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VOA慢速英语2012 AMERICAN STORIES - Short Story: ‘The Last Leaf’ by O. Henry

时间:2012-01-29 06:59来源:互联网 提供网友:nan   字体: [ ]
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AMERICAN STORIES - Short Story: ‘The Last Leaf’ by O. Henry

FAITH LAPIDUS: Now, the VOA Special English program AMERICAN STORIES.
(MUSIC)
Our story today is called "The Last Leaf." It was written by O. Henry. Here is Barbara Klein with the story.
(MUSIC)
BARBARA KLEIN: Many artists lived in the Greenwich Village area of New York. Two young women named Sue1 and Johnsy shared a studio apartment at the top of a three-story building. Johnsy's real name was Joanna.
In November, a cold, unseen stranger came to visit the city. This disease2, pneumonia4, killed many people. Johnsy lay on her bed, hardly moving. She looked through the small window. She could see the side of the brick5 house next to her building.
One morning, a doctor examined Johnsy and took her temperature. Then he spoke6 with Sue in another room.
"She has one chance in -- let us say ten," he said. "And that chance is for her to want to live. Your friend has made up her mind that she is not going to get well. Has she anything on her mind?"
"She -- she wanted to paint the Bay of Naples in Italy some day," said Sue.
"Paint?" said the doctor. "Bosh! Has she anything on her mind worth thinking twice -- a man for example?"
"A man?" said Sue. "Is a man worth -- but, no, doctor; there is nothing of the kind."
"I will do all that science can do," said the doctor. "But whenever my patient begins to count the carriages at her funeral, I take away fifty percent from the curative power of medicines."
After the doctor had gone, Sue went into the workroom and cried. Then she went to Johnsy's room with her drawing board, whistling ragtime7.
Johnsy lay with her face toward8 the window. Sue stopped whistling, thinking she was asleep. She began making a pen and ink drawing for a story in a magazine. Young artists must work their way to "Art" by making pictures for magazine stories. Sue heard a low sound, several times repeated. She went quickly to the bedside.
Johnsy's eyes were open wide. She was looking out the window and counting -- counting backward. "Twelve," she said, and a little later "eleven"; and then "ten" and "nine;" and then "eight" and "seven," almost together.
Sue looked out the window. What was there to count? There was only an empty yard and the blank side of the house seven meters away. An old ivy9 vine10, going bad at the roots, climbed half way up the wall. The cold breath of autumn had stricken leaves from the plant until its branches, almost bare, hung on the bricks11.
"What is it, dear?" asked Sue.
"Six," said Johnsy, quietly. "They're falling faster now. Three days ago there were almost a hundred. It made my head hurt to count them. But now it's easy. There goes another one. There are only five left now."
"Five what, dear?" asked Sue.
"Leaves. On the plant. When the last one falls I must go, too. I've known that for three days. Didn't the doctor tell you?"
"Oh, I never heard of such a thing," said Sue. "What have old ivy leaves to do with your getting well? And you used to love that vine. Don't be silly. Why, the doctor told me this morning that your chances for getting well real soon were -- let's see exactly what he said – he said the chances were ten to one! Try to eat some soup now. And, let me go back to my drawing, so I can sell it to the magazine and buy food and wine for us."
"You needn't get any more wine," said Johnsy, keeping her eyes fixed12 out the window. "There goes another one. No, I don't want any soup. That leaves just four. I want to see the last one fall before it gets dark. Then I'll go, too."
"Johnsy, dear," said Sue, "will you promise me to keep your eyes closed, and not look out the window until I am done working? I must hand those drawings in by tomorrow."
"Tell me as soon as you have finished," said Johnsy, closing her eyes and lying white and still as a fallen statue. "I want to see the last one fall. I'm tired of waiting. I'm tired of thinking. I want to turn loose my hold on everything, and go sailing down, down, just like one of those poor, tired leaves."
"Try to sleep," said Sue. "I must call Mister13 Behrman up to be my model for my drawing of an old miner14. Don't try to move until I come back."
