雾都孤儿Oliver's early life-英语听力

[00:34.77]Oliver’s early life [00:39.55]Oliver twist was born in a work house, [00:43.22]and when he arrived in this hard world, [00:45.75]it was very doubtful whether he would live beyond the first three minutes . [00:50.13]He lay on a hard little bed and struggled to start breathing [00:55.74]Oliver fought his first battle without much assistance from the two people present at his birth. One was an old woman, who was nearly always drunk, [01:06.80]and the other was a busy local doctor, [01:09.08]who was not paid enough to be very interested in Oliver’s survival. [01:13.00]After all, death is a very common event in the workhouse, [01:17.19]where only the poor and homeless lived. [01:20.17]However, Oliver managed to draw his first breath, [01:23.46]and then announced his arrival to the rest of the work house by crying loudly. [01:28.12]His mother raised her pale young face form the pillow and whispered, [01:33.00]‘Let me see the child, and die.’ [01:38.09]The doctor turned away from the fire, [01:40.33]where he had warming his hands. [01:42.45]‘You must not talk about dying yet,’ he said to her kindly. [01:47.35]He gave her the child to hold. [01:49.68]Lovingly, she kissed the baby on his forehead with her cold white lips, [01:55.92]then stared wildly around the room, fell back - and die. [02:01.80] [02:03.18]‘Poor dear!’ said the nurse, [02:06.71]hurriedly putting a green glass bottle back in the pocket of her long skirt. [02:10.71]The doctor began to put on his coat. [02:15.44]‘The baby is weak and probably have difficulties.’ he said [02:19.87]‘If so, give it a little milk to keep it quiet.’ [02:24.27]Then he looked at the dead woman, [02:26.41]‘The mother was a good-looking girl. Where did she come from?’ [02:32.91]‘She was brought here last night,’ replied the old woman. [02:37.27]‘She was found lying in the street. [02:39.74]She’d walked some distance, judging by her shoes, which were worn to pieces. [02:44.79]Where she came from, where she was going to, or what her name was, nobody knows.’ [02:51.70] [02:52.57]The doctor lifted the girl’s left hand. ‘The old story,’ [02:58.03]he said sadly, shaking his head. ‘No wedding ring, I see. Ah! Good night.’ [03:05.43] [03:06.76]And so Oliver was left with only the drunken nurse. [03:10.42]Without clothes, under his first blanket, [03:13.11]he could have been the child of a king or a beggar. [03:17.95] [03:17.99]But when the woman dressed him later in rough cotton clothes, yellow with age, [03:22.61]he looked exactly what he was—an orphan in the work house, [03:27.00]ready for a life of misery, hunger and neglect. [03:32.07]Oliver cried loudly. [03:35.54]If he could have known that he was a workhouse orphan, [03:39.26]perhaps he would have cried more loudly. [03:41.35] [03:43.83]There was no one to look after the baby in the workhouse, [03:46.48]so Oliver was sent to a special ‘baby farm’ nearby. [03:50.58]There, he and other thirty children rolled around the floor all day, [03:55.76]without the inconvenience of too much food or too much clothing. [04:00.05]Mrs Mann, the old woman who ‘looked after’ them, was very experienced. [04:06.67]She knew what was good for children, [04:08.47]and a full stomach was very dangerous to their health. [04:12.07]She also knew what was good for herself, [04:14.75]so she kept for her own use the money that she was given for the children’s food. [04:19.95]The board responsible for the orphans sometimes checked on the health of the children, [04:25.87]but they always sent the beadle, a kind of local police man, [04:29.92]to announce their visit the day before. [04:31.75]So, whenever the board arrived, of course, [04:34.54]the children were always neat and clean. [04:37.75] [04:39.03]This was the way Oliver was brought up. [04:40.96]Consequently, at the age of nine he was a pale, thin child and short for his age. [04:47.72]But despite frequent beatings by Mrs Mann, his spirit was strong, [04:53.16]which was probably the reason why he managed to reach the age of nine at all. [04:56.76] [04:58.68]On Oliver’s ninth birthday, [05:00.84]Mr Bumble the beadle came to the house to see Mrs Mann. [05:04.94]Through the front window Mrs Mann saw him at the gate, [05:08.63]and turned quickly to the girl who worked with her. [05:10.90]‘Quickly! Take Oliver and those others upstairs to be washed!’ she said. [05:16.76]Then she ran out to unlock the gate. [05:18.34](It was always kept locked to present official visitors walking in unexpected.) [05:23.26]‘I have business to talk about,’ [05:27.25]Mr Bumble told Mrs Mann as he entered the house. [05:30.41]He was a big fat man, often bad-tempered, [05:33.64]and was full of self-importance. [05:36.47]He did not like to be kept waiting at a locked gate. [05:39.00]Mrs Mann took his hat and coat, placed a chair for him, [05:44.68]and expressed great concern for his comfort. [05:47.41]‘You’ve had a long walk, Mr Bumble,’ she said, ‘and you must be thirsty.’ [05:52.31]She took out a bottle form the cupboard. [05:54.94]‘No, thank you, Mrs Mann. [05:56.99]Not a drop.’ He waved the bottle away. [06:00.49]‘Just a little drop, Mr Bumble, with cold water,’ [06:04.66]said Mrs Mann persuasively. [06:07.23]Mr Bumble coughed. ‘What is this?’ he asked, [06:11.92]looking at bottle with interest. [06:14.26]‘Gin, I keep it for the children’s medicine drink.’ [06:18.76]‘You gave the children gin, Mrs Mann?’ asked Mr Bumble, [06:24.04]watching as she mixed his drink. [06:26.15]‘Only with medicine, sir. I don’t like to see them suffer.’ [06:31.21]‘You are a good woman, Mrs Mann.’ [06:33.84]Mr Bumble drank half his glass immediately. [06:37.44]‘I’ll tell the board about you. Now, the reason why I’m here. [06:43.39]Oliver Twist is nine years old today. [06:46.91]We’ve never been able to discover anything about his parents.’ [06:51.91]‘Then how did he get his name?’ [06:55.94]‘I gave it to him,’ said Mr Bumble proudly. [06:59.53]‘We follow the alphabet. [07:01.14]The last one was an S-Swubble. [07:04.82]Then it was T, so this one is Twist. [07:08.26]The next one will be Unwin. [07:10.67]Anyway, Oliver Twist is now old enough to return to the workhouse. [07:15.61]Bringing him here, please.’ [07:17.62]While Mrs Mann went to get him, Mr Bumble finished the rest of his gin. [07:22.78]Oliver, his face and hands now almost clean, was led into the room. [07:29.44]‘Will you come with me, Oliver?’ [07:33.00]asked Mr Bumble in a loud voice. [07:35.54]Oliver was very glad to be free of Mrs Mann’s violence, [07:40.01]but he said nothing because she was angrily shaking her finger at him. [07:43.46]However, as the gate closed behind Oliver, he burst into tears. [07:49.19]He was leaving behind the other children, [07:51.03]the only friends he had, [07:52.84]and he realized at that moment how lonely he was in the world. [07:57.73] [07:58.86]Mr Bumble walked on with long steps, [08:01.46]with Oliver on his short little legs running beside him. [08:05.01]The feeling of contentment produced by gin –and-water had now disappeared, [08:09.55]and the beadle was in a bad mood once more. [08:12.61] [08:13.62]Back at the housework, Oliver was taken to see the board. He stood in front of ten fat men who were sitting around a table. [08:21.20]‘What’s your name, boy?’ [08:23.33]asked a particularly fat man with a very round, red face. [08:27.68]Oliver was frightened at the sight of so many people, [08:30.65]and started to cry. [08:33.08]‘Why are you crying?’ [08:34.84]The beadle hit him on the back, [08:36.52]and so naturally Oliver cried even more. [08:40.08]‘The boy is a fool,’ one member of the board announced. [08:43.98]‘You know you have no father or mother,’ [08:47.27]said the first man, [08:48.32]‘and that you have been brought up with other orphans?’ [08:51.14]‘Yes, sir,’ replied Oliver, crying bitterly. [08:55.38]‘Why is the boy crying?’ repeated the other man, puzzled. [08:58.99]‘You have come here to educated,’ continued the fat man, [09:03.73]‘so you will start working here tomorrow at six o’clock. [09:06.85]Oliver was led away to a large room, [09:09.26]on a rough hard bed, he cried himself to sleep. [09:13.62] [09:15.42]The room in the workhouse where the boy were fed was a large stone hall, [09:20.27]and at one end the master and two women served the food, [09:24.17]this consisted of a bowl of thin soup three times a day, [09:28.09]with a piece of bread on Sundays. [09:29.90] [09:31.10]The boys ate everything and were always hungry. [09:33.83]The bowls never needed washing. [09:35.82]The boy polished them with their snoops until they shone. [09:39.91]After mouths of this stow starvation, [09:43.87]one of the boys told the others he was so hungry that one night he might eat the boy who sleep next to him. [09:50.25]He had a wild hungry eye, and the other boys believed him. [09:56.35]After a long discussion, they decided that one of them should ask for more food after supper that evening, and Oliver was chosen. [10:04.22] [10:05.87]The evening arrived; [10:07.33]the soup was served, and the bowls were empty again in a few seconds. [10:11.77]Oliver went up to the master, with his bowl in his hand. [10:15.50]He felt very frightened, but also desperate with hunger. [10:19.22]‘Please, sir, I want some more.’ [10:22.94] [10:24.66]The master was a fat, healthy man, but he turned very pale. [10:28.46]He looked at the little boy in front of him with amazement. [10:32.37]Nobody else spoke. [10:33.44] [10:35.01]‘What?’ he asked at last, in a faint voice. [10:39.41]‘Please, sir, replied Oliver, ‘I want some more.’ [10:44.91]The master hit him with the serving spoon, [10:47.04]then seized Oliver’s arms and shouted for the beadle. [10:50.59]The beadle came quickly, heard the dreadful news, [10:53.92]and immediately ran to tell the board. [10:56.36] [10:57.83]‘He asked for more?’ Mr Limbkins, the fattest board member, asked in horror. [11:04.03]‘Bumble, is this really true?’ [11:07.35]‘That boy will be hanged!’ said the man who earlier had called Oliver a fool. [11:13.62]‘you see if I’m not right.’ [11:15.20] [11:16.72]Oliver was led away to be locked up, [11:18.89]and a reward was offered to anybody who would take him away and use him to work. [11:24.10]