笪景行

An English woman who lost her wedding ring in the garden almost four decades ago has just found it buried in the soil2—just days before her 40th anniversary.

65-year-old Paula Walter lost the precious3 wedding band back in 1983 when she was playing catch with her son outside their home in Plymouth， Devon.

The ring flew off her finger as they were playing in the garden， and though with a lengthy search of the grounds with a metal detector4， it was never found.

Paula， who tied the knot with5 her now 73-year-old husband Joe on August 28th， 1980， was heartbroken by the disappearance of her cherished 18 carat6 gold band.

“My house backs onto woodland and I thought possibly that the ring flew in there. I thought it was gone forever，” recalled Paula. “Over the years—whenever weve been in the garden or out there—Ive always said ‘have a look for the ring， but we never found it.”

To her delight， however， the missing ring was finally rediscovered last month.

Paulas lucky break came when she hired7 local landscaping8 company to clean up her garden a few days before her wedding anniversary.

“We had a gardening company come in and landscape our garden and I told them about the ring and the whole story，” says Paula.

Although the yard had been dug up many times in the past， the gardeners struck gold.

“They called me out into the garden a while later saying they had a surprise for me and then handed me my wedding ring，” she exclaimed9. “It was in the garden where I had been playing ball with my son all those years ago. I was so shocked， but incredibly10 grateful. Its wonderful to have it back.”

一位英國(guó)婦女約40年前在花園里弄丟了結(jié)婚戒指，就在她結(jié)婚40周年紀(jì)念日前幾天，她在土里找到了戒指。

現(xiàn)年65歲的保拉·沃爾特是在1983年和兒子在德文郡普利茅斯的家門口玩投接球游戲時(shí)丟失了這枚珍貴的結(jié)婚戒指。

當(dāng)他們?cè)诨▓@里嬉戲時(shí)，戒指從她的手指上掉了下來(lái)，盡管用金屬探測(cè)器對(duì)地面進(jìn)行了長(zhǎng)時(shí)間的搜索，但他們始終沒(méi)有找到戒指。

保拉與她現(xiàn)在73歲的丈夫喬是在1980年8月28日喜結(jié)良緣的。她珍愛(ài)的18K金戒指的失蹤讓她心碎。

“我的房子背對(duì)著林地，我想戒指可能飛到那里去了。我以為永遠(yuǎn)找不到它了?！北＠貞浀?，“這些年來(lái)，無(wú)論我們?cè)诨▓@里還是在外面，我總是說(shuō)‘去找一下戒指，但我們一直沒(méi)找到?！?/p>

不過(guò)，令她高興的是，丟失的戒指終于在上個(gè)月被重新找到了。

在結(jié)婚紀(jì)念日前幾天，保拉雇用了當(dāng)?shù)匾患覉@林美化公司來(lái)清理花園，那是她幸運(yùn)的一天。

“我們讓一家園林美化公司來(lái)為我們的花園做景觀美化，我把戒指的整個(gè)故事告訴了他們?！北＠f(shuō)。

盡管這個(gè)院子過(guò)去曾被挖過(guò)多次，但園丁們還是挖到了金子。

“過(guò)了一會(huì)兒，他們把我叫到花園里，說(shuō)他們有個(gè)驚喜給我，然后把我的結(jié)婚戒指遞給了我。”她驚嘆道，“戒指就在很多年前起我一直和兒子一起玩球的地方。我很震驚，但卻無(wú)比感激。能找回它真是太好了。”

（英語(yǔ)原文選自：goodnewsnetwork.org）

【Notes】

1. anniversary? ?n. 周年紀(jì)念日

2. soil? ?n. 土地;土壤

3. precious? ?adj. 寶貴的

4. detector? ?n. 探測(cè)器

5. tie the knot with 與……結(jié)婚

6. carat? ?n. 開(kāi);黃金純度

7. hire? ?v. 聘用;雇用

8. landscape? ?v. 美化;對(duì)……做景觀美化

9. exclaim? ?v. 呼喊，驚叫

10. incredibly? ?adv. 難以置信地;非常地