(This is a shortened version of a very famous English novel from the nineteenth century.)

A Many years ago, in a small village in the south of England, there lived a country gentleman, Mr. Bennet, who had a rather silly wife and five daughters, three of whom, he said, were quite  as silly as their mother. Having five daughters was a problem in those days, because when a woman got married her father had to pay the new husband a great deal of money. The Bennets did not have very much money so Mrs. Bennet worried that men would not wish to marry her daughters, although the girls still received some attention from men. Two of the Bennet daughters, Elizabeth and Jane, were quite clever, especially Elizabeth, who was known for her quick wit.

B The eldest daughter, Jane, fell in love with a young man from the north of England with quite a lot of money. His name was Mr Bingley and he seemed to have also fallen in love with Jane. A friend of his called  Mr Darcy, an extremely rich man, persuaded Mr Bingley not to marry Jane because she was not from a rich family. Jane became very sad, but she was sensible and decided to try and forget about Mr Bingley and hoped to meet another good man. Elizabeth was very angry with Darcy for persuading Bingley not to marry Jane. She did not like him anyway, because he was not very polite to people and seemed very proud.

C There was another reason why Elizabeth disliked Darcy. She had met a very handsome young man called Mr Wickham, who seemed very polite and kind, and he entertained all the young women with his witty talk. He was a soldier and a very good horseman, and he showed a lot of interest in Elizabeth. He did not have very much money, and he told Elizabeth that it was because of Darcy that he was so poor. Darcy had refused to give him a job that Darcy’s father had promised him. So Elizabeth hated Darcy even more. Yet Darcy often spoke to Elizabeth, and he seemed to like talking to her because she was so sensible and so honest, even though in those days women were not supposed to give their opinions.

D One day, quite unexpectedly, Darcy asked Elizabeth to marry him. He said he had tried to forget her, but he had been unable to. He thought that because he was so rich, she would be unable to refuse him. But she not only refused him, she also told him it was because he had made both her sister and Mr. Wickham unhappy. Darcy admitted that he had persuaded Bingley not to marry Jane, but he still thought that he was right, because she was poor, even though he was not strong enough to follow that advice himself — he loved Elizabeth too much. A day later he came back to Elizabeth’s house and gave her a letter. In it, he said Wickham had not told Elizabeth the truth. It was true that he had not given the job to Wickham, but it was because he felt Wickham was a bad man and would not do the job well. He had given Wickham a large sum of money instead, and Wickham had been happy to take the money. He had gone away and spent it all quickly on gambling and other bad things. But later he had done something even worse. He had persuaded Darcy’s sister, who was only 15 years old at that time, to run away with him, and Darcy had again had to pay Wickham a lot of money to leave his sister alone and to go away and join the army. Again Wickham had wasted the money. Although Elizabeth was glad to know the truth about Wickham, this did not change her opinion of Darcy, because he had hurt her sister so much.   

E Soon after this, one of Elizabeth’s younger sisters, Lydia, was invited to go to stay in Brighton with Colonel and Mrs Forster. Col. Forster was the colonel in charge of the group of soldiers which included Wickham. Elizabeth knew what a bad man Wickham was and what a silly young woman Lydia was, so she tried to persuade her father that Lydia was too young and silly to go. But her father would not agree. Their mother, Mrs Bennet, wanted Lydia to go, because it was a good chance for Lydia to find a husband. Lydia was to stay in Brighton for three weeks.    

F Elizabeth also went away, to travel around the north of England with her aunt and uncle, Mr and Mrs Gardiner, for a few days. They stayed quite near to a well-known country house called Pemberley, which belonged to Darcy. Strangely enough, everyone living near Pemberley thought that Darcy was a very good man, very kind and polite. For example, he did not mind people coming to visit the grounds of his house. At the time he was away in London, and when Mr and Mrs Gardiner invited Elizabeth to go with them to see the grounds of 70 Pemberley, she agreed. She liked the grounds and they were even lucky enough to be invited to visit the house itself. The servants all spoke very well of Mr Darcy. Everyone thought that he was a good man, and not at all proud towards his poorer neighbours.

G Elizabeth was very surprised when Darcy appeared unexpectedly. He had come back early from London, and arrived dirty and untidy from the journey. He was as surprised to see Elizabeth there in the grounds of his house as she was to see him, but he invited her uncle to go fishing in his lake, and he also requested that they all visit him at Pemberley one evening. They accepted, of course, and Elizabeth was invited to play the piano. She met Darcy’s sister, who spoke very kindly of Darcy, and told her how thoughtful he was, for example, he had bought the piano for her only a few days before. She also met Bingley, who had seemed so interested in her sister Jane only a few months before, and he spoke to her in a very friendly way, asking about her sister and saying 85 he’d like to visit her family again. Darcy, too, was polite and kind to everyone, and everyone seemed to like him. It seemed that Elizabeth was beginning to change her opinion of Darcy. He was a different person from the man she had met in her home village. He invited her to come again to meet his friends from London.

