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Our vicar is always raising money for one
cause or another, but he has never
managed to get enough money to have
the church clock repaired. The big clock
which used to strike the hours day and
night was damaged during the war and
has been silent ever since.
' One night, however, our vicar woke up
with a start: the clock was striking the
hours! Looking at his watch, he saw that
it was one o'clock, but the bell struck
thirteen times before it stopped. Armed
with a torch, the vicar went up into the
clock tower to see what was going on. In
the torchlight, he caught sight of a figure
whom he immediately recognized as Bill Wilkins, our local grocer.
'Whatever are you doing up here Bill ?' asked the vicar in surprise.
' I'm trying to repair the bell,' answered Bill.' I've been coming
up here night
after night for weeks now. You see, I was hoping to give you a
surprise.'
'You certainly did give me a surprise!'said the vicar. 'You've
probably
woken up everyone in the village as well. Still, I'm glad the bell
is working
again.'
'That's the trouble, vicar,' answered Bill. 'It's working all right,
but I'm
afraid that at one o'clock it will strike thirteen times and there's
nothing 1 can
do about it.'
'we'll get used to that Bill,' said the vicar. 'Thirteen is not as
good as one
but it's better than nothing. Now let's go downstairs and have a cup
of tea.'
New words and expressions 生詞和短語
equal
v. 等于
vicar
n. 牧師
raise
v. 募集，籌（款）
torchlight
n. 電筒光
參考譯文
我們教區(qū)的牧師總是為各種各樣的事籌集資金。但始終未能籌足資金把教堂的鐘修好。教堂的鐘很大，以前不分晝夜打點(diǎn)報(bào)時(shí)，但很多年前遭到毀壞，從此便無聲無息了。
一天夜里，我們的牧師突然被驚醒了，大鐘又在“打點(diǎn)”報(bào)時(shí)了！他一看表，才1點(diǎn)鐘，可是那鐘一邊敲了13下才停。牧師拿著一支電筒走上鐘樓想去看看究竟發(fā)生了什么事情。借著電筒光。他看見一個(gè)人，馬上認(rèn)出那是本地雜貨店主經(jīng)比爾.威爾金斯。
“你究竟在這上面干什么，比爾？”牧師驚訝地問。
“我想把這口鐘修好，”比爾回答說�！昂脦讉�(gè)星期了，我天天夜里到鐘樓上來。嗯，我是想讓你大吃一驚�！�
“你確實(shí)使我大吃了一驚！”牧師說，“也許同時(shí)你把村里所有的人都吵醒了。不過，鐘又能報(bào)時(shí)了，我還是很高興的�！�
“問題就在這里，牧師，”比爾回答說。“不錯(cuò)，鐘能報(bào)時(shí)了，但是，恐怕每到1點(diǎn)鐘，它總要敲13下，對(duì)此我已無能為力了�！�
“大家慢慢就習(xí)慣了，比爾，”牧師說。“13下是不如1下好，但總比1下也不敲強(qiáng)。來，咱們下樓去喝杯茶吧�！�
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