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ELLEN O’HARA was thirty-two years old, and, according to the standards of her day, she was a middle-aged woman, one who had borne six children and buried three. She was a tall woman, standing a head higher than her fiery little husband, but she moved with such quiet grace in her swaying hoops that the height attracted no attention to itself. Her neck, rising from the black taffeta sheath of her basque, was creamy-skinned, rounded and slender, and it seemed always tilted slightly backward by the weight of her luxuriant hair in its net at the back of her head. From her French mother, whose parents had fled Haiti in the Revolution of 1791, had come her slanting dark eyes, shadowed by inky lashes, and her black hair; and from her father, a soldier of Napoleon, she had her long straight nose and her square-cut jaw that was softened by the gentle curving of her cheeks. But only from life could Ellen’s face have acquired its look of pride that had no haughtiness, its graciousness, its melancholy and its utter lack of humor.
　
爱伦·奥哈拉现年３２岁，依当时的标准已是个中年妇人，她生有六个孩子，但其中三个已经夭折。她高高的，比那位火爆性子的矮个儿丈夫高出一头，不过她的举止是那么文静，走起路来只见那条长裙子轻盈地摇摆，这样也就不显得怎么高了。她那奶酪色的脖颈圆圆的，细细的，从紧身上衣的黑绸圆领中端端正正地伸出来，但由于脑后那把戴着网套的丰盈秀发颇为浓重，便常常显得略后向仰。她母亲是法国人，是一对从1791年革命中逃亡到海地来的夫妇所生，她给爱伦遗传了这双在墨黑睫毛下略略倾斜的黑眼睛和这一头黑发。她父亲是拿破仑军队中的一名士兵，传给她一个长长的、笔直的鼻子和一个有棱有角的方颚，只不过后者在她两颊的柔美曲线的调和下显得不那么惹眼了。同时爱伦的脸也仅仅通过生活才养马了现在这副庄严而并不觉得傲慢的模样，这种优雅，这种忧郁而毫无幽默感的神态。

She would have been a strikingly beautiful woman had there been any glow in her eyes, any responsive warmth in her smile or any spontaneity in her voice that fell with gentle melody on the ears of her family and her servants. She spoke in the soft slurring voice of the coastal Georgian, liquid of vowels, kind to consonants and with the barest trace of French accent. It was a voice never raised in command to a servant or reproof to a child but a voice that was obeyed instantly at Tara, where her husband’s blustering and roaring were quietly disregarded.

如果她的眼神中有一点焕发的光采，她的笑容中带有一点殷勤的温煦，她那使儿女和仆人听来感到轻柔的声音中有一点自然的韵味，那她便是一个非常漂亮的女人了。她说话用的是海滨佐治亚人那种柔和而有点含糊的口音，元音是流音，子音咬得不怎么准，略略带法语腔调。这是一种即使命令仆人或斥责儿女时也从不提高的声音，但也是在塔拉农场人人都随时服从的声音，而她的丈夫的大喊大叫在那里却经常被悄悄地忽略了。

As far back as Scarlett could remember, her mother had always been the same, her voice soft and sweet whether in praising or in reproving, her manner efficient and unruffled despite the daily emergencies of Gerald’s turbulent household, her spirit always calm and her back unbowed, even in the deaths of her three baby sons. Scarlett had never seen her mother’s back touch the back of any chair on which she sat. Nor had she ever seen her sit down without a bit of needlework in her hands, except at mealtime, while attending the sick or while working at the bookkeeping of the plantation.

从思嘉记得的最早时候起，她母亲便一直是这个样子，她的声音，无论在称赞或者责备别人时，总是那么柔和而甜蜜；她的态度，尽管杰拉尔德在纷纷扰扰的家事中经常要出点乱子，却始终是那么沉着，应付自如；她的精神总是平静的，脊背总是挺直的，甚至在她的三个幼儿夭折时也是这样。思嘉从没见过母亲坐着时将背靠在椅子背上，也从没见过她手里不拿点针线活儿便坐下来（除了吃饭），即使是陪伴病人或审核农场账目的时候。

It was delicate embroidery if company were present, but at other times her hands were occupied with Gerald’s ruffled shirts, the girls’ dresses or garments for the slaves. Scarlett could not imagine her mother’s hands without her gold thimble or her rustling figure unaccompanied by the small negro girl whose sole function in life was to remove basting threads and carry the rosewood sewing box from room to room, as Ellen moved about the house superintending the cooking, the cleaning and the wholesale clothes-making for the plantation.

