遇见古老的英格兰.docVIP

遇见古老的英格兰 　　Christine had finally met up with her best friend Shannon at the old English pub where Shannon was working. It was a very joyous reunion between the two former school friends. At last the two 18-year-old girls were together and ready to spend a year in Europe travelling and working. 　　We took the bus to where Shannon was staying in the nearby town of Henley-on-Thames2. She lived there， right near the town centre in an old stone-built house. In England， almost all houses are doublestorey （have two floors）. Most houses have three bedrooms； this one was larger and had four. Shannon shared the house with three other people， young men， just a little older than us. Each of them had their own room， of course. I would be sharing hers. 　　The house， being right in town and old， was quite special. The rental3 would have been high but I understood that it was owned by the family of one of the young men. This indicated “old money” or， as we might say， “a well-to-do family”.4 However， the furniture was somewhat lacking； old and dreary5. Even the curtains seemed ancient，dusty and heavy. They were seldom opened， making the house rather dark. The house also seemed a bit damp. England is very wet and many of the older houses have damp. Modern houses have better technologies to prevent it. 　　The house also had the feel of being uncared for. It probably was. Maybe forgotten by its owner who had many houses and， as long as his or her young relative paid some rent， did not think of it often. The ironing board stood permanently in the lounge，6 and Shannon and I spent many hours talking as she ironed her work clothes on it. 　　You would think three young men would be delighted to have a young lady staying with them！ But they didn’t really seem pleased at all. In fact， my arrival only seemed to add to their displeasure. I wondered what the reason was， but would have to wait to find out. They seemed polite young men but somewhat full of themselves7. Shannon happily ignored the