Pratica di Shadowing: The Boy at Mugby by Charles Dickens - Full Audiobook | Short Stories - Impara a parlare inglese con i video

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The Boy at Mugby by Charles Dickens I am the boy at Mugby.
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That's about what I am.
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You don't know what I mean?
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What a pity.
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But I think you do.
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I think you must.
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Look here.
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I am the boy at what is called the refreshment room at Mugby Junction, and what proudest boast is that it never yet refreshed a mortal being.
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Up in a corner of the down refreshment room at Mugby Junction, in the height of 27 cross -drafts,
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I've often counted them while they brushed the first -class hair 27 ways.
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Behind the bottles, among the glasses, bounded on the north -west by the beer,
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stood pretty far to the right of a metallic object that's at times the tea urn and at times the soup tureen,
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according to the nature of the last twang imparted to its contents, which are the same groundwork,
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fended off from the traveller by a barrier of stale sponge cakes erected atop of the counter,
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and lastly exposed sideways to the glare of our missus' eye.
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You ask a boy so situated.
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Next time you stop in a hurry at Mugby for anything to drink.
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You take particular notice that he'll try to seem not to hear you,
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that he'll appear in an absent manner to survey the line through a transparent medium composed of your head and body,
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and that he won't serve you as long as you can possibly bear it.
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That's me.
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What a lark it is.
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We are the model establishment we are at Mugby.
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Other refreshment rooms send their imperfect young ladies up to be finished off by our missus.
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For some of the young ladies, when they're new to the business, come into it mild.
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Ah, our missus, she soon takes that out of them.
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Why, I originally come into the business meek myself.
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But our missus, she soon took that out of me.
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What a delightful lark it is.
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I look upon us refreshmenters as occupying the only proudly independent footing on the line.
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There's Papers, for instance.
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My honourable friend, if he will allow me to call him so, him as belongs to Smith's Bookstall.
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Why, he no more dares to be up to our refreshment
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in games than he dares to jump atop of a locomotive with her steam at full pressure
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and cut away upon her alone, driving himself at limited mail speed.
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Papers?
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He'd get his head punched at every compartment, first, second and third, the whole length of a train, if he was to venture to imitate my demeanour.
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It's the same with the porters, the same with the guards, the same with the ticket clerks, the same the whole way up to the secretary, traffic manager or very chairman.
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There ain't a one among them on the nobly independent footing we are.
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Did you ever catch one of them when you wanted anything of him, making a system of surveying the line through a transparent medium composed of your head and body?
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I should hope not.
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You should see our bandolining room at Mugby Junction.
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It's led to by the door behind the counter, which you'll notice usually stands ajar, and it's the room where our missus and our young ladies bandolines their air.
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You should see them at it betwixt trains, bandolining away as if they was anointing themselves for the combat.
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When you're telegraphed, you should see their noses all a -going up with scorn, as if it was a part of the working of the same Cook and Wheatstone electrical machinery.
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You should hear our missus give the word.
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Here comes the beast to be fed.
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And then you should see him indignantly skipping across the line from the up to the down, or weiser Warsaw,
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and begin to pitch the stale pastry into the plate
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and chuck the sawdust sandwiches under the glass covers and get out the, ha ha ha, the sherry,
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oh, my eye, my eye, for your refreshment.
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It's only in the Isle of the Brave and the Land of the Free, by which of course I mean to say Britannia, that refreshmenting is so effective,
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so wholesome, so constitutional, a check upon the public.
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There was a foreigner which, having politely, with his hat off, beseeched our young ladies and our missus for a little gloss of brandy,
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and having had the line surveyed through him by all and no other acknowledgement, was proceeding at last to help himself, as seems to be the custom in his own country,
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when our missus, with her hair almost coming unbandolined with rage and her eyes emitting sparks flew at him,
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cotched the decanter out of his hand and said, Put it down, I won't allow that.
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The foreigner turned pale, stepped back with his arms stretched out in front of him, his hands clasped and his shoulders raised,
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and exclaimed, Ah, is it possible this,
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that these disdainous females and this ferocious old woman are placed here by the administration,
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not only to empoison the voyagers, but to affront them?
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Great heaven, how arrives it?
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The English people, or is he then a slave, or idiot?
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Another time, a merry wide -awake American gent had tried the sawdust and spit it out, and had tried the sherry and spit that out,
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and had tried in vain to sustain exhausted nature upon butterscotch, and had been rather extra bandolined and line surveyed through,
