(单词翻译:单击)
Chapter 4 Lottie
第四章 洛蒂
If Sara had been a different kind of child,
如果萨拉是另外一种秉性的儿童，
the life she led at Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for the next few years would not have been at all good for her.
那么，此后十年在铭钦女士的高级女童培育院里度过的生活，对于她是不会有所裨益的。
She was treated more as if she were a distinguished guest at the establishment than as if she were a mere little girl.
她在那里仿佛被当作贵宾而不只是个小姑娘来对待。
If she had been a self-opinionated, domineering child,
如果她本是个生性执拗、盛气凌人的儿童，
she might have become disagreeable enough to be unbearable through being so much indulged and flattered.
受到了如此过分的娇纵与奉承，可能早已变得讨厌得令人难以容忍；
If she had been an indolent child, she would have learned nothing. Privately Miss Minchin disliked her,
如果她本是个懒散儿童，那她也就什么都学不到。铭钦女士私下里讨厌她，
but she was far too worldly a woman to do or say anything which might make such a desirable pupil wish to leave her school.
但铭钦女士是个非常世故的女人，不会去做或说什么有可能导致这样一位求之不得的学生希望离开她学校的事情。
She knew quite well that if Sara wrote to her papa to tell him she was uncomfortable or unhappy, Captain Crewe would remove her at once.
她知道得很清楚，只要萨拉写信告诉她爸爸她感到不舒适或者不快乐，克鲁上尉就会立即把她带走。
Miss Minchin's opinion was that if a child were continually praised and never forbidden to do what she liked,
铭钦女士的看法是只要一个孩子不断被夸奖，并且从来不被禁止做她喜欢的事，
she would be sure to be fond of the place where she was so treated.
她肯定会喜欢这样对待她的地方。
Accordingly, Sara was praised for her quickness at her lessons, for her good manners, for her amiability to her fellow pupils,
因此，萨拉由于学习聪明、举止良好、对同学和善而被夸奖。
for her generosity if she gave sixpence to a beggar out of her full little purse; the simplest thing she did was treated as if it were a virtue,
如果她从鼓囊囊的小钱包里取出微不足道的六便士给乞丐，那就由于她的慷慨而被夸奖。她所做的最简单的事情也都被看作美德来对待，
and if she had not had a disposition and a clever little brain, she might have been a very self-satisfied young person.
如果她本来没有好脾气和聪明的小脑筋，那她可能已成为一个十分自满的小家伙。
But the clever little brain told her a great many sensible and true things about herself and her circumstances,
但是那聪明的小脑筋告诉了她很多关于她自己以及她的处境的切合实际的真实情况，
and now and then she talked these things over to Ermengarde as time went on.
随着时间的推移，她不时同埃芒加德谈起这些情况。
"Things happen to people by accident," she used to say.
“人们遇到的一些事往往是碰巧发生的，”她曾这样说。
"A lot of nice accidents have happened to me.
“有很多好事儿发生在我身上。
It just happened that I always liked lessons and books, and could remember things when I learned them.
碰巧我一向就喜欢功课和书本，而且学了就能记住。
It just happened that I was born with a father who was beautiful and nice and clever, and could give me everything I liked.
碰巧我生来就有个十全十美的聪明的父亲，能供给我所喜欢的一切东西。
