英语听力精选进阶版 7219（在线收听）

Background: 以几个小时的劳动来换取一点自由应该是很小的代价。可是意大利最臭名昭著的犯人之一，黑寡妇，却断然拒绝了法庭提出的假释条件。她在1998年因谋杀罪被判29年。

Patrizia Reggiani once said she'd rather cry in a Rolls (Royce) than be happy on a bicycle. She doesn't seem to have changed her mind.

Dubbed the Black Widow after she was jailed for ordering the murder of her ex-husband, the heir to the Gucci family fortune, Ms Reggiani has spent most of the past 13 years at San Vittore prison in Milan.

Judges had offered her the chance of day release, if she agreed to take a job outside the prison walls. But Ms Reggiani, who's 63, was having none of it. She'd never worked in her life, she told the judges, and she didn't intend to start now.

Her trial in 1998 attracted worldwide interest. It had everything: a woman betrayed by the man she'd loved and the low-life murder of the heir to a multi-million dollar fashion fortune.

For now, though, Patrizia Reggiani, who once complained that her allowance of more than US$630,000 a year wasn't enough to live on, will return to the comfort of her pet ferret and her plants in her cell at San Vittore.

Glossary 词汇表

she'd rather 她宁愿 

to be dubbed 被称为 

day release 假释 

to have none of it 决不妥协 

to intend 准备 

to be betrayed by 被某人背弃 

low-life 道德低下的 

to complain 抱怨 

an allowance 津贴 

a ferret 白鼬

Questions:

1. Why was Patrizia Reggiani jailed? 

For ordering the murder of her ex-husband.

2. What was Reggiani’s explanation for her refusal to accept the judges’ offer? 

She said that she had never worked in her life and didn't want to start now.

3. Why did her trial attract so much interest? 

Because her husband was an heir to the Gucci family fortune.

4. True or false? In the past, Reggiani was happy receiving US$630,000 a year. 

False. According to the report, she complained that it was not enough to live on.