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when, then, as the bell was ringing and he paid our missus, he says, very loud and good -tempered, I tell you what tis,
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ma 'am, I laugh, there, I laugh, I do, I oughta ha' seen most things,
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for I hail from the unlimited side of the Atlantic Ocean, and I have travelled right slick over the limited, head on through Jerusalem and the east,
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and likewise France and Italy, Europe old world, and am now upon the track to the chief European village,
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but such an institution as you and your young ladies
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and your fixings solid and liquid afore the glorious tarnal I never did see yet.
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And if I ain't found the eighth wonder of monarchical creation in finding you
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and your young ladies and your fixings solid and liquid,
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all as aforesaid established in a country where the people are not absolute lunatics,
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I am extra double -dined with a nip and frizzle to the innermostest grit.
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Wherefore, there, I laugh, I do, ma 'am, I laugh.
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And so he went, stamping and shaking his sides along the platform all the way to his own compartment.
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I think it was her standing up again the foreigner as
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give our missus the idea of going over to France and drawing a comparison betwixt refreshmenting as followed among the frog -eaters,
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and refreshmenting as triumphant in the Isle of the Brave and the Land of the Free, by which of course I mean to say again Britannia.
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Our young ladies, Miss Whiff, Miss Piff and Mrs Sniff, was unanimous opposed to her going, for, as they says to our Misses one and all,
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it is well benign to the hens of the earth as no other nation except Britain has a idea of anything, but above all of business.
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Why then should you tire yourself to prove what is already proved?
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Our Mrs, however, being a teaser at all points, stood out grim obstinate and got a return pass by southeastern title to go right through,
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if such should be her dispositions, to Marseille.
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Sniff is husband to Mrs Sniff and is a regular insignificant cove.
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He looks hard to the sawdust department in the back room, and is sometimes, when we are very hard put to it, let him behind the counter with a corkscrew.
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But never when it can be helped, his demeanour towards the public being disgusting servile.
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How Mrs. Sniff ever comes so far to lower herself as to marry him, I don't know.
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I suppose he does, and I should think he wished he didn't, for he leads a awful life.
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Mrs. Sniff couldn't be much harder with him if he was public.
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Similarly, Miss Whiff and Miss Piff, taking the tone of Mrs. Sniff, they shoulder sniff about when he is let in with a corkscrew,
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and they whisk things out of his hands, when in his civility he is going to let the public have him, and they snap him up,
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when in the crawling baseness of his spirit he is going to answer a public question, and they draw more tears into his eyes than ever the mustard does,
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which he all day long lays on to the sawdust, but it ain't strong.
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Once, when Sniff had the repulsiveness to reach across to get the milk pot to hand over for a baby,
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I see our Mrs. in her rage catch him by both his shoulders and spin him out into the bandolining room.
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But Mrs. Sniff, how different, she's the one.
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She's the one, as you'll notice, to be always looking another way from you when you look at her.
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She's the one with the small waist buckled in tight in front and with the lace cuffs at her wrists,
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which she puts on the edge of the counter before her and stands as smoothing while the public foams.
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This smoothing the cuffs and looking another way
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while the public foams is the last accomplishment taught to the
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young ladies as come to Mugby to be finished by our missus, and it's always taught by Mrs Sniff.
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When our missus went away upon her journey, Mrs. Sniff was left in charge.
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She did hold the public in check most beautiful.
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In all my time, I never see half so many cups of tea given without milk to people as wanted it with,
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nor half so many cups of tea with milk given to people as wanted it without out.
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When foaming ensued, Mrs. Sniff would say, then you'd better settle it among yourselves and change with one another.
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It was a most highly delicious lark.
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I enjoyed the refreshmenting business more than ever, and was so glad I'd took to it when young.
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Our Mrs. returned.
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It got circulated among the young ladies,
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and it, as it might be penetrated to me through the crevices of the bandolining room that she had horrors to reveal,
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if revelation so contemptible could be dignified with the name.
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Agitation became awakened, excitement was up in the stirrups, expectation stood a tiptoe.
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At length, it was put forth that on our slackest evening in the week, and at our slackest time of that evening betwixt trains,
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our missus would give her views of foreign refreshmenting in the bandolining room.
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It was arranged tasteful for the purpose.
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The bandolining table and glass was hid in a corner, an armchair was elevated on a packing case for our missus' occupation,
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a table and a tumbler of water was placed beside it.
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Two of the pupils, the season being autumn and hollyhocks and dahlias being in, ornamented the wall with three devices in those flowers.
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On one might be read, May Albion never learn.
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On another, Keep the public down.
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On another, Our refreshmenting charter.
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The whole had a beautiful appearance with which the beauty of the sentiments corresponded.
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On our missus's brow was rote severity as she ascended the fatal platform.
