and had a picnic lunch. [02:50.18]All at once, I noticed that my wife seemed to be filled with alarm. [02:55.64]Looking up I saw that we were surrounded by children in rags who were looking at us silently as we ate. [03:03.63]We offered them food and spoke to them kindly, but they remained motionless. [03:10.30]I concluded that they were simply shy of strangers. [03:14.49]When we later walked down the main street of the village, we were followed by a silent procession of children. [03:21.00]The village which had seemed deserted, immediately came to life. [03:26.07]Faces appeared at windows. [03:28.39]Men in shirt sleeves stood outside their houses and glared at us. [03:33.72]Old women in black shawls peered at us from doorways. [03:38.17]The most frightening thing of all was that not a sound could be heard. [03:43.21]There was no doubt that we were unwelcome visitors. [03:47.04]We needed no further warning. [03:49.43]Turning back down the main street, [03:51.90]we quickened our pace and made our way rapidly towards the stream where we hoped the boatman was waiting.