时间:2019-01-18 作者:英语课 分类:有声英语文学名著


英语课

 Chapter 2 - Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky's inability to understand the war


 
The day after his son had left, Prince Nikolai sent for Princess Marya to come to his study.
“Well? Are you satisfied now?” said he. “You’ve made me quarrel with my son! Satisfied, are you? That’s all you wanted! Satisfied? . . . It hurts me, it hurts. I’m old and weak and this is what you wanted. Well then, gloat over it! Gloat over it!”
After that Princess Marya did not see her father for a whole week. He was ill and did not leave his study.
Princess Marya noticed to her surprise that during this illness the old prince not only excluded her from his room, but did not admit Mademoiselle Bourienne either. Tikhon alone attended him.
At the end of the week the prince reappeared and resumed his former way of life, devoting himself with special activity to building operations and the arrangement of the gardens and completely breaking off his relations with Mademoiselle Bourienne. His looks and cold tone to his daughter seemed to say: “There, you see? You plotted against me, you lied to Prince Andrey about my relations with that Frenchwoman and made me quarrel with him, but you see I need neither her nor you!”
Princess Marya spent half of every day with little Nikolai, watching his lessons, teaching him Russian and music herself, and talking to Dessalles; the rest of the day she spent over her books, with her old nurse, or with “God’s folk” who sometimes came by the back door to see her.
Of the war Princess Marya thought as women do think about wars. She feared for her brother who was in it, was horrified 1 by and amazed at the strange cruelty that impels 2 men to kill one another, but she did not understand the significance of this war, which seemed to her like all previous wars. She did not realize the significance of this war, though Dessalles with whom she constantly conversed 3 was passionately 4 interested in its progress and tried to explain his own conception of it to her, and though the “God’s folk” who came to see her reported, in their own way, the rumors 5 current among the people of an invasion by Antichrist, and though Julie (now Princess Drubetskaya), who had resumed correspondence with her, wrote patriotic 6 letters from Moscow.
“I write you in Russian, my good friend,” wrote Julie in her Frenchified Russian, “because I have a detestation for all the French, and the same for their language which I cannot support to hear spoken. . . . We in Moscow are elated by enthusiasm for our adored Emperor.
“My poor husband is enduring pains and hunger in Jewish taverns 8, but the news which I have inspires me yet more.
“You heard probably of the heroic exploit of Raevski, embracing his two sons and saying: ‘I will perish with them but we will not be shaken!’ And truly though the enemy was twice stronger than we, we were unshakable. We pass the time as we can, but in war as in war! The princesses Aline and Sophie sit whole days with me, and we, unhappy widows of live men, make beautiful conversations over our charpie, only you, my friend, are missing . . . ” and so on.
The chief reason Princess Marya did not realize the full significance of this war was that the old prince never spoke 7 of it, did not recognize it, and laughed at Dessalles when he mentioned it at dinner. The prince’s tone was so calm and confident that Princess Marya unhesitatingly believed him.
All that July the old prince was exceedingly active and even animated 9. He planned another garden and began a new building for the domestic serfs. The only thing that made Princess Marya anxious about him was that he slept very little and, instead of sleeping in his study as usual, changed his sleeping place every day. One day he would order his camp bed to be set up in the glass gallery, another day he remained on the couch or on the lounge chair in the drawing room and dozed 10 there without undressing, while — instead of Mademoiselle Bourienne — a serf boy read to him. Then again he would spend a night in the dining room.
On August 1, a second letter was received from Prince Andrey. In his first letter which came soon after he had left home, Prince Andrey had dutifully asked his father’s forgiveness for what he had allowed himself to say and begged to be restored to his favor. To this letter the old prince had replied affectionately, and from that time had kept the Frenchwoman at at Prince Andrey’s second letter, written near Vitebsk after the French had occupied that town, gave a brief account of the whole campaign, enclosed for them a plan he had drawn 11 and forecasts as to the further progress of the war. In this letter Prince Andrey pointed 12 out to his father the danger of staying at Bald Hills, so near the theater of war and on the army’s direct line of march, and advised him to move to Moscow.
At dinner that day, on Dessalles’ mentioning that the French were said to have already entered Vitebsk, the old prince remembered his son’s letter.
“There was a letter from Prince Andrey today,” he said to Princess Marya — “Haven’t you read it?”
“No, Father,” she replied in a frightened voice.
She could not have read the letter as she did not even know it had arrived.
“He writes about this war,” said the prince, with the ironic 13 smile that had become habitual 14 to him in speaking of the present war.
“That must be very interesting,” said Dessalles. “Prince Andrey is in a position to know . . . ”
“Oh, very interesting!” said Mademoiselle Bourienne.
“Go and get it for me,” said the old prince to Mademoiselle Bourienne. “You know — under the paperweight on the little table.”
Mademoiselle Bourienne jumped up eagerly.
