After administering to himself several such lectures Podtyagin, the head ticket collector, begins to feel an irresistible5 impulse to get to work. It is past one o’clock at night, but in spite of that he wakes the ticket collectors and with them goes up and down the railway carriages, inspecting the tickets.
“T-t-t-ickets . . . P-p-p-please!” he keeps shouting, briskly snapping the clippers.
Sleepy figures, shrouded6 in the twilight7 of the railway carriages, start, shake their heads, and produce their tickets.
“T-t-t-tickets, please!” Podtyagin addresses a second-class passenger, a lean, scraggy-looking man, wrapped up in a fur coat and a rug and surrounded with pillows. “Tickets, please!”
The scraggy-looking man makes no reply. He is buried in sleep. The head ticket-collector touches him on the shoulder and repeats impatiently: “T-t-tickets, p-p-please!”
The passenger starts, opens his eyes, and gazes in alarm at Podtyagin.
“What? . . . Who? . . . Eh?”
“You’re asked in plain language: t-t-tickets, p-p-please! If you please!”
“My God!” moans the scraggy-looking man, pulling a woebegone face. “Good Heavens! I’m suffering from rheumatism8. . . . I haven’t slept for three nights! I’ve just taken morphia on purpose to get to sleep, and you . . . with your tickets! It’s merciless, it’s inhuman9! If you knew how hard it is for me to sleep you wouldn’t disturb me for such nonsense. . . . It’s cruel, it’s absurd! And what do you want with my ticket! It’s positively10 stupid!”
Podtyagin considers whether to take offence or not—and decides to take offence.
“Don’t shout here! This is not a tavern11!”
“No, in a tavern people are more humane12. . .” coughs the passenger. “Perhaps you’ll let me go to sleep another time! It’s extraordinary: I’ve travelled abroad, all over the place, and no one asked for my ticket there, but here you’re at it again and again, as though the devil were after you. . . .”
“Well, you’d better go abroad again since you like it so much.”
“It’s stupid, sir! Yes! As though it’s not enough killing13 the passengers with fumes14 and stuffiness15 and draughts16, they want to strangle us with red tape, too, damn it all! He must have the ticket! My goodness, what zeal17! If it were of any use to the company—but half the passengers are travelling without a ticket!”
“Listen, sir!” cries Podtyagin, flaring18 up. “If you don’t leave off shouting and disturbing the public, I shall be obliged to put you out at the next station and to draw up a report on the incident!”
“This is revolting!” exclaims “the public,” growing indignant. “Persecuting an invalid19! Listen, and have some consideration!”
“But the gentleman himself was abusive!” says Podtyagin, a little scared. “Very well. . . . I won’t take the ticket . . . as you like . . . . Only, of course, as you know very well, it’s my duty to do so. . . . If it were not my duty, then, of course. . . You can ask the station-master . . . ask anyone you like. . . .”
Podtyagin shrugs20 his shoulders and walks away from the invalid. At first he feels aggrieved21 and somewhat injured, then, after passing through two or three carriages, he begins to feel a certain uneasiness not unlike the pricking22 of conscience in his ticket-collector’s bosom23.
“There certainly was no need to wake the invalid,” he thinks, “though it was not my fault. . . .They imagine I did it wantonly, idly. They don’t know that I’m bound in duty . . . if they don’t believe it, I can bring the station-master to them.” A station. The train stops five minutes. Before the third bell, Podtyagin enters the same second-class carriage. Behind him stalks the station-master in a red cap.
“This gentleman here,” Podtyagin begins, “declares that I have no right to ask for his ticket and . . . and is offended at it. I ask you, Mr. Station-master, to explain to him. . . . Do I ask for tickets according to regulation or to please myself? Sir,” Podtyagin addresses the scraggy-looking man, “sir! you can ask the station-master here if you don’t believe me.”
The invalid starts as though he had been stung, opens his eyes, and with a woebegone face sinks back in his seat.
“My God! I have taken another powder and only just dozed24 off when here he is again. . . again! I beseech25 you have some pity on me!”
“You can ask the station-master . . . whether I have the right to demand your ticket or not.”
“This is insufferable! Take your ticket. . . take it! I’ll pay for five extra if you’ll only let me die in peace! Have you never been ill yourself? Heartless people!”
