2018年6月大学英语六级听力常考时文：Quirks of Royals Unveiled
1.What had the Queen Mother never done once herself? Open or draw ...2.What did Mahatma Gandhi send the Queen as a wedding gift? A piece of
...
3.Where did the Queen keep the Gandhi's gift? In ... in her bedroom.
The Queen Mother lived through the whole of the 20th century without once
having to open or draw her bedroom curtains herself. But she did get more
exercised when her normally abstemious daughter, Queen Elizabeth, once asked for
a second glass of wine at lunch."Are you sure dear? You have got to reign all
afternoon, you know," she said, gently teasing the monarch.When it comes to
tales of the quirky or eccentric, little beats the Royal Family -- as writer
Thomas Blaikie discovered while researching "Corgi and Bess: More Wit and Wisdom
from The House of Windsor."From the memoirs of dressmaker Hardy Amies and
portrait painter Pietro Annigoni to the recollections of novelist Barbara
Cartland, he trawled the archives researching a second volume of royal trivia
after the success of his first in 2002.No tale is too obscure for English
teacher Blaikie.For instance, whatever happened to the piece of cloth woven by
Mahatma Gandhi as a wedding gift for the Queen? She still keeps it in a drawer
in her bedroom at Buckingham Palace.Anecdotes about how the royals relate to
elected rulers and families make for entertaining reading.When Tony Blair won a
landslide election victory in 1997, the Queen said of her 10th prime minister:
"I suppose he will want me to call him Tony?"Blair's wife is also said to have
told Princess Anne: "Do call me Cherie." Her frosty reply: "I think not,
actually."
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