11月14日，英国王储查尔斯王子迎来了70大寿。同时，这也是查尔斯王子等待继位的第66个年头。
英国女王伊丽莎白二世于1952年继位，是英国有史以来最长寿和在位时间最长的君主。一年又一年，女王不断刷新着自己“历史上在位时间最长君主”的纪录，查尔斯也随之刷新“等待继位时间最长王储”的纪录。
虽然先前女王已表态，希望未来由查尔斯王子接任英联邦元首一职，但身体似乎仍相当硬朗的伊丽莎白二世，好像还没有提早退休的打算。查尔斯王子的国王等候之路，恐怕还要继续走下去。
本篇课程首发于2018年11月19日，节选自 The Guardian
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He's fully trained for the job, and it would be a terrible shame to see his mother do it badly now
① He has at least four magnificent homes. He has 134,000 acres. He's a duke. He's an earl. He's a lord.
② He has a lovely wife, who cheers him up. He has two handsome sons, each of whom has a beautiful wife. He has three grandchildren who adore him.
③ He has an awful lot, this mild-mannered Englishman who turned seventy last week. Oh, and he has a rich mum. He has a really, really rich mum.
④ Since 1976, Prince Charles has helped more than 900,000 young people into education or employment. But his own apprenticeship has gone on for a very, very, very long time.
⑤ Charles was four when he watched a man put a gold object on his mother's head, in a ceremony watched by more than 270 million people.
⑥ From the moment the prince learned that not everyone's mum is called "your majesty", he has known that he will one day have to wear that crown. What he didn't know was that he would be waiting through his 40s, 50s and 60s.
⑦ He didn't know that he would be collecting his bus pass, and his pension (which he gives to an old people's charity); that he would, in fact, spend his full three score and 10 waiting for something he didn't particularly want and may not even get.
⑧ He has spent his entire life being judged in the light of that thing he hasn't yet got. Surely it's now time to put that wait to an end.
▍生词好句
duke /djuːk, duːk/: n. 公爵
earl /ɜːl, ɜːrl/: n. 伯爵
lord /lɔːd, lɔːrd/: n. 勋爵
mild-mannered /ˌmaɪldˈmænəd/: adj. 举止温和的
apprenticeship /əˈprentɪsʃɪp, əˈprentɪʃɪp/: n. 学徒期
crown /kraʊn/: n. 王冠
collect /kəˈlekt/: vt. 接受，领取；收集
in the light of: 因为；鉴于
▍词汇拓展
1. a terrible shame: something that is a terrible shame is very disappointing, but not shameful
It's a terrible shame that the concert was cancelled.
音乐会取消了，真是太遗憾了。
I bought two cinema tickets, but I just remembered I'm working tomorrow. So I can't go. It would be a terrible shame to waste the tickets. Do you want them? Shall I give you the tickets?
我买了两张电影票，但我刚想起来我明天要上班。我没法去了，但是这票不用太可惜了。你想要吗？我能把票给你吗？
I just read that they will not make another season of the TV series. That's a terrible shame because that's my favorite TV series.
我刚听说他们不会再拍下一季了，真是太遗憾了，因为那是我最喜欢的电视剧。
2. an awful lot: a large amount (it can be positive or negative, depending on the sentence)
I can't come out this weekend. I've got an awful lot of work to do.
我这周末有很多工作要做，没法出去。
He's lost an awful lot of weight, hasn't he?
他最近瘦了很多，对吧？
There's an awful lot of detail in the report that you wrote.
你写的那份报告很详细。
I spent an awful lot of time revising for this exam.
我花了很多时间准备这次考试。
3. apprentice: n. if you are an apprentice, you are a beginner, you work for someone, and your employer is usually a skilled expert. You work for the expert for a number of years, and you learn the skill
4. three score and ten: seventy
· an old fashioned way to describe someone's life, to describe usually what they did in their life
· used quite a lot in poetry and literature
He spent every day of his three score and ten painting. = He painted for his whole life.
他画了一辈子的画。
He spent his whole three score and ten helping other people. = He spent his whole life helping other people.
他一生都在帮助人。
▍责任编辑
李焕、武志琳、章晓丹
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