85人教版高中英语第一册第五课 THELOST NECKLACE

Place: a park in Paris
time: a summer afternoon in 1870
People: Mathilde Loisel, wife Pierre Loisel, husband
(Jeanne is sitting in the park. Mathilde walks towards her, she stops and speaks to Jeanne.)
Mathilde: Good afternoon, Jeanne.
Jeanne: (Looking at the other woman) I’m sorry, but I don’t think I know you.
mathilde: No, you wouldn’t but many years ago you knew me well. I’m Mathilde Loisel.
Jeanne: Mathilde! My old school friend. Is it possible? But yes, of course it is. Now I remember. Where have you been all these years, Mathilde? I hope you weren’t ill.
Mathilde: No, Jeanne, I wasn’t ill. You see here an old woman. But it’s because of hard work-ten years of hard work.
Jeanne: But I don’t understand, Mathilde. There’s only one year between us; I’m thirty-five and you’re thirty-four. Can hard work change a person that much?
Mathilde: Yes, it can. Years of hard work, little food, only a cold room to live in and never, never a moment to rest. That has been my life for these past ten years.
Jeanne: Mathilde! I didn’t know. I’m sorry. But what happened?
Mathilde: Well, I would tather not tell you.
Jeanne: Oh, come, Mathilde. Surely you can tell an old friend.
Mathilde: Well, … Well, it was all because of that necklace. Your necklace.
Jeanne: My necklace?
Mathilde: Do you remember one afternoon ten years ago when I came to your house and borrowed a diamond necklace?
Jeanne: Let me think. Ten years ago… Oh, yes, I remember. You were going to the palace with your husband, I think.
Mathilde: Right, Pierre was working in a government office, and for the first time in our lives we were invited to an important ball.
(The scene changes to that evening in the home of Pierre and Mathilde Loisel.)
Pierre: Yes, Mathilde, we’re going to the ball, the palace ball!
Mathilde: I can’t believe it!
Pierre: But it’s true.
mathilde: Oh, pierre, how wonderful! But I haven’t got a dress for the ball!
Pierre: What does a new evening dress cost?
Mathilde: About four hunderd francs.
Pierre: Four hunderd! That’s a lot of money. But perhaps, just this once, we’ll use what we have to get a new dress for you. This ball is very important to me. I was the only person in my office who was invited.
Mathilde: Thank you, Pierre, you’re so kind. Oh! But there’s one other thing…
Pierre: What is it, Mathilde?
Mathilde: I… I have no jewelry.
Pierre: Jewelry? Do you need jewlry? Why not just a flower?
Mathilde: To go to the palace with just a flower is to say “I’m poor. I haven’t got any jewelry.”
Pierre: Can’t you borrow some jewelry from a friend, Mathlde?
Mathlde: Which friend? My friends are all poor, too.
Pierre: Let me think. How about jeanne? She married well. Perhaps she has some.
Mathilde: Ah, yes, Jeanne. She married a man with a lot of money. I’ll go and see her on Friday, after I get the new dress.
Pierre: I’m sure she has something you can borrow.
(The sence changes back to the park. Mathilde continues to tell Jeanne her story.)
Mathilde: One Friday I came to see you, Jeanne. Remember?
Jeanne: Yes, Mathilde, I remember.
Mathilde: You were very kind. You brought out your jewelry and told me to take anything I wanted.
Jeanne: (Smiling) You were like a little girl. Your eyes became so big.
Mathilde: There were so many things and they were all beautiful. It was hard to choose.
Jeanne: Until you saw the diamond necklace.
Mathilde: Yes, and then I knew I wanted to borrow the necklace. I didn’t want anything else, only the necklace.
Jeanny: I’m sure you looked beautiful that evening, Mathilde. You were always a very pretty girl.
Mathilde: Perhaps in those days I was, but everything changed after that night at the palace.
Jeanne: Didn’t you have a good time at the ball?
Mathilde: Yes, a very good time, but that was the last time… the last happy evening for the next ten years.
Jeanne: But why, Mathilde?
Mathilde: On the way home I looked down at my dress and saw that the necklace was gone. I told Pierre. We retuened to the palace and looked in every room but couldn’t find it. I never saw your necklace again, Jeanne.
Jeanne: But Mathilde, you brought it back to me the next afternoon. I remember very well.
Mathilde: Yes, Jeanne, I brought a necklace to you. It was exactly like your necklace but it was a differeny one. I hope it was as good as the one you lent me. It cost us thirty-six thousand francs.
Jeanne: Thirty-six thousand!
Mathilde: Yes, Pierre and I borrowed the money and bought it. During the next ten years we both worked night and day to pay for it. That is why you see this old woman before you now. Jeanne. Well, after all these years we’ve at last paid off all our debts.
Jeanne: But Mathilde, my dear friend, that wasn’t a real diamond necklace you borrowed from me. It was made of glass. It was worth five hundred francs at the most.