时间:2018-12-31 作者:英语课 分类:有声英语文学名著


英语课
Part Four
 
Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman, he thought. But that was the thing that I was born for. I must surely remember to eat the tuna after it gets light. Some time before daylight something took one of the baits that were behind him. He heard the stick break and the line begin to rush out over the gunwale of the skiff. In the darkness he loosened his sheath knife and taking all the strain of the fish on his left shoulder he leaned back and cut the line against the wood of the gunwale. Then he cut the other line closest to him and in the dark made the loose ends of the reserve coils fast. He worked skillfully with the one hand and put his foot on the coils to hold them as he drew his knots tight. Now he had six reserve coils of line. There were two from each bait he had severed 1 and the two from the bait the fish had taken and they were all connected.
 
After it is light, he thought, I will work back to the forty-fathom bait and cut it away too and link up the reserve coils. I will have lost two hundred fathoms 2 of good Catalan cardel and the hooks and leaders. That can be replaced. But who replaces this fish if I hook some fish and it cuts him off?
 
I don’t know what that fish was that took the bait just now. It could have been a marlin or a broadbill or a shark. I never felt him. I had to get rid of him too fast. Aloud he said, “I wish I had the boy.”
 
But you haven’t got the boy, he thought. You have only yourself and you had better work back to the last line now, in the dark or not in the dark, and cut it away and hook up the two reserve coils.
 
So he did it. It was difficult in the dark and once the fish made a surge that pulled him down on his face and made a cut below his eye. The blood ran down his cheek a little way. But it coagulated and dried before it reached his chin and he worked his way back to the bow and rested against the wood. He adjusted the sack and carefully worked the line so that it came across a new part of his shoulders and, holding it anchored with his shoulders, he carefully felt the pull of the fish and then felt with his hand the progress of the skiff through the water.
 
I wonder what he made that lurch 3 for, he thought. The wire must have slipped on the great hill of his back. Certainly his back cannot feel as badly as mine does. But he cannot pull this skiff forever, no matter how great he is. Now everything is cleared away that might make trouble and I have a big reserve of line; all that a man can ask.
 
“Fish,” he said softly, aloud, “I’ll stay with you until I am dead.” He’ll stay with me too, I suppose, the old man thought and he waited for it to be light. It was cold now in the time before daylight and he pushed against the wood to be warm. I can do it as long as he can, he thought. And in the first light the line extended out and down into the water. The boat moved steadily 4 and when the first edge of the sun rose it was on the old man’s right shoulder.
 
“He’s headed north,” the old man said. The current will have set us far to the eastward 5, he thought. I wish he would turn with the current. That would show that he was tiring.
 
When the sun had risen further the old man realized that the fish was not tiring. There was only one favorable sign. The slant 6 of the line showed he was swimming at a lesser 7 depth. That did not necessarily mean that he would jump. But he might.
 
“God let him jump,” the old man said. “I have enough line to handle him.” Maybe if I can increase the tension just a little it will hurt him and he will jump, he thought. Now that it is daylight let him jump so that he’ll fill the sacks along his backbone 8 with air and then he cannot go deep to die.
 
He tried to increase the tension, but the line had been taut 9 up to the very edge of the breaking point since he had hooked the fish and he felt the harshness as he leaned back to pull and knew he could put no more strain on it. I must not jerk it ever, he thought. Each jerk widens the cut the hook makes and then when he does jump he might throw it. Anyway I feel better with the sun and for once I do not have to look into it.
 
There was yellow weed on the line but the old man knew that only made an added drag and he was pleased. It was the yellow Gulf 10 weed that had made so much phosphorescence in the night.
 
“Fish,” he said, “I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends.”
 
Let us hope so, he thought.
 
A small bird came toward the skiff from the north. He was a warbler and flying very low over the water. The old man could see that he was very tired. The bird made the stern of the boat and rested there. Then he flew around the old man’s head and rested on the line where he was more comfortable. “How old are you?” the old man asked the bird. “Is this your first trip?”
 
