新視野大學英語讀寫教程第一冊unit7-c A Bank Robbery

Section C

A Bank Robbery

It was about midday. I'd left work early in the morning to cash （兌現(xiàn)）a cheque. I walked along to the bank and found there were only about ten or eleven customers in there, a pretty unusual number for those central city banks.

1. What could make the writer sense that something was about to happen at this moment?

I waited until it was my turn, walked up to the desk and started talking to the bank clerk. He had a really strange expression on his face — just sort of a blank（茫然的）stare. I thought he was looking at me until I realised he was staring over my shoulder.
I began to turn round to see what he was looking at and at the same moment, the outside bank guard, the one with the machine gun, came flying through the door and lay face down on the floor. Following him through the door were three absolutely frightening men wearing those horrible stocking masks. They were carrying guns; at least the one in front was carrying a pistol.
Whether or not they said anything I can't remember to this day, or whether people just automatically put their hands up I don't know. I put my hands up but I just didn't know what to do.
For a few moments there was just total silence, suddenly broken by the telephone ringing. I remember wondering who was on the other end of the line. Nobody answered the telephone, so it just kept on ringing and ringing, in this otherwise（不然）deathly quiet.
Then two of the masked men went to the counter（柜臺）, jumped over it and got the cashiers and bank clerks to start filling their bags with cash. While the two were getting the money, the one at the door covering us with the gun obviously got a bit of an anxiety attack and started swearing（咒罵）at them, telling them to hurry up and get a move on.

2. Why did the robber get a bit of an anxiety attack now?

They jumped back over the counter. One of them lost his balance when he landed on the floor and fell over. The other two swore at him again. Then they left through the door, warning us, "Don't move. Stay like that with your hands up for ten minutes." Then they just disappeared. There was total silence.
We put our hands down but I just stayed exactly where I was. Then one of the bank workers pressed a button behind the counter and the steel gate at the front of the bank moved into place so that we were locked in. We just stayed like that until the police arrived three or four minutes later.
They picked up the bank guard who, poor fellow, was still lying flat on the floor. There was a good deal of confusion（混亂）.
As though in a dream, I just wandered（漫步）out of the bank. Nobody tried to stop me. The police didn't seem interested in me. They didn't want to question me. I wasn't asked to be a witness（證人）or anything so I just wandered out of the bank.

3. What did the writer intend to say here?

Life as normal was going on outside in the busy street and I wandered back to the school. On the way back I ran into the school's accountant（會計）and quietly mentioned to him that I'd just been in a bank robbery. Of course, he was absolutely amazed and asked, "Do you want to come for a drink?" I said "OK."
In fact, it was only at that point that I really began to feel nervous and felt myself trembling a little bit. I was all right later on after I'd had a couple of drinks, but it only really came home to me what had happened at that point.

4. Why did the writer feel nervous only at this moment?

What still amazes me is that the robbers went out onto the street, one of the busiest in Naples, in the middle of the day, and just disappeared into thin air. I still find that absolutely unbelievable.

5. What did the writer want to express here?

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