英国文化-----思考作为一种业余爱好
2011-05-30 20:06阅读：
花了一个双休日读了William Gerald
Golding的这篇文章，边读边背边摘录，与大家一起分享哦。（翻译最重要的就是知识储备，读读散文，也是一种储备）
Thinking as a Hobby
But I was growing towards
adolescence and had to admit that Mr. was not the only one with an
irresistible spring in his neck. I, too, felt the compulsive hand
of nature and began to find that pointing out contradictions could
be costly as well as fun.
Grade-two thinking is a
menace to religion and knocks down sects like
skittles. I put myself in a position to be converted
by her with an hypocrisy worthy of grade three.
But, instead of relying on the
Holy Spirit to convert me, she was foolish enough to open her
pretty mouth in argument.
I countered by saying
that the A believed in the literal inspiration of B, and the two
books are different. The argument
flagged.
An awful flicker of doubt
appeared in her eyes. I slid my arms around her waist and murmured
breathlessly …
The combination of my arm and
countless Buddhists was too much for her.
menace
1
men·ace1 /ˈmenɪs/ n
[Date: 1300-1400; Language: French;
Origin: Latin minacia, from minari 'to
threaten']
[C]
something or someone that is dangerous
= threat
menace of
It's the only way to deal with the menace
of drug dealing.
menace to
That man's a menace to society .
He should be locked away.
the growing
menace of oil pollution at sea
[U]
a threatening quality, feeling, or way of
behaving
There was menace in his voice.
air/sense of menace
There was a sense of menace as
the sky grew darker.
[C]
a person, especially a child that is annoying or causes
trouble
= nuisance
My little brother's a real
menace.
with menaces
BrE law if someone asks another person for something with
menaces, they use threats of violence to get what they
want
He was charged with demanding money with
menaces.
menace
2
menace2 v
[T]
formal to threaten
The elephants are still menaced
by poachers
skittle
skit·tle
/ˈskɪtl/ n
skittles[U]
a British game in which a player tries to knock down objects shaped
like bottles by rolling a ball at them
[C]
one of the objects you roll the ball at in the game of
skittles
flag
2
flag2 v past
tense and past participle flagged present
participle flagging
[Date: 1500-1600; Origin: Origin
unknown]
[T]
to make a mark against some information to show that it is
important
I've flagged the parts I want to comment
on.
[I]
to become tired or weak
By the end of the meeting we had
begun to flag.
flag down [flag sb/sth⇔down] phr v
to make the driver of a vehicle stop by waving at
them
I flagged down a taxi.
flicker
2
flicker2 n
[C]
an unsteady light that goes on and off quickly
flicker of
the flicker of the
firelight
a flicker of emotion/uncertainty/excitement etc
a feeling or expression that continues for a very short
time
She saw a flicker of doubt in his
eyes.
a quick sudden movement or series of movements
I was given the third degree to
find out what had happened. I lost A and gained an undeserved
reputation as a potential libertine.
It was in this knowledge, at
the age of 15, that I made a comment from the heights of grade two,
on the limitations of grade 3.
The headmaster had ceased to
thump A down on the desk as an example to the young. Perhaps he had
not found any candidates, but the statuettes were still there,
glimmering and gathering dust on top of the cupboard. I stood A on
the filing cabinet, so that now B caught its breath in a gasp of
sexy excitement. The portentous Thinker I placed on the edge of the
cupboard so that he could look down at the bath towel and waited
for it to silp.
portentous
por·ten·tous /pɔːˈtentəs US pɔːr-/ adj
literary showing that something important is going to
happen, especially something bad
Recent developments
are as portentous as the collapse of the Berlin
Wall.
trying to appear important and serious
a portentous
film
Grade-two thinking, though
filled life with fun and excitement, did not make for content. To
find out the deficiencies of our elders bolsters the young ego but
does not make for personal security.
But these grade-one thinkers
were few and far between. They did not visit my grammar school in
flesh thought they are there in books.
