时间:2019-02-24 作者:英语课 分类:有声英语文学名著


英语课

 The Turn of the Screw


by Henry James
XIII
 
It was all very well to join them, but speaking to them proved quite as much as ever an effort beyond my strength — offered, in close quarters, difficulties as insurmountable as before. This situation continued a month, and with new aggravations and particular notes, the note above all, sharper and sharper, of the small ironic 1 consciousness on the part of my pupils. It was not, I am as sure today as I was sure then, my mere 2 infernal imagination: it was absolutely traceable that they were aware of my predicament and that this strange relation made, in a manner, for a long time, the air in which we moved. I don’t mean that they had their tongues in their cheeks or did anything vulgar, for that was not one of their dangers: I do mean, on the other hand, that the element of the unnamed and untouched became, between us, greater than any other, and that so much avoidance could not have been so successfully effected without a great deal of tacit arrangement. It was as if, at moments, we were perpetually coming into sight of subjects before which we must stop short, turning suddenly out of alleys 3 that we perceived to be blind, closing with a little bang that made us look at each other — for, like all bangs, it was something louder than we had intended — the doors we had indiscreetly opened. All roads lead to Rome, and there were times when it might have struck us that almost every branch of study or subject of conversation skirted forbidden ground. Forbidden ground was the question of the return of the dead in general and of whatever, in especial, might survive, in memory, of the friends little children had lost. There were days when I could have sworn that one of them had, with a small invisible nudge, said to the other: “She thinks she’ll do it this time — but she WON’T!” To “do it” would have been to indulge for instance — and for once in a way — in some direct reference to the lady who had prepared them for my discipline. They had a delightful 4 endless appetite for passages in my own history, to which I had again and again treated them; they were in possession of everything that had ever happened to me, had had, with every circumstance the story of my smallest adventures and of those of my brothers and sisters and of the cat and the dog at home, as well as many particulars of the eccentric nature of my father, of the furniture and arrangement of our house, and of the conversation of the old women of our village. There were things enough, taking one with another, to chatter 5 about, if one went very fast and knew by instinct when to go round. They pulled with an art of their own the strings 6 of my invention and my memory; and nothing else perhaps, when I thought of such occasions afterward 7, gave me so the suspicion of being watched from under cover. It was in any case over MY life, MY past, and MY friends alone that we could take anything like our ease — a state of affairs that led them sometimes without the least pertinence 8 to break out into sociable 9 reminders 10. I was invited — with no visible connection — to repeat afresh Goody Gosling’s celebrated 11 mot or to confirm the details already supplied as to the cleverness of the vicarage pony 13.
It was partly at such junctures 14 as these and partly at quite different ones that, with the turn my matters had now taken, my predicament, as I have called it, grew most sensible. The fact that the days passed for me without another encounter ought, it would have appeared, to have done something toward soothing 15 my nerves. Since the light brush, that second night on the upper landing, of the presence of a woman at the foot of the stair, I had seen nothing, whether in or out of the house, that one had better not have seen. There was many a corner round which I expected to come upon Quint, and many a situation that, in a merely sinister 16 way, would have favored the appearance of Miss Jessel. The summer had turned, the summer had gone; the autumn had dropped upon Bly and had blown out half our lights. The place, with its gray sky and withered 17 garlands, its bared spaces and scattered 18 dead leaves, was like a theater after the performance — all strewn with crumpled 19 playbills. There were exactly states of the air, conditions of sound and of stillness, unspeakable impressions of the KIND of ministering moment, that brought back to me, long enough to catch it, the feeling of the medium in which, that June evening out of doors, I had had my first sight of Quint, and in which, too, at those other instants, I had, after seeing him through the window, looked for him in vain in the circle of shrubbery. I recognized the signs, the portents 20 — I recognized the moment, the spot. But they remained unaccompanied and empty, and I continued unmolested; if unmolested one could call a young woman whose sensibility had, in the most extraordinary fashion, not declined but deepened. I had said in my talk with Mrs. Grose on that horrid 21 scene of Flora 22’s by the lake — and had perplexed 23 her by so saying — that it would from that moment distress 24 me much more to lose my power than to keep it. I had then expressed what was vividly 25 in my mind: the truth that, whether the children really saw or not — since, that is, it was not yet definitely proved — I greatly preferred, as a safeguard, the fullness of my own exposure. I was ready to know the very worst that was to be known. What I had then had an ugly glimpse of was that my eyes might be sealed just while theirs were most opened. Well, my eyes WERE sealed, it appeared, at present — a consummation for which it seemed blasphemous 26 not to thank God. There was, alas 27, a difficulty about that: I would have thanked him with all my soul had I not had in a proportionate measure this conviction of the secret of my pupils.
