What did the old lady find when she got home?

The old lady was glad to be back at the block of flats where she lived. Hershopping had tired her and her basket had grown heavier with every step of theway home. In the lift her thoughts were on lunch and a good rest; but when shegot out at her own floor, both were forgotten in her sudden discovery that herfront door was open. She was thinking that she must reprimand her home help thenext morning for such a monstrous piece of negligence, when she remembered thatshe had gone shopping after the home help had left and she knew that she hadturned both keys in their locks. She walked slowly into the hall and at oncenoticed that all the room doors were open, yet following her regular practiceshe had shut them before going out. Looking into the drawing room, she saw ascene of confusion over by her writing desk. It was as clear as daylight thenthat burglars had forced an entry during her absence. Her first impulse was togo round all the rooms looking for the thieves, but then she decided that at herage it might be more prudent to have someone with her, so she went to fetch theporter from his basement. By this time her legs were beginning to tremble, soshe sat down and accepted a cup of very strong tea, while he telephoned thepolice. Then, her composure regained, she was ready to set off with the porter'sassistance to search for any intruders who might still be lurking in herflat.

They went through the rooms, being careful to touch nothing, as they didnot want to hinder the police in their search for fingerprints. The chaos wasinconceivable. She had lived in the flat for 30 years and was a veritable magpieat hoarding; and it seemed as though everything she possessed had been tossedout and turned over and over. At least sorting out the things she should havediscarded years ago was now being made easier for her. Then a police inspectorarrived with a constable and she told them of her discovery of the ransackedflat. The inspector began to look for fingerprints, while the constable checkedthat the front door locks had not been forced, thereby proving that the burglarshad either used skeleton keys or entered over the balcony. There was no trace offingerprints, but the inspector found a dirty red bundle that containedjewellery which the old lady said was not hers. So their entry into this flatwas apparently not the burglars' first job that day and they must have beendisturbed. The inspector then asked the old lady to try to check what wasmissing by the next day and advised her not to stay alone in the flat for a fewnights. The old lady thought he was a fussy creature, but since the porteragreed with him, she rang up her daughter and asked for her help in what shedescribed as a little spot of bother.

New words and expressions 生词与短语

life

n. 电梯

monstrous

adj. 极大的，可怕的

negligence

n. 粗心大意

lurk

v. 潜藏

hinder

v. 妨碍

fingerprint

n. 指纹

chaos

n. 混乱，无秩序新概念英语教材下载

inconceivable

adj. 不可思议的

veritable

adj. 真正的，地地道道的

magpie

n. 喜欢收藏物品的人

prudent

adj. 谨慎的

composure

n. 镇静，沉着

intruder

n. 入侵者(尤指欲行窃者)

toss

v. 扔

discard

v. 丢

discard

v. 丢弃

constable

n. 警察

ransack

v. 洗劫

balcony

n. 阳台

fussy

adj. 大惊小怪的，小题大作的

本文参考译文

老妇人回到了她居住的公寓楼，心里很高兴。去商店买东西把她搞得筋疲力尽;在回家的路上，她每走一步，就感到手里的篮子又重了一点。她乘上电梯后，只想着午餐和好好休息一下。但她到自己的楼层走出电梯后，就把这两件事忘了个干净，因为她突然发现她家的大门开着。她心想明天上午一定要好好训斥那个干家务的帮手，她竟如此疏忽大意。但突然记起来了，帮手是在她出去买东西之前走的，她还记得曾用了两把钥匙把大门锁上了。她慢慢地走进前厅，立即发现所有的房门都敞开着，而她记得在出门买东西前，她按老规矩是把房门一一锁上的。她往起居室里看去，写字台边一片狼籍。事情很清楚，在她外出时，窃贼曾闯进家门。她第一个条件反射是各个房间搜寻一下窃贼，但转念一想，像她这个年纪，最好找个人一起去。于是她到地下室去找看门的人。这时她两腿累得开始发抖，于是坐了下来，喝了一杯浓茶。与此同时，看门的人给警察挂了电话。此刻老妇人也镇定了下来，准备在看门人的协助下搜寻可能仍躲藏在她房里的窍贼。

他俩搜遍这每一个房间，小心翼翼地不接触任何东西，因为他们怕妨碍警察寻找指纹。房间里的紊乱状况是无法想像的。老妇人在这套公寓里住了30年，她又是个名副其实的收藏家。看来她的每一件东西都被翻了出来，并且被里里外外看了遍。这样一来，她倒是容易将那些几年前就该扔掉的东西找出来了。过了一会儿，一位巡官带着一名警察来了。她向他们讲述了发现公寓遭劫的经过。巡官开始搜寻指纹，警察经检查发现大门锁头并无撬过的迹象。由此可以证明，窍贼或者是用万能钥匙，或者是翻越阳台进来的。巡官没有发现指纹，却发现了一个装有珠宝的、肮脏的红包袱。老妇人说那不是她的。很明显，闯进这套公寓的窃贼那天并不是首次作案，而且他一定受了惊吓。巡官请老妇人在次日之前设法查清丢了些什么，并劝她几夜之内不要独自一人在公寓过夜。老妇人觉得巡官大惊小怪，但既然看门人也同意他的意见，她只得打电话向女儿求援，说她碰到了一点儿小麻烦。

(兼职编辑：张博)