Lesson 9 A cold welcome冷遇
First listen and then answer the question.
聽錄音，然后回答以下問題。
What does a cold welcome' refer to?
On Wednesday evening, we went to the Town Hall.
星期三的晚上，我們?nèi)チ耸姓d。
It was the last day of the year and a large crowd of people had gathered under the Town Hall clock.
那是一年的后一天，一大群人聚集在市政廳的大鐘下面。
It would strike twelve in twenty minutes' time. Fifteen minutes passed and then, at five to twelve, the clock stopped.
再過20分鐘，大鐘將敲響12下。15分鐘過去 了，而就在 11點55分時，大鐘停了。
The big minute hand did not move. We waited and waited, but nothing happened.
那根巨大的分針不動了。我們等啊等啊，可情況沒有變化。
Suddenly someone shouted, ‘It's two minutes past twelve! The clock has stopped!" I looked at my watch. It was true.
突然有人喊道：“已經(jīng)12點零2分了！那鐘已經(jīng)停了！”我看了一下我的 手表，果真如此。
The big clock refused to welcome the New Year. At that moment, everybody began to laugh and sing.
那座大鐘不愿意迎接新年。此時，大家已經(jīng)笑了起來，同時唱起了歌。
New words and expressions 生詞和短語
welcome
n. 歡迎； v. 歡迎
crowd
n. 人群
gather
v. 聚集
hand
n. （表或機器的）指針
shout
v. 喊叫
refuse
v. 拒絕
laugh
v. 笑
Notes on the text課文注釋
1 Town Hall，市政廳、地方政府辦公之處。
2 a large crowd of ... 一大群…
3 in twenty minutes' time， 20分鐘之后。