【正文】 Lesson TwentyFive Section One: Tapescript. A. Numbers: 1. At the third stroke, the time sponsored by Accurist will be twelve one and fifty seconds. 2. The code for Didcot has been changed. Please dial 05938 and then the number. 3. In the train crash in India, three hundred and twentyfive people are feared dead. 4. The at Ascot was won by Golden Dove, ridden by Willie Carson. 5. Well, um, for a trip like that, we are speaking in the region of, er, two thousand eight hundred pounds a head. 6. Er, Celtic three, Manchester City nil。 Queen’s Park Rangers two, Motherwell United one. 7. In New York, the Dow Jones Index fell by point four to a low of two oh six four point eight. While in London, the FT Index rose eight points to one seven nine four point three. 8. That’ll be sixtyeight p, please. 9. The, er, latest figures show an increased profit of seventyeight thousand, nine hundred and fiftysix pounds. 10. And how can we continue like this with unemployment running at three million, two hundred and fifty thousand. It really is unaccept ... 11. Yes, we can give you a special rate of, er, five point six eight per cent. 12. We’ll have to adjust all our figures by an eighth. 13. Well, that’s your choice. Eleven pounds fortyfive for this one, fourteen pounds, or fifteen pounds niynine. 14. So, it’s two thousand three hundred and niyeight plus two thousand four hundred and eightynine plus two thousand four hundred and sixtythree. I’ll just total that up for you. B. Dialogues: Dialogue 1: Woman: So, you’ll take the cream at three pounds five, the pills are four pounds thirty and then, um, this if fiftyfive p. That’s seven pounds niyfive. Man: Sorry. I think perhaps it’s seven pounds niy. Dialogue 2: Woman: Is ten pounds all right？ Man: Yeah, that’s fine. It es to six pounds thirtyfive. Your change. Woman: Thanks. Man: Can I help you, sir？ Woman: Oh, just a minute, I think you’ve given... Man: Oh, I am sorry. Of course. Here you are. Section Two: Tapescript. A. Memories: Well, we met at a party in London. You see, I’d just moved to London because of my job and I didn’t really know anybody, and one of the people at work had invited me to this party and so there I was. But it was one of those boring parties, you know everybody was just sitting in small groups talking to people they knew already, and I was feeling really bored with the whole thing. And then I noticed this rather attractive girl sitting at the edge of one of the groups, and she was looking bored too, just about as bored as I was. And so we started, um, we started looking at each other, and then I went across and we started talking. And as it turned out she’d only just arrived in London herself so we had quite a bit in mon— and well that’s how it all started really. B. Married Life: — What’s the matter with you, then？ You look miserable. — It’s us. — What do you mean “us”？ — Well, we used to talk to each other before we were married. Remember？ — What do you mean？ We’re talking now, aren’t we？ — Oh, yes, but we used to do so much together. — We still go to the cinema together, don’t we？ — Yes, but we used to go out for walks together. Remember？ — Oh, I can remember. It’s getting wet in the rain. — And we used to do silly things, like running bare foot through the park. — Yes. I remember. I used to catch terrible colds. Honestly, you are being totally ridiculous. — But we never used to argue. You used to think I was wonderful. Once ... (sound of the door opening) Where are you going？ — Back to live with my parents. That’s something else we used to do before we were married. Remember？ C. Superstitions: Not long ago I was invited out to dinner by a girl called Sally. I had only met Sally twice, and she was very, very beautiful. I was flattered. “She likes me,” I thought. But I was in for a disappointment. “I’m so sorry we asked you at such short notice,” she said when I arrived, “but we suddenly realised there were going to be thirteen people at the table, so we just had to find somebody else.” A superstition. Thirteen. The unlucky number. Recently I came upon a little group of worried people, gathered round a man lying on the pavement beside a busy London road. They were waiting for an ambulance, because the man had been knocked down by a passing taxi. Apparently he had stepped off the pavement and into the street, to avoid walking under a ladder. They say this superstition goes back to the days when the gallows were built on a platform. To get up on to the platform you had to climb a ladder. To pass under the shadow of that ladder was very unlucky... Other superstitions are not so easily explained. To see a black cat in England is lucky. But if you see a black cat in India, it is considered very unlucky. There too, if you are about to set out on a long journey, and someone sneezes, you shouldn’t go. Break a mirror— you will have seven years’ bad luck. Find a four— leafed clover, you will have good luck. Just crazy superstitions, of course. I have an African friend. One day he said to me: “If ever an African says to you that he is not superstitious, that man is a liar.” Perhaps that is true of all of us. D. Ghost: This is Lethbridge’s description of a ghost near Hole House. One of the first incidents happened near to our home in Devon. One Sunday morning my wife and I were standing on the hill and looking at Hole Mill, which belongs to Mrs. N. I sat down and admired the view. After a time I heard a motorbicycle start up and I saw the paperman riding off and, as I watched, I saw Mrs. N e out from behind the Mill. She was dressed in a blue sweater and had on dark blue tartan trousers and a scarf over her head. She looked up, saw me and waved. I waved back. At this moment a second figure appeared behind Mrs.