The bird looked at him when he spoke 11. He was too tired even to examine the line and he teetered on it as his delicate feet gripped it fast.
 
“It’s steady,” the old man told him. “It’s too steady. You shouldn’t be that tired after a windless night. What are birds coming to?” The hawks 12, he thought, that come out to sea to meet them. But he said nothing of this to the bird who could not understand him anyway and who would learn about the hawks soon enough.
 
“Take a good rest, small bird,” he said. “Then go in and take your chance like any man or bird or fish.”
 
It encouraged him to talk because his back had stiffened 13 in the night and it hurt truly now.
 
“Stay at my house if you like, bird,” he said. “I am sorry I cannot hoist 14 the sail and take you in with the small breeze that is rising. But I am with a friend.”
 
Just then the fish gave a sudden lurch that pulled the old man down onto the bow and would have pulled him overboard if he had not braced 15 himself and given some line. The bird had flown up when the line jerked and the old man had not even seen him go. He felt the line carefully with his right hand and noticed his hand was bleeding. “Something hurt him then,” he said aloud and pulled back on the line to see if he could turn the fish. But when he was touching 16 the breaking point he held steady and settled back against the strain of the line.
 
“You’re feeling it now, fish,” he said. “And so, God knows, am I.”
 
He looked around for the bird now because he would have liked him for company. The bird was gone. You did not stay long, the man thought. But it is rougher where you are going until you make the shore. How did I let the fish cut me with that one quick pull he made? I must be getting very stupid. Or perhaps I was looking at the small bird and thinking of him. Now I will pay attention to my work and then I must eat the tuna so that I will not have a failure of strength.
 
“I wish the boy were here and that I had some salt,” he said aloud. Shifting the weight of the line to his left shoulder and kneeling carefully he washed his hand in the ocean and held it there, submerged, for more than a [56] minute watching the blood trail away and the steady movement of the water against his hand as the boat moved.
 
“He has slowed much,” he said. The old man would have liked to keep his hand in the salt water longer but he was afraid of another sudden lurch by the fish and he stood up and braced himself and held his hand up against the sun. It was only a line burn that had cut his flesh. But it was in the working part of his hand. He knew he would need his hands before this was over and he did not like to be cut before it started.
 
“Now,” he said, when his hand had dried, “I must eat the small tuna. I can reach him with the gaff and eat him here in comfort.” He knelt down and found the tuna under the stem with the gaff and drew it toward him keeping it clear of the coiled lines. Holding the line with his left shoulder again, and bracing 17 on his left hand and arm, he took the tuna off the gaff hook and put the gaff back in place. He put one knee on the fish and cut strips of dark red meat longitudinally from the back of the head to the tail. They were wedge-shaped strips and he cut them from next to the back bone down to the edge of the belly 18. When he had cut six strips he spread them out on the wood of the bow, wiped his knife on his trousers, and lifted the carcass of the bonito by the tail and dropped it overboard.
 
“I don’t think I can eat an entire one,” he said and drew his knife across one of the strips. He could feel the steady hard pull of the line and his left hand was cramped 20. It drew up tight on the heavy cord and he looked at it in disgust.
 
“What kind of a hand is that,” he said. “Cramp 19 then if you want. Make yourself into a claw. It will do you no good.” Come on, he thought and looked down into the dark water at the slant of the line. Eat it now and it will strengthen the hand. It is not the hand’s fault and you have been many hours with the fish. But you can stay with him forever. Eat the bonito now.
 
He picked up a piece and put it in his mouth and chewed it slowly. It was not unpleasant.
 
Chew it well, he thought, and get all the juices. It would not be had to eat with a little lime or with lemon or with salt.
 
“How do you feel, hand?” he asked the cramped hand that was almost as stiff as rigor 21 mortis. “I’ll eat some more for you.”
 
He ate the other part of the piece that he had cut in two. He chewed it carefully and then spat 22 out the skin.
 
“How does it go, hand? Or is it too early to know?”
 
He took another full piece and chewed it.
 
