365个英语简短小故事-169. Missing Husband (1)

Courtney had not heard from her husband in three weeks. Five weeks ago Jacob had gone to Iran to track down cigarette smugglers. He was working for a US company that was losing millions of dollars worth of cigarettes annually¹ to criminal activity. He had communicated with Courtney at least once a day for the first two weeks. Then his calls and emails stopped coming.

Jacob was a retired² FBI agent who had his own private investigation³ agency. He had no enemies that Courtney knew of. After the third day of not hearing from Jacob, Courtney contacted her US representative in Congress and her two US senators. They all said they would look into the matter. Three weeks later, after many calls from her, they all said they were still looking into the matter. Courtney had also made many calls to the US Embassy in Iran. The officials there told her they had no idea where her husband was, but they were “looking into it.”

Desperate to find her husband, Courtney flew to Tehran. She did not speak Farsi, and she knew nothing about Iran and nobody in Iran. All she knew was that she loved her husband and she would not leave Iran until she found him. If worse came to worst, she had decided⁴ to sell their house to continue her search. They had been married for forty years, and she loved him now as much as she had on her wedding day.

 

1 annually   

adv.一年一次，每年

参考例句：

• Many migratory birds visit this lake annually.许多候鸟每年到这个湖上作短期逗留。
• They celebrate their wedding anniversary annually.他们每年庆祝一番结婚纪念日。

2 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

3 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。