“No, don’t!” he exclaimed with a frown. “You go, Michael Ivanovich.”
Michael Ivanovich rose and went to the study. But as soon as he had left the room the old prince, looking uneasily round, threw down his napkin and went himself.
“They can’t do anything . . . always make some muddle,” he muttered.
While he was away Princess Marya, Dessalles, Mademoiselle Bourienne, and even little Nikolai exchanged looks in silence. The old prince returned with quick steps, accompanied by Michael Ivanovich, bringing the letter and a plan. These he put down beside him — not letting anyone read them at dinner.
On moving to the drawing room he handed the letter to Princess Marya and, spreading out before him the plan of the new building and fixing his eyes upon it, told her to read the letter aloud. When she had done so Princess Marya looked inquiringly at her father. He was examining the plan, evidently engrossed 15 in his own ideas.
“What do you think of it, Prince?” Dessalles ventured to ask.
“I? I? . . . ” said the prince as if unpleasantly awakened 16, and not taking his eyes from the plan of the building.
“Very possibly the theater of war will move so near to us that . . . ”
“Ha ha ha! The theater of war!” said the prince. “I have said and still say that the theater of war is Poland and the enemy will never get beyond the Niemen.”
Dessalles looked in amazement 17 at the prince, who was talking of the Niemen when the enemy was already at the Dnieper, but Princess Marya, forgetting the geographical 18 position of the Niemen, thought that what her father was saying was correct.
“When the snow melts they’ll sink in the Polish swamps. Only they could fail to see it,” the prince continued, evidently thinking of the campaign of 1807 which seemed to him so recent. “Bennigsen should have advanced into Prussia sooner, then things would have taken a different turn . . . ”
“But, Prince,” Dessalles began timidly, “the letter mentions Vitebsk. . . . ”
“Ah, the letter? Yes . . . ” replied the prince peevishly 19. “Yes . . . yes . . . ” His face suddenly took on a morose 20 expression. He paused. “Yes, he writes that the French were beaten at . . . at . . . what river is it?”
Dessalles dropped his eyes.
“The prince says nothing about that,” he remarked gently.
“Doesn’t he? But I didn’t invent it myself.”
No one spoke for a long time.
“Yes . . . yes . . . Well, Michael Ivanovich,” he suddenly went on, raising his head and pointing to the plan of the building, “tell me how you mean to alter it. . . . ”
Michael Ivanovich went up to the plan, and the prince after speaking to him about the building looked angrily at Princess Marya and Dessalles and went to his own room.
Princess Marya saw Dessalles’ embarrassed and astonished look fixed 21 on her father, noticed his silence, and was struck by the fact that her father had forgotten his son’s letter on the drawing-room table; but she was not only afraid to speak of it and ask Dessalles the reason of his confusion and silence, but was afraid even to think about it.
In the evening Michael Ivanovich, sent by the prince, came to Princess Marya for Prince Andrey’s letter which had been forgotten in the drawing room. She gave it to him and, unpleasant as it was to her to do so, ventured to ask him what her father was doing.
“Always busy,” replied Michael Ivanovich with a respectfully ironic smile which caused Princess Marya to turn pale. “He’s worrying very much about the new building. He has been reading a little, but now”— Michael Ivanovich went on, lowering his voice — “now he’s at his desk, busy with his will, I expect.” (One of the prince’s favorite occupations of late had been the preparation of some papers he meant to leave at his death and which he called his “will.”)
“And Alpatych is being sent to Smolensk?” asked Princess Marya.
“Oh, yes, he has been waiting to start for some time.”

