录音：http://home.ebigear.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=323988

 

 

That winter my father died of pneumonia, after less than a week's illness. For some time I saw nothing around me, being completely immersed in my own pain and my mother's. When I looked outward（look toward the outside world） once more, I scarcely noticed that Piquette Tonnerre was no longer at school. I do not remember seeing her at all until four years later, one Saturday night when Mavis and I were having Cokes in the Regal Café. 1. (The jukebox was booming(飞速的) like tuneful thunder（雷声般的音乐）, and beside it, leaning lightly on its chrome and its rainbow（五彩的） glass, was a girl.)
　　 Piquette must have been seventeen then, although she looked about twenty. I stared at her, astounded that anyone could have changed so much. 2.（Her face, so stolid（证明她态度冷） expressionless before, was animated（~ debate激烈的辩论） now with a gaiety（活力） that was almost violent（欢快的活力/这里是她在欢快的活力下带着的狂野的兴奋）. She laughed and talked very loudly with the boys around her. Her lipstick was bright carmine(洋红色的), and her hair was cut short and frizzily permed（头发卷曲）. She had not been pretty as a child（她小时候就不漂亮）, and she was not pretty now, for her features were still heavy（coarse粗糙） and blunt（生硬）. But her dark and slightly slanted eyes were beautiful, and her skin-tight（tight-fitting紧身的） skirt and orange sweater displayed to enviable advantage（显出优势） a soft and slender（纤细的） body.）
　 　She saw me, and walked over. She teetered（摇晃） a little, but it was not due to her once-tubercular leg, for her limp was almost gone.
　　 "Hi, Vanessa," Her voice still had the same hoarseness. "Long time no see, eh?"
　 　"Hi," I said "Where've you been keeping yourself, Piquette?"
　　 "Oh, I been around（到处漂泊）," she said. "I been away almost two years now. Been all over the place-- Winnipeg['winipeɡ], Regina[rɪ'dʒaɪnə], Saskatoon[,sæskə'tʊn]. Jesus, what I could tell you! I come back this summer, but I ain't stayin'. You kids go in to the dance?"
　　 "No," I said abruptly, for this was a sore point with me. I was fifteen, and thought I was old enough to go to the Saturday-night dances at the Flamingo. My mother, however, thought otherwise.
　 　"Y'oughta come," Piquette said. "I never miss one. It's just about the on'y thing in this jerkwater（偏僻的小镇） town that's any fun. 3.（Boy（感叹词：伙计guy）, you couldn' catch me stayin' here. I don' give a shit about this place. It stinks（这地方糟透了：一点也不喜欢这里）."）
　　 She sat down beside me, and I caught the harsh over-sweetness of her perfume.
　　 "Listen, you wanna know something, Vanessa?" she confided（悄悄对我说）, her voice only slightly blurred（擒泪，模糊）. "Your dad was the only person in Manawaka that ever done anything good to me."

 

 

 

一、【生词】：

 

【immerse】：to put deep under water; engross deeply and completely

I immersed myself in work so as to stop thinking about her.

He immersed himself deeply in his career.

 

【scarcely】hardly; almost not;

He was ~ 17 when he joined the army.

The can ~ be true.

He had ~ escaped when he was recaptured.

 

【jukebox】a coin-operated record player

 

【stolid】having or showing no emotion or sensibility, impassive.

He is dull and stolid, sometimes like a puppet. 他又沉闷又麻木，有时候像个木偶

 

【gaiety】a state of exuberance or merriment.

Christmas tree and joyful songs added to the gaiety of the festival.

 

【carmine】deep red color洋红，胭脂红

Scarlet/cardinal: bright red ; crimson: deep red

Florid: (face) red ; apple

 

【frizzily】frizzle: a small tight curls头发卷曲的

Frizzy： very curly like wool非常卷

 

【perm】a means of changing the style of your hair by using chemicals to create curls the last for several months 卷发；烫发

I’d like to change the foam perm. 我想换个泡沫烫

 

【to advantage】in a way that shows its good points or merits

The picture is seen to better advantage from a distance.

Hang the photograph opposite the window so that it will show up to advange.

 

【teeter】：to walk or move to and for, to seesaw; unsteadily and unsurely 步履蹒跚

The drunken man teetered on the edge of the pavement.

She was teetered in her very high-heeled shoes.

