(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
William Wilson-Part One. Let me call myself, for the present, William Wilson. That is not my real name. That name has already been the cause of the horror – of the anger of my family. Have not the winds carried my name, with my loss of honor, to the ends of the earth? Am I not forever dead to the world? – to its honors, to its flowers, to its golden hopes? And a cloud, heavy and endless – does it not hang forever between my hopes and heaven? Men usually become bad by degrees. But I let all goodness fall from me in a single moment, as if I had dropped a coat. From small acts of darkness I passed, in one great step, into the blackest evil ever known. Listen while I tell of the one cause that made this happen.
Death is near, and its coming has softened my spirit. I desire, in passing through this dark valley, the understanding of other men. I wish them to believe that I have been, in some ways, in the power of forces beyond human control. I wish them to find for me, in the story I am about to tell, some small fact that proves I could have done only what I did. I would have them agree that what happened to me never happened to other men. Is it not true that no one has ever suffered as I do? Have I not indeed been living in a dream? And am I not now dying from the horror and the unanswered question — the mystery of the wildest dream ever dreamed on earth? I am one of a family well known for their busy minds. As a small child I showed clearly that I too had the family character. As I became older it grew more powerful in me. For many reasons it became a cause of talk among friends, and the hurt it did me was great. I wanted people always to do things my way; I acted like a wild fool; I let my desires control me.
My father and mother, weak in body and mind, could do little to hold me back. When their efforts failed, of course my will grew stronger. From then on my voice in the house was law. At an age when few children are allowed to be free, I was left to be guided by my own desires. I became the master of my own actions. I remember my first school. It was in a large house about three hundred years old, in a small town in England, among a great number of big trees. All of the houses there were very old. In truth, it was a dream-like and spirit-quieting place, that old town. At this moment I seem to feel the pleasant coolness under the shade of the trees, I remember the sweetness of the flowers, I hear again with delight I cannot explain the deep sound of the church bell each hour breaking the stillness of the day. It gives me pleasure to think about this school — as much pleasure, perhaps, as I am now able to experience. Deep in suffering as I am — suffering only too real – perhaps no one will object if for a short time I forget my troubles and tell a little about this period.
Moreover, the period and place are important. It was then and there that I first saw, hanging over me, the terrible promise of things to come. Let me remember. The house where we boys lived and went to school was, as I have said, old and wide. The grounds about it were large, and there was a high wall around the outside of the whole school. Beyond this wall we went three times in each week, on one day to take short walks in the neighboring fields, and two times on Sunday to go to church. This was the one church in the village, and the head-teacher of our school was also the head of the church. With a spirit of deep wonder and of doubt I used to watch him there! This man, with slow step and quiet, thoughtful face, in clothes so different and shining clean — could this be the same man who with a hard face and clothes far from clean stood ready to strike us if we did not follow the rules of the school? Oh, great and terrible question, beyond my small power to answer!
I well remember our playground, which was behind the house. There were no trees, and the ground was as hard as stone. In front of the house there was a small garden, but we stepped into this garden only at very special times, such as when we first arrived at school, or when we left it for the last time, or perhaps when father or mother or a friend came to take us away for a few days. But the house! — what a delightful old building it was — to me truly a palace! There was really no end to it. I was not always able to say certainly which of its two floors I happened to be on. From each room to every other there were always three or four steps either up or down. Then the rooms branched into each other, and these branches were too many to count, and often turned and came back upon themselves! Our ideas about the whole great house were not very far different from the thoughts we had about time without end.
During the five years I was there, I could never have told anyone how to find the little room where I and some eighteen or twenty other boys slept. The schoolroom was the largest room in the house — and I couldn't help thinking it was the largest in the world. It was long and low, with pointed windows and heavy wood overhead. In a far corner was the office of our head-teacher, Mr. Bransby. This office had a thick door, and we would rather have died than open it when he was not there. Inside the thick walls of this old school I passed my years from ten to fifteen. Yet I always found it interesting. A child's mind does not need the outside world. In the quiet school I found more bright pleasure than I found later, as a young man, in riches, or, as an older man, in wrongdoing. Yet I must have been different indeed from most boys. Few men remember much of their early life. My early days stand out as clear and plain as if they had been cut in gold. In truth the hotness of my character and my desire to lead and command soon separated me from the others. Slowly I gained control over all who were not greatly older than myself — over all except one. This exception was a boy who, though not of my family, had the same name as my own, William Wilson. This boy was the only one who ever dared to say he did not believe all I told him, and who would not follow my commands. This troubled me greatly. I tried to make the others think that I didn't care. The truth was that I felt afraid of him. I had to fight to appear equal with him, but he easily kept himself equal with me. Yet no one else felt, as I did, that this proved him the better of the two.
Indeed, no one else saw the battle going on between us. All his attempts to stop me in what I wanted to do were made when no one else could see or hear us. He did not desire, as I did, to lead the other boys. He seemed only to want to hold me back. Sometimes with wonder, and always without pleasure, I saw that his manner seemed to show a kind of love for me. I did not feel thankful for this; I thought it meant only that he thought himself to be very fine indeed, better than me. Perhaps it was this love he showed for me, added to the fact that we had the same name, and also that we had entered the school on the same day, which made people say that we were brothers. Wilson did not belong to my family, even very distantly. But if we had been brothers we would have been near to each other indeed, for I learned that we were both born on the nineteenth of January, eighteen hundred and nine. This seemed a strange and wonderful thing.
重点解析
1.be about to 即将;正打算
A new era seemed to be about to dawn for the coach and his young team.
对于那名教练和他的年轻球队来说,一个崭新的时代似乎即将到来
。2.well known for 而闻名;因......为人所熟知
Ginseng is well known for its tonic effect.
