(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Rass Island lies as low as the back of a turtle on the dark green water of the Chesapeake Bay. We Bradshaws have lived here for more than two hundred years. I love Rass Island although for much of my life I did not think I did. During the summer of nineteen forty-one, every morning McCall Purnell and I would get my small boat and go out to catch shellfish called crabs. Watermen on our island sell crabs and eat crabs. Call and I were right smart crabbers and we could always come home with a little money as well as crabs for dinner. My mother was pleased with the money I made. "My!" she said, "That was a good morning. By the time you wash, we'll be ready to eat!" I like the way she did that. She never said I was dirty or that I smelled bad. Just by the time you wash up.
She was a real lady my mother, she had come to teach in the island school and fell in love with my father. What my father needed more than a wife was sons. What my mother gave him was girls. Twin girls! I was older than my sister by a few minutes. I always treasure the thought of those minutes. They were the only time in my life when I was the center of everyone's attention. From the moment Caroline was born, she took all the attention for herself. When my mother and grandmother told the story of our births, it was mostly of how Caroline had refused to breathe. "But where was I?" I asked my mother. "In the basket," she said, "Grandma dressed you and put you in the basket." Caroline's true gift was her voice. Our teacher, Mr. Rice, said she should have singing lessons. I was proud of my sister, but something began to hurt me under the pride. One day, Mama and Caroline came back to the island on a boat after Caroline's singing lesson. There was an old man on the boat whom I'd never seen before. Our island held few secrets or surprises beyond the weather. But all the old people agreed that he was Hiram Wallace. My friend Call and I started visiting Hiram Wallace. We decided simply to call him the Captain.
The Captain stayed at our house when the big storm hit in nineteen forty-two. Afterward, we took my little boat heading straight for the Captain's house. But nothing was left at the spot where the Captain's house had stood the night before. Even with his white beard the Captain looked like a little boy trying not to cry. Not long after that, the Captain married Trudy Braxton who lived on the island. She was not well and did not live long. Soon the Captain came up the path to our house, his face red with excitement. He told my mother and me that Trudy left a little money. "There is enough for Caroline to go to boarding school in Baltimore, Maryland and continue her music." said the Captain. I sat there as surprised as if he had thrown a rock in my face! "Caroline!" My grandmother came up close behind me. I stiffened at the sound of her hoarse whisper. "Romans 9-13," she said. She repeated the saying from the Christian Bible about the competition between two brothers for their father's love. "Jacob Have I Loved, but Esau have I hated". I had always believed the Captain was different. But he, like everyone else, had chosen Caroline over me.
In the autumn I left school, I spent the winter catching oysters, another kind of shellfish, with my father. That strange winter with my father on his boat was the happiest of my life. I was, for the first time, deeply satisfied with what life was giving me. Part of it was the things I discovered. Who would have believed that my father sang while catching oysters! My quiet father whose voice could hardly be heard in church sang to the oysters! It was a wonderful sound! I did not want to go back to school, so my mother taught me at home. I passed the test for graduation with the highest grades recorded from Rass Island. The war in Europe ended in 1945. At the end of crab season Call came home from the war. The body of a large man in uniform was filling the door. "Call," I cried, "O my blessed Call, you have grown up!" "That's what the navy promised," he said. Call told the Captain he had stopped to see Caroline. His face burned with happiness when he told the Captain "She said YES to me!" He said softly, "I guess it is hard for you to think someone like Caroline might like me."
I went back to the crab house. Soon after Call and Caroline were married, the Captain said to me, "This is hard for you, isn't it? What is it you really want to do?" I was totally empty. What was it I really wanted to do? "Your sister knew what she wanted," said the Captain. "So when the chance came she could take it. Do not tell me no one ever gave you a chance, Sara Louise. You can make your own chances. But first you have to know what you are after, my dear." "I would like to see the mountains," I said, and then my dream began to form along with the sentence, "I might, I want to be a doctor." "So what is stopping you?" the Captain asked. I realized that under all my dreams of leaving home, I was afraid to go. My mother had told me that she had chosen to leave her people and build the life for herself somewhere else. "I certainly would not stop you from making the same choice," my mother said to me now, "but all we will miss you, your father and I." I wanted so to believe her, "As much as you miss Caroline?" "More," she said. I was so grateful for that one word. It allowed me to leave the island and build myself separate from the long-long shadow of my twin.