“It is a strong full-blooded fish,” he thought. “I was lucky to get him instead of dolphin. Dolphin is too sweet. This is hardly sweet at all and all the strength is still in it.” There is no sense in being anything but practical though, he thought. I wish I had some salt. And I do not know whether the sun will rot or dry what is left, so I had better eat it all although I am not hungry. The fish is calm and steady. I will eat it all and then I will be ready.
 
“Be patient, hand,” he said. “I do this for you.” I wish I could feed the fish, he thought. He is my brother. But I must kill him and keep strong to do it. Slowly and conscientiously 23 he ate all of the wedge-shaped strips of fish.
 
He straightened up, wiping his hand on his trousers. “Now,” he said. “You can let the cord go, hand, and I will handle him with the right arm alone until you stop that nonsense.” He put his left foot on the heavy line that the left hand had held and lay back against the pull against his back.
 
“God help me to have the cramp go,” he said. “Because I do not know what the fish is going to do.” But he seems calm, he thought, and following his plan. But what is his plan, he thought. And what is mine? Mine I must improvise 24 to his because of his great size. If he will jump I can kill him. But he stays down forever. Then I will stay down with him forever.
 
He rubbed the cramped hand against his trousers and tried to gentle the fingers. But it would not open. Maybe it will open with the sun, he thought. Maybe it will open when the strong raw tuna is digested. If I have to have it, I will open it, cost whatever it costs. But I do not want to open it now by force. Let it open by itself and come back of its own accord. After all I abused it much in the night when it was necessary to free and untie 25 the various lines.
 
He looked across the sea and knew how alone he was now. But he could see the prisms in the deep dark water and the line stretching ahead and the strange undulation of the calm. The clouds were building up now for the trade wind and he looked ahead and saw a flight of wild ducks etching themselves against the sky over the water, then blurring 26, then etching again and he knew no man was ever alone on the sea.
 
He thought of how some men feared being out of sight of land in a small boar and knew they were right in the months of sudden bad weather. But now they were in hurricane months and, when there are no hurricanes, the weather of hurricane months is the best of all the year.
 
If there is a hurricane you always see the signs of it in the sky for days ahead, if you are at sea. They do not see it ashore 27 because they do not know what to look for, he thought. The land must make a difference too, in the shape of the clouds. But we have no hurricane coming now.
 
He looked at the sky and saw the white cumulus built like friendly piles of ice cream and high above were the thin feathers of the cirrus against the high September sky. “Light brisa,” he said. “Better weather for me than for you, fish.” His left hand was still cramped, but he was unknotting it slowly.
 
I hate a cramp, he thought. It is a treachery of one’s own body. It is humiliating before others to have a diarrhoea from ptomaine poisoning or to vomit 28 from it. But a cramp, he thought of it as a calambre, humiliates 29 oneself especially when one is alone.
 
If the boy were here he could rub it for me and loosen it down from the forearm, he thought. But it will loosen up. Then, with his right hand he felt the difference in the pull of the line before he saw the slant change in the water. Then, as he leaned against the line and slapped his left hand hard and fast against his thigh 30 he saw the line slanting 31 slowly upward.
 
“He’s coming up,” he said. “Come on hand. Please come on.”
 