Old Behrman was a painter who lived on the ground floor of the apartment building. Behrman was a failure in art. For years, he had always been planning to paint a work of art, but had never yet begun it. He earned a little money by serving as a model to artists who could not pay for a professional model. He was a fierce, little, old man who protected the two young women in the studio apartment above him.
Sue found Behrman in his room. In one area was a blank canvas15 that had been waiting twenty-five years for the first line of paint. Sue told him about Johnsy and how she feared that her friend would float away like a leaf.
Old Behrman was angered at such an idea. "Are there people in the world with the foolishness to die because leaves drop off a vine? Why do you let that silly business come in her brain?"
"She is very sick and weak," said Sue, "and the disease has left her mind full of strange ideas."
"This is not any place in which one so good as Miss Johnsy shall lie sick," yelled16 Behrman. "Some day I will paint a masterpiece, and we shall all go away."
Johnsy was sleeping when they went upstairs. Sue pulled the shade down to cover the window. She and Behrman went into the other room. They looked out a window fearfully17 at the ivy vine. Then they looked at each other without speaking. A cold rain was falling, mixed with snow. Behrman sat and posed18 as the miner.
The next morning, Sue awoke after an hour's sleep. She found Johnsy with wide-open eyes staring at the covered window.
"Pull up the shade; I want to see," she ordered, quietly.
Sue obeyed.
After the beating rain and fierce wind that blew through the night, there yet stood against the wall one ivy leaf. It was the last one on the vine. It was still dark green at the center. But its edges were colored with the yellow. It hung bravely from the branch about seven meters above the ground.
"It is the last one," said Johnsy. "I thought it would surely fall during the night. I heard the wind. It will fall today and I shall die at the same time."
"Dear, dear!" said Sue, leaning her worn face down toward the bed. "Think of me, if you won't think of yourself. What would I do?"
But Johnsy did not answer.
(MUSIC)
The next morning, when it was light, Johnsy demanded that the window shade be raised. The ivy leaf was still there. Johnsy lay for a long time, looking at it. And then she called to Sue, who was preparing chicken soup.
"I've been a bad girl," said Johnsy. "Something has made that last leaf stay there to show me how bad I was. It is wrong to want to die. You may bring me a little soup now."
An hour later she said: "Someday I hope to paint the Bay of Naples."
Later in the day, the doctor came, and Sue talked to him in the hallway.
"Even chances," said the doctor. "With good care, you'll win. And now I must see another case I have in your building. Behrman, his name is -- some kind of an artist, I believe. Pneumonia, too. He is an old, weak man and his case is severe. There is no hope for him; but he goes to the hospital today to ease3 his pain."
The next day, the doctor said to Sue: "She's out of danger. You won. Nutrition and care now -- that's all."
Later that day, Sue came to the bed where Johnsy lay, and put one arm around her.
"I have something to tell you, white mouse," she said. "Mister Behrman died of pneumonia today in the hospital. He was sick only two days. They found him the morning of the first day in his room downstairs helpless19 with pain. His shoes and clothing were completely wet and icy cold. They could not imagine where he had been on such a terrible night.
And then they found a lantern, still lighted. And they found a ladder that had been moved from its place. And art supplies and a painting board with green and yellow colors mixed on it.
And look out the window, dear, at the last ivy leaf on the wall. Didn't you wonder why it never moved when the wind blew? Ah, darling, it is Behrman's masterpiece – he painted it there the night that the last leaf fell."
(MUSIC)
FAITH LAPIDUS: You have heard the story "The Last Leaf" by O.Henry. Your storyteller was Barbara Klein. This story was adapted by Shelley Gollust and produced by Lawan Davis.


