[ar:MP3 同步字幕版（英音）]

[ti:The Ideal Servant]

[by:更多学习内容，请到chazidian.com搜索“新概念”]

[00:01.50]Lesson 49

[00:03.32]The ideal servant

[00:12.33]What was Bessie's 'little weakness' ?

[00:17.35]It is a good thing my aunt Harriet died years ago.

[00:20.99]If she were alive today

[00:23.03]she would not be able to air her views on her favourite topic of conversation: domestic servants.

[00:30.06]Aunt Harriet lived in that leisurely age when servants were employed to do housework.

[00:36.01]She had a huge, rambling country house called 'The Gables'.

[00:41.15]She was sentimentally attached to this house,

[00:44.00]for even though it was far too big for her needs, she persisted in living there long after her husband's death.

[00:51.53]Before she grew old, aunt Harriet used to entertain lavishly.

[00:56.86]I often visited The Gables when I was a boy.

[01:00.54]No matter how many guests were present, the great house was always immaculate.

[01:06.62]The parquet floors shone like mirrors;

[01:09.66]highly polished silver was displayed in gleaming glass cabinets;

[01:14.24]even my uncle's huge collection of books was kept miraculously free from dust.

[01:19.87]Aunt Harriet presided over an invisible army of servants that continuously scrubbed, cleaned, and polished.

[01:28.98]She always referred to them as 'the shifting population',