高考英语《流行话题 语境识词 4500》Unit 77 A Phenomenal Memory 素材Unit 77 A Phenomenal Memory I have a phenomenal memory for faces. There is no doubt about that. The only snag is that I can never remember the names that go with them. Only the other day, I raised my hat to one fellow, quite distinguished-looking he was, and I thought: "My bank manager ... my broker?" I had to go and ask him. "I'm Rankin, your next-door neighbor, Mr. Peabody," he said, r ather acidly. It was through my awful memory for names that something unpleasant happened to me not long ago. It was a Friday evening and I was in the train on my way home. It was not my regular train, for I had been kept late at work, and when it got to Ruislip, three stops before mine, there were only two of us in the compartment. I could tell straight away he was an Oxbridge man. I'm an Oxbridge man, and I had definitely seen this fellow's face there. But his name completely eluded me. It was most irritating. Who was he? I thought he might be one of the newcomers to the pretty little estate recently completed near to where I live. I am not shy, so I began to talk in a very chatty manner. He was somewhat uncommunicative and certainly gave nothing away. I can see that he was rather worn out, as if he had had a bad day, and I put his reluctance to talk down to this. "Is this your regular train?" I asked, hopefully. It usually works in my experience. "Not often," he said. That was all. Well, that certainly told me a lot. I started to complain about railways, then the hooliganism at football matches, inflation and a host of other topic. He only said "yes" or "no" now and then. Even my comment on the weather...