v.切断,断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 );断,裂
  • The doctor said I'd severed a vessel in my leg. 医生说我割断了腿上的一根血管。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • We have severed diplomatic relations with that country. 我们与那个国家断绝了外交关系。 来自《简明英汉词典》
英寻( fathom的名词复数 )
  • The harbour is four fathoms deep. 港深为四英寻。
  • One bait was down forty fathoms. 有个鱼饵下沉到四十英寻的深处。
n.突然向前或旁边倒;v.蹒跚而行
  • It has been suggested that the ground movements were a form of lurch movements.地震的地面运动曾被认为是一种突然倾斜的运动形式。
  • He walked with a lurch.他步履蹒跚。
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地
  • The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
  • Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。
adv.向东;adj.向东的;n.东方,东部
  • The river here tends eastward.这条河从这里向东流。
  • The crowd is heading eastward,believing that they can find gold there.人群正在向东移去,他们认为在那里可以找到黄金。
v.倾斜,倾向性地编写或报道;n.斜面,倾向
  • The lines are drawn on a slant.这些线条被画成斜线。
  • The editorial had an antiunion slant.这篇社论有一种反工会的倾向。
adj.次要的,较小的;adv.较小地,较少地
  • Kept some of the lesser players out.不让那些次要的球员参加联赛。
  • She has also been affected,but to a lesser degree.她也受到波及,但程度较轻。
n.脊骨,脊柱,骨干;刚毅,骨气
  • The Chinese people have backbone.中国人民有骨气。
  • The backbone is an articulate structure.脊椎骨是一种关节相连的结构。
adj.拉紧的,绷紧的,紧张的
  • The bowstring is stretched taut.弓弦绷得很紧。
  • Scarlett's taut nerves almost cracked as a sudden noise sounded in the underbrush near them. 思嘉紧张的神经几乎一下绷裂了,因为她听见附近灌木丛中突然冒出的一个声音。
n.海湾;深渊,鸿沟;分歧,隔阂
  • The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
  • There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
鹰( hawk的名词复数 ); 鹰派人物,主战派人物
  • Two hawks were hover ing overhead. 两只鹰在头顶盘旋。
  • Both hawks and doves have expanded their conditions for ending the war. 鹰派和鸽派都充分阐明了各自的停战条件。
加强的
  • He leaned towards her and she stiffened at this invasion of her personal space. 他向她俯过身去,这种侵犯她个人空间的举动让她绷紧了身子。
  • She stiffened with fear. 她吓呆了。
n.升高,起重机,推动;v.升起,升高,举起
  • By using a hoist the movers were able to sling the piano to the third floor.搬运工人用吊车才把钢琴吊到3楼。
  • Hoist the Chinese flag on the flagpole,please!请在旗杆上升起中国国旗!
adj.拉牢的v.支住( brace的过去式和过去分词 );撑牢;使自己站稳;振作起来
  • They braced up the old house with balks of timber. 他们用梁木加固旧房子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The house has a wooden frame which is braced with brick. 这幢房子是木结构的砖瓦房。 来自《简明英汉词典》
adj.动人的,使人感伤的
  • It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
  • His letter was touching.他的信很感人。
adj.令人振奋的
  • The country is bracing itself for the threatened enemy invasion. 这个国家正准备奋起抵抗敌人的入侵威胁。
  • The atmosphere in the new government was bracing. 新政府的气氛是令人振奋的。
n.肚子,腹部;(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分,膛
  • The boss has a large belly.老板大腹便便。
  • His eyes are bigger than his belly.他眼馋肚饱。
n.痉挛;[pl.](腹)绞痛;vt.限制,束缚
  • Winston stopped writing,partly because he was suffering from cramp.温斯顿驻了笔,手指也写麻了。
  • The swimmer was seized with a cramp and had to be helped out of the water.那个在游泳的人突然抽起筋来,让别人帮着上了岸。
a.狭窄的
  • The house was terribly small and cramped, but the agent described it as a bijou residence. 房子十分狭小拥挤,但经纪人却把它说成是小巧别致的住宅。
  • working in cramped conditions 在拥挤的环境里工作
n.严酷,严格,严厉
  • Their analysis lacks rigor.他们的分析缺乏严谨性。||The crime will be treated with the full rigor of the law.这一罪行会严格依法审理。
n.口角,掌击;v.发出呼噜呼噜声
  • Her parents always have spats.她的父母经常有些小的口角。
