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Unit 14 Introduction O. Henry was the pseudonym of William Sydney Porter, who wrote colorful short stories with surprising and ironic twists. His best-known titles included The Last of the Troubadours, The Gift of the Magi and The Ransom of Red Chief. Porter grew up in North Carolina, but moved to Texas in the 1880s. He worked as a draftsman, a bookkeeper, a bank teller and a newspaper columnist until 1898, when he was sent to prison for embezzlement (from his days as a teller in Austin). Introduction After more than three years in jail, O. Henry moved to New York to work full time as a writer. His short stories were masterworks of careful plotting and surprise endings: in The Ransom of Red Chief, for instance, a kidnapped tyke is so much trouble that the kidnappers end up paying the boys father to take him back. O. Henrys work appeared in magazines and journals across the country and were collected in such books as Cabbages and Kings (1904), Heart of the West (1907) and The Voice of the City (1908). No stranger to alcohol and plagued by ill health, he died broke at the age of 47 Introduction tuberculosis: TB the American De Maupassant De Maupassant is to France as O. Henry is to America. Association: 胡万春 Why is the story divided into five parts? A short usually consists of five parts. Why we are asked to write down the main ideas for each part? Text I The policeman on the beat1 moved up the avenue impressively. The impressiveness was habitual and not for show, for spectators were few. The time was barely 10 oclock at night2, but chilly gusts of wind with a taste of rain in them had almost emptied the streets. When: Where: Who: barely 10 o’clock an avenue a policeman Text I Trying doors as he went, twirling his club with many intricate and artful movements, turning now and then to cast his watchful eye adown the pacific thoroughfare, the officer, with his stalwart form and slight swagger, made a fine picture of a guardian