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 sue PUAzm     
vt.控告,起诉;vi.请求,追求,起诉
参考例句:
  • If you don't pay me the money,I'll sue you.如果你不付给我钱,我就告你。
  • The war criminals sue for peace.战犯求和。
2 disease etMxx     
n.疾病,弊端
参考例句:
  • The doctors are trying to stamp out the disease.医生正在尽力消灭这种疾病。
  • He fought against the disease for a long time.他同疾病做了长时间的斗争。
3 ease wruxN     
n. 安乐,安逸,悠闲; v. 使...安乐,使...安心,减轻,放松
参考例句:
  • His mind was at ease and he felt confident in the future. 他心情舒畅,对前途很有信心。
  • You should ease up on the child and stop scolding her. 你应该对那个孩子宽松些,不要再骂她了。
4 pneumonia s2HzQ     
n.肺炎
参考例句:
  • Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
  • Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。
5 brick 3sQzu     
n.砖;vt.用砖砌,用砖堵住
参考例句:
  • She stared blankly at the brick wall in front of her.她面无表情地瞪着面前的砖墙。
  • I bought a brick of ice cream for my daughter.我给女儿买了块冰砖。
6 spoke XryyC     
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。
7 ragtime 7kJz0m     
n.拉格泰姆音乐
参考例句:
  • The most popular music back then was called ragtime.那时最流行的音乐叫拉格泰姆音乐。
  • African-American piano player Scott Joplin wrote many ragtime songs.非裔美国钢琴家ScottJoplin写了许多拉格泰姆歌曲。
8 toward on6we     
prep.对于,关于,接近,将近,向,朝
参考例句:
  • Suddenly I saw a tall figure approaching toward the policeman.突然间我看到一个高大的身影朝警察靠近。
  • Upon seeing her,I smiled and ran toward her. 看到她我笑了,并跑了过去。
9 ivy x31ys     
n.常青藤,常春藤
参考例句:
  • Her wedding bouquet consisted of roses and ivy.她的婚礼花篮包括玫瑰和长春藤。
  • The wall is covered all over with ivy.墙上爬满了常春藤。
10 vine nhHwo     
n.葡萄树;蔓;藤
参考例句:
  • The vine twines round the tree.这藤盘绕在树干上。
  • There is a vine yard before the hill.山前有一个葡萄园。
11 bricks ecfd485b7a182bfae368098672fd35c8     
n.砖( brick的名词复数 );砖块;积木;可靠的朋友
参考例句:
  • He compounded water, sand and soil and formed bricks. 他用水拌和沙和泥土做成砖块。
  • The United Auto Workers hit the bricks against General Motors. 联合汽车工人工会举行罢工,反对通用汽车公司。
12 fixed JsKzzj     
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的
参考例句:
  • Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗?
  • Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定,我们就不应该随意改变。
13 mister rnQzwB     
n.(略作Mr.全称很少用于书面)先生
参考例句:
  • Mister Smith is my good friend.史密斯先生是我的好朋友。
  • He styled himself " Mister Clean ".他自称是“清廉先生”。
14 miner FoWzXv     
n.矿工
参考例句:
  • He was a miner all his working life.他一辈子都是矿工。
  • I think it is dangerous to be a miner.我认为当矿工是很危险的。
15 canvas oXGzz     
n.粗帆布,一块油画布
参考例句:
  • The times that people used canvas boat have become history.人们用帆船的时代已成为历史。
  • Smith painted an oil painting on the canvas.史密斯在画布上画了一幅油画。
16 yelled aeee2b86b284e7fbd44f45779d6073c1     
v.叫喊,号叫,叫着说( yell的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • He yelled at the other driver. 他冲着另一位司机大叫。
  • The lost man yelled, hoping someone in the woods would hear him. 迷路的人大声喊着,希望林子里的人会听见。 来自《简明英汉词典》
17 fearfully 1kTxs     
adv.可怕地;害怕地;非常;极为
参考例句:
  • He is fearfully busy. 他非常忙。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The boys looked at each other fearfully. 男孩子们害怕地相互看着。 来自《简明英汉词典》
18 posed 3b043f45050cbd036ed46d15a4d75291     
使摆姿势( pose的过去式和过去分词 ); 以…身份出现; 招摇; 炫耀
参考例句:
  • The players strutted and posed for the cameras. 运动员昂首阔步,摆好姿势让记者拍照。
  • After the wedding we all posed for a photograph. 婚礼之后,我们全体排好拍了一张照片。
19 helpless FdAxb     
adj.无助的,无依无靠的;不能自力的
参考例句:
  • The other team was helpless and we had a real field day.对方队很弱,我们轻易取胜。
  • They felt helpless to do anything about it.他们对这事感到无能为力。
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TAG标签:   VOA慢速英语  Story  Story
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