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13 HALF-TERM AT LAST!
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13 HALF-TERM AT LAST!
THE girls became very excited at the beginning of half-term week. Many of them would see theirparents on the Saturday—and Miss Remmington, the games-mistress, had suddenly decided1 to have asmall edition of the Swimming Sports for the benefit of the parents. Everyone who visited MaloryTowers was struck with the beautiful natural pool, and loved to see it.
'So it would be nice this half-term, as it's so hot, for your people to go down to the breezy pool, andsee not only the beauties of the water, but the way their girls can swim and dive!' said MissRemmington. 'We will have a pleasant time down there and then come back for a strawberry andcream tea, with ices!'
What fun! Darrell hugged herself with joy whenever she thought of it. She had got on so well withher swimming and diving, and she knew her parents would be pleased. And strawberries and ice-cream afterwards. How simply wizard!
But she was rather taken aback on Wednesday when the half-term places were read out. Instead ofbeing in the first three or four, as she had hoped, she was tenth from the bottom. She could hardlybelieve her ears! Katherine was top, Alicia was fifth, Betty was fourteenth, Gwendoline was bottom—Mary-Lou was sixth from the bottom, not very far below Darrell!
Darrell sat very quiet whilst the rest of the marks were read out. There were thirty or so girls in herform—and more than twenty of them had done better than she had. Surely, surely there must be somemistake?
She went to Miss Potts about it, looking worried. 'Miss Potts,' she began, rather timidly, for themistress was correcting papers and looked very busy, 'Miss Potts, excuse my interrupting you, butcan I ask you something?'
'What is it?' said Miss Potts, running her blue pencil across a line of writing.
'Well—it's about the form order,' said Darrell. 'Am I really so low down as that?'
'Let me see—what were you? Quite a long way down,' said Miss Potts, pulling the list to her andlooking at it. 'Yes, that's right. I was surprised and disappointed, Darrell. You did so well in the firsttwo weeks.'
'But Miss Potts,' said Darrell, and then stopped. She didn't know quite how to say what she wanted tosay. She wanted to say that she had much better brains than at least half the form, so why was she solow? But somehow that sounded conceited2.
However Miss Potts, who was very quick-minded, saw her difficulty. 'You have come to ask me howit is you are nearer the bottom than the top when you could so easily be among the top ones?' shesaid. 'Well, I'll tell you, Darrell. There are people like Alicia, who can play the fool in class and wastetheir time and everyone else's, and yet still come out well in their work. And there are people likeyou, who can also play the fool and waste their time—but unfortunately it affects their work and theyslide down to the bottom. Do you understand?'
点击收听单词发音
1 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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2 conceited | |
adj.自负的,骄傲自满的 | |
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3 vow | |
n.誓(言),誓约;v.起誓,立誓 | |
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4 dabbled | |
v.涉猎( dabble的过去式和过去分词 );涉足;浅尝;少量投资 | |
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5 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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6 subdued | |
adj. 屈服的,柔和的,减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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7 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 | |
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8 kindly | |
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地 | |
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9 thoroughly | |
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
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10 adoration | |
n.爱慕,崇拜 | |
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11 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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12 catching | |
adj.易传染的,有魅力的,迷人的,接住 | |
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13 trudging | |
vt.& vi.跋涉,吃力地走(trudge的现在分词形式) | |
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14 impulsively | |
adv.冲动地 | |
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15 industriously | |
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