365个英语简短小故事-307. Car Shopping in California

Bert, 25, went car shopping in Corona¹. After talking to a salesman inside the Chevrolet showroom, Bert went outside with him to look at some cars in the lot. After half an hour, Bert found a blue Camaro that he really liked. He went with the salesman for a test drive. He liked driving the car as much as he liked looking at it. When they returned, the salesman went inside to start the paperwork.

Bert lingered² outside to enjoy a cigarette. He turned on his iPod and lit up a Marlboro. Five minutes later he finished his smoke, turned off the music, and started back inside.

Just then, he heard two loud sounds—one right after the other. Both sounds were caused by falling human bodies. Two small Cessna airplanes had just crashed 1,000 feet overhead³. One body made a loud cracking sound as it went through the roof of a new Corvette. The other body landed on the back end of Bert’s Camaro. At about the same time, an engine from one of the planes crashed through the roof of the showroom. It killed the district manager of the dealership⁴, who was on the phone ordering a pizza.

Thinking it was an earthquake, the salesman ran out of the building. When he saw Bert, he asked him for a cigarette. “I quit smoking last month,” he said to Bert. Bert told him about the fallen bodies. They both walked over to look at the corpses⁵. Bert told the salesman how sad he felt for the dead people and their families.

After a short pause, the salesman said, “You know, we can fix this Camaro for you. It’ll look like new.”

“Really? For how much?” Bert asked.

“Not much, not much at all,” the salesman replied. Just then, a police car, a fire truck, and an ambulance pulled up. A police officer told Bert and the salesman to move away from the wreckage⁶, but to stick around for questioning.

 

1 corona   

n.日冕

参考例句：

• The corona gains and loses energy continuously.日冕总是不断地获得能量和损失能量。
• The corona is a brilliant,pearly white,filmy light,about as bright as the full moon.光环带是一种灿烂的珠白色朦胧光，几乎像满月一样明亮。

2 lingered   

v.逗留( linger的过去式和过去分词 )；缓慢消失；苟延残喘；持续看（或思考）

参考例句：

• The faint smell of her perfume lingered in the room. 房间里仍飘溢着她那淡淡的香水味。
• The smell of the gas oil lingered in the house. 屋里仍然飘溢着汽油味。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 overhead   

adj.在头顶上的，悬空的；n.间接开支

参考例句：

• A number of birds are circling overhead.很多鸟在头顶上空盘旋。
• Many stars overhead are invisible to the naked eye.天上的许多星星是肉眼看不到的。

4 dealership   

n.商品特许经销处

参考例句：

• The car dealership has a large inventory of used cars. 这家汽车经销商拥有数量庞大的二手车。
• A key to this effort is the experience in the dealership. 达到这个成果的关键是销售的体验。

5 corpses   

n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The living soldiers put corpses together and burned them. 活着的战士把尸体放在一起烧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Overhead, grayish-white clouds covered the sky, piling up heavily like decaying corpses. 天上罩满了灰白的薄云，同腐烂的尸体似的沉沉的盖在那里。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

6 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。