在有客人在场时，她手里是精巧的刺绣，别的时候则是缝制杰拉尔德的衬衫、女孩子的衣裳或农奴们的衣服。思嘉很难想象母亲手上不戴那个金顶针，或者她那一路啊啊啊啊的身影后面没有那个黑女孩，后者一生中唯一的任务是给她拆绷线，以及当爱伦为了检查烹饪、洗涤和大批的缝纫活儿而在满屋子四处乱跑动时，捧着那个红木针线拿儿从一个房间走到另一个房间。

词汇释义

1.grace[greis] n. 优美，优雅，恩惠 vt. 使荣耀，使优美

She performed on the balance beam with much grace.
她在平衡木上表演得非常优美。

2.luxuriant adj. 繁茂的，丰富的，肥沃的，奢华的

There is luxuriant tropical vegetation in our country.
我们国家有很多繁茂的热带植物。

3.slanting adj. 倾斜的，歪斜的 动词slant的现在分词形式

4.jaw n. 颚，颌，钳口，说教 v. 喋喋不休，教训

On hearing the news, his jaw dropped.
听到这个消息，他惊讶得张口结舌。

5.haughtiness n. 傲慢，不逊

6.melancholy n. 忧沉，悲哀，愁思 adj. 忧沉的，使人悲伤的，愁思的

A deep melancholy runs through her poetry.
她的诗中贯穿著悲伤的情调。

7.strikingly adv. 显著地，突出地，惊人地，引人注目地

Fine clothes added to his strikingly handsome appearance.
华丽的服装使他那极其英俊的外貌更为增色。

8.responsive adj. 回答的，应答的，易感应的

9.spontaneity n. 自然性，自生，自发

10.consonant n. 辅音 adj. 一致的，调和的，辅音的

English has 24 consonant phonemes.
英语有24个辅音音素。

11.blustering adj. 汹涌的，狂风大作的，狂暴的

The gale blustered all night.
大风刮了一夜。

12.unruffled adj. 不骚动的，不混乱的，安静的

She spoke with unruffled calm.
她从容不迫地讲话。

13.turbulent adj. 狂暴的，骚动的，动荡的，汹涌的

The sea is too turbulent for sailing.
海浪太大，不宜航行。

14.thimble n. 顶针，嵌环，套管

She put a thimble over the finger when sewing.
缝纫时，她在手上戴一枚顶针。

15. unaccompanied adj. 无伴侣的，不伴随的，无伴奏的

He traveled unaccompanied by his parents.
他没有父母陪伴而去旅行。

16.superintend[.sju:prin'tend] vt. 指挥，管理，监督

The manager is superintending the staff's work.
经理正在监督工人的工作。

难句解析

1.From her French mother, whose parents had fled Haiti in the Revolution of 1791, had come her slanting dark eyes, shadowed by inky lashes, and her black hair;

【难句解析】whose引导的定语从句修饰French mother, 后面的had come...是倒装，实际的主语是her slanting dark eyes...balck hair；

【句子翻译】她母亲是法国人，是一对从1791年革命中逃亡到海地来的夫妇所生，她给爱伦遗传了这双在墨黑睫毛下略略倾斜的黑眼睛和这一头黑发。

2.She would have been a strikingly beautiful woman had there been any glow in her eyes, any responsive warmth in her smile or any spontaneity in her voice that fell with gentle melody on the ears of her family and her servants.

【难句解析】这是个虚拟语气的句子，would have been是假设，表示事实不是这样的，意思是“原本可以是”；后面的had there been表条件，意思是“如果...”；

【句子翻译】如果她的眼神中有一点焕发的光采，她的笑容中带有一点殷勤的温煦，她那使儿女和仆人听来感到轻柔的声音中有一点自然的韵味，那她便是一个非常漂亮的女人了。

3.It was delicate embroidery if company were present, but at other times her hands were occupied with Gerald’s ruffled shirts, the girls’ dresses or garments for the slaves.

【难句解析】句中的company是“有人陪伴”的意思，而不是“公司”；be occupied with“忙于...”；

【句子翻译】在有客人在场时，她手里是精巧的刺绣，别的时候则是缝制杰拉尔德的衬衫、女孩子的衣裳或农奴们的衣服。