Day 5: Is there a moment when you have nothing to say?

Friday

各位书友,今天我们一起阅读《The Great Gatsby》35-41页。The Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published in 1925, it is set on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City from spring to autumn of 1922.

Question

Is there a moment when you have nothing to say?

有没有那么一刻,你觉得无话可说?

欢迎各位书友留言,文字语音都可以,中文英文均不限。

您的每一条留言对于我们都很重要!*3

英语共读编辑团队在后台等您来!在后台等您来!等您来!

So Tom Buchanan and his girl and I went up together to New York. We drove over to Fifth Avenue, so warm and soft, almost pastoral, on the summer Sunday afternoon that I wouldn't have been surprised to see a great flock of white sheep turn the corner.

就这样,汤姆-布坎农和他的情人还有我,三人一同上纽约去。我们坐着车子来到五号路,在这夏天星期日的下午,空气又温暖又柔和,几乎有田园风味。即使看见一大群雪白的绵羊突然从街角拐出来,我也不会感到惊奇。

"Hold on," I said, "I have to leave you here."

“停一下,”我说,“我得在这儿跟你们分手了。”

"No, you don't," interposed Tom quickly. "Myrtle'll be hurt if you don't come up to the apartment. Won't you, Myrtle?"

“不行,你不能走,”汤姆连忙插话说,“茉特尔要生气的,要是你不上公寓去。是不是,茉特尔?”

"Come on," she urged. "I'll telephone my sister Catherine. She's said to be very beautiful by people who ought to know."

“来吧,”她恳求我,“我打电话叫我妹妹凯瑟琳来、很多有眼力的人都说她真漂亮。”

"Well, I'd like to, but--."

“呃,我很想来,可是……”

We went on, cutting back again over the Park toward the West Hundreds. At 158th Street the cab stopped at one slice in a long white cake of apartment houses. Throwing a regal homecoming glance around the neighborhood, Mrs. Wilson went haughtily in.

我们继续前进,又掉头穿过中央公园,向西城一百多号街那边走。出租汽车在一五八号街一大排白色蛋糕似的公寓中的一幢前面停下。威尔逊太太向四周扫视一番,俨然一副皇后回宫的神气,趾高气扬地走了进去。

"I'm going to have the McKees come up," she announced as we rose in the elevator. "And, of course, I got to call up my sister, too."

“我要把麦基夫妇请上来,”我们乘电梯上楼时她宣布说,‘当然,我还要打电话给我妹妹。”

The apartment was on the top floor--a small living room, a small dining room, a small bedroom, and a bath. The living−room was crowded to the doors with a set of tapestried furniture entirely too large for it, so that to move about was to stumble continually over scenes of ladies swinging in the gardens of Versailles. The only picture was an over−enlarged photograph, apparently a hen sitting on a blurred rock. Looked at from a distance, however, the hen resolved itself into a bonnet, and the countenance of a stout old lady beamed down into the room.

他们的一套房间在最高一层——一间小起居室,一间小餐室,一间小卧室,还有一个洗澡间。起居室给一套大得很不相称的织锦靠垫的家具挤得满满当当的,以至于要在室内走动就是不断地绊倒在法国仕女在凡尔赛宫的花园里打秋千的画面上。墙上挂的唯一的画是一张放得特大的相片,乍一看是一只母鸡蹲在一块模糊的岩石上。可是,从远处看去,母鸡化为一顶女帽,一位胖老太太笑眯眯地俯视着屋子。

Tom brought out a bottle of whiskey from a locked bureau door.

汤姆打开了一个上锁的柜子的门,拿出一瓶威士忌来。

I have been drunk just twice in my life, and the second time was that afternoon; so everything that happened has a dim, hazy cast over it, although until after eight o'clock the apartment was full of cheerful sun.

我一辈子只喝醉过两次,第二次就是那天下午,因此当时所发生的一切现在都好像在雾里一样,模糊不清,虽然公寓里直到八点以后还充满了明亮的阳光。

Just as Tom and Myrtle--after the first drink Mrs. Wilson and I called each other by our first names--reappeared, company commenced to arrive at the apartment door.

汤姆和茉特尔(第一杯酒下肚之后威尔逊太太和我就彼此喊教名了)一重新露面,客人们就开始来敲公寓的门了。

The sister, Catherine, was a slender, worldly girl of about thirty, with a solid sticky bob of red hair, and a complexion powdered milky white. Her eyebrows had been plucked and then drawn on again at a more rakish angle, but the efforts of nature toward the restoration of the old alignment gave a blurred air to her face. When she moved about there was an incessant clicking as innumerable pottery bracelets jingled up and down upon her arms. She came in with such a proprietary haste, and looked around so possessively at the furniture that I wondered if she lived here. But when I asked her she laughed immoderately, repeated my question aloud, and told me she lived with a girl friend at a hotel.