  • There is only a spat between the brother and sister.那只是兄妹间的小吵小闹。
adv.凭良心地;认真地,负责尽职地;老老实实
  • He kept silent,eating just as conscientiously but as though everything tasted alike. 他一声不吭,闷头吃着,仿佛桌上的饭菜都一个味儿。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • She discharged all the responsibilities of a minister conscientiously. 她自觉地履行部长的一切职责。 来自《简明英汉词典》
v.即兴创作;临时准备,临时凑成
  • If an actor forgets his words,he has to improvise.演员要是忘记台词,那就只好即兴现编。
  • As we've not got the proper materials,we'll just have to improvise.我们没有弄到合适的材料,只好临时凑合了。
vt.解开,松开;解放
  • It's just impossible to untie the knot.It's too tight.这个结根本解不开。太紧了。
  • Will you please untie the knot for me?请你替我解开这个结头,好吗?
n.模糊,斑点甚多,(图像的)混乱v.(使)变模糊( blur的现在分词 );(使)难以区分
  • Retinal hemorrhage, and blurring of the optic dise cause visual disturbances. 视网膜出血及神经盘模糊等可导致视力障碍。 来自辞典例句
  • In other ways the Bible limited Puritan writing, blurring and deadening the pages. 另一方面,圣经又限制了清教时期的作品,使它们显得晦涩沉闷。 来自辞典例句
adv.在(向)岸上,上岸
  • The children got ashore before the tide came in.涨潮前,孩子们就上岸了。
  • He laid hold of the rope and pulled the boat ashore.他抓住绳子拉船靠岸。
v.呕吐,作呕;n.呕吐物,吐出物
  • They gave her salty water to make her vomit.他们给她喝盐水好让她吐出来。
  • She was stricken by pain and began to vomit.她感到一阵疼痛,开始呕吐起来。
使蒙羞,羞辱,使丢脸( humiliate的第三人称单数 )
  • His teacher continually humiliates him in maths lessons. 他的数学老师频频在课上羞辱他。
  • The lowly vassals suffering all humiliates in both physical and mental aspects. 地位低下的奴仆,他们在身体上和精神上受尽屈辱。
n.大腿;股骨
  • He is suffering from a strained thigh muscle.他的大腿肌肉拉伤了,疼得很。
  • The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
倾斜的,歪斜的
  • The rain is driving [slanting] in from the south. 南边潲雨。
  • The line is slanting to the left. 这根线向左斜了。
学英语单词
activized
adapter bearing
adaptive distributed minimal spanning tree algorithm
akoka
alimentary lipemia
amnioss
anilidic
anxiety-ridden
associationism
austrian airlines
back labors
Bad Schallerbach
beginner
biomethanation
blanket gas analysis
borrowest
bulgren
cat (children's apperception test)
clk.
cock-and-pie
comprime
crash out
cross-country flight
crystal clathrate
derivative rights
dirty poll
Do as you're bidden and you'll never bear blame.
down-draft manifold
dressed to the nines
El Salado, R.
elastic limit in shear
Elatostema subcuspidatum
elbe (labe)
electrical anemometer
equitative
feedthrough capacitor
fertilizer-distributor
field ampere-turn
fight to a finish
flauntily
flexibility matrix
floating thumb
fogden
fourth stage
Gornovodnoye
harping
hiked up
hitch roll
hypertypic
inamoratos
Indigofera rigioclada
industrial-instrument
intestine loop
iris scan
Kaliningradskaya Oblast'
left dorso-posterior position
loss due to anchorage temperature difference
ludent
marine centrifugal type refrigerating compressor unit
metallibure
milch goat
neisseria gonorrhoeaes
nonhierarchically
Nymphula
objective cap
office speaker
oozier
other multimode fiber optic cable
pajamas
panama, gulf of
personal allowances
podheads
Port Noarlunga
quod erat faciendum
radiator thermometer
rallentando
re-furbish
rhinoneurosis
river inversion
rotary expansion engine
sagaciate
sand pike
Saxifraga triaristulata
smooth-bore
Solana
soloman r.
spalike
spiking maul
stationary-welding machine
strongbark
swirl defect
teleprinter receiver
thiamins
Third Lateran Council
time interval analyser
ultrarunner
unrecorded income
unwashable
vapour transport
variable structure computer
waggonwright
yellow paper test