wanted to buy a &300 fur coat for his wife, but he was in such a bedraggled condition that an assistant refused to serve him. Dickie left the shop without a word and returned carrying a large cloth bag. As it was extremely heavy, he dumped it on the counter. The assistant asked him to leave, but Dickie paid no attention to him and requested to see the manager. Recognizing who the customer was, the manager was most apologetic and 'reprimanded the assistant severely. When Dickie was given the fur coat, he presented the assistant with the cloth bag. It contained &300 in pennies. He insisted on the assistant's counting the money before he left 30,000 pennies in all! On another occasion, he invited a number of important critics to see his private collection of modern paintings. This exhibition received a great deal of attention in the press, for though the pictures were supposed to be the work of famous artists, they had in fact been painted by Dickie. It took him four years to stage this elaborate joke simply to prove that critics do not always know what they are talking about.

參考譯文

真正古怪的人從不有意引人注意。他們不顧社會習俗，意識不到自己所作所為有什麼特殊之處。他們總能贏得別人的喜愛與尊敬，因為他們給平淡單一的日常生活增添了色彩。

理查.科爾森生前是我們鎮上最有名望的人之一。他是個精明能幹、有錢的商人，但鎮上大部分人對他生活中的這一個方面幾乎一無所知。大家都管他叫迪基。早在他去世前很久，他的古怪行為就成了傳奇故事了。

迪基痛恨勢利小人。儘管他有一輛豪華小轎車，但卻很少使用，常常喜歡以步代車。即使大雨傾盆，他也總是拒絕帶傘。一天，他遇上一場瓢潑大雨，淋得透濕。他走進一家高級商店，要為妻子買一塊價值300英鎊的手錶。但店員見他渾身泥水的樣子，竟不肯接待他。迪基二話沒說就走了。一會兒，他帶著一個大布口袋回到店裏。布袋很沉，他重重地把布袋扔在櫃檯上。店員讓迪基走開，他置之不理，並要求見經理。經理認出了這位顧客，表示了深深的歉意，還嚴厲地訓斥了店員。店員為迪基拿出了那塊手錶，迪基把布口袋遞給他，口袋裏面裝著300鎊的便士。他堅持要店員點清那些硬幣後他才離去。這些硬幣加在一起共有30,000枚！ 還有一次，他邀請一些著名評論家來參觀他私人收藏的現代畫。這次展覽引起報界廣泛注意，因為這些畫名義上是名家的作品，事實上是迪基自己畫的。他花了4年時間策劃這出精心設計的鬧劇，只是想證明評論家們有時並不解他們所談論的事情。

★True eccentrics never deliberately set out to draw attention to themselves.

真正古怪的人從不有意引人注意。

※ set out

（1）to start a journey 出發

eg：Columbus and his crew set out from Europe in 1492.

（2）set out to do sth

（making plans to do sth in order to achieve a particular result）

（為了達到某個目的而做計畫）刻意去做

eg：She deliberately set out to poison every one of her 5 husbands.

set out to draw attention 刻意引起注意

★ They disregard social conventions without being conscious that they are doing anything extraordinary.

他們不顧社會習俗，意識不到自己所作所為有什麼特殊之處。

※ They disregard social conventions without being conscious…

eg：The snobbish disregard ordinary citizens without being conscious that they are no different.

勢力小人蔑視普通百姓意識不道他們並沒有什麼不同。

eg：The snobbish disregard ordinary those warnings without being conscious that he was getting close to real danger. 這個魯莽而大膽的全然不顧那些警告，絲毫意識不到自己已在鄰近真正的危險。

★ This invariably wins them the love and respect of others, for they add colour to the dull routine of everyday life. 他們總能贏得別人的喜愛與尊敬，因為他們給平淡單一的日常生活增添了色彩。