《新版新概念英语第三册(英音)Lesson (14)》歌词

[00:00:01] --- lesson 14 a noble gangster

[00:00:06] --- listen to the tape then answer the question below.

[00:00:12] --- how did hawkwood make money in times of peace?

[00:00:17] 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'.

[00:00:28] if the money was not paid promptly, the gangsters would quickly put a man out of business by destroying his shop.

[00:00:36] obtaining 'protection money' is not a modern crime.

[00:00:41] as long ago as the fourteenth century, an englishman, sir john hawkwood, made the remarkable discovery

[00:00:49] that people would rather pay large sums of money than have their life work destroyed by gangsters.^

[00:00:55] six hundred years ago, sir john hawkwood arrived in italy with a band of soldiers and settled near florence.^600

[00:01:04] he soon made a name for himself and came to be known to the italians as giovanni acuto.

[00:01:11] whenever the italian city-states were at war with each other,

[00:01:15] hawkwood used to hire his soldiers to princes who were willing to pay the high price he demanded.

[00:01:22] in times of peace, when business was bad, hawkwood and his men would march into a city-state and,

[00:01:29] after burning down a few farms, would offer to go away if protection money was paid to them.

[00:01:36] hawkwood made large sums of money in this way.

[00:01:40] in spite of this, the italians regarded him as a sort of hero.

[00:01:45] when he died at the age of eighty, the florentines gave him a state funeral

[00:01:51] and had a picture painted which was dedicated to the memory of 'the most valiant soldier and most notable leader, signor giovanni haukodue'.