Lesson 60
Too early and too late
Listen to the tape then answer the question below.听录音,然后回答以下问题。Why did the young girl miss the train?
Punctuality is a necessary habit in all public affairs in civilized society. Without it, nothing could ever be brought to a conclusion; everything would be in a state of chaos. Only in a sparsely-populated rural community is it possible to disregard it. In ordinary living, there can be some tolerance of unpunctuality. The intellectual, who is working on some abstruse problem, has everything coordinated and organized for the matter in hand. He is therefore forgiven if late for a dinner party. But people are often reproached for unpunctuality when their only fault is cutting things fine. It is hard for energetic, quick-minded people to waste time, so they are often tempted to finish a job before setting out to keep an appointment. If no accidents occur on the way, like punctured tyres, diversions of traffic, sudden descent of fog, they will be on time. They are often more industrious, useful citizens than those who are never late. The over-punctual can be as much a trial to others as the unpunctual. The guest who arrives half an hour too soon is the greatest nuisance. Some friends of my family had this irritating habit. The only thing to do was ask them to come half an hour later than the other guests. Then they arrived just when we wanted them.
If you are catching a train, it is always better to be comfortably early than even a fraction of a minute too late. Although being early may mean wasting a little time, this will be less than if you miss the train and have to wait an hour or more for the next one; and you avoid the frustration of arriving at the very moment when the train is drawing out of the station and being unable to get on it. An even harder situation is to be on the platform in good time for a train and still to see it go off without you. Such an experience befell a certain young girl the first time she was traveling alone.
She entered the station twenty minutes before the train was due, since her parents had impressed upon her that it would be unforgivable to miss it and cause the friends with whom she was going to stay to make two journeys to meet her. She gave her luggage to a porter and showed him her ticket. To her horror he said that she was two hours too soon. She felt in her handbag for the piece of paper on which her father had written down al the details of the journey and gave it to the porter. He agreed that a train did come into the station at the time on the paper and that it did stop, but only to take on mail, not passengers. The girl asked to see a timetable, feeling sure that her father could not have made such a mistake. The porter went to fetch one and arrive back with the station master, who produced it with a flourish and pointed out a microscopic 'o' beside the time of the arrival of the train at his station; this little 'o' indicated that the train only stopped for mail. Just as that moment the train came into the station. The girl, tears streaming down her face, begged to be allowed to slip into the guard's van. But the station master was adamant: rules could not be broken and she had to watch that train disappear towards her destination while she was left behind.
New words and expressions 生词和短语
punctuality n. 准时 rural adv. 农村的
disregard v. 不顾,无视 intellectual n. 知识分子
abstruse adj. 深奥的 coordinate v. 协调
reproach v. 责备 puncture v. 刺破(轮胎)
diversion n. 改道,绕道 trial n. 讨厌的事,人
fraction n. 很小一点儿 flourish n. 挥舞(打手劳)
microscopic adj.微小的 adamant adj. 坚定的,不动摇的
新概念英语第一册英音版 101&102-A Card From Jimmy
新概念英语第一册英音版 093&094-Our New Neighbour
新概念英语第二册英音版 13-The Greenwood Boys
新概念英语第一册英音版 099&100-Ow
新概念英语第一册英音版 135&136-The Latest Report
新概念英语第一册英音版 129&130-Seventy Miles an Hour
新概念英语第一册英音版 113&114-Small Change
新概念英语第一册英音版 137&138-A Pleasant Dream
新概念英语第一册英音版 127&128-A Famous Actress
新概念英语第一册英音版 097&098-A Small Blue Case
新概念英语第一册英音版 131&132-Don’t be So Sure
新概念英语第二册英音版 05-No Wrong Numbers
新概念英语第一册英音版 103&104-The French Test
新概念英语第二册英音版 03-Please Send Me a Card
新概念英语第一册英音版 095&096-Tickets, Please.
新概念英语第一册英音版 107&108-It’s Too Small.
新概念英语第一册英音版 115&116-Knock, Knock
新概念英语第一册英音版 121&122-The Man in a Hat
新概念英语第二册英音版 06-Percy Buttons
新概念英语第二册英音版 23-A New House
新概念英语第一册英音版 133&134-Sensational News
新概念英语第二册英音版 15-Good News
新概念英语第一册英音版 139&140-Is That You, John
新概念英语第二册英音版 18-He Often does This
新概念英语第二册英音版 22-A Glass Envelope
新概念英语第二册英音版 21-Mad or Not
新概念英语第一册英音版 109&110-A Good Idea
新概念英语第二册英音版 02-Breakfast or Lunch
新概念英语第二册英音版 04-An Exciting Trip
新概念英语第一册英音版 117&118-Tommy’s Breakfast