 

【jerkwater】remote and unimportant/trivial

A ~ town偏僻小镇 A ~ train慢车 a~ person 无足轻重的人

 

【stink】to give a strong bad smell/to be highly offensive or abhorrent

She stinks with jewelry. 她浑身珠光宝气

They stink of money. 他们的钞票多得发霉 nauseating

 

【confide】：to tell a secret, reveal, disclose

He confided his troubles to a friend.

The children were confided to(交托照管) the care of the old woman.

She confided a secret to his friend.

 

 

二、paraphrase：

 

1. P：The jukebox was making sounds like thunders, the only discrepancy being the jukebox’s sound having a melody, a girl was relying on the jukebox being made of chrome and glass with rainbow colors.

A：like tuneful thunder用了明喻的修辞手法，把点唱机发出的声音比作有节奏美的雷声，两者的共同特点是声音都很大。And beside it, leaning lightly on its chrome…,was a girl. 是一个完全倒装句，beside it做表语，将被强调部分（the jukebox）放在句首，使得文章更加紧凑。Leaning是现在分词做状语。

 

2. What does P look like in V’s eyes? What’s her symbols of change?

Her beauty defies description. (defy 难以/defiant)她的美难以形容。皮革特为什么在四年之后会有如此的变化？ She is unable to exit independency in the modern society and is impossible to fit into the main current even after 4 years. In contrast, her plight is coming near.

 

【积累】After the gloom, everything is boom. 萧条不再，繁荣即来。

Older, wiser, calmer. 人愈老，智愈高，心愈平

 

3. P：Guy, you will not try to keep me stay in here. I don’t care about this place at all. It is scared.

Boy是感叹词，guy; don’t give a shit about是俚语，表示对..毫无兴趣，漠不关心。

 

 

四、参考翻译：

 

　  那一年的冬天，我父亲患了肺炎，不到一星期就去世了。那一段日子里我完全沉浸在自己的和母亲的痛苦之中，对周围的一切都视而不见。当我重新回到现实中来以后，我也几乎没有注意到皮格特.坦纳瑞已不在学校了。在我的记忆中，我后来根本没有见到过她，直到四年之后才又见过她一次。那是一个星期六的晚上，我和马维斯正在里歌咖啡馆喝可口可乐，电唱机播放出雷声般的音乐，那镀铬材料和五彩玻璃造的电唱机旁斜依着一个姑娘。

　　那时皮格特大概是十七岁，但看上去却有二十岁左右。我盯住她看，为一个人能发生这么巨大的变化而大为惊讶。以前，她的面孔十分呆板，毫无表情，而现在却带有一种有几分狂欢的活力。她和身边的小伙子们大声地说笑。她的唇膏是一种鲜亮的洋红色，她的头发剪短，烫成弯弯曲曲的小卷。小时候她长得就不漂亮，现在也还一样，她的五官粗糙、呆板。但是，她那双乌黑、稍稍斜视的眼睛却是美丽的。而且，一条紧身裙和一件桔黄色毛衣将她那柔软、苗条的身材衬托得恰到好处，令人羡慕。

　　她看到我，就走了过来。她走路有点摇摇晃晃的，但那并不是由于她那曾经患骨结核的腿的缘故，她瘸腿的毛病已几乎没有了。“你好，凡乃莎，”她的声音还是那样沙哑，“好久不见，是吧?”“你好，”我说。“你这些日子都到哪儿去了，皮格特?”“哦，到处漂泊，”她说。“我离家已将近有两年了，到了好多地方——温尼佩格、雷金那、萨斯卡通。嗨，要说的可多啦!我今年夏天才回来，但不打算呆下去。你们要不要去跳舞?”“不要，”我断然回答道，因为她的问话正触着我的痛处。我那时已十五岁，自己觉得到了可以去参加火烈鸟歌舞厅周末舞会的年龄了，但我母亲却不以为然。“你应该去的，”皮格特说。“我是每场必去。这偏僻小镇上再也找不到别的什么乐趣了。伙计，我才不会在这儿呆下去呢，我一点儿也不喜欢这地方，这地方糟透了。”

　　她在我身边坐下，我闻到她身上散发出来的过份浓烈的香水味。“喂，凡乃莎，让我告诉你吧?”她声音有点模糊不清地悄悄对我说，“你爸爸是马纳卡瓦镇上唯一对我好的人。”