听播客学英语 127 世界上没有这样古怪的乡亲

 　　In today’s podcast, we are going to meet three English expressions. The first one is “to get away with something”. If you do something bad, and nobody discovers what you did, or they do not find out that it was you who did the bad thing, then we can say that you got away with it. For example, if you murder someone, and the police do not catch you, then you have got away with it, or got away with murder.

　　And the second expression is “to make a fuss¹”. “To make a fuss” means to draw a lot of attention to something – for example, to complain about something that you do not like, or write letters to the newspapers about it, and tell everyone about it – in fact to shout about it, so that everyone turns round to look.

　　And the third expression ? Well, you will have to wait until the end of the podcast.

　　Here is a story, which has been a big story in the British newspapers recently.

　　It started five years ago, in 2002. Anne and John Darwin lived in a village on the north-east coast of England. John had a hobby. He liked exploring the sea coast near his home in a small boat called a kayak. One day he set off for a kayaking expedition. The weather was good and the sea was calm. But John did not return. The police and volunteers searched everywhere for him, without success. John had disappeared. A few weeks later, wreckage² from John’s kayak was found on the rocks. The police concluded that John had had a tragic³ accident and that he was dead.

　　Five years later John walked into a police station in London. He told them that he thought he was a missing⁴ person. He could not remember anything that had happened in the last five years – where he had lived, what he had done. The police however were suspicious⁵. It was strange that John could remember who he was, and where he came from, but not what he had done in the last 5 years. And when the police tried to contact John’s wife, Anne, they found that she had recently sold her house and gone to Panama, in Central America.

　　The newspapers published stories about the missing kayak man who had miraculously⁶ returned when everyone thought he was dead. Then a woman decided⁷ to type the words “Anne” “John” and “Panama” into the Google search engine on her computer. She found a picture of Anne and John, taken a year ago. It it was on the website of a company which helps people who want to go and live in Panama. And then other people who had seen John during the last 5 years contacted the police. Some of them, it appears, knew that John was officially dead, but they did not say anything to anyone at the time because they did not want to make a fuss. (This is typical British behaviour. We do not like to make a fuss. So we do not complain about bad food in restaurants, we do not complain about poor service or high prices in shops, and we pretend not to notice when we meet someone who is supposed to be dead.)

　　For at least the last four years, Anne Darwin knew that her husband was alive. He was in fact living in a small flat in the house next to her house. He built a secret door between his bedroom and hers. He grew a beard, but a lot of the time, he did not hide. He did jobs around the house. He took the dog for walks on the beach. A few people thought they recognised him, but they thought “It is none of our business. Let’s not make a fuss.”

　　John and Anne got away with it for five years. If John had not walked into a police station last month, perhaps they might have got away with it for ever. They might have moved to Panama and lived the rest of their lives in that country.

　　Why did they do it? The police say that Anne used John’s alleged⁸ death to claim money from an insurance company. And John had debt problems at the time he disappeared. The police have arrested Anne and John and charged them with fraud⁹.

　　And now for our third expression. My mother came from the north-east of England, like the Darwins. When she heard of some peculiar¹⁰ or stupid thing which people had done – like pretending to be dead – she would shake her head and say “Eeee, there’s none so queer¹¹ as folks”, which is Newcastle dialect¹² for “there is nothing as strange as people”.

1 fuss   

n.过分关心，过分体贴，大惊小怪，小题大作

参考例句：

• My mother makes a fuss of me every time I come home.我每次回家，母亲总对我体贴备至。
• Stop all this fuss and do your homework.别大惊小怪了，去做你的家庭作业吧。

2 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。

3 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

4 missing   

adj.遗失的，缺少的，失踪的

参考例句：

• Check the tools and see if anything is missing.检点一下工具，看有无丢失。
• All the others are here;he's the only one missing.别人都来了，就短他一个。

5 suspicious   

adj.可疑的，容易引起怀疑的，猜疑的，疑心的

参考例句：

• A man was hanging about the house in a suspicious manner.一个男人在房子周围可疑地荡来荡去。
• He's so suspicious he would distrust his own mother.他这个人疑心太重，连自己的母亲也不相信。

6 miraculously   

ad.奇迹般地

参考例句：

• He had been miraculously saved from almost certain death. 他奇迹般地从死亡线上获救。
• A schoolboy miraculously survived a 25 000-volt electric shock. 一名男学生在遭受2.5 万伏的电击后奇迹般地活了下来。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

9 fraud   

n.骗子，欺骗，欺诈，诡计

参考例句：

• We will introduce legal safeguards against fraud.我们将推行防止欺诈的法律条款。
• The prosecutor accused the defendant of fraud.原告控告被告犯有欺诈罪。

10 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

11 queer   

adj.奇怪的，异常的，不舒服的，眩晕的

参考例句：

• I heard some queer footsteps.我听到某种可疑的脚步声。
• She has been queer lately.她最近身体不舒服。

12 dialect   

n.方言，土语，地方话

参考例句：

• He wrote a play in a local dialect.他用当地方言写了一个剧本。
• They began to speak rapidly in dialect.他们开始叽里呱啦地说起地方话来。