Lesson 33. Section 1. A coincidence in New York.
Would you like to tell me about it? Yes, it's rather a unique experience, actually.
I was in New York a few years ago and I wanted to read a particular poem, so I went along to the public library.
Now, the public library is different from any library that I'd ever seen, because you never see a book on a shelf, and I went into the building and I was directed to Room 101, where I had to fill in a form with the author and the title of the book that I wanted.
I was handed a disc and directed to another room which looked like a cinema. I sat down in this room and waited for the number on my disc to flash on the screen.
I waited and waited and waited and noticed that people who came in after me, were leaving and so I went back to the original room to find out what had happened and I was told that, they couldn't read the writing on my form.
So I filled in another form and was on my way to the cinema like room when I saw a woman standing in the corridor, now she was obviously trying to attract somebody's attention.
She was dressed very poorly and she had what looked like a sort, some kind of fur hat, a rather mangy fur hat, and on this hat was fixed a ra, a crook-like feather, a very, very long crook-like feather.
And er, this, this attracted my attention I think more than anything, so I stopped and asked if I could help her and she told me what I thought then was a rather an appalling story.
adj. 令人震惊的,可怕的
动词appall