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Not that that was anything new, Miss Whiff and Miss Piff sat at her feet.
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Three chairs from the waiting room might have been perceived by an average eye in front of her, on which the pupils was accommodated.
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Behind them, a very close observer might have discerned a boy, myself.
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Where, said our missus, glancing gloomily around, is Sniff.
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I thought it better, answered Mrs Sniff, that he should not be let to come in, he is such an ass.
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No doubt, assented our missus, but for that reason is it not desirable to improve his mind?
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Oh, nothing will ever improve him, said Mrs. Sniff.
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However, pursued our missus, call him in, Ezekiel.
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I called him in.
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The appearance of the low -minded cove was hailed with disapprobation
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from all sides on account of his having brought his corkscrew with him.
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He pleaded the force of habit.
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The force, said Mrs. Sniff.
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Don't let us have you talking about force for gracious sake.
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There, do stand still where you are with your back against the wall.
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He is a smiling piece of vacancy, and he smiled in the mean way in which he will even smile at the public if he gets a chance.
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Language can say no meaner of him, and he stood upright near the door with the back of his head against the wall,
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as if he was awaiting for somebody to come in and measure his height for the army.
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I should not enter, ladies, says our missus, on the revolting disclosures I am about to make
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if it was not in the hope
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that they will cause you to be yet more implacable in the exercise of the power you wield in a constitutional country.
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and yet more devoted to the constitutional motto which I see before me.
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It was behind her, but the words sounded better so.
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May Albion never learn.
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Here the pupils, as had made the motto, admired it, and cried, Here, here, here.
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Sniff, showing an inclination to join in chorus, got himself frowned down by every brow.
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The baseness of the French, pursued our missus, as displayed in the fawning nature of their refreshmenting,
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equals, if not surpasses, anything as was ever heard of the baseness of the celebrated buonaparte.
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Miss Whiff, Miss Piff and me, we drawed a heavy breath, equal to saying, we thought as much.
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Miss Whiff and Miss Piff, seeming to object to my drawing mine along with theirs, I drawed another to aggravate them.
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Shall I be believed?
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says our missus with flashing eyes, when I'd tell you that no sooner had I set my foot upon that treacherous shore.
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Here Sniff, either busting out mad or thinking aloud, says in a low voice, Feet.
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Plural, you know.
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The cowering that come upon him when he was spurned by all eyes, added to his being beneath contempt,
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was sufficient punishment for a cove so grovelling.
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In the midst of a silence rendered more impressive by the turned -up female noses with which it was pervaded,
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our missus went on, Shall I be believed when I tell you that no sooner had I landed,
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this word with a killing look at sniff, on that treacherous shore, than I was ushered into a refreshment room where there were,
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I do not exaggerate, actually eatable things to eat.
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A groan burst from the ladies.
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I not only did myself the honour of joining, but also of lengthening it out.
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Where there were, our missus added, not only eatable things to eat, but also drinkable things to drink.
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A murmur, swelling almost into a scream, arised.
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Miss Piff, trembling with indignation, called out, Name!
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I will name, said our missus.
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There was roast fowls hot and cold, there was smoking roast veal surrounded with browned potatoes, there was hot soup with,
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again, I ask shall I be credited, nothing bitter in it, and no flour to choke off the consumer,
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There was a variety of cold dishes set off with jelly, there was salad, there was,
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mark me, fresh pastry, and that of a light construction, there was a luscious show of fruit,
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there was bottles and decanters of sound small wine of every size
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and adapted to every pocket the same odious statement will apply to Brandy, and these were set out upon the counter so that all could help themselves.
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Our Mrs's lips so quivered that Mrs Sniff, though scarcely less convulsed than she were, got up and held the tumbler to them.
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This, proceeds our Mrs, was my first unconstitutional experience.
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Well, it would have been if it had been my last and worst, But no, as I proceeded further into that enslaved and ignorant land,
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its aspect became more hideous.
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I need not explain to this assembly the ingredients and formation of the British refreshment sandwich.
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Universal laughter, except from Sniff,
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who, as sandwich cutter, shook his head in a state of the utmost dejection as he stood with it again the wall.
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Well, said our missus, with dilated nostrils.
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Take a fresh, crisp, long, crusty penny loaf made of the whitest and best flour.
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Cut it longwise through the middle, insert a fair and nicely fitting slice of ham, tie a smart piece of ribbon round the middle of the hole to bind it together.
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Add at one end a neat wrapper of clean white paper by which to hold it,
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and the universal French refreshment sandwich busts on your disgusted vision.
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A cry of shame from all, except Sniff, which rubbed his stomach with a soothing hand.