I started out that spring, shiny as a new crab pot all set to capture the world. I became a nurse-midwife, the person who helps deliver babies. Small towns in the Appalachian Mountains needed nurse-midwives and I went to a town called Truitt, my father's first name. People there are usually slow to accept outsiders, but they needed my skills for all their medical problems. A farmer named Joseph Wojtkiewicz asked me to treat his son for a high fever. Joseph had three children. Their mother had been dead for several years. He asked me where I came from. No one had ever invited me to talk about home before, and the longer I talked the more I wanted to talk. At last I stopped, I even apologized. "No, no," Joseph said, "I asked because I wanted to know. I've kept wondering ever since you came. Why would a woman like you who could have anything she wanted come to a place like this? Now I understand. God in Heaven has been raising you for this place from the day you were born. " And then he smiled. I guess from that moment I knew I was going to marry Joseph Wojtkiewicz. For when he smiled he looked like the kind of man he would sing to the oysters.
My work didn't end with my marriage to Joseph or even with the birth of our son Chuit. One night, I was helping with the birth and I suspected twins. The first baby -- a boy came easily. But the second baby -- a girl came head first and blue as death. The kitchen was slightly warmer than the bedroom, so I laid the second baby on some cloth on the door of the oven. Then I suddenly asked, "Where is the other twin?" In my concern for his sister, I had completely forgotten him. "He's sleeping in the basket," said the grandmother. "You should hold him," I said, "and let his mother nurse him." Hours later I walked home in the snow. I bent my head backward to drink in the stars, and clearly I heard a song so sweet and pure I had to hold myself to keep from breaking.
重点解析
1.wash up 洗脸；洗手洗脸
He headed to the bathroom to wash up.
他走进洗手间去洗漱。
2.be proud of 为……自豪；骄傲
That's a beautiful piece of work. You should be proud of it.
那件作品非常漂亮，你应当为之自豪。
3.grow up 成长；长大成人
Kate was in a hurry to grow up, eager for knowledge and experience.
凯特急于长大，渴望获取知识和经验。
4.be grateful for 感谢；对……感激
She would be grateful for their company on the drive back.
有他们做伴开车陪她回去，她会很感激的。
参考译文
