听播客学英语 34 女人、猫、垃圾桶

 　　Welcome back to Listen to English after the summer break.

　　Many British people take their holidays in August. Our politicians are on holiday, so there is no political news. Our business and finance¹ people are on holiday too, so there is not much business or financial news. And, worst of all, TV people and minor² members of the royal family are on holiday too, so there is no news about celebrities³ to keep us happy. Newspaper reporters still have to find stories to fill the newspapers, however, and in August they find some strange things to tell us about.

　　For example, in the past week we have all been entertained by the strange story of the cat in the wheelie bin⁴. There is a YouTube video on the Listen to English website, which will show you what happened. In the video, we see a street. There are a few cars parked in the street, but there are no people anywhere. Perhaps they are all on holiday. In the foreground, there is a green object with a lid. It is a rubbish bin. Many British people have bins⁵ like this to put their domestic⁶ rubbish in. The bins have wheels on the bottom, so that it is easy to move them. We generally call them “wheelie bins”. So, this is a video about an empty street with three parked cars and a wheelie bin. It is just about the most boring video ever.

　　Then a woman appears. She walks along the pavement past the wheelie bin. A cat jumps up on the wall beside her. The woman stops to stroke the cat, and to scratch it behind the ears, which cats love. Then she looks up and down the street. Perhaps she is looking to see if anyone else is around. Then she opens the lid of the wheelie bin, picks up the cat, puts the cat in the wheelie bin, and walks away. And the street is empty again, apart from the parked cars and the wheelie bin.

　　The cat stayed in the wheelie bin for 15 hours before its owners rescued it. They wondered who had put it there. They had a security camera outside their house, and when they checked the recording⁷, they found what you have just seen on the video. They told the newspapers and the TV what had happened, and for a few days we could read and watch all about the strange case of the cat in the wheelie bin.

　　People reacted to the video in one of two ways. Some people were outraged⁸. How could someone do such a cruel thing to a little cat? Other people thought that it was one of the funniest things they had ever seen. Yes, alright, it was not good to put the cat in the wheelie bin, but it was also very funny. And we all wondered, why did the woman do this? Was she mad? Did she have a grudge⁹ against cats? Did she plan to put a cat in a wheelie bin that morning, or was it something she did on the spur of the moment?

　　Within hours of the video appearing on the internet, people telephoned the police to say that they knew who the woman was. A crowd of cat-loving people gathered outside her house, and the police had to come to tell them to go away. The woman says that she does not really know why she put the cat in the wheelie bin. It just seemed like a good idea at the time.

　　And that is all the news from Listen to English. You always knew that the English were mad.

1 finance   

n.财务管理，财政，金融，财源，资金

参考例句：

• She is an expert in finance.她是一名财政专家。
• A finance house made a bid to buy up the entire company.一家信贷公司出价买下了整个公司。

2 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

3 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

4 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

5 bins   

n.大储藏箱( bin的名词复数 )；宽口箱（如面包箱，垃圾箱等）v.扔掉，丢弃( bin的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Garbage from all sources was deposited in bins on trolleys. 来自各方的垃圾是装在手推车上的垃圾箱里的。 来自辞典例句
• Would you be pleased at the prospect of its being on sale in dump bins? 对于它将被陈列在倾销箱中抛售这件事，你能欣然接受吗？ 来自辞典例句

6 domestic   

adj.家里的，国内的，本国的；n.家仆，佣人

参考例句：

• This is domestic news.这是国内新闻。
• She does the domestic affairs every day.她每天都忙家务。

7 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

8 outraged   

a.震惊的，义愤填膺的

参考例句：

• Members of Parliament were outraged by the news of the assassination. 议会议员们被这暗杀的消息激怒了。
• He was outraged by their behavior. 他们的行为使他感到愤慨。

9 grudge   

n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做

参考例句：

• I grudge paying so much for such inferior goods.我不愿花这么多钱买次品。
• I do not grudge him his success.我不嫉妒他的成功。