时间:2019-01-25 作者:英语课 分类:英语听力精选进阶版


英语课

An anonymous 1 telephone bidder 2 has paid £467,200 (or about 7,008,000 Yuan) for the black dress made for Audrey Hepburn for her role in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's. The dress was sold at a London auction 3 and the proceeds from the sale will go to charity.


The black sleeveless dress was expected to be sold for £70,000 (that's about 1,050,000 Yuan) but there were gasps 4, laughter and applause as the price broke through barrier after barrier, before finally coming to rest at £410,000 (with the remainder of the sale price made up of buyer's fees).


This iconic garment has been described as the ultimate little black dress. It's plain and simple but sophisticated. It's demure 5 yet very sexy.


Audrey Hepburn was seen as a new kind of star when she burst onto the scene in 1953. Most other stars then were in the Marilyn Monroe mould – blonde, curvaceous and overtly 6 sexy. In the film Roman Holiday, Hepburn unveiled her look for the first time. She was tall and slim, with elfin features and looked almost androgynous. She had big, innocent dark eyes and her attraction was much less obvious than Monroe's. Hepburn started a trend that has been continued by many since then. The model Kate Moss 7 and actress Winona Ryder are two who many think have been influenced by her style.


But what is the lasting 8 appeal of a woman whose final acting 9 role was in 1989? Why was she voted the most beautiful woman of all time in a magazine poll earlier this year? Her granddaughter Claire Goldsmith says "It's about those eyes, those big, brown, warm eyes. Women relate to her because she was unthreatening and for men she had that innocence 10."


For the founder 11 of the charity that will benefit from the sale of the dress, the attraction is perhaps more down to earth. The French author, Dominique Lapierre, set up a charity The City of Joy Aid to help poor people in India. After the auction Dominique said "I am absolutely dumbfounded that a piece of cloth which belonged to such a magical actress will now enable me to buy bricks and cement to put the most destitute 12 children in the world into schools."


So it seems this little black dress has turned into a rather large pot of gold.


GLOSSARY 词汇表


annonymous 匿名的


bidder 出价人, 投标人    


gasps 喘息, 气喘


barrier after barrier 层层阻碍   


coming to rest 终止


iconic garment 偶像化的服饰  


sophisticated 精致的  


demure 娴静端庄的   


mould 模具


curvaceous 曲线美的    


overtly 公开的, 公然的  


unveiled 显示    


elfin 小巧玲珑


androgynous (雌雄)两性的   


unthreatening 不具威胁的


innocence 天真,单纯  


down to earth 实际的   


destitute 贫穷的


dumbfounded 惊讶    


pot of gold 一罐黄金, 指一笔巨款



adj.无名的;匿名的;无特色的
  • Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
  • The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。
n.(拍卖时的)出价人,报价人,投标人
  • TV franchises will be auctioned to the highest bidder.电视特许经营权将拍卖给出价最高的投标人。
  • The bidder withdrew his bid after submission of his bid.投标者在投标之后撤销了投标书。
n.拍卖;拍卖会;vt.拍卖
  • They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
  • They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。
v.喘气( gasp的第三人称单数 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要
  • He leant against the railing, his breath coming in short gasps. 他倚着栏杆,急促地喘气。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • My breaths were coming in gasps. 我急促地喘起气来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
adj.严肃的;端庄的
  • She's very demure and sweet.她非常娴静可爱。
  • The luscious Miss Wharton gave me a demure but knowing smile.性感迷人的沃顿小姐对我羞涩地会心一笑。
ad.公开地
  • There were some overtly erotic scenes in the film. 影片中有一些公开色情场面。
  • Nietzsche rejected God's law and wrote some overtly blasphemous things. 尼采拒绝上帝的律法,并且写了一些渎神的作品。
n.苔,藓,地衣
  • Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
  • He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。
adj.永久的,永恒的;vbl.持续,维持
  • The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
  • We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。
n.演戏,行为,假装;adj.代理的,临时的,演出用的
  • Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她,她只是假装的。
  • During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代,她的表演生涯黯然失色。
n.无罪;天真;无害
  • There was a touching air of innocence about the boy.这个男孩有一种令人感动的天真神情。
  • The accused man proved his innocence of the crime.被告人经证实无罪。
n.创始者,缔造者
  • He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
  • According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说,罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。
adj.缺乏的;穷困的
  • They were destitute of necessaries of life.他们缺少生活必需品。
  • They are destitute of common sense.他们缺乏常识。
学英语单词
3-carboxyantipyrine
accident costs
aetosaurs
analytically unramified semilocal ring
angstrom's scale
Ban Pa Daeng
batons sinister
beltway/ Beltway bandit
bilardoes
blind thrust fault
bloody vomit
Bolocephalus saussureoides
Bom Sucesso, Ribeirāo
boundary scan test
clastoderma debaryanum
claw foot
climbing maidenhair fern
color gradients
combat day of supply
consolidated income tax system
constructable
contrail formation
deseasonalizes
DIBOA
Didymocarpus stenocarpus
elephant-hide pahoehoe
emphasis
enterprise registration
entwicklung
epigrammatism
extraordinary disbursement
flopsand
franciso
Gamvik
gardyn
gas-solid reaction
generic flow control
guaiac
gut course
Habenaria humidicola
heavenware
hollow tube
hydrochemicogeography
ince burun
information bandwidth
injection-moulded
Innocent III
intercentral articulation
intermining
ion-exchange process
ionic valve
job classification analyst
Klamath R.
koseki
Kronotskiy Poluostrov
logicizes
lung tumor
machine reel
mathewsons
maximum-modulus theorem
misbefalls
montastrea curta
Naka-umi
on-line aerophotogrammetric triangulation
paraffin oils
phaeo-
plurivalent chromosome
porvoos
pregreasing pump
prewrap
pricing entire product package
pyrotechnic gas generator
radioisotope transmission gage
Rally for the Republic
rami utriculi
schlimazel
Selimiye
semi-strong linear element
sequelitis
sir john rosses
slag-hammer
sodium butylate
St-Jean-du-Gard
standing field
suiboku
temperature hyperbola
terminal switching
thawing water irrigation
theoretical geodesy
throws up
townleys
Tremelleae
trichloro-phenomalic acid
unexploded
United Nations Administrative Tribunal
upper breast
wheedles
with-it
wollard
yellow coneflower
zigzag chain
zoolater