《新概念英语》（美音）III-07

Lesson 7 Mutilated Ladies残钞鉴别组

Listen to the tape ,then answer the question below.

Q:Why did Jane cook John's wallet?

Jane为什么会煮了John的钱包?

Mutilated ladies 英国残钞鉴别组织.Lady指英国货币上的女王像.

bank note 纸币

dismay adj. 惊惶;沮丧

Has it ever happened to you ?Have you ever put your trousers in the washing machine, and then remembered there was a large bank note in your back pocket?When you rescued your trousers ,did you find the note was whiter than white?People live in Britain needn't despair when thay made mistakes like this,and a lot people do.Fortunately for them ,the bank of England has a team called Mutilated Ladies which deals with the claims from people who fed their money to a machine or to their dogs.Dogs , it seem ,love to chew up money.

A recent case concerns Jane Butlin whoes fance Jone runs a successful furniture business.John had a very good day and put his wallet containing 3,000 pounds into the microwave oven for safe keeping.Then he and Jane went horse riding .When they got home ,Jane cooked their dinner in the microwave oven,and without realizing it,cooked her fiance's wallet as well.Imagine their dismay when they found a beautifullly cooked wallet and notes turned to ash.John went to see his bank manager ,who sent the remains of the wallet and the money to the special department of the bank of England in New Casle,the Mutilated Ladies.They examined the remains and John got all his money back.

"So long there is something to identify.We will give people their money back,"said the spokeswoman for the bank,"last yeat we paid 1.5million pounds on 21,000 claims."

这样的事儿是否曾经发生在你身上?你是否曾经将一条裤子放进洗衣机后才意识到那裤子的屁包里放了你巨额的现金?等你把它挽救出来后,那些纸是不是已经变得不是一般的白?英国居民在犯下这样的错误时就不必感到绝望,并且许多人就是这样做的.他们很幸运,英国银行有一支叫做"残钞鉴别组"的团队,它专门解决人们换回他们被狗或机器损伤的现金的要求.狗狗们好像特别喜欢嚼碎钱.

最近的一个案子是关于Jane Butlin,她的经营成功的家具生意的未婚夫John.John过了很好的一天,然后他将他的钱包放进微波炉里以防被盗. 之后他和Jane 一起去骑马了. 他们回来后,Jane用微波炉做了一顿午餐.她并没有意识到她同时煮了未婚夫的钱包.想象一下当他们发现一个被烤焦的皮包和已经称为灰烬的钱是有多么惊惶.John找到了他的分行经理.他拿着残存的钱包和现金找到了英国银行NewCasle支行的一个特殊的部门:残钞鉴别组.他们检查了这些残币,然后John找回了所有的钱.

"只要有什么可以证明的东西,我们就会归还人们他们的现金,"银行发言人说,"去年,我们在21,000个此类案例上的花销是1.5百万."