[ar:MP3 同步字幕版(英音)]
[ti:By Heart]
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[00:01.46]Lesson 22
[00:04.15]By heart
[00:12.00]Which actor read the letter in the end, the aristocrat or the gaoler?
[00:20.05]Some plays are so successful that they run for years on end.
[00:25.15]In many ways, this is unfortunate for the poor actors who are required to go on repeating the same lines night after night.
[00:33.68]One would expect them to know their parts by heart and never have cause to falter.
[00:39.32]Yet this is not always the case.
[00:42.85]A famous actor in a highly successful play was once cast in the role of an aristocrat who had been imprisoned in the Bastille for twenty years.
[00:54.07]In the last act, a gaoler would always come on to the stage with a letter which he would hand to the prisoner.
[01:00.76]Even though the noble was expected to read the letter at each performance, he always insisted that it should be written out in full.
[01:09.83]One night, the gaoler decided to play a joke on his colleague to find out if, after so many performances, he had managed to learn the contents of the letter by heart.
[01:21.73]The curtain went up on the final act of the play and revealed the aristocrat sitting alone behind bars in his dark cell.
[01:31.32]Just then, the gaoler appeared with the precious letter in his hands.
[01:36.83]He entered the cell and presented the letter to the aristocrat.