人参是滋补身体的名药
3.in truth 事实上;实际上
In truth, her application was a bit half-hearted.
事实上,她并没有尽力申请
。4.be different from 和......不同;不同于
If you want to be different from others, you should not follow the fashion.
如果你想与众不同,就不要随时装大流走
。参考译文
威廉·威尔逊——第一部分
死神一点一点地逼近,它的降临柔软了我的心灵 。我渴望着穿越这黑暗的山谷,得到世人的同情 。我只求他们相信,我多多少少受了环境的摆弄,那是人力所控制不了的 。但愿他们看了我即将讲述的情节,证明我已尽力而为 。我想要他们承认,发生于我身上的事情,别人并没有经历过 。人们真的没经历过这样的痛苦吗?难道我不是生活在梦里?世间的一切怪诞幻象都那么恐怖、神秘,难道不会把我吓得一命归西?我们这族人,一直都想象力丰富 。在幼年时代,我就表现出了继承家族特征的秉性 。随着我一年一年地长大,这种秉性益发显著 。由于多种原因,它成了朋友们的话柄,我自己也备受伤害 。我变得一意孤行,行事疯狂,情绪常常失控 。
我的父母身体虚弱,性格也优柔寡断,他们拿我毫无办法 。他们也曾花费过心力,但终于还是一败涂地,而我当然是越发强盛 。此后,我的话便成了家法 。在大多数孩子还得牵着走路的年龄,我就开始率性而为了,自己当家作主 。我对学校生活的最早记忆,总离不开一幢约有三百年历史的大房子 。房子建在英格兰的一个小镇里,那儿有很多参天巨树 。所有的房子都特别古旧 。说真的,那个古老的小镇的确是个梦一般抚慰人心的所在 。这一刻,在想象中,我体味着浓荫如盖的大树下那份沁人心脾的凉意,我记得花朵散发出的芳香,怀着说不清的喜悦再次听到低沉的教堂钟声,每隔一个小时就会在寂静的天光里回荡 。我带来莫大的喜悦 。我现在特别悲惨——悲惨,千真万确——原谅我一时忘记自己的烦扰,写上一些琐事 。
此外,时间和地点非常重要 。正是在当时当地,我第一次看清了种种忠告,此后它一直如影随形 。且让我回忆一下 。我说过了,我们男孩子生活和上学的那幢房子古旧又宽阔 。那里的院子广阔,整座学校外面围着一圈高墙 。每周只有三次可以看到外面的世界:一天是去邻近的田野散步,两次是在星期天去教堂做礼拜 。那是村里唯一的教堂,我们学校的校长就是教堂的牧师 。我常常心怀惊奇和惶惑地在教堂里注视着他,这位牧师面容一派道貌岸然;法衣闪闪发光,与众不同 。这会是同一个人么?那个板着脸,衣着不洁,严峻地执行着学院律令的人吗?哦,这真是个可怖的问题,让我无从解释!
我记得我们的操场,它就在房子后面 。没有树,地面像石头一样坚硬 。屋前有个小花坛,只有赶上难得的机会,我们才能进入这片圣地,比如第一次进校,最后一次离校,还有就是在父母或朋友来带我们离校几天的时候 。可那幢房子是多么离奇有趣、古色生香啊!对我来说,它真是一座宫殿!没有尽头 。我不是总能分清到底是在楼上还是楼下 。从一间房到另一间房,免不了要遇到或上或下三四级台阶 。套间也数不胜数,多到难以想象,一间套一间!我们对这幢大房子的看法,和想到无限这个概念相去无多 。
我在里面住了五年,从来没告诉过任何人如何找到我和其他18个或20个男孩睡觉的小房间 。做教室的那个房间最大,我不由觉得,它是世界上最大的一间 。房间狭长,屋顶很底,窗子是哥特式的,天花板用的是那种硬而坚韧的木材 。在远处的一个角落,是我们校长勃兰斯比先生的办公室 。办公室的房门厚重,即便主人不在,我们宁愿死掉,也不会开一下门 。从10岁到15岁,我一直在这座古老学院的厚重墙壁所环绕的房间里度过,不过倒也没怎么嫌恶 。童年时代用不着去琢磨外面的世事 。我发现,学校宁静的生活,与后来青年时代的奢华生活,和完全成年后的罪恶生活相比,都更为快乐 。不过,我一定有很多地方与大多数男孩不同 。人们很少能清晰地记得幼年时的生活,而我童年的一切至今依然清晰如画 。说真的,我生性热诚、激情、专横,不久就在同学中出了名 。渐渐地,年龄比我大不太多的人都听命于我,只有一个人例外 。这位同学尽管跟我不沾亲也不带故,但却与我同名同姓,也叫威廉·威尔逊 。唯独这个男孩,才敢跟我较劲儿,才敢拒绝盲从我的指令 。
这让我很是困窘 。我试图让别人觉得我并不在乎,但事实是我害怕他 。我不得不努力使自己看起来和他并驾齐驱,而他却能轻而易举地和我打成平手 。这证明他确实比我厉害 。事实上,其他同学全然看不出我们之间的争斗 。他和我较劲儿时,做得都非常私密,没有人能看到或听到 。他缺乏我那种想领导其他男孩的野心,似乎只想拖我后腿 。有时,我看出他的做法似乎夹杂着一种柔情,这让我感到惊讶,总是高兴不起来 。我对他的做法并无感激之情可言;我认为这只意味着他觉得自己十分优秀,比我厉害 。或许,正因为他举止中的这点亲热,加上我们又同名同姓,刚巧又在同一天入校,所以,大家都说我们是兄弟 。威尔逊和我家一点关系都没有 。但如果我们是兄弟,那么准是双胞胎,因为我得知,我俩都出生于1809年1月19日 。这看起来似乎怪诞又奇妙 。