Lesson 09 A cold welcome

冷遇

First listen and then answer the question.
听录音，然后回答以下问题。
What does 'a cold welcome' refer to?

On Wednesday evening, we went to the Town

Hall. It was the last day of the year and a

large crowd of people had gathered under

the Town Hall clock. It would strike twelve in

twenty minutes' time. Fifteen minutes passed

and then, at five to twelve, the clock stopped.

The big minute hand did not move. We waited

and waited, but nothing happened. Suddenly

someone shouted. 'It's two minutes past

twelve! The clock has stopped!' I looked at

my watch. It was true. The big clock refused

to welcome the New Year. At that moment,

everybody began to laugh and sing.

生词和短语

welcome n. 欢迎；v. 欢迎
crowd n. 人群
gather v. 聚集
hand n. （表或机器的）指针
shout v. 喊叫
refuse v. 拒绝
laugh v. 笑

课文注释

1 Town Hall, 市政厅，地方政府办公之处。

2 a large crowd of 一大群

3 in twenty minutes' time 20分钟之后

参考译文

星期三的晚上，我们去了市政厅。那是一年的最后一天，一大群人聚集在市政厅的大钟下面。再过20分钟，大钟将敲响12下。15分钟过去了，而就在11点55分时，大钟停了。那根巨大的分针不动了。我们等啊等啊，可情况没有变化。忽然有人喊道：“已经12点零2分了！那钟已经停了！”我看了一下我的手表，果真如此。那座大钟不愿意迎接新年。此时，大家已经笑了起来，同时唱起了歌。

学习建议：

1.先听两遍，不看文本；2.看文本，听两遍；3.不看译文，自己尝试翻译一遍；4.看译文，对比自己的翻译；5.朗读，模仿发音；6.看中文，尝试翻译成英文；7.听写；8.背诵。以上8个步骤，坚持下来，可以综合提高大家的听说读写译五个方面。当然，每个同学也可以根据自己情况选择完成。如有任何疑问，私信我（Ellen的微信：15377500890）。