How can I retrace 28 today the strange steps of my obsession 29? There were times of our being together when I would have been ready to swear that, literally 30, in my presence, but with my direct sense of it closed, they had visitors who were known and were welcome. Then it was that, had I not been deterred 31 by the very chance that such an injury might prove greater than the injury to be averted 32, my exultation 33 would have broken out. “They’re here, they’re here, you little wretches 34,” I would have cried, “and you can’t deny it now!” The little wretches denied it with all the added volume of their sociability 35 and their tenderness, in just the crystal depths of which — like the flash of a fish in a stream — the mockery of their advantage peeped up. The shock, in truth, had sunk into me still deeper than I knew on the night when, looking out to see either Quint or Miss Jessel under the stars, I had beheld 36 the boy over whose rest I watched and who had immediately brought in with him — had straightway, there, turned it on me — the lovely upward look with which, from the battlements above me, the hideous 37 apparition 38 of Quint had played. If it was a question of a scare, my discovery on this occasion had scared me more than any other, and it was in the condition of nerves produced by it that I made my actual inductions 39. They harassed 40 me so that sometimes, at odd moments, I shut myself up audibly to rehearse — it was at once a fantastic relief and a renewed despair — the manner in which I might come to the point. I approached it from one side and the other while, in my room, I flung myself about, but I always broke down in the monstrous 41 utterance 42 of names. As they died away on my lips, I said to myself that I should indeed help them to represent something infamous 43, if, by pronouncing them, I should violate as rare a little case of instinctive 44 delicacy 45 as any schoolroom, probably, had ever known. When I said to myself: “THEY have the manners to be silent, and you, trusted as you are, the baseness to speak!” I felt myself crimson 46 and I covered my face with my hands. After these secret scenes I chattered 47 more than ever, going on volubly enough till one of our prodigious 48, palpable hushes 49 occurred — I can call them nothing else — the strange, dizzy lift or swim (I try for terms!) into a stillness, a pause of all life, that had nothing to do with the more or less noise that at the moment we might be engaged in making and that I could hear through any deepened exhilaration or quickened recitation or louder strum of the piano. Then it was that the others, the outsiders, were there. Though they were not angels, they “passed,” as the French say, causing me, while they stayed, to tremble with the fear of their addressing to their younger victims some yet more infernal message or more vivid image than they had thought good enough for myself.
