新概念英语第二册重点句子-新概念英语第三册重点句子及解析Lesson49

【课文】

　　It is a good thing my aunt Harriet died years ago. If she were alive today she would not be able to air her views on her favourite topic of conversation: domestic servants. Aunt Harriet lived in that leisurely age when servants were employed to do housework. She had a huge, rambling country house called 'The Gables'. She was sentimentally attached to this house, for even though it was far too big for her needs, she persisted in living there long after her husband's death. Before she grew old, Aunt Harriet used to entertain lavishly. I often visited The Gables when I was a boy. No matter how many guests were present, the great house was always immaculate. The parquet floors shone like mirrors; highly polished silver was displayed in gleaming glass cabinets; even my uncle's huge collection of books was kept miraculously free from dust. Aunt Harriet presided over an invisible army of servants that continuously scrubbed, cleaned, and polished. She always referred to them as 'the shifting population', for they came and went with such frequency that I never even got a chance to learn their names. Though my aunt pursued what was, in those days, an enlightened policy, in that she never allowed her domestic staff to work more than eight hours a day, she was extremely difficult to please. While she always criticized the fickleness of human nature, she carried on an unrelenting search for the ideal servant to the end of her days, even after she had been sadly disillusioned by Bessie.

　　Bessie worked for Aunt Harriet for three years. During that time she so gained my aunt's confidence that she was put in charge of the domestic staff. Aunt Harriet could not find words to praise Bessie's industriousness and efficiency. In addition to all her other qualifications, Bessie was an expert cook. She acted the role of the perfect servant for three years before Aunt Harriet discovered her 'little weakness'. After being absent from the Gables for a week, my aunt unexpectedly returned one afternoon with a party of guests and instructed Bessie to prepare dinner. No only was the meal well below the usual standard, but Bessie seemed unable to walk steadily. She bumped into the furniture and kept mumbling about the guests. When she came in with the last course -- a huge pudding -- she tripped on the carpet and the pudding went flying through the air, narrowly missed my aunt, and crashed on the dining table with considerable force. Though this caused great mirth among the guests, Aunt Harriet was horrified. She reluctantly came to the conclusion that Bessie was drunk. The guests had, of course, realized this from the moment Bessie opened the door for them and, long before the final catastrophe, had had a difficult time trying to conceal their amusement. The poor girl was dismissed instantly. After her departure, Aunt Harriet discovered that there were piles of empty wine bottles of all shapes and sizes neatly stacked in what had once been Bessie's wardrobe. They had mysteriously found their way there from the wine cellar!

　　【课文翻译】

　　我的姑妈哈丽特好多年前就去世了，这倒是件好事。如果她活到今天，她将不能就她热衷的话题“佣人”发表意见了。哈丽特生活在一个悠闲的年代，家务事都由雇来的佣人代劳。她在乡下有一幢巨大杂乱的房子，叫作“山墙庄园”。她对这幢房子在感情上难舍难分。房子实在太大了，但在丈夫去世多年后，她仍然执意长年住在那儿。哈丽特姑妈年轻时，喜欢大摆宴席，招待宾客。我小时候常去“山墙庄园”作客。不管去多少宾客，大房子里总是收拾得干干净净。镶木地板洁如明镜，擦得发亮的银器陈列在明亮的玻璃柜里，连姑夫的大量藏书也保存得很好，奇迹般地一尘不染。哈丽特姑妈统率着一支看不见的佣人大军，他们不停地擦拭、清扫、刷洗。她称这些佣人叫“流动人口”，因为他们来匆匆，所以我甚至都没有机会知道他们的姓名。姑妈待佣人在当时算是开明的，从来不让佣人每天工作超过8小时，但他们很难使她称心如意。她一方面总是批评人的本性朝三暮四，另一方面她又持之以恒地寻找一个理想的佣人。即使在贝西大大地伤她的心之后，她还在找，一直到她死去。

　　贝西在哈丽特家干了3年。在此期间，她赢得了姑母的赏识，甚至当上了大管家。哈丽特不知该用什么言辞来赞扬贝西的勤奋与高效。贝西除了有各种本领以外，还是一个烹饪大师。她担任“理想仆人”角色3年之后，哈丽特终于发现她有“小小的弱点”。一次，姑妈有一个星期没在“山墙庄园”住。一天下午，她出其不意地回来了，带来一大批客人，吩咐贝西准备晚饭。结果，不仅饭菜远不如平时做得好，而且贝西走起路来似乎东倒西歪。她撞到了家具上，嘴里还不断咕咕哝哝议论客人。当她端着最后一道菜——一大盘布丁——走进屋来时，在地毯上绊了一跤。布丁飞到半空，从姑母身边擦过，然后狠狠地砸在餐桌上。这件事引起了客人们的欢笑，但哈丽特却着实吓了一跳。她不得不认定贝西是喝醉了。客人们自然从贝西为他们开门那一刻起就看出来了，在好长一段时间里，即最后这个乱子发生前，他们努力克制才没笑出声来。贝西当即被解雇了。贝西走后，哈丽特姑妈发现在贝西以前用过的衣柜里整整齐齐地放着一堆堆形状各导、大小不一的酒瓶子。这些酒瓶神不知鬼不觉地从酒窖来到了这里。