她妹妹凯瑟琳是一个苗条而俗气的女人,年纪三十上下,一头浓密的短短的红头发,脸上粉搽得像牛奶一样白。她的眉毛是拔掉又重画过的,画的角度还俏皮一些,叮是人然的力量却要恢复旧观,弄得她的脸部有点眉目不清。她走动的时候,不断发出丁当丁当的声音,因为许多假玉手镯在她胳臂上面上上下下地抖动。她像主人一样大模大样走了进来,对家具扫视了一番,仿佛东西是属于她的,使我怀疑她是否就住在这里。但是等我问她时,她放声大笑,大声重复了我的问题,然后告诉我她和一个女朋友同住在一家旅馆里。

Mr. McKee was a pale, feminine man from the flat below. He had just shaved, for there was a white spot of lather on his cheekbone, and he was most respectful in his greeting to everyone in the room. He informed me that he was in the "artistic game," and I gathered later that he was a photographer and had made the dim enlargement of Mrs. Wilson's mother which hovered like an ectoplasm on the wall. His wife was shrill, languid, handsome, and horrible. She told me with pride that her husband had photographed her a hundred and twenty−seven times since they had been married.

麦基先生是住在楼下一层的一个白净的、女人气的男人。他刚刮过胡子,因为他颧骨上还有一点白肥皂沫。他和屋里每一个人打招呼时都毕恭毕敬。他告诉我他是“吃艺术饭”的,后来我才明白他是摄影师,墙上挂的威尔逊太太的母亲那幅像一片胚叶似的模糊不清的放大照片就是他摄制的。他老婆尖声尖气,没精打采,漂漂亮亮,可是非常讨厌。她得意洋洋地告诉我,自从他们结婚以来她丈夫已经替她照过一百二十七次相了。

Mrs. Wilson had changed her costume some time before, and was now attired in an elaborate afternoon dress of cream−colored chiffon, which gave out a continual rustle as she swept about the room. With the influence of the dress her personality had also undergone a change. The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur. Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment, and as she expanded the room grew smaller around her, until she seemed to be revolving on a noisy, creaking pivot through the smoky air.

威尔逊太太不知什么时候又换了一套衣服,现在穿的是一件精致的奶油色雪纺绸的连衣裙,是下午做客穿的那种,她在屋子里转来转去的时候,衣裙就不断地沙沙作响。由于衣服的影响,她的个性也跟着起了变化。早先在车行里那么显著的活力变成了目空一切的傲慢。她的笑声、她的姿势、她的言谈,每一刻都变得越来越矫揉造作,同时随着她逐渐膨胀,她周围的屋子就显得越来越小,后来,她好像在烟雾弥漫的空气中坐在一个吱吱喳喳的木轴上不停地转动。

The sister Catherine sat down beside me on the couch.

那位名叫凯瑟琳的妹妹在沙发上我的身边坐下。

"Do you live down on Long Island, too?" she inquired.

“你也住在长岛那边吗?”她问我。

"I live at West Egg."

“我住在西卵。”

"Really? I was down there at a party about a month ago. At a man named Gatsby's. Do you know him?"

“是吗?我到那儿参加过一次聚会,大约一个月以前。在一个姓盖茨比的人的家里。你认识他吗?”

"I live next door to him."

“我就住在他隔壁。”

"Well, they say he's a nephew or a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm's. That's where all his money comes from."

“噢,人家说他是德国威廉皇帝的侄儿,或者什么别的亲戚,他的钱都是那么来的。”

"Really?"

“真的吗?”

She nodded.

她点了点头。

重点语句

1. At 158th Street the cab stopped at one slice in a long white cake of apartment houses.

出租汽车在一五八号街一大排白色蛋糕似的公寓中的一幢前面停下。

2. The only picture was an over-enlarged photograph, apparently a hen sitting on a blurred rock. Looked at from a distance, however, the hen resolved itself into a bonnet, and the countenance of a stout old lady beamed down into the room.

墙上挂的唯一的画是一张放得特大的相片,乍一看是一只母鸡蹲在一块模糊的岩石上。可是,从远处看去,母鸡化为一顶女帽,一位胖老太太笑眯眯地俯视着屋子。

3. I have been drunk just twice in my life, and the second time was that afternoon; so everything that happened has a dim, hazy cast over it, although until after eight o'clock the apartment was full of cheerful sun.

我一辈子只喝醉过两次,第二次就是那天下午,因此当时所发生的一切现在都好像在雾里一样,模糊不清,虽然公寓里直到八点以后还充满了明亮的阳光。

4. When she moved about there was an incessant clicking as innumerable pottery bracelets jingled up and down upon her arms.

她走动的时候,不断发出丁当丁当的声音,因为许多假玉手镯在她胳臂上面上上下下地抖动。

5. The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur.

早先在车行里那么显著的活力变成了目空一切的傲慢。

重点词汇

1.pastoral:牧师的;牧人的;田园生活的;乡村的

2.regal:帝王的;王室的;豪华的;庄严的

3.countenance:面容,表情;支持

4.commence:开始;着手

5.feminine:女性的;妇女(似)的;阴性的;娇柔的

6.hauteur:傲慢;自大

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本月共读《The Great Gatsbty》英文版

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—共读书籍简介—

《了不起的盖茨比》是美国作家弗·司各特·菲茨杰拉德1925年所写的一部以20世纪20年代的纽约市及长岛为背景的中篇小说,小说的背景被设定在现代化的美国社会中上阶层的白人圈内,通过卡拉韦的叙述展开。

《了不起的盖茨比》问世,奠定了弗·司各特·菲茨杰拉德在现代美国文学史上的地位,成了20年代"爵士时代"的发言人和"迷惘的一代"的代表作家之一。20世纪末,美国学术界权威在百年英语文学长河中选出一百部最优秀的小说,《了不起的盖茨比》高居第二位,傲然跻身当代经典行列。

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