《我爱过的雅各布》。拉斯岛位于切萨皮克湾深绿色的水面上，像海龟的背一样低。我们布拉德肖一家在这里住了两百多年了。我爱拉斯岛，尽管我一生中大部分时间都不是这样想的。1941年的夏天，我和麦考尔·珀内尔每天早上都会搭上我的小船，出海去捞螃蟹。我们岛上的船工卖螃蟹，也吃螃蟹。我和考尔都是聪明的捕蟹人，我们回家时除了带回晚饭吃的螃蟹外，还总能挣点小钱。母亲对我挣的钱很满意。 “天哪！”她说：“真是个美好的早晨。等你洗漱完，我们就可以开饭了！”我喜欢她这样做。她从不说我脏，也不说我臭。只是提醒我去洗漱。
我母亲是位真正的淑女，她来岛上的学校教书，然后与我的父亲相爱。父亲除了娶妻外，最想要的就是儿子。而妈妈生的都是女孩，一对双胞胎女孩！我比妹妹大几分钟。我总是珍惜那几分钟时间，它是我生命中唯一成为大家关注焦点的时刻。从卡罗琳出生的那一刻起，她就聚集了所有人的注意力。母亲和祖母讲述我们出生的故事时，主要说的都是卡罗琳拒绝呼吸的事。“但我在哪儿呢？”我问我妈妈。“在篮子里，”她说，“奶奶给你穿好衣服，把你放进篮子里。”卡罗琳真正的天赋是她的声音。我们的老师赖斯先生说，她应该上歌唱课。我为妹妹感到骄傲，但在这种自豪之下，有些事情开始伤害到我。一天，在卡罗琳上完歌唱课后，她和妈妈乘船回到岛上。船上有一位我以前从未见过的老人。除了天气，我们岛上没有什么秘密或惊喜。但是，所有老人都认为他是海拉姆·华莱士。我和朋友考尔开始拜访海拉姆·华莱士。我们决定叫他船长。
1942年那场大风暴来袭时，船长呆在我们家里。后来，我们乘我那条小船直奔船长的家。但是，前天晚上船长的房子所在的地方什么也没留下。即使留着白胡子，船长看起来还是像个忍住不哭的小男孩。不久之后，船长娶了住在岛上的特鲁迪·布拉克斯顿。她身体不好，很快就去世了。没多久，船长沿着小路来到我们家，他激动得满脸通红。他告诉我和妈妈，特鲁迪留下了一点钱。“这些钱够让卡罗琳去马里兰州巴尔的摩的寄宿学校继续学习音乐。”船长说。我坐在那里，惊讶得好像他朝我脸上扔了一块石头似的！“卡罗琳！”祖母靠近我。听到她沙哑的低语声，我的身体僵住了。“罗九13，”她说。她重复着《基督教圣经》中的一句话，说的是兄弟俩人为争夺父爱而竞争。“雅各是我所爱的，以扫是我所恨的。”我一直认为，船长与众不同。但他和其他人一样，选择了卡罗琳。
秋天，我离开了学校。我和父亲冬天时一起捉牡蛎，这是另一种贝类。和父亲在船上度过的那个奇特的冬天，是我一生中最快乐的时光。我第一次对生活赐予我的东西深感满意，部分原因源自我所发现的事。谁会相信父亲在抓牡蛎的时候唱歌呢！我那安静的父亲，在教堂里几乎听不到他的声音，而他却对着牡蛎唱歌！那歌声真美妙！我不想回学校，所以妈妈在家教我。我以拉斯岛的最好成绩通过了毕业考试。欧洲战争于1945年结束。在捉螃蟹的季节结束时，考尔从战场归来。一个穿制服的大个子男人，挡住了门口。“考尔，”我喊道，“哦，亲爱的考尔，你已经长大了！”“这是海军承诺的事，”他说。考尔告诉船长，他见过卡罗琳了。当他对船长说“她答应了我！”时，高兴得满脸通红。他轻声说：“我猜你很难想象，卡罗琳这样的人会喜欢我。”
我回到了装蟹的屋子。考尔和卡罗琳结婚后不久，船长对我说：“这对你来说很难，对吗？你真正想做的是什么？”我心里空落落的。我真正想做的是什么？“你妹妹知道她想要什么，”船长说。“所以当机会来临时，她可以抓住它。别告诉我没人给过你机会，萨拉·路易斯。你可以自己创造机会。但首先你得知道自己要什么，亲爱的。” “我想去看山，”我说，我的梦想随着这句话开始形成，“我可能，我想成为一名医生。” “那是什么阻止你这么做呢？”船长问。我意识到自己所有想离家的梦想，但我不敢离开。母亲告诉过我，她选择离开与自己生活在一起的人，到别处建立自己的生活。“我当然不会阻止你做出同样的选择，”母亲现在对我说，“但我们都会想念你，你父亲和我。”我很想相信她，“就像你想念卡罗琳一样吗？” “比想她更多，”她说。我很感激她这么说。正是这句话让我离开了小岛，把自己从双胞胎妹妹那深深的阴影中分离出来。
我从那年春天开始，闪亮的像个崭新的蟹笼，想将一切收入囊中。我成为了一名帮助产妇分娩的助产士。阿巴拉契亚山区的小镇需要助产护士，我去了一个叫特鲁伊特的小镇，我父亲的名字就是特鲁伊特。那里的人通常很难接受外人，但他们需要我的技能来处理所有的疾患。一个叫约瑟夫·沃基维奇的农民让我帮他的儿子退烧。约瑟夫有三个孩子，他们的母亲已经去世好几年了。他问我从哪里来。以前从来没有人让我谈论过自己的家事，谈得越久，我就越想谈。最后我停下来，甚至开始道歉。“不，不，”约瑟夫说，“我问是因为我想知道。自从你来后，我一直在想，为什么像你这样一个能得到任何想要东西的女人，会来到这样的地方？现在我明白了。从你出生的那天起，天上的神就在为这个地方养育你。”然后他笑了。我想从那一刻起，我就知道自己会嫁给约瑟夫·沃吉维奇。因为当他微笑时，他看起来像那种会对着牡蛎唱歌的人。
我的工作并没有因为我和约瑟夫结婚，甚至是我们的儿子蔡特的出生而结束。一天晚上，我在帮忙分娩，我怀疑是双胞胎。第一个孩子是个男婴，很容易就出来了。但是第二个女婴头朝前，脸色发青。厨房比卧室暖和一点，所以我把第二个婴儿放在炉门上的一块布上。然后我突然问：“另一个孩子在哪儿？”我为了照顾他的妹妹，完全忘记了那个男婴。“他睡在篮子里，”祖母说。“你应该抱着他，”我说，“让他妈妈照顾他。”几个小时后，我走在雪地里回家。我抬起头仰望星空，清晰地听到一首甜美又纯洁的歌，我强忍着不让自己崩塌。