　　【词汇】

　　rambling adj. 杂乱无章的

　　sentimentally adv. 感情上，多情地

　　lavishly adv. 慷慨地，大方地

　　immaculate adj. 清洁的，无污点的

　　parquet n. 镶木地板

　　gleam v. 发亮，闪光

　　preside v. 指挥

　　invisible adj. 看不见的，无形的

　　scrub v. 擦拭，刷洗

　　enlightened adj. 开明的

　　fickleness n. 变化无常

　　unrelenting adj. 不屈不挠的，不松懈的

　　disillusion v. 使幻想破灭

　　industriousness n. 勤奋

　　qualification n. 资格，能力

　　mirth n. 欢笑，高兴

　　stack v. 整齐地堆放

　　cellar n. 地窖

　　【重点词汇讲解】

　　【rambling】

　　例句：

　　1. It was easy to get lost in the rambling house.

　　在布局凌乱的大房子里容易迷路。

　　2. Faced to the cool wind of night, my feeling, just like the moonlight, was rambling.

　　迎著清凉的夜风，我的思绪也像这月光一样，上天入地、漫无边际了。

　　【sentimentally】

　　例句：

　　1. Sentimentally, I would not blame her.

　　从感情上来讲，我是不愿意责备她的。

　　2. I miss the good old days, ' she added sentimentally .

　　“我怀念过去那些美好的日子，”她动情地补充道。

　　【lavishly】

　　例句：

　　1. She was a devout Buddhist , and spent money lavishly on the construction of temples.

　　同时她也是一位虔诚的佛教徒，耗费巨资修建寺院。

　　2. The United States, up to the 1920s, used fuel lavishly, mainly because it was so cheap.

　　直到二十世纪二十年代美国还在挥霍无度地用燃料，这主要是因为燃料非常便宜。

　　【immaculate】

　　例句：

　　1.He had on immaculate white shoes.

　　他穿着一双 洁白的鞋子。

　　2. When he was a child, his life contained noble ambitions and immaculate thought.

　　当他小的时候，他的生命包含高贵的理想和纯洁的思想。

　　【preside】

　　英英：act as president

　　例句：

　　1. Who will preside at the committee meeting today?

　　今天委员会开会谁当主席?。

　　2. Who happened to preside over the economic crisis at the time?

　　当发生经济危机时谁正好在掌权?

　　3. Some people believe that the Fates preside over man's destiny.

　　有些人相信，命运之神安排人类的命运。

　　【invisible】

　　例句:

　　1. He questioned Adam Smith's emphasis on the invisible hand.

　　他对亚当·史密斯对“无形的手”的强调表示怀疑。

　　2. But to the eye of the ordinary, unimaginative traveler, they are invisible.

　　但在普通的，无想象力的游客眼里，它们是看不见的。

　　【enlightened】

　　例句：

　　1. I admire this enlightened life philosophy, rather than a relentless obsession with amassing yet more personal wealth.

　　我钦佩这种开明的生活哲学，而不是无尽地痴迷于积累更多的个人财富。

　　2. Buddha is reported to have said that if you can be aware of your breath for even a single hour, you are already enlightened.

　　佛陀曾经这样过，假如你能够持续意到你的呼吸，即使只是一小时的时间，你就已经成道。

　　【fickleness】

　　例句：

　　1. Your fickleness will however entice a host of unusual suitors eager to tie you down.

　　然而正是你的这种变化无常，却深深地诱惑着一群渴望牢牢套住你的追求者。

　　2. The over respect and worship of money, the sole object, has cornered Chinese people to the ultimate anxiety and fickleness.

　　现在中国人对“钱”这“惟一物”的过度的崇敬和崇拜使国人陷入到巨大的焦虑和浮躁中。

　　【unrelenting】

　　例句：

　　1. But when it comes to political dissent and religious freedom, the government has been unrelenting.

　　但一涉及到政治不满和宗教自由的问题，政府就开始变得不屈不挠。

　　2. Carrots, eggs and coffee, each of them had faced the same adversity, boiling water, but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting.

　　胡萝卜、鸡蛋、咖啡，这三样东西面临同样的逆境——煮沸的开水，但其反应各不相同。

　　【disillusion】

　　例句：

　　1. Absence is mother of disillusion.

　　疏离是觉悟之母。

　　2. I hate to disillusion you,but your chances of winning are practically zero.

　　我不忍心使你失望，但你取胜的机会实际上等于零。

　　【stack】

　　例句：

　　1. Mother is stacking the plates in the kitchen.

　　母亲在厨房里把盘子一个个叠起来。

　　2. Your third resource is confidence: repeat the process and stack the feeling of confidence on to happiness and strength.

　　你的第三个源泉是信心：重复这一过程，然后，把信心附加给快乐(感)和力量(感)上。

　　3. The arguments about why this decision is a bad one stack up relentlessly.

　　为什么这是一个糟糕的决定?论据多得很。

　　【常用表达】

　　【air view on】发表观点

　　【even though】虽然，即使

　　【free from】免于

　　【refer to...as...】把...称作...

　　【in that】因为，在于

　　【human nature】人性

　　【come to the conclusion】得出结论

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