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I need not, said our missus, explain to this assembly the usual formation and fitting of the British refreshment room.
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No, no, and laughter, Sniff again shaking his head, in low spirits again the wall.
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Well, said our missus, what would you say to a general decoration of everything,
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to hangings, sometimes elegant, to easy velvet furniture, to abundance of little tables, to abundance of little seats,
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to brisk, bright waiters, to great convenience, to a pervading cleanliness and tastefulness,
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positively addressing the public and making the beast thinking itself worth the pains.
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Contemptuous fury on the part of all the ladies.
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Mrs. Sniff looking as if she wanted somebody to hold her, and everybody else looking as if they'd rather not.
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Three times, said our missus, working herself into a truly terremendous state.
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Three times did I see these shameful things, only between the coast and Paris, and not counting either.
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At Hasbrook, at Arras, at Amiens.
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but worse remains.
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Tell me, what would you call a person who should propose in England that there should be kept, say at our own model Mugby Junction,
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pretty baskets, each holding an assorted cold lunch and dessert for one, each at a certain fixed price,
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and each within a passenger's power to take away, to empty in the carriage at perfect leisure,
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and to return at another station fifty or a hundred miles further on.
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There was disagreement what such a person should be called, whether revolutionist, atheist, bright.
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Aye, said him, or un -English.
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Miss Piff screeched her shrill opinion last in the words, a malignant maniac.
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I adopt, says our missus, the brand set upon such a person by the righteous indignation of my friend Miss Piff,
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a malignant maniac.
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Know then that that malignant maniac has sprung from the congenial soil of France,
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and that his malignant madness was in unchecked action on this same part of my journey.
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I noticed that Sniff was a rub in his hands, and that Mrs Sniff had got her eye upon him,
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but I did not take more particular notice owing to the excited state in which the young ladies was,
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and to feeling myself called upon to keep it up with a howl.
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On my experience south of France, said our missus in a deep tone,
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I will not expatiate, too loathsome were the task,
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but fancy this, fancy a guard coming round with the train at full speed to inquire how many for dinner,
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Fancy us telegraphing forward the number of diners.
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Fancy everyone expected and the table elegantly laid for the complete party.
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Fancy a charming dinner in a charming room and the head cook,
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concerned for the honour of every dish superintending in his clean white jacket and cap.
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Fancy the beast travelling 600 miles on end, very fast and with great punctuality,
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yet being taught to expect all this to be done for it.
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A spirited chorus of The Beast.
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I noticed that Sniff was again a rub in his stomach with a soothing hand, and that he had drawn up one leg.
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But again, I didn't take particular notice, looking on myself was called upon to stimulate public feeling, it being a lark besides.
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Putting everything together, said our missus, French refreshmenting comes to this, and oh, it comes to a nice total.
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First, eatable things to eat and drinkable things to drink.
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A groan from the young ladies, kept up by me.
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Second, convenience and even elegance.
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Another groan from the young ladies, kept up by me.
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Third, moderate charges.
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This time a groan from me, kept up by the young ladies.
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Fourth, and here, says our missus, I claim your angriest sympathy,
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attention, common civility, nay, even politeness.
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Me and the young ladies regularly raging mad altogether ever.
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And I cannot in conclusion, says our missus, with a spitefulest sneer, give you a completer picture of that despicable nation,
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after what I have related,
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than assuring you that they wouldn't bear our constitutional ways and noble independence at Mugby Junction for a single month,
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and that they would turn us to the right about, and put another system in our places as soon as look at us,
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perhaps sooner, for I do not believe they have the good taste to care to look at us twice.
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The swelling tumult was arrested in its rise.
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Sniff, bore away by his servile disposition, had drawn up his leg with a higher and higher relish,
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and was now discovered to be waving his corkscrew over his head.
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It was at this moment that Mrs. Sniff, who had kept her eye upon him like the fabled obelisk descended on her victim.
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Our missus followed them both out, and cries was heard in the sawdust department.
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You come into the down refreshment room at the junction, making believe you don't know me,
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and I'll point you out with my right thumb over my shoulder which is our missus, and which is miss whiff, and which is miss piff, and which is missus sniff.
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But you won't get a chance to see sniff, because he disappeared that night.
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Whether he perished, tore to pieces, I cannot say, but his corkscrew alone remains,
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to bear witness to the servility of his disposition.
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Thank you for listening to The Boy at Mugby by Charles Dickens.
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Vocabolario e note di pronuncia per questa lezione

