A lovable eccentric 可愛(ài)的怪人

True eccentrics never deliberately set out to draw attention to themselves. They disregard social conventions without being conscious that they are doing anything extraordinary. This invariably wins them the love and respect of others, for they add colour to the dull routine of everyday life.

Up to the time of his death, Richard Colson was one of the most notable figures in our town. He was a shrewd and wealthy businessman, but most people in the town hardly knew anything about this side of his life. He was known to us all as Dickie and his eccentricity had become legendary long before he died.

Dickie disliked snobs intensely. Though he owned a large car, he hardly ever used it, preferring always to go on foot. Even when it was raining heavily, he refused to carry an umbrella. One day, he walked into an expensive shop after having been caught in a particularly heavy shower. He wanted to buy a £300 watch for his wife, but he was in such a bedraggled condition that an assistant refused to serve him. Dickie left the shop without a word and returned carrying a large cloth bag. As it was extremely heavy, he dumped it on the counter. The assistant asked him to leave, but Dickie paid no attention to him and requested to see the manager. Recognizing who the customer was, the manager was most apologetic and 'reprimanded the assistant severely. When Dickie was given the watch, he presented the assistant with the cloth bag. It contained £300 in pennies. He insisted on the assistant's counting the money before he left 30,000 pennies in all! On another occasion, he invited a number of important critics to see his private collection of modern paintings. This exhibition received a great deal of attention in the press, for though the pictures were supposed to be the work of famous artists, they had in fact been painted by Dickie. It took him four years to stage this elaborate joke simply to prove that critics do not always know what they are talking about.

New words and expressions 生詞與短語(yǔ)

lovable

adj. 可愛(ài)的

eccentric

n. (行為)古怪人

disregard

v. 不顧，漠視

convention

n. 習(xí)俗，風(fēng)俗

conscious

adj. 感覺(jué)到的，意識(shí)到的

invariably

adv. 總是，經(jīng)常地

routine

n. 常規(guī);慣例

shrewd

adj. 精明的

eccentricity

n. 怪僻

legendary

adj. 傳奇般的

snob

n. 勢(shì)利小人，諂上欺下的人

intensely

adv. 強(qiáng)烈地

bedraggled

adj. 拖泥帶水的

dump

v. 把……砰的一聲拋下

apologetic

adj. 道歉的

reprimand

v. 訓(xùn)斥

stage

v. 暗中策劃

elaborate

adj. 精心構(gòu)思的

本文參考譯文

真正古怪的人從不有意引人注意。他們不顧社會(huì)習(xí)俗，意識(shí)不到自己所作所為有什么特殊之處。他們總能贏得別人的喜愛(ài)與尊敬，因?yàn)樗麄兘o平淡單一的日常生活增添了色彩。

理查德.科爾森生前是我們鎮(zhèn)上最有名望的人之一。他是個(gè)精明能干、有錢(qián)的商人，但鎮(zhèn)上大部分人對(duì)他生活中的這一個(gè)方面幾乎一無(wú)所知。大家都管他叫迪基。早在他去世前很久，他的古怪行為就成了傳奇故事了。

迪基痛恨勢(shì)利小人。盡管他有一輛豪華小轎車(chē)，但卻很少使用，常常喜歡以步代車(chē)。即使大雨傾盆，他也總是拒絕帶傘。一天，他遇上一場(chǎng)瓢潑大雨，淋得透濕。他走進(jìn)一家高級(jí)商店，要為妻子買(mǎi)一塊價(jià)值300英鎊的手表。但店員見(jiàn)他渾身泥水的樣子，竟不肯接待他。迪基二話(huà)沒(méi)說(shuō)就走了。一會(huì)兒，他帶著一個(gè)大布口袋回到店里。布袋很沉，他重重地把布袋扔在柜臺(tái)上。店員讓迪基走開(kāi)，他置之不理，并要求見(jiàn)經(jīng)理。經(jīng)理認(rèn)出了這位顧客，表示了深深的歉意，還嚴(yán)厲地訓(xùn)斥了店員。店員為迪基拿出了那塊手表，迪基把布口袋遞給他，口袋里面裝著300鎊的便士。他堅(jiān)持要店員點(diǎn)清那些硬幣后他才離去。這些硬幣加在一起共有30,000枚! 還有一次，他邀請(qǐng)一些著名評(píng)論家來(lái)參觀他私人收藏的現(xiàn)代畫(huà)。這次展覽引起報(bào)界廣泛注意，因?yàn)檫@些畫(huà)名義上是名家的作品，事實(shí)上是迪基自己畫(huà)的。他花了4年時(shí)間策劃這出精心設(shè)計(jì)的鬧劇，只是想證明評(píng)論家們有時(shí)并不解他們所談?wù)摰氖虑椤?/p>

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