时间:2018-12-06 作者:英语课 分类:马克吐温最佳短篇小说


英语课

   You have heard from a great many people who did something in the war; is it not fair and right that you listen a little moment to one who started out to do something in it, but didn`t? Thousands entered the war, got just a taste of it, and then stepped out again permanently 1. These, by their very numbers, are respectable, and are therefore entitled to a sort of voice -- not a loud one, but a modest one; not a boastful one, but an apologetic one. They ought not to be allowed much space among better people -- people who did something. I grant that; but they ought at least to be allowed to state why they didn`t do anything, and also to explain the process by which they didn`t do anything. Surely this kind of light must have a sort of value.


  Out West there was a good deal of confusion in men`s minds during the first months of the great trouble -- a good deal of unsettledness, of leaning first this way, then that, then the other way. It was hard for us to get our bearings. I call to mind an instance of this. I was piloting on the Mississippi when the news came that South Carolina had gone out of the Union on the 20th of December, 1860. My pilot-mate was a New Yorker. He was strong for the Union; so was I. But he would not listen to me with any patience;my loyalty 2 was smirched, to his eye, because my father had owned slaves. I said, in palliation of this dark fact, that I had heard my father say, some years before he died,that slavery was a great wrong, and that he would free the solitary 3 negro he then owned if he could think it right to give away the property of the family when he was so straitened in means. My mate retorted that a mere 4 impulse was nothing -- anybody could pretend to a good impulse; and went on decrying 5 my Unionism and libeling my ancestry 6. A month later the secession atmosphere had considerably 7 thickened on the Lower Mississippi, and I became a rebel; so did he. We were together in New Orleans the 26th of January, when Louisiana went out of the Union. He did his full share of the rebel shouting, but was bitterly opposed to letting me do mine. He said that I came of bad stock -- of a father who had been willing to set slaves free. In the following summer he was piloting a Federal gunboat and shouting for the Union again, and I was in the Confederate army. I held his note for some borrowed money. He was one of the most upright men I ever knew, but he repudiated 8 that note without hesitation 9 because I was arebel and the son of a man who owned slaves.
  In that summer -- of 1861 -- the first wash of the wave of war broke upon the shores of Missouri. Our state was invaded by the Union forces. They took possession of St. Louis,Jefferson Barracks, and some other points. The Governor, Claib Jackson, issued his proclamation calling out fifty thousand militia 10 to repel 11 the invader 12.

1 permanently
adv.永恒地,永久地,固定不变地
  • The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
  • The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。
2 loyalty
n.忠诚,忠心
  • She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
  • His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。
3 solitary
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士
  • I am rather fond of a solitary stroll in the country.我颇喜欢在乡间独自徜徉。
  • The castle rises in solitary splendour on the fringe of the desert.这座城堡巍然耸立在沙漠的边际,显得十分壮美。
4 mere
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过
  • That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
  • It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。
5 decrying
v.公开反对,谴责( decry的现在分词 )
  • Soon Chinese Internet users, including government agencies, were decrying the' poisonous panda. 不久,中国网民以及政府机构纷纷谴责“影响极坏的熊猫烧香”。 来自互联网
  • Democratic leaders are decrying President Bush's plan to indefinitely halt troop withdrawals from Iraq after July. 民主党领导公开谴责布什总统七月后无限停止从伊拉克撤兵的举动。 来自互联网
6 ancestry
n.祖先,家世
  • Their ancestry settled the land in 1856.他们的祖辈1856年在这块土地上定居下来。
  • He is an American of French ancestry.他是法国血统的美国人。
7 considerably
adv.极大地;相当大地;在很大程度上
  • The economic situation has changed considerably.经济形势已发生了相当大的变化。
  • The gap has narrowed considerably.分歧大大缩小了。
8 repudiated
v.(正式地)否认( repudiate的过去式和过去分词 );拒绝接受;拒绝与…往来;拒不履行(法律义务)
  • All slanders and libels should be repudiated. 一切诬蔑不实之词,应予推倒。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • The Prime Minister has repudiated racist remarks made by a member of the Conservative Party. 首相已经驳斥了一个保守党成员的种族主义言论。 来自辞典例句
9 hesitation
n.犹豫,踌躇
  • After a long hesitation, he told the truth at last.踌躇了半天,他终于直说了。
  • There was a certain hesitation in her manner.她的态度有些犹豫不决。
10 militia
n.民兵,民兵组织
  • First came the PLA men,then the people's militia.人民解放军走在前面,其次是民兵。
  • There's a building guarded by the local militia at the corner of the street.街道拐角处有一幢由当地民兵团守卫的大楼。
11 repel
v.击退,抵制,拒绝,排斥
  • A country must have the will to repel any invader.一个国家得有决心击退任何入侵者。
  • Particles with similar electric charges repel each other.电荷同性的分子互相排斥。
12 invader
n.侵略者,侵犯者,入侵者
  • They suffered a lot under the invader's heel.在侵略者的铁蹄下,他们受尽了奴役。
  • A country must have the will to repel any invader.一个国家得有决心击退任何入侵者。
学英语单词
a cool hand
adenocystic ovary
belt maker
bipack
brominated methans
bumper crops
butakov
calculus of residues
cerros
chain tong
chrysanthemum partheniums
Conconully
consent form
dancing shoes
DDWG
deathair
degraded service state
Delareyville
deviate child
direct telescope
discrete semiconductor device
electric spark CNC wire-cut machine
electrochemical energy
embolalia
enamelum
Eromycin
false germination
fermentable extract
ferrocement
fibers sweat
fire marshall
forhunger
functional strength
ghedda waxes
GM_amount-of-number-of-or-quantity-of
goods placed at the disposal og the buyer
gubber
holyer
horse tramway
hyperresonant percussion note
induration of corpora cavernosa
jet humidifier
jewelling tool
jurassics
kettlesful
kicks the can down the road
knight's move
Lionel Hampton
Lipostaca
litvinskite
logical-mathematical intelligence
Londji
made an exchange
made it her business
miniplasmid
normal alkaliine
order of columns
oshuns
palpigrade
Paradeisi
party political
perforated (paper)tape
pessimists
pop
quelea (dioch)
Quineville
R-3-ZON
re-estimated
Reaburn, Mt.
reduced diameter
Rhynchotechum longipes
ricins
Robert Devereux
rushed through
scrapeable
sectoral economics
series parallel conversion
service cost center
side-dump bucket
slockened
solid combustiblemineral
solid state sensor
solo (surakarta)
somatopsychic disturbance
Southern Oscillation
stick to sth
strongylodons
taper key
technical content
temper justice with mercy
tent-bed
thaw depth
three-casing double flow turbine
tincture of gelsemium
Trichocereus
true modulus
ultrasonocardiotomography
unicellular bios
water draught gage
weidemann
wood leopard moth
work-friendly