【中小学生自学英语,用原典法听读典范英语6】02《吵闹的邻居》(Noisy Neighbours) 全英文文本
2011-10-23 12:35阅读:
Noisy Neighbours
1
Mr Flinch
In a grim,
grey house in a grim,
grey town lived an unhappy
man.
It was not
his grey house that made
Mr Flinch unhappy. It was
not that he was
br>poor, because he was not.
Mr Flinch was a miser. He
never gave away a penny.
( He never gave away a
smile either. ) He was a
mean and miserable man.
Mr Flinch was
miserable because of his
neighbours.
On one side
of Mr Flinch’s
grim, grey house stood a
jolly red one. It belonged
to Carl Clutch who mended
cars.
Carl loved cars
– and motorbikes
and vans and lorries. Every
morning, Mr Flinch woke up
to hear hammers banging,
spanners clanging and engines
revving. The whole street shook
with the noise.
On the other
side, in a bright blue
house, lived a music teacher
called Poppy Plink. Each
morning, Poppy sat down and
played grand tunes on her
grand piano. After breakfast,
her students started to
arrive.
Violins screeched,
drums thundered and bassoons
bellowed. Mr Flinch shut his
window, but the noise still
came through the wall. Brum
– brum, tootle
– toot, bang!
His whole house shook and
shivered.
He put his
fingers in his ears.
He rapped on
the wall …
but his neighbours did not
hear.
They were far
too happy. They were mending
cars and making music, and
they loved their work.
Brum
– brum, tootle
– toot,
bang!
Mr Flinch rap
rapped until he made holes
in his wallpaper. It did
no good.
Mr Flinch locked
himself in a cupboard. He
wound old towels round his
head.
He wrote angry
letters, but tore them all
up. ‘ Stamps
cost far too much
money!’ he
said.
Even in bed,
he wore a hat to keep
out the noise.
But the cars
still revved and the music
still jangled.
Mr Flinch was
the grey filling in a
noise
sandwich.
‘This
can’t go
on,’ Flinch thought
to himself. He even shouted
it out loud:
2
Nasty Tricks
Mr Flinch went
next door to
Carl’s house. Carl
was mending cars. It was
easy to sneak into his
kitchen and put a dead
rat in the fridge.
‘That will get
rid of him!’
said Flinch, and smiled a
nasty smile. ‘Nobody
wants to live in a house
with rats!’
At midnight, Mr Flinch climbed
on to his roof and
– carefully,
carefully – crawled
across the tiles. He put
his head down
Poppy’s chimney and
gave a long, loud,
‘Hooowooowoooo!’
‘That will get ride
of her,’ he
said with a grim grin.
‘Nobody wants to
live in a house with
ghosts!’
Then he climbed back into
bed.
Next morning, Mr Flinch woke
to a HUGE noise. Cars and
lorries were stopping outside.
He looked out of his
window.
Carl was sitting outside in
the rood, with a table, a
kettle, a loaf of bread
and a bottle of tomato
sauce.
Carl called to Mr Flinch,
‘Can’t
use my kitchen today! Rays,
urgh! My mum is cleaning
up. She told me to eat
my breakfast outside.
That’s how I
got this great idea! Take
– away breakfast!
Drivers can stop here and
buy breakfast.’
Just then, Poppy Plink came
running out of her blue
front door. ‘Oh,
Mr Flinch! Oh, Carl! Guess
what happened last
night!’
‘I give up,’
said Mr Flinch, with a
sumg smirk. ‘Do
tell.’
Poppy beamed with joy.
‘Last night, angles
sang down my chimney! They
did, I promise!’
She frowned.
‘But the music
wasn’t very good!
I think they want some
new songs to sing!
I’m sure they
want me to write them,
and I shall! Oh I
shall!’
She did.
Poppy still had to teach
music all day.
But at night she wrote
angle music. She made it
nice and loud, with lots
of cymbals and trumpets.
It was all too much for
Mr Flinch.
3
Mr Flinch has a Plan
Mr Flinch went next door
to Carl’s
house.
He showed Carl a fistful
of money. ‘The
day you move house, all
this is yours!’
he said.
‘Anything you say,
chief,’ said Carl,
wiping his dirty hands on
a rag.
‘As long as I can
mend cars, I’ll
be happy anywhere.’
Carl went on,
‘I’ll
move out as soon as I
can sell the
house!’
Next, Mr Flinch went to
Poppy’s house and
offered her a hatful of
money. ‘The day
you move house, all this
is yours!’ he
said.
‘Of course! If that
is what you want, dear
heart! Cried
Poppy.
She had never seen so much
money in her life.
‘As long as I
have my music, I can be
happy anywhere! I will move
out just as soon as
I can sell my
little house!’
Mr Flinch went home a
happy man –
well, as happy as a
man like Mr Flinch can
ever be.
He felt in his empty
pockets and gulped.
‘All that money
gone! Ah, but soon those
noisy neighbours will be gone,
too!’
In a few days, Mr
Flinch’s neighbours
had sold up their
houses.
Now, at last, he would
have peace and quiet
– nothing but
the noise of mice scratching
in the empty cellar.
4
Moving Day
Mr Flinch watched as Poppy
Plink moved out. Bo-jangle went
the piano as she pushed
and bumped it down the
steps.
‘Going already are you,
you pest?’ he
mutted. ‘I pity
the person who has to
live next door to
you!’
Seeing him, Poppy waved up
at the window.
‘Such luck, Mr
Flinch!’ she called.
‘Fancy! A few
days ago, I met someone
who wants to move house
too! We agreed to swap
houses!’
Just then, Carl came out
of his front door carrying
two heavy tool boxes. He
saw Poppy struggling with a
harp and went to help
her. ‘All set,
Poppy? he
said.
‘All set, Carl!
Isn’t this
fun!’ She
replied.
Then Carl moved into
Poppy’s bright house
and Poppy moved into
Carl’s jolly red
one.
They helped each other to
carry the big things, like
tables and sofas.
Then Carl had a house-warming
party. He and Poppy sang,
because they were so happy:
‘There’s
no place like
home!’
Mr Flinch heard it right
through the wall of his
house … even
inside his cupboard, even with
a towel round his
head.