What it was most impossible to get rid of was the cruel idea that, whatever I had seen, Miles and Flora saw MORE— things terrible and unguessable and that sprang from dreadful passages of intercourse 50 in the past. Such things naturally left on the surface, for the time, a chill which we vociferously 51 denied that we felt; and we had, all three, with repetition, got into such splendid training that we went, each time, almost automatically, to mark the close of the incident, through the very same movements. It was striking of the children, at all events, to kiss me inveterately 52 with a kind of wild irrelevance 53 and never to fail — one or the other — of the precious question that had helped us through many a peril 54. “When do you think he WILL come? Don’t you think we OUGHT to write?” — there was nothing like that inquiry 55, we found by experience, for carrying off an awkwardness. “He” of course was their uncle in Harley Street; and we lived in much profusion 56 of theory that he might at any moment arrive to mingle 57 in our circle. It was impossible to have given less encouragement than he had done to such a doctrine 58, but if we had not had the doctrine to fall back upon we should have deprived each other of some of our finest exhibitions. He never wrote to them — that may have been selfish, but it was a part of the flattery of his trust of me; for the way in which a man pays his highest tribute to a woman is apt to be but by the more festal celebration of one of the sacred laws of his comfort; and I held that I carried out the spirit of the pledge given not to appeal to him when I let my charges understand that their own letters were but charming literary exercises. They were too beautiful to be posted; I kept them myself; I have them all to this hour. This was a rule indeed which only added to the satiric 59 effect of my being plied 12 with the supposition that he might at any moment be among us. It was exactly as if my charges knew how almost more awkward than anything else that might be for me. There appears to me, moreover, as I look back, no note in all this more extraordinary than the mere fact that, in spite of my tension and of their triumph, I never lost patience with them. Adorable they must in truth have been, I now reflect, that I didn’t in these days hate them! Would exasperation 60, however, if relief had longer been postponed 61, finally have betrayed me? It little matters, for relief arrived. I call it relief, though it was only the relief that a snap brings to a strain or the burst of a thunderstorm to a day of suffocation 62. It was at least change, and it came with a rush.
 

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.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。
胡同,小巷( alley的名词复数 ); 小径
  • I followed him through a maze of narrow alleys. 我紧随他穿过一条条迂迴曲折的窄巷。
  • The children lead me through the maze of alleys to the edge of the city. 孩子们领我穿过迷宫一般的街巷,来到城边。
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的
  • We had a delightful time by the seashore last Sunday.上星期天我们在海滨玩得真痛快。
  • Peter played a delightful melody on his flute.彼得用笛子吹奏了一支欢快的曲子。
vi./n.喋喋不休;短促尖叫;(牙齿)打战
  • Her continuous chatter vexes me.她的喋喋不休使我烦透了。
  • I've had enough of their continual chatter.我已厌烦了他们喋喋不休的闲谈。
n.弦
  • He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上,随意地拨着吉他的弦。
  • She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。
adv.后来;以后
  • Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏,然后吃饭。
  • Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来,这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。
n.中肯
  • The principles include directivity, scientific nature, characteristic, stability, and pertinence. 遵循的原则有:方向性、科学性、系统性、稳定性、针对性原则。
  • The stress of teaching lies in pertinence, flexibleness, for manipulation and utility. 教学方法重点体现针对性,灵活性,可操作性和使用性。
adj.好交际的,友好的,合群的
  • Roger is a very sociable person.罗杰是个非常好交际的人。
  • Some children have more sociable personalities than others.有些孩子比其他孩子更善于交际。
n.令人回忆起…的东西( reminder的名词复数 );提醒…的东西;(告知该做某事的)通知单;提示信
  • The film evokes chilling reminders of the war. 这部电影使人们回忆起战争的可怕场景。
  • The strike has delayed the mailing of tax reminders. 罢工耽搁了催税单的投寄。
adj.有名的,声誉卓著的
  • He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
  • The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。
v.使用(工具)( ply的过去式和过去分词 );经常供应(食物、饮料);固定往来;经营生意
  • They plied me with questions about my visit to England. 他们不断地询问我的英国之行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • They plied us with tea and cakes. 他们一个劲儿地让我们喝茶、吃糕饼。 来自《简明英汉词典》
adj.小型的;n.小马
  • His father gave him a pony as a Christmas present.他父亲给了他一匹小马驹作为圣诞礼物。
  • They made him pony up the money he owed.他们逼他还债。
n.时刻,关键时刻( juncture的名词复数 );接合点
  • At such junctures he always had an impulse to leave. 在这样的紧要关头,他总有要离开的冲动。 来自互联网
  • At such junctures he always had an impulse to leave; it was needed on special occasions. 在那时他总有要离开的冲动,在紧急时刻她站了出来。 来自互联网
adj.慰藉的;使人宽心的;镇静的
  • Put on some nice soothing music.播放一些柔和舒缓的音乐。
  • His casual, relaxed manner was very soothing.他随意而放松的举动让人很快便平静下来。
adj.不吉利的,凶恶的,左边的
  • There is something sinister at the back of that series of crimes.在这一系列罪行背后有险恶的阴谋。
  • Their proposals are all worthless and designed out of sinister motives.他们的建议不仅一钱不值,而且包藏祸心。
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的
  • Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来,塞进文件夹里。
n.预兆( portent的名词复数 );征兆;怪事;奇物
  • But even with this extra support, labour-market portents still look grim. 但是即使采取了额外支持措施,劳动力市场依然阴霾密布。 来自互联网
  • So the hiccups are worth noting as portents. 因此这些问题作为不好的征兆而值得关注。 来自互联网
adj.可怕的;令人惊恐的;恐怖的;极讨厌的
  • I'm not going to the horrid dinner party.我不打算去参加这次讨厌的宴会。
  • The medicine is horrid and she couldn't get it down.这种药很难吃,她咽不下去。
n.(某一地区的)植物群
  • The subtropical island has a remarkably rich native flora.这个亚热带岛屿有相当丰富的乡土植物种类。
  • All flora need water and light.一切草木都需要水和阳光。
adj.不知所措的
  • The farmer felt the cow,went away,returned,sorely perplexed,always afraid of being cheated.那农民摸摸那头牛,走了又回来,犹豫不决,总怕上当受骗。
  • The child was perplexed by the intricate plot of the story.这孩子被那头绪纷繁的故事弄得迷惑不解。
n.苦恼,痛苦,不舒适;不幸;vt.使悲痛
  • Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
  • Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。
adv.清楚地,鲜明地,生动地
  • The speaker pictured the suffering of the poor vividly.演讲者很生动地描述了穷人的生活。
  • The characters in the book are vividly presented.这本书里的人物写得栩栩如生。
adj.亵渎神明的,不敬神的
  • The book was declared blasphemous and all copies ordered to be burnt.这本书被断定为亵渎神明之作,命令全数焚毀。
  • The people in the room were shocked by his blasphemous language.满屋的人都对他那侮慢的语言感到愤慨。
int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等)
  • Alas!The window is broken!哎呀!窗子破了!
  • Alas,the truth is less romantic.然而,真理很少带有浪漫色彩。
v.折回;追溯,探源
  • He retraced his steps to the spot where he'd left the case.他折回到他丢下箱子的地方。
  • You must retrace your steps.你必须折回原来走过的路。
n.困扰,无法摆脱的思想(或情感)
