昨日に引き続いて、ラジオ英会話は英語ドラマ
The Cop and the Anthem Act Three 警官と賛美歌第3幕です。
しかしラジオ英語ドラマって、字幕もないし、聞く実力なかったらさっぱりポンです(^^;
初心者の自分には完全にお手上げ状態です。
で、こういうときは基礎英語３などを聞いたりして気分転換しています。
今週は苦痛だぁ～；；；；
The Cop and the Anthem Act Three
Five blocks Soapy travelled before his courage permitted him to woo capture again. This time the opportunity presented what he fatuously termed to himself a “cinch.” A young woman of a modest and pleasing guise was standing before a show window gazing with sprightly interest at its display of shaving mugs and inkstands, and two yards from the window a large policeman of severe demeanor leaned against a water plug.
Soapy straightened the lady missionary’s readymade tie, dragged his shrinking cuffs into the open, set his hat at a killing cant and sidled toward the young woman. He made eyes at her, was taken with sudden coughs and “hems,” smiled, smirked and went brazenly through the impudent and contemptible litany of the “masher.” With half an eye Soapy saw that the policeman was watching him fixedly. The young woman moved away a few steps, and again bestowed her absorbed attention upon the shaving mugs. Soapy followed, boldly stepping to her side, raised his hat and said:
“Ah there, Bedelia! Don’t you want to come and play in my yard?”
The young woman faced him and, stretching out a hand, caught Soapy’s coat sleeve.
“Sure, Mike,” she said joyfully, “if you’ll blow me to a pail of suds. I’d have spoke to you sooner, but the cop was watching.”
With the young woman playing the clinging ivy to his oak Soapy walked past the policeman overcome with gloom. He seemed doomed to liberty.
At the next corner he shook off his companion and ran. He halted in the district where by night are found the lightest streets, hearts, vows and librettos. Women in furs and men in greatcoats moved gaily in the wintry air. A sudden fear seized Soapy that some dreadful enchantment had rendered him immune to arrest. The thought brought a little of panic upon it, and when he came upon another policeman lounging grandly in front of a transplendent theatre he caught at the immediate straw of “disorderly conduct.”
On the sidewalk Soapy began to yell drunken gibberish at the top of his harsh voice. He danced, howled, raved and otherwise disturbed the welkin.
The policeman twirled his club, turned his back to Soapy and remarked to a citizen.
“’Tis one of them Yale lads celebratin’ the goose egg they give to the Hartford College. Noisy; but no harm. We’ve instructions to lave them be.”
Disconsolate, Soapy ceased his unavailing racket. Would never a policeman lay hands on him? In his fancy the Island seemed an unattainable Arcadia. He buttoned his thin coat against the chilling wind.
Words & Expressions
○ woo capture 逮捕をせがむ
○ fatuously 愚かに、浅はかに
○ cinch 楽勝、朝飯前
○ guise 外見、身なり
○ demeanor 態度、物腰
○ water plug 消火栓
○ drag … into the open …を外に引っ張り出す
○ at a killing cant 悩殺的な角度で
○ sidle そっと近づく
○ make eyes 秋波を送る
○ smirk ニヤリと笑う
○ brazenly 図々しく
○ impudent and contemptible 無礼千万な
○ litany 延々と続くもの
○ masher 女たらし
○ bestow 与える
○ blow … to a pail of suds …にビールをおごる
○ overcome with gloom 憂鬱さに負けて
○ doomed 運命にある
○ libretto オペラやミュージカルの台詞・台本
○ enchantment 魔術
○ render him immune 彼の中に免疫を作る
○ transplendent 最も華やかな
○ catch at the immediate straw 手近のわらをつかむ
○ disorderly conduct 風紀紊乱行為
○ gibberish ざれ言、でたらめ
○ at the top of one’s voice 大声を張り上げて
○ harsh がらがら声の、耳障りな
○ rave 怒号する
○ disturb the welkin 大変な迷惑をかける
○ ’Tis It isの縮約形
○ them Yale lads あのエール大の連中［themよりthoseが標準］
○ goose egg 無得点、零点
○ disconsolate やりきれない気分で
○ Arcadia 理想郷