[00:05.69]Lesson 69 Reading THE NECKLACE(1)
[00:13.74]Scene 1
[00:16.61]A park in Paris,1870.Jeanne(J) is sitting in the park.
[00:23.98]Mathilde(M) walks towards her.
[00:28.34]Good afternoon,Jeanne.
[00:31.58](Looking at the other woman) I'm sorry,but I don't think I know you.
[00:38.22]In fact you do.Many years ago we knew each other very well.
[00:44.15]I'm Mathilde Loisel.
[00:47.52]Mathilde!Oh yes.Sorry,I didn't recognize you.
[00:54.28]Where have you been all these years,Mathilde?
[00:58.23]I hope you weren't ill.You don't look very well.
[01:03.66]No,Jeanne,I wasn't ill.I know I look older than my age now.
[01:10.11]That's because of hard work-ten years of hard work.
[01:15.89]I'm sorry,Mathilde.Have times been hard for you?
[01:20.74]Yes,very hard.Years of hard word,very little food,
[01:28.40]only a small cold room to live in and never a moment's rest.
[01:34.43]Mathilde!I didn't know.I'm sorry.But what happened?
[01:41.28]I don't know if I should tell you.But I will.
[01:46.14]It was all because of your necklace,your beautiful diamond necklace.My necklace?
[01:53.89]Do you remember one afternoon ten years ago
[01:58.54]when I came to your house and borrowed a necklace of yours?
[02:04.32]Pierre my husband,was working in a government office.
[02:09.46]We'd been invited to a ball at the palace so I needed to borrow some jewellery.
[02:16.62]Scene 2
[02:27.49]The home of Mathilde and Pierre(P) Loisel,ten years before.
[02:33.76]Mathilde!I've got some wonderful news.
[02:38.80]We've been invited to the ball at the palace.
[02:43.34]Really?I can't believe it.
[02:47.89]But it's true.I was the only person in my office who was invited.
[02:54.45]I've written to accept the invitation.
[02:58.49]Oh,Pierre,how wonderful!But I don't think we can go.
[03:04.66]I haven't got an evening dress for the ball!
[03:08.60]And a new dress costs over four hundred francs.
[03:13.96]Four hundred!That's a lot of money.
[03:18.82]But,just this once.After all,this ball is very important.
[03:25.17]But there's another thing.Pierre.I have no jewellery to wear.
[03:30.31]Does that matter?Can't you just wear a flower instead?
[03:36.19]No,I couldn't do that.Everybody else will be wearing jewellery.
[03:42.64]I can't be the only woman who isn't wearing jewellery.
[03:47.81]Why don't you borrow some?
[03:51.37]Do you have a friend who might lend you some?
[03:55.42]Let me think.Maybe I could ask Jeanne.
[04:00.67]She married a man with a lot of money.
[04:04.64]I'll go and see her on Friday after I get the new dress.
[04:09.89]Lesson 70 Reading THE NECKLACE(2)
[04:21.96]Scene 3
[04:24.83]In the park,Mathilde continuses to tell Jeanne her story.
[04:30.99]So I called on you and asked if I could borrow some jewellery.
[04:37.24]Do you remember now? Yes,I remember.
[04:41.89]You were very kind.
[04:45.05]You brought out all your jewellery
[04:49.02]and you told me I could take anything I wanted.
[04:53.56]There were so many beautiful things that it was hard to choose.
[04:58.92]And then I saw a lovely diamond necklace with a big blue stone in the centre.
[05:05.79]I remember.You trid it on and it looked wonderful on you.
[05:12.56]I'm sure you looked beautiful that evening.
[05:17.00]You were always a pretty girl.
[05:20.97]Perhaps in those days I was.
[05:24.73]Pierre and I did have a very good time at the ball.
[05:29.59]But that was the last momen t of happiness in our lives.
[05:34.34]That night everything changed.
[05:38.00]Why?What happened?
[05:41.45]On our way home that night
[05:44.92]I looked down and saw that the necklace was not around my neck any more.
[05:50.20]I told Pierre.We rushed back to the palace and looked for it.
[05:56.44]We asded everyone there if they had found a necklace,but without luck.
[06:02.40]We couldn't find it;it was lost.
[06:06.84]But I don't understand.
[06:10.31]You returned the necklace to me the next afternoon.
[06:15.35]I remember very well.
[06:18.91]Yes,Jeanne,I brought a necklace to you
[06:23.87]It was exactly like your necklace,but it was a different one.
[06:29.43]It cost us thirty-six thousand francs.
[06:34.40]Thirty-six thousand francs!
[06:39.12]Pierre and I borrowed the money and bought the necklace.
[06:44.17]During the next ten years we both worded day and night to pay back the money we had borrowed.
[06:51.92]That's why I now look so old.
[06:55.97]Well,after all these years we've at last paid back all the money.
[07:02.14]My dear friend,Mathilde.Let me tell you something.
[07:08.17]That necklace you borrowed from me wasn't real diamond necklace.
[07:14.21]It wasn't valuable at all.
[07:17.84]The stones in the necklace were made of glass.
[07:22.49]It was worth five hundred francs at the most |