a.(表现出)恐惧的
  • The whole country was horrified by the killings. 全国都对这些凶杀案感到大为震惊。
  • We were horrified at the conditions prevailing in local prisons. 地方监狱的普遍状况让我们震惊。
v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的第三人称单数 )
  • The development of production impels us continuously to study technique. 生产的发展促使我们不断地钻研技术。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • Instinct impels the cuckoo to migrate. 本能促使杜鹃迁徒。 来自辞典例句
v.交谈,谈话( converse的过去式 )
  • I conversed with her on a certain problem. 我与她讨论某一问题。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
  • She was cheerful and polite, and conversed with me pleasantly. 她十分高兴,也很客气,而且愉快地同我交谈。 来自辞典例句
ad.热烈地,激烈地
  • She could hate as passionately as she could love. 她能恨得咬牙切齿,也能爱得一往情深。
  • He was passionately addicted to pop music. 他酷爱流行音乐。
n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 );[古]名誉;咕哝;[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 );[古]名誉;咕哝;[古]喧嚷
  • Rumors have it that the school was burned down. 有谣言说学校给烧掉了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Rumors of a revolt were afloat. 叛变的谣言四起。 来自《简明英汉词典》
adj.爱国的,有爱国心的
  • His speech was full of patriotic sentiments.他的演说充满了爱国之情。
  • The old man is a patriotic overseas Chinese.这位老人是一位爱国华侨。
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。
n.小旅馆,客栈,酒馆( tavern的名词复数 )
  • They ain't only two taverns. We can find out quick." 这儿只有两家客栈,会弄明白的。” 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
  • Maybe ALL the Temperance Taverns have got a ha'nted room, hey, Huck?" 也许所有的禁酒客栈都有个闹鬼的房间,喂,哈克,你说是不是?” 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
adj.生气勃勃的,活跃的,愉快的
  • His observations gave rise to an animated and lively discussion.他的言论引起了一场气氛热烈而活跃的讨论。
  • We had an animated discussion over current events last evening.昨天晚上我们热烈地讨论时事。
v.打盹儿,打瞌睡( doze的过去式和过去分词 )
  • He boozed till daylight and dozed into the afternoon. 他喝了个通霄,昏沉沉地一直睡到下午。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
  • I dozed off during the soporific music. 我听到这催人入睡的音乐,便不知不觉打起盹儿来了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的
  • All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
  • Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。
adj.尖的,直截了当的
  • He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
  • She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。
adj.讽刺的,有讽刺意味的,出乎意料的
  • That is a summary and ironic end.那是一个具有概括性和讽刺意味的结局。
  • People used to call me Mr Popularity at high school,but they were being ironic.人们中学时常把我称作“万人迷先生”,但他们是在挖苦我。
adj.习惯性的;通常的,惯常的
  • He is a habitual criminal.他是一个惯犯。
  • They are habitual visitors to our house.他们是我家的常客。
adj.全神贯注的
  • The student is engrossed in his book.这名学生正在专心致志地看书。
  • No one had ever been quite so engrossed in an evening paper.没人会对一份晚报如此全神贯注。
v.(使)醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 );(使)觉醒;弄醒;(使)意识到
  • She awakened to the sound of birds singing. 她醒来听到鸟的叫声。
  • The public has been awakened to the full horror of the situation. 公众完全意识到了这一状况的可怕程度。 来自《简明英汉词典》
n.惊奇,惊讶
  • All those around him looked at him with amazement.周围的人都对他投射出惊异的眼光。
  • He looked at me in blank amazement.他带着迷茫惊诧的神情望着我。
adj.地理的;地区(性)的
  • The current survey will have a wider geographical spread.当前的调查将在更广泛的地域范围內进行。
  • These birds have a wide geographical distribution.这些鸟的地理分布很广。
adv.暴躁地
  • Paul looked through his green glasses peevishly when the other speaker brought down the house with applause. 当另一个演说者赢得了满座喝彩声时,保罗心里又嫉妒又气恼。
  • "I've been sick, I told you," he said, peevishly, almost resenting her excessive pity. “我生了一场病,我告诉过你了,"他没好气地说,对她的过分怜悯几乎产生了怨恨。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
adj.脾气坏的,不高兴的
  • He was silent and morose.他沉默寡言、郁郁寡欢。
  • The publicity didn't make him morose or unhappy?公开以后,没有让他郁闷或者不开心吗?
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的
  • Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗?
  • Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定,我们就不应该随意改变。
学英语单词
a'cockbill
A.F.C
active sleep
alveololabial groove
assinuate
balloonry
beagled
bitter almond camphor
BLUS resifual vector
carpetbagging
case bay part
Chelidonium majus
clean cutting
Colbeckite
Confederate flag
copped tanke
crude test
cruzen i.
depressure tank
Dianthus sinensis L.
directional intermolecular force
down-faulting
duosecant
duration units
earn a good reputation
ex-dividend stock
fatuousnesses
ferryer
floorspace
foreign-exchange dealer
future commission merchant
galvanometer
Gangean
genus Uma
gone poof
half-neighbo(u)rhood
harbor craft
hawse-pipe
heat-resistant coating
helitankers
hoarhead
hyperinsulinemic obesity
instruction-based architecture
intussusceptive growth
lacinia falcata
ladening
leariest
limiter amplifier
lyeth
marchment
merry-go-round machine
microsaccades
microwave acoustics
mildew-retarding agent
missionise
Mitha Singh
molecular heat conduction
morality of law
mystinus
neocerebellar agenesis
no-load field voltage
nuclear power generation
oonin
pentastomiasis
photoerythema
pick-and-mix
pinch for
plywood ceiling
poison parsley
polynomial hazard function models
pop hole
Population-weighted
postflood
practicing
prognathometer
ricers
rippling edit
rober'
s's
Santorini's caruncula major
senior reactor operator
separating yarn
shock incarceration
shunting yard
slaw
small-denomination
starting air distributor
symploce furcata
tape speed
taxloss
Tellerette packing
temporary import
time per piece
to put to use
treib
unlabeled statement
vaginal hysterotomy
valvulae fossae navicularis
vertical photograph
wet process of parting
white gum
X-ray Luminosity of cluster of galaxies