Unit1 My Father
I don't really know my father. He isn't easy to get on with. He's quite self-centred, and a little bit vain, I think, and in some ways quite unapproachable. The public must think he's very easy-going, but at home he keeps himself to himself.
He can't have been at home much when I was a child, because I don't remember much about him. He's always been slightly out of touch with family life. His work always came first, and he was always off somewhere acting or rehearsing. He loves being asked for his autograph, he loves to be recognised. He has won several awards, and he's very proud of that. He was made a Member of the British Empire, and we had to go to Buckingham Palace to get the medal. It was incredibly boring. There were hundreds of other people getting the same awards, and you had to sit there for hours. He shows off his awards to whoever comes to the house.
I went to public school, and because of my total lack of interest and non-attendance I was asked to leave. I didn't want to go there in the first place. I was taken away from all my frien
ds. He must have been very pleased to get me into the school, but in the end it was a complete waste of money. I let him down quite badly, I suppose. I tried several jobs but I couldn't settle down in them. Then I realised that what I really wanted to do was live in the country and look after animals, so that's what I now do.
As a family, we're not that close, either emotionally or geographically. We don't see much of each other these days. My father and I are totally different, 深圳私立学校like chalk and cheese. My interests have always been the country, but he's into books, music and above all, opera, which I hate. If they do come to see us, they're in completely the wrong clothes for the country-mink coats, nice little leather shoes, not exactly ideal for long walks across the fields.
He was totally opposed to me getting married. He was hoping we would break up. Gerald's too humble, I suppose. He must have wanted me to marry someone famous, but I didn't, and that's all there is to it. We don't want children, but my father keeps on and on talking about wanting grandchildren. You can't make someone have children just because you want grandchildren.
I never watch him on television. I'm not that interested, and anyway he usually forgets to tell me when he's on.
我实在不了解我的父亲，与他相处很难。在我看来，他总以自我为中心，还有一点自负，在某种程度上难以接近。公众一定以为他很随和，但在家里，他总是拒人于千里之外。
        在我小的时候，他一定很少在家，因为在我的记忆里关于他的不多。他总有点冷落家庭成员。工作是第一要义，他总是离家去拍戏或排练。他喜欢别人索要他的亲笔签名，喜欢出风头。他获得过几项大奖，并引以为荣。他还被授予英国皇家成员的称号，为此我们不得不去白金汉宫领取勋章。授勋典礼简直无聊透顶。由于有数百人获此勋章，因此你就不得不在那儿等上好几个小时。只要有人来我家拜访，他总不忘向来访的每个人炫耀他的那些奖章。
        我上的是私立学校，由于对功课毫无兴趣，再加上无故旷课，我被勒令退学。我本来就不愿去那儿上学，因为我不得不离开我所有的朋友。把我送进那所学校父亲一定很满意，可到头来纯粹是在浪费钱。我猜我一定让他失望至极。我试过几份工作，但总无法安下心来。后来，我终于意识到我真正想做的就是在乡下照料家畜，于是一直干到现在。
        作为一家人，我们不仅住的地方相隔不近，在情感上也不那么亲近。这些天我们很少互相走动。父亲和我性格迥异，或者说是貌合神离。乡村是我的乐趣所在，而父亲却对书本，
音乐，尤其是我最讨厌的歌剧感兴趣。就算他们真的来看我，也是穿着及其"不合地宜"的衣服---貂皮大衣，漂亮小巧的皮鞋，根本不适合在田间远足。
        对于我的婚姻，他及其反对，且一直希望我们分手。我想是杰拉德出身太卑微了。父亲一定是想让我和名人结合，但我没有，就这么回事。我和丈夫不想要小孩，可父亲却不停地唠叨说想要个外孙。但总不能因为你想要个外孙就让别人生小孩吧。
        我从不看他演的电视节目，不怎么想看。何况他还常忘了告诉我播出的时间。
Unit3 Saved by his mistakes
Jerry Cram set out to go coon hunting that gloomy afternoon. With him were his old shepherd dog and two beagle hound pups. At least he said they were beagles, but his older brother Bob had roared with laughter a month earlier, when Jerry had told him they had cost five dollars. "It's another of your mistakes, Jerry!" He said. And that's what Bob called the pups "Mistake No. 1" and "Mistake No. 2"
Even Jerry had to admit that the pups weren't much help, for he hunted for several hours without any luck, till at last he ran out of shells. Then, toward evening, he spotted a racoo
n high in a beech tree. It was a forty-foot tree, an ancient one that had died years ago. The top of its trunk had been carried away in some storm, and the trunk itself had been gutted by rot and insects.
Still, Jerry went up after the coon, intending to capture him by hand. But he never reached the animal. Just as he got level with the top of the broken trunk, the limb on which he was standing cracked ominously under his feet. Instantly he jumped to the rim of the tree trunk, and at once the edge crumbled. Down he plunged, too suddenly to make a sound, into the deep hollow of the dead tree.
Halfway down Jerry's fall was broken for a moment by a jutting piece of wood that caught his clothing. Then he tumbled the rest of the way. Shaken, dazed, but miraculously unhurt, he picked himself up.
It was dark inside the tree. Above him there was only a pale disc of sky. At his feet a pear-shaped hole framed a small patch of grey light. He could hear the pups sniffing and yelping to him, and Shep backed off and barked in alarm.