时间:2018-12-18 作者:英语课 分类:有声英语文学名著


英语课

 Chapter 4 - Pierre's conversation with Princess Marya


 
Princess Marya as she sat listening to the old men’s talk and faultfinding, understood nothing of what she heard; she only wondered whether the guests had all observed her father’s hostile attitude toward her. She did not even notice the special attentions and amiabilities shown her during dinner by Boris Drubetskoy, who was visiting them for the third time already.
Princess Marya turned with absent-minded questioning look to Pierre, who hat in hand and with a smile on his face was the last of the guests to approach her after the old prince had gone out and they were left alone in the drawing room.
“May I stay a little longer?” he said, letting his stout 1 body sink into an armchair beside her.
“Oh yes,” she answered. “You noticed nothing?” her look asked.
Pierre was in an agreeable after-dinner mood. He looked straight before him and smiled quietly.
“Have you known that young man long, Princess?” he asked.
“Who?”
“Drubetskoy.”
“No, not long . . . ”
“Do you like him?”
“Yes, he is an agreeable young man. . . . Why do you ask me that?” said Princess Marya, still thinking of that morning’s conversation with her father.
“Because I have noticed that when a young man comes on leave from Petersburg to Moscow it is usually with the object of marrying an heiress.”
“You have observed that?” said Princess Marya.
“Yes,” returned Pierre with a smile, “and this young man now manages matters so that where there is a wealthy heiress there he is too. I can read him like a book. At present he is hesitating whom to lay siege to — you or Mademoiselle Julie Karagina. He is very attentive 2 to her.”
“He visits them?”
“Yes, very often. And do you know the new way of courting?” said Pierre with an amused smile, evidently in that cheerful mood of good humored raillery for which he so often reproached himself in his diary.
“No,” replied Princess Marya.
“To please Moscow girls nowadays one has to be melancholy 3. He is very melancholy with Mademoiselle Karagina,” said Pierre.
“Really?” asked Princess Marya, looking into Pierre’s kindly 4 face and still thinking of her own sorrow. “It would be a relief,” thought she, “if I ventured to confide 5 what I am feeling to someone. I should like to tell everything to Pierre. He is kind and generous. It would be a relief. He would give me advice.”
“Would you marry him?”
“Oh, my God, Count, there are moments when I would marry anybody!” she cried suddenly to her own surprise and with tears in her voice. “Ah, how bitter it is to love someone near to you and to feel that . . . ” she went on in a trembling voice, “that you can do nothing for him but grieve him, and to know that you cannot alter this. Then there is only one thing left — to go away, but where could I go?”
“What is wrong? What is it, Princess?”
But without finishing what she was saying, Princess Marya burst into tears.
“I don’t know what is the matter with me today. Don’t take any notice — forget what I have said!”
Pierre’s gaiety vanished completely. He anxiously questioned the princess, asked her to speak out fully 6 and confide her grief to him; but she only repeated that she begged him to forget what she had said, that she did not remember what she had said, and that she had no trouble except the one he knew of — that Prince Andrey’s marriage threatened to cause a rupture 7 between father and son.
“Have you any news of the Rostovs?” she asked, to change the subject. “I was told they are coming soon. I am also expecting Andrey any day. I should like them to meet here.”
“And how does he now regard the matter?” asked Pierre, referring to the old prince.
Princess Marya shook her head.
“What is to be done? In a few months the year will be up. The thing is impossible. I only wish I could spare my brother the first moments. I wish they would come sooner. I hope to be friends with her. You have known them a long time,” said Princess Marya. “Tell me honestly the whole truth: what sort of girl is she, and what do you think of her? — The real truth, because you know Andrey is risking so much doing this against his father’s will that I should like to know . . . ”
An undefined instinct told Pierre that these explanations, and repeated requests to be told the whole truth, expressed ill-will on the princess’ part toward her future sister-in-law and a wish that he should disapprove 8 of Andrey’s choice; but in reply he said what he felt rather than what he thought.
“I don’t know how to answer your question,” he said, blushing without knowing why. “I really don’t know what sort of girl she is; I can’t analyze 9 her at all. She is enchanting 10, but what makes her so I don’t know. That is all one can say about her.”
Princess Marya sighed, and the expression on her face said: “Yes, that’s what I expected and feared.”
“Is she clever?” she asked.
Pierre considered.
“I think not,” he said, “and yet — yes. She does not deign 11 to be clever. . . . Oh no, she is simply enchanting, and that is all.”
Princess Marya again shook her head disapprovingly 12.
“Ah, I so long to like her! Tell her so if you see her before I do.”
“I hear they are expected very soon,” said Pierre.
Princess Marya told Pierre of her plan to become intimate with her future sister-in-law as soon as the Rostovs arrived and to try to accustom 13 the old prince to her.

