贵族歹徒
课文学习台
A Noble Gangster
把人物、线索、转折和结果组织成连贯叙述，理解句子里的修饰层次。
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第1段
There was a time when the owners of shops and businesses in Chicago had to pay large sums of money to gangsters in return for "protection". If the money was not paid promptly, the gangsters would quickly put a man out of business by destroying his shop. Obtaining "protection money" is not a modern crime. As long ago as the fourteenth century, an Englishman, Sir John Hawkwood, made the remarkable discovery that people would rather pay large sums of money than have their life work destroyed by gangsters.
曾经有一个时期,芝加哥的店主和商人们不得不给歹徒大笔的“保护费”。要是交迟了,歹徒们很快就会捣毁他的商店,让他破产。榨取“保护费”并不是一种现代的罪行。早在14世纪,英国人约翰·霍克伍德就有过非凡的发现：人们情愿交大笔的保护费,也不愿毕生的心血毁于歹徒之手。
第2段
Six hundred years ago, Sir John Hawkwood arrived in Italy with a band of soldiers and settled near Florence. He soon made a name for himself and came to be known to the Italians as Giovanni Acuto. Whenever the Italian city-states were at war with each other, Hawkwood used to hire his soldiers to princes who were willing to pay the high price he demanded. In times of peace, when business was bad, Hawkwood and his men would march into a city-state and, after burning down a few farms, would offer to go away if protection money was paid to them. Hawkwood made large sums of money in this way. In spite of this, the Italians regarded him as a sort of hero. When he died at the age of eighty, the Florentines gave him a state funeral and had a picture painted which was dedicated to the memory of "the most valiant soldier and most notable leader, Signor Giovanni Haukodue."
600年前，约翰·霍克伍德爵士带着一队士兵来到意大利，并在佛罗伦萨附近驻扎。很快他就出了名，意大利人叫他乔凡尼·阿库托。每次意大利各城邦之间打仗，霍克伍德就把自己的士兵有偿派给愿给他出高价的君主。和平时期，生意萧条时，霍克伍德便带领士兵进入某个城邦，纵火烧毁几个农场，然后提出，如果向他们交保护费，他们就主动撤离。霍克伍德用这种方法挣了一大笔钱。尽管如此，意大利人还是把他视作某种英雄。他80岁那年死去时，佛罗伦萨人为他举行了国葬，并为他画像以纪念这位“骁勇无比的战士、杰出的领袖乔凡尼·阿库托先生。”
学完这一课
保留原段的推进关系，换成自己的经历，写或说一段四五句的话。
译文与解析据吴应时、何景霖整理资料及本站首轮审校稿；词伙与练习提示为本站学习设计。原PDF第50—52页，2022年2月第3版。