H Unfortunately, the next day some really terrible news came: Lydia had run away with Wickham to get married in Scotland. Darcy came to visit Elizabeth just after the news had arrived, and she was crying when he walked in. She had to tell him what had happened, but Darcy promised not to tell anyone else, even though everyone would soon know anyway.

I Elizabeth hurried back home, but she knew that this was a really terrible embarrassment for the family. No one would marry any of the sisters now. They would all be poor, and when Mr Bennet died they would lose their home, because at the time girls could not inherit property. How would they survive? The only way to save themselves was to persuade Wickham to marry Lydia. But the only way to persuade him would be to pay him money. Wickham had lots of debts, and they would have to pay him more than they had. Mrs Bennet’s brother would try to help them. Mr Bennet went to London to try and find Lydia and Wickham but he was unsuccessful.

J Fortunately, Darcy went secretly to London and found Wickham. He paid him the money that he needed but he made Wickham promise to marry Lydia first. The family was saved. Nobody knew about Darcy’s help except Elizabeth, who later learnt the truth by accident. Lydia and Wickham were married in London, and they went to live far away in the north of England.

K Soon Bingley visited Jane at their home. He took his friend Darcy, who seemed to have changed his mind about their marriage, and now supported his friend in his decision. Before long Darcy again asked Elizabeth to marry him. She had changed her opinion about Darcy by now; in fact she loved him, and so of course she agreed. Her father was against the marriage until Elizabeth surprised him by telling him how she felt about this man whom she had disliked so strongly before. Elizabeth and Darcy were married on the same day and in the same place as Bingley and Jane.

                                                                                                                                  (1454 words)

（下面是十九世纪英国一部著名小说的缩写概要。）许多年前，在英国南部的一个小村里住着一位叫本涅特先生的乡绅。他有一个十分愚蠢的妻子和五个女儿。他自己说，女儿中有三位跟她们的母亲一样蠢。在那个时代，有五个女儿可是件麻烦事，因为女儿结婚时，其父亲必须给新郎陪送一大笔钱。本涅特家不富裕，因此本涅特太太担心男人不愿意娶她女儿，尽管女儿们对男人或多或少都有些吸引力。她们中有两位，即伊丽莎白和简, 非常聪明伶俐。尤其是伊丽莎白，以风趣著称。

长女简爱上一位英格兰北部的富有年轻男士。他叫宾莱先生，他似乎也爱上了简。宾莱先生有位叫达西先生的朋友，非常富有，劝他不要娶简，因为她家并不富有。简颇为伤心，但是她也很理智。她决心要忘掉宾莱先生，并希望能遇见另一位好男人。伊丽莎白对达西劝宾莱不要娶简这事感到颇为恼火。她无论如何都不喜欢他，因为他对人不很礼貌，而且也显得颇为高傲。

伊丽莎白不喜欢达西还有个原因。她遇见一位叫威克汉姆先生的年轻人，长得非常英俊潇洒，而且也显得很有礼貌，热心待人。他风趣的言谈能让所有年轻女人开心不已。他是位军人，也是位出色的骑手。他对伊丽莎白颇有兴趣，但是他并不富有。他还告诉伊丽莎白，正是由于达西的原因才使他变得这么贫穷。达西拒绝给他一份工作，而那工作是达西的父亲答应给他的。因此，伊丽莎白更是恨死了达西。然而达西经常跟伊丽莎白讲话。他似乎也喜欢跟她说话，因为她非常理智，也很诚实，尽管在那个年代女人是不可以发表意见的。

有一天，达西突如其来地向伊丽莎白求婚。他说他曾试图忘记她，但是他无法做到。他曾这样认为：他是如此富有，伊丽莎白是无法拒绝他的。然而，她不仅拒绝了他，她还告诉他，那是因为他让其姐姐及威克汉姆非常伤心。达西承认，是他劝说宾莱不要娶简的，但是他仍然认为他做的是对的，因为简家境贫穷，可他自己却没有努力遵从那一忠告——他太爱伊丽莎白了。一天后他又去了伊丽莎白家，并交给她一封信。在信中，他说威克汉姆并没有跟伊丽莎白讲真话。的确，他没有把那份工作给威克汉姆，但那是因为他觉得威克汉姆是个坏人，会做不好那份工作。作为补偿，他给了威克汉姆一大笔钱。威克汉姆拿到了钱很高兴。他出去了，很快就把钱挥霍一空：用于赌博以及干其他坏事。后来他还干了更坏的事情：他诱骗达西的、当时只有15岁的妹妹跟他私奔。达西只好又给他一大笔钱，让他别再纠缠着其妹妹，出去参军。结果，威克汉姆又把钱给挥霍掉了。虽然伊丽莎白很高兴知道关于威克汉姆的真相，但这还是没有改变她对达西的看法，因为他对其姐姐的伤害实在是太大了。