1 stout
adj.强壮的,粗大的,结实的,勇猛的,矮胖的
  • He cut a stout stick to help him walk.他砍了一根结实的枝条用来拄着走路。
  • The stout old man waddled across the road.那肥胖的老人一跩一跩地穿过马路。
2 attentive
adj.注意的,专心的;关心(别人)的,殷勤的
  • She was very attentive to her guests.她对客人招待得十分周到。
  • The speaker likes to have an attentive audience.演讲者喜欢注意力集中的听众。
3 melancholy
n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的
  • All at once he fell into a state of profound melancholy.他立即陷入无尽的忧思之中。
  • He felt melancholy after he failed the exam.这次考试没通过,他感到很郁闷。
4 kindly
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地
  • Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
  • A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。
5 confide
v.向某人吐露秘密
  • I would never readily confide in anybody.我从不轻易向人吐露秘密。
  • He is going to confide the secrets of his heart to us.他将向我们吐露他心里的秘密。
6 fully
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地
  • The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气,然后全部呼出。
  • They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。
7 rupture
n.破裂;(关系的)决裂;v.(使)破裂
  • I can rupture a rule for a friend.我可以为朋友破一次例。
  • The rupture of a blood vessel usually cause the mark of a bruise.血管的突然破裂往往会造成外伤的痕迹。
8 disapprove
v.不赞成,不同意,不批准
  • I quite disapprove of his behaviour.我很不赞同他的行为。
  • She wants to train for the theatre but her parents disapprove.她想训练自己做戏剧演员,但她的父母不赞成。
9 analyze
vt.分析,解析 (=analyse)
  • We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
  • The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。
10 enchanting
a.讨人喜欢的
  • His smile, at once enchanting and melancholy, is just his father's. 他那种既迷人又有些忧郁的微笑,活脱儿象他父亲。
  • Its interior was an enchanting place that both lured and frightened me. 它的里头是个吸引人的地方,我又向往又害怕。
11 deign
v. 屈尊, 惠允 ( 做某事)
  • He doesn't deign to talk to unimportant people like me. 他不肯屈尊和像我这样不重要的人说话。
  • I would not deign to comment on such behaviour. 这种行为不屑我置评。
12 disapprovingly
adv.不以为然地,不赞成地,非难地
  • When I suggested a drink, she coughed disapprovingly. 我提议喝一杯时,她咳了一下表示反对。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He shook his head disapprovingly. 他摇了摇头,表示不赞成。 来自《简明英汉词典》
13 accustom
vt.使适应,使习惯
  • It took him a while to accustom himself to the idea.他过了一段时间才习惯这个想法。
  • It'shouldn't take long to accustom your students to working in groups.你的学生应该很快就会习惯分组学习的。
学英语单词
abominating
accessory protein
accuracy control
acidic electrolysis bath
Ada group
anting-anting
apodeictical
applanometer
Arabianized
articulated-type diesel hydraulic locomotive
associate's degree
astrophysical fluid dynamics
autor-
bandolining
black-headed gull
call progress
cantabrias
Cardamine reniformis
Celsus' papules
chickenyards
Chico, R.
coelosomy
complex simple Lie group
coverage cycle
d.f.c.
debug heap
deplanement
docking area
DRH
dwellings
eodiscid
eriq
Erysimum sinuatum
etch copy
evaporator tower
falsiloquence
ficus caricas
gaborik
girleen
Guantol
honest reducibility
information need
jezekite
just friend
legal department
liddon
local arrangement
magnesite-alumina refractory
meadow jumping mice
micro-computings
mid-square method
military force
molecular knife
montmorillonite group
Māndāri
nafissa
normal earth fixed axis system
nuclear cell
ocular proptosis
Oligoplites
organization of shipping administration
outer throat diameter
p-leucaniline
pathomimia
polar symmetry
polyacene
polyisoprene
polystylistic
progressistes
proportional integral derivative controller
pulse-off period
rated ripple current
required field intensity
Rodby
salted food
SE-1702
seedling from spore
selective amnesias
self propelled sprayer
semirevolution
Sen'kove
serious disease
signal lever platform
slip form paver
stalderite
steal one's thunder
stock of wheat
strausbaugh
substituteless
summer-castle
survey of existing station yard survey
talking machine
The deuce you he can
thermograms
thomson's theory
timbul
tithly
transcription elongation
tremil
trousseaux
zoophagy