英语听力文摘 English Digest 61、出售鬼魂
时间：2019-01-26 作者：英语课 分类：英语听力文摘 English Digest
As ghost stories go, it's frankly 1 a bit weak. Not very frightening and with a happy ending, it doesn't really prove the existence of the supernatural either. But it does show beautifully the enduring popularity of the offbeat 2 and wacky on the internet. Our tale begins in the home of Avie Woodbury in Christchurch, on New Zealand's South Island. Last year, she says, things started to go bump in the night:
"We had a lot of activity. Mainly it was banging, banging in the house. And also I think the biggest thing for us was that our dog would sort of stop in its tracks and it would just look into nothing and then start barking. And this happened several times and we just got a real weird 3 feeling over us. Just so odd that you just can't explain it."
The novelty soon wore off and Miss Woodbury hired an exorcist to rid her of the spooky interlopers.
A paranormal specialist from the local spiritualist church duly came and captured two ghosts, which he claimed to have trapped in a pair of small glass vials.
The funny goings on promptly 4 stopped, leaving a greatly relieved Miss Woodbury with just one problem - what to do with the spirits and their tiny prisons. Rather than throw them in the bin 5 she decided 6 to sell them online to the highest bidder 7.
"Early on in the auction 8 it got a bid for $1.50 and I said to my partner, 'Oh how wonderful, we've got rid of the spirits', you know, and we were quite happy to have $1.50 for them. And we never thought it would get so much publicity 9 and you know so many people viewing the auction, so just incredible."
With its obvious parallels to the 1980s film Ghostbusters, news of the sale quickly spread - and the online auction was viewed 214,000 times. The ghosts were finally sold for nearly $2000 US dollars, which Miss Woodbury intends to donate to an animal charity.
offbeat: 非主流的
wacky: 奇怪的，怪异的
go bump in the night: 夜里开始闹鬼
banging: 咚咚的响声
stop in its tracks: 停在路上不走了
exorcist: 驱魔人
- To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
- Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。
- She adores old,offbeat antiques.她非常喜欢那些稀奇古怪的老古董。
- His style is offbeat but highly creative.他的风格很不寻常但非常有创造力。
- From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
- His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。
- He paid the money back promptly.他立即还了钱。
- She promptly seized the opportunity his absence gave her.她立即抓住了因他不在场给她创造的机会。
- He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
- He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。
- This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
- There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
- 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。
- 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。