  • I was suffering from obsession that my career would be ended.那时的我陷入了我的事业有可能就此终止的困扰当中。
  • She would try to forget her obsession with Christopher.她会努力忘记对克里斯托弗的迷恋。
adv.照字面意义,逐字地;确实
  • He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
  • Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候,她不走到真正要昏厥了,决不肯坐下来。
v.阻止,制止( deter的过去式和过去分词 )
  • I told him I wasn't interested, but he wasn't deterred. 我已告诉他我不感兴趣,可他却不罢休。
  • Jeremy was not deterred by this criticism. 杰里米没有因这一批评而却步。 来自辞典例句
防止,避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 ); 转移
  • A disaster was narrowly averted. 及时防止了一场灾难。
  • Thanks to her skilful handling of the affair, the problem was averted. 多亏她对事情处理得巧妙,才避免了麻烦。
n.狂喜,得意
  • It made him catch his breath, it lit his face with exultation. 听了这个名字,他屏住呼吸,乐得脸上放光。
  • He could get up no exultation that was really worthy the name. 他一点都激动不起来。
n.不幸的人( wretch的名词复数 );可怜的人;恶棍;坏蛋
  • The little wretches were all bedraggledfrom some roguery. 小淘气们由于恶作剧而弄得脏乎乎的。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
  • The best courage for us poor wretches is to fly from danger. 对我们这些可怜虫说来,最好的出路还是躲避危险。 来自辞典例句
n.好交际,社交性,善于交际
  • A fire of withered pine boughs added sociability to the gathering. 枯松枝生起的篝火给这次聚合增添了随和、友善的气氛。 来自辞典例句
  • A certain sociability degree is a specific character of most plants. 特定的群集度是多数植物特有的特征。 来自辞典例句
v.看,注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 );瞧;看呀;(叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现)哎哟
  • His eyes had never beheld such opulence. 他从未见过这样的财富。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The soul beheld its features in the mirror of the passing moment. 灵魂在逝去的瞬间的镜子中看到了自己的模样。 来自英汉文学 - 红字
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的
  • The whole experience had been like some hideous nightmare.整个经历就像一场可怕的噩梦。
  • They're not like dogs,they're hideous brutes.它们不像狗,是丑陋的畜牲。
n.幽灵,神奇的现象
  • He saw the apparition of his dead wife.他看见了他亡妻的幽灵。
  • But the terror of this new apparition brought me to a stand.这新出现的幽灵吓得我站在那里一动也不敢动。
归纳(法)( induction的名词复数 ); (电或磁的)感应; 就职; 吸入
adj.巨大的;恐怖的;可耻的,丢脸的
  • The smoke began to whirl and grew into a monstrous column.浓烟开始盘旋上升,形成了一个巨大的烟柱。
  • Your behaviour in class is monstrous!你在课堂上的行为真是丢人!
n.用言语表达,话语,言语
  • This utterance of his was greeted with bursts of uproarious laughter.他的讲话引起阵阵哄然大笑。
  • My voice cleaves to my throat,and sob chokes my utterance.我的噪子哽咽,泣不成声。
adj.声名狼藉的,臭名昭著的,邪恶的
  • He was infamous for his anti-feminist attitudes.他因反对女性主义而声名狼藉。
  • I was shocked by her infamous behaviour.她的无耻行径令我震惊。
adj.(出于)本能的;直觉的;(出于)天性的
  • He tried to conceal his instinctive revulsion at the idea.他试图饰盖自己对这一想法本能的厌恶。
  • Animals have an instinctive fear of fire.动物本能地怕火。
n.精致,细微,微妙,精良;美味,佳肴
  • We admired the delicacy of the craftsmanship.我们佩服工艺师精巧的手艺。
  • He sensed the delicacy of the situation.他感觉到了形势的微妙。
n./adj.深(绯)红色(的);vi.脸变绯红色
  • She went crimson with embarrassment.她羞得满脸通红。
  • Maple leaves have turned crimson.枫叶已经红了。
(人)喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 ); 唠叨; (牙齿)打战; (机器)震颤
  • They chattered away happily for a while. 他们高兴地闲扯了一会儿。
  • We chattered like two teenagers. 我们聊着天,像两个十多岁的孩子。
adj.惊人的,奇妙的;异常的;巨大的;庞大的
  • This business generates cash in prodigious amounts.这种业务收益丰厚。
  • He impressed all who met him with his prodigious memory.他惊人的记忆力让所有见过他的人都印象深刻。
n.安静,寂静( hush的名词复数 )
  • Following the roar, out rushed a tiger from among the hushes. 一声吼叫,呼地从林子里冲出一只老虎来! 来自互联网
n.性交;交流,交往,交际
