新思路单项技能教材 口语 （PETS）四级 39-40_new

A Real Beauty

[00:27.69]A young man comes to Pebble 1 Beach near Monterey,

[00:32.65]California on behalf of his boss,to acquire a beach house.

[00:39.21]The vendor 2 signs the contract,elated with the payment,

[00:38.21]and then the young man suddenly says:

[00:42.28]"There are some small details to be arranged before my boss moves in.

[00:48.35]We've covering all the costs,and you only have to get the job done."

[00:54.59]"What are the details?"

[00:57.83]"First,there is sand all the way between the house and the ocean shore.

[01:04.99]My boss likes it when there is grass covering his way to the beach.

[01:10.63]Next,there are rocks to the west.

[01:15.17]They obscure the sunset.

[01:19.25]My boss loves to watch the sunset over a straight horizon,

[01:25.20]so get these rocks down.

[01:28.97]And finally,my boss also loves to see some sea lions in the water.

[01:35.52]So buy at least 40 of them,

[01:39.57]and you have plenty of fish around here to feed them."

[01:44.25]In a few weeks,after all those jobs are done,the boss comes.

[01:50.31]He walks on the damp grass from the house to the ocean,

[01:55.17]seats himself comfortably in an  armchair,

[01:59.92]enjoys the sun setting down behind a perfectly 3 straight coastline.

[02:05.67]And it really gives him a pleasant surprise

[02:10.03]to see so many sea lions near the shore.

[02:14.76]Some of them toss their heads from side to side,

[02:19.72]and others flip 4 backwards 5 and slowly glide 6 out of sight,

[02:25.47]with their tails slapping the surface as they disappear into the water.

[02:31.14]"A real beauty,one of a kind,"he observes thoughtfully,

[02:37.98]"and it's something no money on Earth can ever buy."

[02:42.94]Three Friends

[03:09.30]A dying man had three best friends:Nick,Casey,and Peter.

[03:17.06]He gathered them at his bedside

[03:21.61]and handed each of them an envelope containing $10,000 in cash.

[03:28.14]He made them each promise that after his death,

[03:33.31]they would place the three envelopes in his coffin 7.

[03:38.17]He told them that he wanted to have enough money to enjoy the next life.

[03:44.72]A week later the man died.

[03:48.67]At the wake,each of the three friends,one after another,

[03:54.83]put an envelope in the coffin and bid their old friend farewell.

[04:00.71]By chance,these three met several months later.

[04:08.16]Soon Nick,feeling guilty,blurted out a confession 8

[04:15.00]saying that there was only $6,000 in the envelope he placed in the coffin.

[04:22.26]He felt,rather than waste all the money,

[04:27.02]he would donate it to the homeless in the subway stations.

[04:32.16]He asked for their forgiveness.

[04:36.13]Moved by Nick's sincerity 9.

[04:39.89]Casey confessed that he too had kept some of the money

[04:45.35]for a worthy 10 medical charity.

[04:49.43]The envelope,he admitted,had only $4,000 in it.

[04:55.18]He said,he too could not bring himself to waste the money

[05:00.95]so frivolously 11 when it could be used to benefit others.

[05:06.88]By this time Peter expressed his deep disappointment

[05:12.63]in the behavior of two of his most trusted friends.

[05:18.50]"I am the only one who kept his promise to our dead friend.

[05:24.36]I want you both to know that the envelope I placed in the coffin

[05:30.39]contained the full amount.

[05:34.02]Indeed,my envelope contained my personal check for $20,000,

[05:41.39]and I took your $10,000 as change."