自考英语综合二上册课文 lesson 7

　　[00:00.00]Lesson Seven  Text

[00:04.70]The Model Millionaire  (I) Oscar Wilde

[00:08.46]Unless one is wealthy there is no use in being a charming fellow.

[00:15.83]Romance is the privilege of the rich,

[00:20.66]not the profession of the unemployed 1.

[00:25.50]"The poor should be practical and ordinary.

[00:30.54]It is better to have a permanent income than to be attractive.

[00:36.78]These are the great truths of modern life

[00:42.06]which Hughie Erskine never realised.

[00:47.02]Poor Hughie! Intellectually,we must admit,he was not of much importance.

[00:55.88]He never said a clever or even an ill natured thing in his life.

[01:03.74]But then he was wonderfully good looking,

[01:08.78]with his brown hair,his clear-cut face,and his grey eyes.

[01:16.43]He was as popular with men as he was with women,

[01:22.49]and he had every quality except that of making money.

[01:29.55]His father, on his death, had left him his sword

[01:35.82]and a history of a particular war in fifteen volumes.

[01:42.87]Hughie hung the first over his looking glass put the second on a shelf,

[01:51.83]and he lived on two hundred pounds a year that an old aunt allowed him.

[01:59.69]He had tried everything.

[02:03.25]He had gone on the Stock Exchange for six months;

[02:08.81]but what was a butterfly to do among bulls and bears?

[02:16.28]He had been a tea merchant for a little longer,

[02:21.43]but he had soon tired of that.

[02:25.68]Then he had tried selling dry sherry.

[02:31.14]That did not answer;the sherry was a little too dry.

[02:37.20]At last he became nothing,

[02:41.96]a delightful,useless young man with a perfect face and no profession.

[02:50.50]To make matters worse,he was in love.

[02:55.26]The girl he loved was Laura Merton,

[03:00.53]the daughter of a former army officer

[03:05.39]who had lost his temper and his health in India,

[03:10.85]and never found either of them again.

[03:15.40]Laura loved him and he was ready to kiss her shoestrings 2.

[03:22.84]They were the handsomest couple in London,

[03:27.57]and had not a penny between them.

[03:31.96]Her father was very fond of Hughie,but would not hear of any engagement.

[03:40.21]"Come to me, my boy,when you have got ten thousand pounds of your own,

[03:49.67]and we will see about it," he used to say;

[03:55.02]and Hughie looked very miserable 3 in those days,

[04:00.38]and had to go to Laura for comfort.

[04:04.82]One morning,as he was on his way to Holland Park,where the Mertons lived,

[04:12.08]he dropped in to see a great friend of his,Alan Trevor.

[04:18.43]Trevor was a painter.

[04:21.59]Indeed,few people are not nowadays.

[04:26.92]But he was also an artist,and artists are rather rare.

[04:34.16]Personally he was a strange, rough fellow,

[04:39.20]with a freckled 4 face and red, rough beard.

[04:45.36]However, when he took up the brush he was a real master,

[04:52.44]and his pictures were eagerly sought after.

[04:57.30]He had been very much attracted by Hughie at first,

[05:02.45]it must be admitted,entirely on account of his personal charm.

[05:09.00]"The only people a painter should know,"he used to say,

[05:15.17]"are people who are beautiful,

[05:18.93]people who are an artistic 5 pleasure to look at,and restful to talk to.

[05:26.90]Men who are well dressed

[05:31.34]and women who are lovely rule the world at least they should do so.

[05:38.89]"However,after he got to know Hughie better,

[05:44.82]he liked him quite as much for his bright,cheerful spirits,

[05:51.09]and his generous, careless nature,

[05:55.45]and had asked him to come to his studio whenever he liked.

[06:01.40]When Hughie came in he found Trevor putting the finishing touches

[06:07.46]to a wonderful life size picture of a beggar man.

[06:13.81]The beggar himself was standing 6 on a raised platform in a corner of the room.

[06:22.35]He was a wizened 7 old man with a wrinkled face and a sad expression.

[06:30.43]Over his shoulder was thrown a rough brown coat,all torn and full of holes;

[06:41.58]his thick boots were old and patched;

[06:46.33]and with one hand he leant on a rough stick,

　　[06:51.79]while with the other he held out his battered 8 hat for money.

[06:57.54]"What an amazing model!"whispered Hughie,as he shook hands with his friend.

[07:05.69]"An amazing model?"shouted Trevor at the top of his voice;

[07:12.54]"I should think so!Such beggars are not met with every day.Good heavens!

[07:20.19]What a picture Rembrandt would have made of him!"

[07:24.63]"Poor old fellow!"said Hughie, "How miserable he looks!

[07:31.27]But I suppose, to you painters, his face is valuable. "

[07:36.59]"Certainly," replied Trevor,

[07:40.67]"you don't want a beggar to look happy, do you?"

[07:45.35]"How much does a model get for sitting?"asked Hughie,

[07:51.69]as he found himself a comfortable seat.

[07:56.45]"A shilling an hour.""And how much do you get for your picture,Alan?"

[08:02.69]"Oh, for this I get two thousand. "

[08:07.26]"Pounds?""Guineas.Painters,poets,and doctors always get guineas."

[08:16.82]"Well,I think the model should have a percentage,"cried Hughie,laughing;

[08:23.95]"they work quite as hard as you do."

[08:27.90]"Nonsense, nonsense!Why, look at the trouble of laying on the paint alone,

[08:36.15]and standing all day in front of the picture!

[08:40.70]It's easy, Hughie, for you to talk,

[08:44.77]but I tell you

[08:47.83]that there are moments when art almost reaches the importance of manual work.

[08:54.49]But you mustn't talk;I'm very busy.

[08:58.64]Smoke a cigarette, and keep quiet.

[09:03.19]"After some time the servant came in,

[09:07.94]and told Trevor that the frame maker 9 wanted to speak to him.

[09:14.19]"Don't run away,Hughie," he said, as he went out,

[09:19.15]"I will be back in a moment."

[09:22.99]The old beggar man took advantage of Trevor's absence

[09:29.47]to rest for a momenton a wooden seat that was behind him.

[09:35.53]He looked so miserable that Hughie pitied him

[09:40.68]and felt in his pockets to see what money he had.

[09:46.32]All he could find was a pound and some pennies.

[09:52.85]"Poor old fellow,"he thought to himself,"he wants it more than I do,

[09:59.82]but I shan't have much money myself for a week or two";

[10:04.97]and he walked across the studio

[10:09.12]and slipped the pound into the beggar's hand.

[10:14.16]The old man startled,and a faint smile passed across his lips.

[10:21.53]"Thank you, sir,"he said, "thank you."

[10:26.39]Then Trevor arrived,and Hughie left,

[10:31.04]blushing a little at what he had done.

[10:35.51]He spent the day with Laura,

[10:39.76]was charmingly blamed for giving away a pound,and had to walk home.