听播客学英语 216 安东尼·霍尔国王

 　　In 1931, the King of England came to Birmingham. He stood on a soapbox in Bull¹ Ring Market and spoke² to his people. Actually, he wasn’t the King of England at all. His name was Anthony Hall. He had been born in London, and had been an ambulance driver in Flanders during the First World War. Later, he became a policeman. He claimed that he was descended³ from Thomas Hall, an illegitimate son of King Henry VIII. (Henry VIII was one of the most colourful figures in English history. He had seven wives – at different times, of course – and ran what we today would call a police-state. He was responsible for separating the church in England from the Roman Catholic⁴ Church.)

　　Anthony Hall therefore claimed to be the rightful King of England. He told the crowds who gathered to listen to him that, when he became King, he would pay off the National Debt and build millions of new homes for working class people.

　　Some of the people who heard him just found him amusing⁵. They did not take him seriously. But others listened to the ugly side of what Anthony Hall said. For Hall was violently anti-German. He claimed that King George V and all the British Royal Family were German imposters who should be thrown out of the country or executed. (The British Royal family came originally of course from Germany). Most British people in the 1930’s had nothing against their King, but many had bitter memories of the First World War. They listened to Hall because he spoke against Germany.

　　The government have recently made public some papers about Anthony Hall. They show that the government and King George V wanted to silence Hall, but were not sure how to do so. They tried to have him sent to a lunatic asylum⁶, but this failed because Hall was not insane⁷. However, he solved the problem himself. On 12 August 1931, King Anthony Hall mounted⁸ his soapbox in Birmingham for the last time, to bid farewell to his people. He was never heard of again, and died in 1947.

1 bull   

n.公牛，买进证券投机图利者，看涨的人

参考例句：

• It's only a hair off a bull's back to them.这对他们来说，不过九牛一毛。
• Many dogs closed around the bull.很多狗渐渐地把那只牛围了起来。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

4 catholic   

adj.天主教的；n.天主教徒

参考例句：

• The Pope is the supreme leader of the Roman Catholic Church.教皇是罗马天主教的最高领袖。
• She was a devoutly Catholic.她是一个虔诚地天主教徒。

5 amusing   

adj.有有趣的，好玩的

参考例句：

• The girl was amusing herself with a doll.那女孩在玩洋娃娃自娱。
• He related some amusing stories in his childhood to his children.他向孩子们述说了他少年时代的一些趣事。

6 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

7 insane   

adj.蠢极的，荒唐的，精神错乱的，疯狂的

参考例句：

• Insane people are sometimes dangerous.精神病人有时非常危险。
• The letter made her insane with jealousy.那封信使她妒忌得发疯。

8 mounted   

adj.骑在马[自行车]上的；安装好的；裱好的v.登上，骑上( mount的过去式和过去分词)；增加，上升；上演；准备

参考例句：

• He mounted his horse and rode off. 他跨上马骑走了。
• He saddled his horse, mounted, and rode away at a gallop. 他给马套上鞍子，跨上马背疾驰而去。 来自《简明英汉词典》