  • The magazine becomes a cultural medium of intercourse between the two peoples.该杂志成为两民族间文化交流的媒介。
  • There was close intercourse between them.他们过往很密。
adv.喊叫地,吵闹地
  • They are arguing vociferously over who should pay the bill. 他们为谁该付账单大声争吵。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Annixter had cursed him so vociferously and tersely that even Osterman was cowed. 安尼克斯特骂了他的声音之大,语气之凶,连奥斯特曼也不禁吓了一跳。 来自辞典例句
adv.根深蒂固地,积习地
n.无关紧要;不相关;不相关的事物
  • the irrelevance of the curriculum to children's daily life 课程与孩子们日常生活的脱节
  • A President who identifies leadership with public opinion polls dooms himself to irrelevance. 一位总统如果把他的领导和民意测验投票结果等同起来,那么他注定将成为一个可有可无的人物。 来自辞典例句
n.(严重的)危险;危险的事物
  • The refugees were in peril of death from hunger.难民有饿死的危险。
  • The embankment is in great peril.河堤岌岌可危。
n.打听,询问,调查,查问
  • Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
  • The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。
n.挥霍;丰富
  • He is liberal to profusion.他挥霍无度。
  • The leaves are falling in profusion.落叶纷纷。
vt.使混合,使相混;vi.混合起来;相交往
  • If we mingle with the crowd,we should not be noticed.如果我们混在人群中,就不会被注意到。
  • Oil will not mingle with water.油和水不相融。
n.教义;主义;学说
  • He was impelled to proclaim his doctrine.他不得不宣扬他的教义。
  • The council met to consider changes to doctrine.宗教议会开会考虑更改教义。
adj.讽刺的,挖苦的
  • Looking at her satiric parent she only gave a little laugh.她望着她那挖苦人的父亲,只讪讪地笑了一下。
  • His satiric poem spared neither the politicians nor the merchants.政客们和商人们都未能免于遭受他的诗篇的讽刺。
n.愤慨
  • He snorted with exasperation.他愤怒地哼了一声。
  • She rolled her eyes in sheer exasperation.她气急败坏地转动着眼珠。
vt.& vi.延期,缓办,(使)延迟vt.把…放在次要地位;[语]把…放在后面(或句尾)vi.(疟疾等)延缓发作(或复发)
  • The trial was postponed indefinitely. 审讯无限期延迟。
  • The game has already been postponed three times. 这场比赛已经三度延期了。
n.窒息
  • The greatest dangers of pyroclastic avalanches are probably heat and suffocation. 火成碎屑崩落的最大危害可能是炽热和窒息作用。 来自辞典例句
  • The room was hot to suffocation. 房间热得闷人。 来自辞典例句
学英语单词
a priori value
arujo
ataxinomic
britt
capacity to act
Comblain-au-Pont
compensation award
constitution of the earth
convertiplanes
corporate group
credit cycles
cut cost
d-hill
declaratory judgments
directional radioactive force
doctrine of collaboration between labour and capital
dog-tired
drageffect
drift biota
dybbukking
early-bird
East Aberthaw
electronic invoice
eustachian catheter stylet
extra-label
francavilla
gendas
gravity heater
grove
Górzno
Haemulon album
haliporus taprobanensis
hautin
hexandria
high-speed machining
Hkasin
hudibras
hughey
inconvincedly
jar down spear
Kanguma
kantars
keeping the spirit in the interior
labyrinthodonts
laqueat
late stages of development
lifegiving
Madagascar
make a nuisance of make oneself a nuisance
Mandel
Melia azederach
monetary aggregates
mouse-ear hawkweed
multilocular foraminifera
multipleswitch
multiplication time
myohypertrophia
Neuburg an der Kammel
Neunkirchen
nonclay
noncommercial enterprise
nonswappable
OpenNT
optical power density
p-hydroxyazobenzene
palettizes
parallel added
Pedro Calderon de la Barca
pinafores
plug-assist forming
premiere danseuse ?toile
priestesshood
primary cutout
printing trolley
process entity
puromucous
quensyl
raar
Rainy River
reformulated
repplye
resectionist
resoitol
rhitidectomy
Saletin
schell
sevum praeparatum
sheath thermocouple
silicon iron sheet
single doped laser
stereoscan microscope
subterraneans
tabtoxin
temporary association
teratologists
three-phase three-wire system
thrust unit
transmission power
unpleasant person
unrevoked
Urban Dicktionary
wreck sacrificed