after-20-years(公开课) 欧亨利著名短篇小说改编阅读材料(少许改动)
说明:文章内容仅供预览,部分内容可能不全。下载后的文档,内容与下面显示的完全一致。下载之前请确认下面内容是否您想要的,是否完整无缺。
After Twenty Years O'Henry Part1 The policeman on the beat (在巡逻中)moved up the avenue impressively. The impressiveness was habitual and not for show, for spectators were few. The time was barely 10 o'clock at night, but chilly gusts of wind with a taste of rain in them had well nigh depeopled the streets. Trying doors as he went, twirling his club(警棍) with many intricate and artful movements, turning now and then to cast his watchful eye down the pacific street, the officer, with his stalwart(健壮的) form and slight swagger(昂首阔步), made a fine picture of a guardian of the peace. The community was one that preferred go to bed early. Now and then you might see the lights of a cigar store or of an all-night lunch counter; but the majority of the door had been closed. When about midway of a certain block, the policeman suddenly slowed his walk. In the doorway of a darkened store a man leaned, with an unlighted cigar in his mouth. As the policeman walked up to him the man spoke up quickly. 'It's all right, officer,' he said, reassuringly. 'I'm just waiting for a friend. It's an appointment made twenty years ago. Sounds a little funny to you, doesn't it? Well, I'll explain if you'd like to know. About that long ago there used to be a restaurant where this store stands--'Big Joe' Brady's restaurant.' 'Until five years ago,' said the policeman. 'It was torn down then.' The man in the doorway struck a match and lit his cigar. The light showed a pale, square-jawed face with keen eyes, and a little white scar near his right eyebrow. His scarfpin(领带针) was a large diamond, oddly set(奇怪的搭配). 'Twenty years ago tonight,' said the man, 'I dined here at 'Big Joe' Brady's with Jimmy Wells, my best friend, and the finest chap(家伙) in the world. He and I were raised here in New York, just like two brothers, together. I was eighteen and Jimmy was twenty. The next morning I was to start for the West to make my fortune. You couldn't have dragged Jimmy out of New York; he thought it was the only place on earth. Well, we agreed that night that we would meet here again exactly twenty years from that date and time, no matter what our conditions might be or from what distance we might have to come. We figured that in twenty years each of us ought to have our destiny worked out and our fortunes made, whatever they were going to be.' 'It sounds pretty interesting,' said the policeman. ' Haven't you heard from your friend since you left?' 'Well, yes, for a time we wrote to each other,' said the other. 'But after a year or two we lost track of each other. You see, the West is a pretty big place, and I kept hustling(四处奔忙) around over it pretty often. But I know Jimmy will meet me here if he's alive, for he always was the truest, stanchest(最忠诚可靠) old chap in the world. He'll never forget. I came a thousand miles to stand in this door tonight, and it's worth it if my old partner turns up.' The waiting man pulled out a handsome watch, the lids of it set with small diamonds. 'Three minutes to ten,' he announced. 'It was exactly ten o'clock when we parted here at the restaurant door.' 'Did pretty well out West, didn't you?' asked the policeman. 'You bet! I hope Jimmy has done half as well. He was a kind of plodder(沉闷苦干者), though, good fellow as he was. I've had to compete with some of the sharpest people going to get my fortune. A man gets in a groove(墨守成规) in New York. It takes the West to put Reading comprehension Questions: 1. What kind of police he is in paragraph1-2? 2. What do you know about the man from the underline sentences? 3. What do you know about Jimmy from the underline words? 4. What do you know about their relationship 20 years ago? a razor-edge on him.' The policeman twirled his club and took a step or two.'I'll be on my way. Hope your friend comes around all right. Are you going to leave at 10 o’clock sharply?' 'I should say not!' said the other. 'I'll give him half an hour at least. If Jimmy is alive on earth he'll be here by that time. Bye, officer.' 'Good-night, sir,' said the policeman, passing on along his beat, trying doors as he went… Summary After reading Guess what will A policeman met a man from . The man was happen next. Will his best friend, , who he had an with 20 Jimmy turn up tonight? and why ? years ago, when they were as close as . Part2 There was now a fine, cold rain falling, and the wind blew steadily. And in the door of the store the man who had come a thousand miles to fill an appointment, uncertain almost to absurdity(荒谬), with the friend of his youth, smoked his cigar and waited. About twenty minutes he waited, and then a tall man in a long overcoat, with collar turned up to his ears, hurried across from the opposite side of the street. He went directly to the waiting man. 'Is that you, Bob?' he asked, doubtfully. 'Is that you, Jimmy Wells?' cried the man in the door. 'Bless my heart!' exclaimed the new arrival, grasping both the other's hands with his own. 'It's Bob, sure as fate. I was certain I'd find you here if you were still in existence. Well, well, well! --twenty years is a long time. You changed a lot, Bob; I wish the restaurant had lasted, so we could have had another dinner there. How has the West treated you, old man?' 'Bully; it has given me everything I asked it for. You've changed lots, Jimmy. I never thought you were so tall by two or three inches.' 'Oh, I grew a bit after I was twenty.' Think while reading 1. why did the auther mentioned twice “a thousand miles” in the passage? 2. why did the tall man turned his collar up to his ears? 本文来源:https://www.wddqw.com/doc/276a8173bf64783e0912a21614791711cd797973.html