I now saw my hobby as an
unsatisfactory thing if they went no further.
He was a German who had just
fled from the Nazis to Oxford as a temporary refuge.
I beamed at him, trying
wordlessly to convey by my bearing all the affection and respect
that the English felt for him.
I doubt if my face conveyed
more than a formless awe. I would have given my Greek, Latin and
French and a good slice of English for enough German to
communicate.
With true greatness, A realized
that my contact was better than none.
My brain reeled. Here I was,
mingling with the great, and yet helplessly as the veriest
grade-three thinker. Desperately I sought for some sign by which I
might convey that I, too, revered pure reason. In a brilliant
flash, I used up half of my German vocabulary.
reel
1
reel1
/riːl/ v [I]
to be confused or shocked by a situation
Norman's brain was
reeling, but he did his best to appear calm.
reel from
The party is still reeling from its
recent election defeat.
also reel back
to step backwards suddenly and almost fall over, especially after
being hit or getting a shock
Diane reeled back in
amazement.
The force of the punch sent him reeling
against the wall.
[always + adverb/preposition]
to walk in an unsteady way and almost fall over, as if you are
drunk
Andy reeled away from the bar and knocked over his
stool.
to seem to go around and around
The room reeled before
my eyes and I fainted.
reel in [reel sb/sth⇔in] phr v
to wind the reel on a fishing rod so that a fish caught on the line
comes towards you
It took almost an hour to reel the fish
in.
to get or attract a large number of people or things
= pull
in
The programme reels in more than 13
million viewers a show.
reel off [reel sth⇔off] phr v
to repeat a lot of information quickly and
easily
Jack reeled off a list of names.
informal to do something again and
again
The Yankees reeled off 14 straight
wins.
The professor, his whole figure
conveying good will and amiability, drifted away out of my
sight.
I was irreverent at the best of
times.
They all came tumbling down
like so many rotten apples off a tree. I came up in the end with
what must always remain justification for grade-one thinking, its
sign, its seal and charter. Conversion of the world to my way of
thinking might be difficult, since my system did away with a number
of trifles, such as big businesses, central government, armies, and
marriage.
But my acquaintances vanished,
taking girls with them. Young women seemed oddly contented with the
world as it was. They valued the meaningless ceremony with a ring.
Young men, while willing to concede the chaining
sordidness of marriage, were hesitate about abandoning
the organizations which they hoped would give them a
career.
while perfectly agreeable to
doing away with big businesses and marriage, got as rednecked as B
when I proposed a world without any battleships in it.
sordid
sor·did
/ˈsɔːdɪd US ˈsɔːr-/
adj
[Date: 1500-1600; Language: Latin;
Origin: sordidus, from sordes 'dirt']
involving immoral or dishonest behaviour
sordid business/affair/story etc
The whole sordid
affair came out in the press.
She discovered the
truth about his sordid past.
I want to hear all the
sordid details!
very dirty and unpleasant
= squalid
a sordid little room
Had the game gone too far? Was
it a game any longer? In those prewar days, I stood to lose a great
deal, for the sake of a hobby.
Now you are expecting me to
describe how I saw the folly of my ways and came back to warm nest,
where prejudices are often called loyalties, where pointless
actions are hallowed into custom by repetition, where
we are content to say we think when all we do is feel.
hallowed
hal·lowed
/ˈhæləud US -loud/
adj
[Date: 1200-1300; Origin: hallow 'to
make holy', from Old English halgian, from halig;
HOLY]
holy or made holy by religious
practices
→sacred
The bones will be buried in hallowed ground
.
important and respected by a lot of
people
the hallowed halls of
government
hallowed
traditions
I dropped my hobby and turned
professional.
I would dust Venus and put her
aside, for I have come to love her and know her for the fair thing
she was. But I would put the Thinker, sunk in his desperate
thought, where there were shadows before him—and at his back, I
would put the leopard, crouched and ready to spring.
