On Wednesday evening, we went to the Town Hall. It was the last day of the year and a large crowd of people had gathered under the Town Hall clock.

周三晚上，我們?nèi)チ?/span>市政廳。那天是這年最后一天，一大群人聚集在市政廳的大鐘之下。

PS: Town hall, 城鎮(zhèn)大廳，市政廳

It would strike twelve in twenty minutes' time. Fifteen minutes passed and then, at five to twelve, the clock stopped. The big minute hand did not move.

這臺(tái)大鐘會(huì)在12分鐘之內(nèi)敲12下。然而15分鐘過(guò)去了，距離12點(diǎn)還有5分鐘的時(shí)候，這臺(tái)鐘停了。巨大的分針懸掛著，不走了。

We waited and waited, but nothing happened. Suddenly someone shouted. 'It's two minutes past twelve! The clock has stopped!' I looked at my watch.

我們等啊等，但什么也沒(méi)發(fā)生。突然某人大喊，"已經(jīng)12點(diǎn)零2分啦！大鐘停啦！"我于是看了看我的表。

It was true. The big clock refused to welcome the New Year. At that moment, everybody began to laugh and sing.

果然是真的。這臺(tái)鐘拒絕迎接新年。這時(shí)候，每個(gè)人才開(kāi)始?xì)g笑并且唱歌。

知識(shí)點(diǎn)：

時(shí)間的表示：past and to

past，幾點(diǎn)過(guò)幾分，常用于每小時(shí)前三十分鐘，比如3：10，ten past three，3點(diǎn)過(guò)10分

to，差幾分到幾點(diǎn)，常用于每小時(shí)后三十分鐘，比如3：50，,ten to four，差10分鐘到4點(diǎn)

quarter: 1/4小時(shí)，15分鐘，比如3:15, quarter past three, 或者three fifteen

half: 半小時(shí)，30分鐘，比如3:30，half past three, 或者three thirty