此后不久，伊丽莎白的妹妹莉迪亚被邀请去布莱顿，跟福斯特上校及福斯特太太住在一起。福斯特上校负责指挥的一群士兵中就有威克汉姆。伊丽莎白了解了威克汉姆是个多么坏的男人，而莉迪亚又是个多么愚蠢的小姑娘。因此，伊丽莎白竭力劝其父亲，说莉迪亚太年幼无知，不能去那儿。但是她父亲不同意。她们的母亲本涅特太太却要莉迪亚去，因为这是莉迪亚找到丈夫的好机会。莉迪亚要在布莱顿待上三周。

伊丽莎白也走了，去跟英格兰北部郎伯恩那儿的舅舅及舅妈（加德纳夫妇）待上数日。他们住的地方离一个叫彭伯里的乡间庄园很近，而这个庄园是属于达西的。奇怪的是，住在彭伯里的每个人都认为达西是个好人，很热心也很有礼貌。比如说，他不介意人们来参观其庄园的院落。当时，达西正在伦敦，加德纳夫妇邀请伊丽莎白跟他们同去参观彭伯里院落，她同意了。她非常喜欢那院落，而且他们也都非常有幸地被邀请去参观庄园。仆人们都说了达西先生的好话。每个人都认为他是个好人，说他对穷邻居一点都不高傲。

达西的突然出现，令伊丽莎白感到非常惊讶。他从伦敦回来得早。回来时身上有点脏，也不整洁。在其庄园的院落里看到伊丽莎白，他感到颇为惊讶，就像伊丽莎白见到他时感到惊讶一样。但是达西邀请她的舅舅去湖里钓鱼，而且他还请求他们某个晚上都去彭伯里庄园他家玩。他们当然都接受了邀请，伊丽莎白还被邀请演奏钢琴。她还遇见了达西的妹妹，这位妹妹也说了很多达西的好话。她还跟伊丽莎白讲达西很体贴，比如就在几天前，他给她买了这台钢琴。伊丽莎白还见到了宾莱，他就在几个月前似乎对她的姐姐简如此着迷。他非常友好地跟伊丽莎白谈话，还问到她姐姐的情况，并且说他还想再次拜访她家。达西对每个人都很礼貌和热心，每个人也似乎都很喜欢他。看来，伊丽莎白似乎开始改变她对达西的看法。他跟那位她当时在自己村里遇见的人完全不同。达西邀请她再次来他家，见见他伦敦来的朋友。

不幸的是，第二天传来了非常可怕的消息：莉迪亚跟威克汉姆私奔，跑去苏格兰结婚了。就在消息传来后，达西来拜访伊丽莎白。他走进屋的时候，她正在哭泣。她只得告诉他发生的一切，达西答应不告诉任何人，尽管每个人很快就都会知道的。

伊丽莎白急匆匆地赶回了家，她知道这的确是家里发生的丢脸事。现在没有一个人会娶姐妹中的任何一个。她们将会都很贫穷。当本涅特先生去世后，她们就会失去家园，因为当时女孩不能继承遗产。她们将如何生存？拯救她们的唯一办法就是劝说威克汉姆娶莉迪亚。然而，要劝动他的唯一办法就是给他钱。威克汉姆负债累累，他们将得给他很多很多钱。而这是他们所没有的。本涅特先生的兄弟会设法帮助他们。本涅特先生去了伦敦，想设法找到莉迪亚及威克汉姆，然而没有找到。

幸运的是，达西秘密去了伦敦，并找到了威克汉姆。达西给了他所要的钱，但是他迫使威克汉姆承诺首先娶莉迪亚为妻。整个家庭得到了拯救。没人知道达西所给予的帮助，只有伊丽莎白一个人，而且她也是之后才偶然得知的。莉迪亚跟威克汉姆在伦敦结了婚。然后他们离开了，远去英格兰北部生活。

不久，宾莱去简家拜访。他把其朋友达西也带去了。达西似乎已经改变了其对婚姻的看法，现在他转而支持其朋友的决定。不久，达西再一次向伊丽莎白求婚。至此，她已经改变了对达西的看法，事实上她已经爱上了他。她也因此理所当然地答应了达西的求婚。她的父亲先是反对这桩婚姻，后来她令他十分惊讶地说她爱上了这个她从前十分讨厌的人。伊丽莎白和达西这对新人与另一对新人宾莱和简在同日同地成了婚。