Questa lezione di conversazione di livello B2 si basa sul video “The Boy at Mugby by Charles Dickens - Full Audiobook”. Le parole che ritornano più spesso: missus, sniff, Mrs, ladies, miss. Questo video contiene 257 frasi e 3759 parole da ripetere con lo shadowing. Il parlato dura 25:22. Chi parla mantiene un ritmo costante di circa 148 parole al minuto, comodo per lo shadowing. Solo il 77% delle parole rientra nelle 3.000 più comuni dell’inglese, quindi il lessico è impegnativo.

Vocaboli chiave di questo video

Le 15 parole più avanzate del video, con pronuncia e significato:

ParolaPronunciaSignificato
sniff verbo/snɪf/annusare, fiutare
junction sostantivo/ˈd͡ʒʌŋkʃən/giunzione, giunto
corkscrew sostantivo/ˈkɔɹk.skɹu/cavatappi
groan verbo/ˈɡɹəʊ̯n/gemere
lark sostantivo/lɑɹk/allodola, lodola
foreigner sostantivo/ˈfɔɹ.ɪ.nɚ/straniero, straniera
maniac sostantivo/ˈmeɪ.niˌæk/maniaco
cove sostantivo/koʊv/calanca, insenatura
pupil sostantivo/ˈpjuːpəl/allievo, allieva
civility sostantivo/sɪˈvɪl.ɪ.ti/civiltà
compose verbo/kəmˈpəʊz/comporre
drinkable aggettivo/ˈdɹɪŋk.ə.bəl/potabile
servile aggettivo/ˈsəɹ.vəl/servile, adulatore
sherry sostantivo/ˈʃɛɹi/sherry, xeres
soothe verbo/suːð/calmare

I phrasal verb che sentirai

ParolaSignificato
keep up verbomantenere, conservare
draw up verbostilare, stendere
finish off verboterminare, rifinire
get up verboalzarsi
stand up verboalzarsi in piedi
turn up verbopresentarsi, apparire

Frasi da ripetere

Frasi brevi e complete del video che puoi riutilizzare nella conversazione di tutti i giorni:

  • That's about what I am.
  • You don't know what I mean?
  • Why then should you tire yourself to prove what is already proved?
  • Shall I be believed?

La grammatica di questo video

Le strutture che chi parla usa di più, con le parole esatte del video:

StrutturaNel video
Forma passiva be + participio passato — conta ciò che accade, non chi lo fais called · be finished · be fed
Present perfect have/has + participio passato — un’azione passata che conta ancora adessoI've often counted · have travelled · has sprung
Frasi relative who / which + frase — un’informazione in più su una persona o una cosacontents, which are · person who should · shoulder which is

Pronuncia a cui fare attenzione

Chi parla usa 27 contrazioni e forme ridotte, come don't, ain't, won't. Pronunciale nella forma breve, così come le senti.

  • I suoni “th”: soothe /suːð/, theirs /ðɛɚz/, thumb /ˈθʌm/, sympathy /ˈsɪm.pəθ.i/, altogether /ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/
  • I suoni “sh” e “zh”: refreshment /ɹɪˈfɹɛʃ.mənt/, junction /ˈd͡ʒʌŋkʃən/, disposition /ˌdɪs.pəˈzɪʃ.ən/, indignation /ˌɪn.dɪɡˈneɪ.ʃən/, sherry /ˈʃɛɹi/
  • Parole lunghe — attenzione all’accento: civility /sɪˈvɪl.ɪ.ti/, disposition /ˌdɪs.pəˈzɪʃ.ən/, indignation /ˌɪn.dɪɡˈneɪ.ʃən/, ingredient /ɪnˈɡɹiːdi.ənt/, revelation /ˌɹɛv.əˈleɪ.ʃən/

I suoni difficili per chi parla italiano:

  • Consonante finale — senza aggiungere una vocale dopo: missus /ˈmɪs.əz/, sniff /snɪf/, refreshment /ɹɪˈfɹɛʃ.mənt/, whiff /wɪf/, lark /lɑɹk/
  • /æ/ — più aperta della “e”: maniac /ˈmeɪ.niˌæk/, sandwich /ˈsæn(d).wɪd͡ʒ/, brandy /ˈbɹændi/, slack /slæk/, transparent /tɹænsˈpæɹənt/

Come esercitarsi con questo video

  1. Ascolta tutto il video una volta senza parlare e annota le parole che non conosci.
  2. Fai shadowing frase per frase a velocità normale, ripetendo ognuna finché il tuo ritmo coincide con quello di chi parla.
  3. Registrati e confronta con l’originale, facendo attenzione a parole come sniff, junction, corkscrew.

Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?

Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.

Tecnica dello shadowing: leggi la guida completa passo dopo passo →