新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第四册 课文 te-06c_new

英语听力 2019-08-14 06:11:37 99
[by:|http://www.hxen.com|||]
[00:00.00],就把hxen.com复制到QQ个人资料中!The Cunning Smuggler
[00:-1.00]You may suppose that national borders are nothing to get excited about.
[00:-2.00]However,Canada and the United States are very proud of theirs.
[00:-3.00]These two countries share a common border that runs for thousands of kilometers,
[00:-4.00]with not a single soldier along the way.
[00:-5.00]Still,although there are no soldiers at the border, there are customs officers.
[00:-6.00]Sometimes trucks try to cross the border with hidden drugs.
[00:-7.00]Sometimes,moreover,
[00:-8.00]ordinary tourists attempt to smuggle an extra bottle of alcohol.
[00:-9.00]There is no difference for the customs officers;
[00:10.00]to them,all smugglers are the same,big or small.
[00:11.00]Their job is to prevent anyone from taking goods across the border illegally.
[00:12.00]Constant struggles between smugglers and customs officers
[00:13.00]have influenced our way of thinking about this matter.
[00:14.00]It may not be fair,
[00:15.00]but many people forget the valuable services the officers perform.
[00:16.00]When this happens,the conflict may seem funny,
[00:17.00]although the officers always take their job seriously.
[00:18.00]One such conflict is said to have occurred on the famous bridge at Niagara Falls.
[00:19.00]There was a truck driver who often crossed the border for his work.
[00:20.00]Every time he reached the bridge,he had to stop his truck.
[00:21.00]He always had to show the officers all his papers.
[00:22.00]Sometimes he would be obliged to wait a long time,
[00:23.00]and on occasion the officers even unloaded his entire truck!
[00:24.00]These delays annoyed him a lot,
[00:25.00]especially because he never carried any illegal items.
[00:26.00]The truck driver did not see why he should be bothered
[00:27.00]just because other people broke the law.
[00:28.00]For many years he put up with this nuisance,but he planned to get even.
[00:29.00]When he finally retired,he put his plan into effect.
[00:30.00]Three or four days after the driver
[00:31.00]had made his last truck journey over the bridge,
[00:32.00]the officers saw him again.
[00:33.00]This time he had no truck;he was riding a bicycle!
[00:34.00]It was a beautiful racing bicycle.
[00:35.00]The truck driver was very fit.
[00:36.00]He rode quickly,making big circles in the parking lot near the border crossing.
[00:37.00]He made sure all the customs officers could see him.
[00:38.00]Then he presented himself at the border.
[00:39.00]"Well,old friend,"said one of the officers.
[00:40.00]"What can we do for you,now you are retired?"
[00:41.00]"The same as before,"he replied.
[00:42.00]"I\'m going to the other side.Check my papers and let me pass."
[00:43.00]Now it should be said that this bicycle had one unusual feature:
[00:44.00]on each handlebar the man had hung a bucket full of sand.
[00:45.00]This was a very strange thing to do!
[00:46.00]Of course,the officers noticed it immediately.
[00:47.00]One of them called the man over to him.
[00:48.00]"You can go through,"he said,
[00:49.00]"but first I\'ll have to check your cargo."
[00:50.00]He looked through all the sand,but there was nothing to be seen.
[00:51.00]A little disappointed,
[00:52.00]the officer sent the retired truck driver across the border.
[00:53.00]The customs officers laughed among themselves at the driver\'s strange behavior.
[00:54.00]Then they forgot about him. But only an hour later,he was back.
[00:55.00]He wanted to return to his own side of the border.
[00:56.00]He was still riding a bicycle,and he still had the buckets of sand.
[00:57.00]Another officer checked the sand.Nothing again.
[00:58.00]The man rode home happily.
[00:59.00]And this same peculiar scene was acted out twice a day,
[-1:00.00]every day,for more than a year.
[-1:-1.00]The customs officers tried everything.
[-1:-2.00]They put the sand in water,to see if something was mixed with it.
[-1:-3.00]Then they began searching the man\'s pockets every time he crossed.
[-1:-4.00]Finally,they even had the bicycle X-rayed,
[-1:-5.00]to find out if anything was hidden inside.

[-1:-6.00]Nothing was ever found.
[-1:-7.00]Most of the officers ended up believing that the truck driver
[-1:-8.00]was simply pulling their leg.
[-1:-9.00]They thought he was smuggling nothing,and just playing a joke on them.
[-1:10.00]However,one officer was never convinced.
[-1:11.00]To him,there was surely a mystery in the man\'s behavior.
[-1:12.00]He knew it;only,he could not figure it out.
[-1:13.00]Because it was embarrassing to fail every time,
[-1:14.00]he stopped checking the man when he crossed.
[-1:15.00]But he watched him.And he was certain that one day he would understand.
[-1:16.00]Eventually the officer\'s retirement arrived,and he too stopped working.
[-1:17.00]Unlike the truck driver,he did not take up riding a bicycle.
[-1:18.00]Nevertheless,he stayed near the bridge.He liked fishing.
[-1:19.00]Most afternoons he threw his line into the Niagara River
[-1:20.00]not far from the post where he had worked all his life.
[-1:21.00]At length,the inevitable happened.
[-1:22.00]The man came riding along the river road
[-1:23.00]to the place where the customs officer was fishing.
[-1:24.00]He got off his bicycle.
[-1:25.00]For a short time,both men looked out over the river towards the great bridge.
[-1:26.00]Then the officer said,"All right.I give up.
[-1:27.00]It\'s over now,anyway;so,you can tell me.
[-1:28.00]What in the world were you smuggling in that sand?"
[-1:29.00]"Nothing at all,"said the retired truck driver.
[-1:30.00]"You mean, you just did it to get on our nerves?"
[-1:31.00]"Not for a moment.I was smuggling all the time.
[-1:32.00]But you were never clever enough to catch me."
[-1:33.00]"It\'s too much,"exclaimed the officer."I knew it!I knew it!
[-1:34.00]But how did you hide your illegal goods?"
[-1:35.00]"Hide it? That\'s just the point,I didn\'t hide anything at all."
[-1:36.00]"Impossible! We checked everything.What were you smuggling?"
[-1:37.00]"Bicycles."
新视野大学英语第四册 新视野大学英语 新视野大学英语3 新视野大学英语2 新视野大学英语四 新视野大学英语第三版第四册 新视野大学英语第二版第四册 第三版新视野
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