英语专业晨读美文-人物篇 2 Whatever Love Means

[00:01.34]Whatever Love Means
[00:03.01]Although neither of them remembered the occasion,
[00:07.16]Diana first met her future husband when she was just a baby.
[00:11.10]It happened during the winter of 1961, when twelve-year-old Charles,
[00:16.46]Prince of Wales, was visiting his mother's Sandringham retreat.
[00:20.18]At the time, your Prince Charles barely glanced at the tiny baby
[00:24.88]sleeping in her cot.
[00:26.41]After all, could a twelve-year-old boy be interested in babies?
[00:30.57]In fact, it would be sixteen years
[00:33.48]before Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer took place
[00:37.19]in the middle of a farmer's field during a shooting party
[00:40.36]in November 1977.
[00:42.33]It was a cold, rainy, bleak¹ afternoon when sixteen-year-old Diana,
[00:47.26]dressed in a borrowed parka that was too large for her,
[00:50.54]boots, and blue jeans, crossed the field to meet the heir to the British throne.
[00:55.46]It was almost twilight² when the two came face to face near Nobottle Woods.
[01:00.06]"What a sad man." Diana thought when she first saw him.
[01:04.54]The future Princess was intrigued³ to
[01:06.95]finally meet the most eligible⁴ bachelor in England,
[01:09.94]though she was not impressed with his five-foot-ten-inch height,
[01:13.74] thinking to herself that she would tower over him in high heels.
[01:17.02] But Diana would later say that she admired his beautiful blue eyes.
[01:21.51]The Prince later remarked that
[01:23.69] he thought Diana was "a very jolly and attractive" girl,
[01:26.97] "full of fun", though Diana herself believed that
[01:30.36] "he barely noticed me at all".
[01:32.33]Diana, it was discovered later,
[01:34.41] first came to the attention of the royal family
[01:37.04]when she acted as a bridesmaid for her sister Jane's wedding that April.
[01:40.97] It was the first major social occasion that Diana attended as a young woman.
[01:45.90] And many of the royals were surprised at
[01:48.08]how beautiful and mature the once-gawky girl had become.
[01:52.12]Even the Queen Mother, Prince Charles's grandmother,
[01:55.41] noticed Diana's beauty, grace, and charm.
[01:58.47]She complimented the Earl on the fine job he had done in bringing Diana up.
[02:03.06]When Charles went to Switzerland for a ski vacation,
[02:06.35]Diana missed him terribly. He called her after a day or two,
[02:10.39] and told Diana he had something important to ask her.
[02:13.89]He arrived home on February 3, 1981.
[02:17.72]Three days later, he arranged to see Diana at Windsor Castle. Late that evening,
[02:23.84] while Prince Charles was showing Diana the nursery, he asked her to marry him.
[02:29.31]To his surprise, Diana treated his proposal as a joke,
[02:33.47] she actually giggled⁵. But soon she could see that Prince Charles was serious.
[02:38.83] Despite an insistent⁶ voice inside her head
[02:41.99]that told her she would never be Queen, she accepted his proposal.
[02:46.26]Diana told Prince Charles over and over that she loved him.
[02:50.42]"Whatever love means." was his reply.

1 bleak   

adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的

参考例句：

• They showed me into a bleak waiting room.他们引我来到一间阴冷的会客室。
• The company's prospects look pretty bleak.这家公司的前景异常暗淡。

2 twilight   

n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期

参考例句：

• Twilight merged into darkness.夕阳的光辉融于黑暗中。
• Twilight was sweet with the smell of lilac and freshly turned earth.薄暮充满紫丁香和新翻耕的泥土的香味。

3 intrigued   

adj.好奇的，被迷住了的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的过去式)；激起…的兴趣或好奇心；“intrigue”的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• You've really intrigued me—tell me more! 你说的真有意思—再给我讲一些吧！
• He was intrigued by her story. 他被她的故事迷住了。

4 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

5 giggled   

v.咯咯地笑( giggle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The girls giggled at the joke. 女孩子们让这笑话逗得咯咯笑。
• The children giggled hysterically. 孩子们歇斯底里地傻笑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 insistent   

adj.迫切的，坚持的

参考例句：

• There was an insistent knock on my door.我听到一阵急促的敲门声。
• He is most insistent on this point.他在这点上很坚持。