“This is simply persecution26!” A gentleman in military uniform grows indignant. “I can see no other explanation of this persistence27.”
“drop it . . .” says the station-master, frowning and pulling Podtyagin by the sleeve.
Podtyagin shrugs his shoulders and slowly walks after the station-master.
“There’s no pleasing them!” he thinks, bewildered. “It was for his sake I brought the station-master, that he might understand and be pacified28, and he . . . swears!”
Another station. The train stops ten minutes. Before the second bell, while Podtyagin is standing29 at the refreshment30 bar, drinking seltzer water, two gentlemen go up to him, one in the uniform of an engineer, and the other in a military overcoat.
“Look here, ticket-collector!” the engineer begins, addressing Podtyagin. “Your behaviour to that invalid passenger has revolted all who witnessed it. My name is Puzitsky; I am an engineer, and this gentleman is a colonel. If you do not apologize to the passenger, we shall make a complaint to the traffic manager, who is a friend of ours.”
“Gentlemen! Why of course I . . . why of course you . . .” Podtyagin is panic-stricken.
“We don’t want explanations. But we warn you, if you don’t apologize, we shall see justice done to him.”
“Certainly I . . . I’ll apologize, of course. . . To be sure. . . .”
Half an hour later, Podtyagin having thought of an apologetic phrase which would satisfy the passenger without lowering his own dignity, walks into the carriage. “Sir,” he addresses the invalid. “Listen, sir. . . .”
The invalid starts and leaps up: “What?”
“I . . . what was it? . . . You mustn’t be offended. . . .”
“Och! Water . . .” gasps31 the invalid, clutching at his heart. “I’d just taken a third dose of morphia, dropped asleep, and . . . again! Good God! when will this torture cease!”
“I only . . . you must excuse . . .”
“Oh! . . . Put me out at the next station! I can’t stand any more . . . . I . . . I am dying. . . .”
“This is mean, disgusting!” cry the “public,” revolted. “Go away! You shall pay for such persecution. Get away!”
Podtyagin waves his hand in despair, sighs, and walks out of the carriage. He goes to the attendants’ compartment32, sits down at the table, exhausted33, and complains:
“Oh, the public! There’s no satisfying them! It’s no use working and doing one’s best! One’s driven to drinking and cursing it all . . . . If you do nothing—they’re angry; if you begin doing your duty, they’re angry too. There’s nothing for it but drink!”
Podtyagin empties a bottle straight off and thinks no more of work, duty, and honesty!
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收听单词发音
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1
tempt
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| vt.引诱，勾引，吸引，引起…的兴趣 | |
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buck
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| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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conscientiously
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| adv.凭良心地；认真地，负责尽职地；老老实实 | |
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irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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shrouded
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| v.隐瞒( shroud的过去式和过去分词 )；保密 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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8
rheumatism
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| n.风湿病 | |
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inhuman
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| adj.残忍的，不人道的，无人性的 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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14
fumes
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| n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体 | |
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15
stuffiness
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| n.不通风，闷热；不通气 | |
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16
draughts
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| n. <英>国际跳棋 | |
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17
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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18
flaring
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| a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的 | |
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invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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20
shrugs
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| n.耸肩（以表示冷淡，怀疑等）( shrug的名词复数 ) | |
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21
aggrieved
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| adj.愤愤不平的，受委屈的；悲痛的；（在合法权利方面）受侵害的v.令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式)；令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式和过去分词) | |
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22
pricking
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| 刺，刺痕，刺痛感 | |
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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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24
dozed
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| v.打盹儿，打瞌睡( doze的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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beseech
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| v.祈求，恳求 | |
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persecution
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| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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persistence
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| n.坚持，持续，存留 | |
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28
pacified
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| 使（某人）安静( pacify的过去式和过去分词 )； 息怒； 抚慰； 在（有战争的地区、国家等）实现和平 | |
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29
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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30
refreshment
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| n.恢复，精神爽快，提神之事物；（复数）refreshments:点心，茶点 | |
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31
gasps
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| v.喘气( gasp的第三人称单数 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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32
compartment
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| n.卧车包房，隔间；分隔的空间 | |
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33
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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