[B]Four Passages From the Dramatic
Writings of Shakespeare[/SIZE][/B]
Twelfth Night
II.iv.103-117
[DUKE OF ILLYRIA]
What dost thou know?
[VIOLA]
Too well what love women to men may owe.
In faith, they are as true of heart as we.
My father had a daughter loved a man
As it might be perhaps, were I a woman,
I should your lordship.
[DUKE OF ILLYRIA]
And what's her history?
[VIOLA]
A blank, my lord. She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i'th'bud,
Feed on her damask cheek. She pined in thought;
And, with a green and yellow melancholy,
She sat like Patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?
We men may say more, swear more; but indeed
Our shows are more than will; for still we prove
Much in our vows but little in our love.[/COLOR]
[B]莎士比亞戲劇精選四段[/B]
男人的愛與女人的愛
[伊利里亞公爵]
您深知的是什麼?
[薇奧拉]
深知女人可以如何熱愛男人。
真的，她們象我們一樣真心。
當年我爹有個女兒愛上個郎，
正如，假如我是女的，也許我會愛上爵爺您。
[伊利里亞公爵]
結果她的遭遇呢?
[薇奧拉]
是片空白。她沒有透露她的愛意，
卻讓這秘密，象蓓蕾中的害蟲，
吃她淡紅的面頰來養生。哀思中憔悴了，
帶著又綠又黃的憂鬱，
她如墓碑般有耐性，坐著，
看著悲傷微笑。那還不是真愛嗎?
我們男的說更多話、發更多誓；實際上卻虛飾多於真情；
常見誓言誇張， 情意有限。
【作者簡介】
威廉莎士比亞,英國歷史上，乃至世界歷史上最偉大的戲劇大師，他於1564年出生於英國中部的斯特拉夫鎮.十三四歲時因家庭破產而輟學。之後，他先後當過士兵、教師、劇院的雜役、演員和劇團股東。傳說他出生的日期為四月二十三日。莎士比亞的語言異常凝美，內涵也無比豐富。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-7-29 01:20 標題: Shakespeare (2) [B]Why, How Know You That I Am in Love?[/B]
[SPEED]
Marry, by these special marks: first, you have learned, like Sir Proteus,to wreathe your arms like a malcontent, to relish a love-song like a robin-red-breast, to walk alone like one that had the pestilence, to sign like a schoolboy that had lost his A B C, to weep like a young wench that had buried her grandam, to fast like one that takes diet, to watch like one that fears robbing, to speak puling like a beggar at Hallowmas. You were wont, when you laughed, to crow like a cock; when you walked, to walk like one of the lions; When you fasted, it was presently after dinner; when you looked sadly, it was for want of money. And now you are metamorphosed with a mistress, that when I look on you, I can hardly think you my master.[/COLOR]
How use doth breed a habit in a man!
This shadowy desert, unfrequented woods,
I better brook than flourishing peopled towns.
Here can I sit alone, unseen of any,
And to the nightingale complaining notes
Tune my distresses and record my woes.
O thou that dost inhabit in my breast,
Leave not the mansion so long tenantless,
Lest, growing ruinous, the building fall
And leave no memory of what it was.[/COLOR]
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact.
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold:
That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt.
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination
That, if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy,
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear![/COLOR]
Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to ro mance.
On Saturday evenings when my aunt went marketing I had to go to carry some of the parcels. We walked through the flaring streets, jostled by drunken men and bargaining women, amid the curses of laborers, the shrill litanies of shop-boys who stood on guard by the barrels of pigs cheeks, the nasal chanting of streetsingers, who sang a come-all-you about ODonovan Rosa, or a ballad about the troubles in our native land. These noises converged in a single sensation of life for me: I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes. Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand. My eyes were often full of tears (I could not tell why) and at times a flood from my heart seemed to pour itself out into my bosom. I thought little of the footer. I did not know whether I would ever speak to her or not or, if I spoke to her, how I could tell her of my confused adoration. Buttery body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.
One evening I went into the back drawing-room in which the priest had died. It was a dark rainy evening and there was no sound in the house. Through one of the broken panes I heard the rain impinge upon the earth, the fine incessant needles of water playing in the sodden beds. Some distant lamp or lighted window gleamed below me. I was thankful that I could see so little. All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves and, feeling that I was about to slip from them, I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: O love! O love! many times.[/COLOR]
【作者簡介】
詹姆斯•喬埃斯(1882－1941)，著名小說家，名作有《尤利西斯》。本文節選自其短篇小說《初戀》。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-7-29 01:31
to be continued[/FONT] [:467:]作者: bluepolish 時間: 2005-7-30 13:58
well done! thx for shared such wonderful articles.作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-7-31 02:39
[B]Turning-point of our Life[/B]
My father was, I am sure, intended by nature to be a cheerful, kindly man. Until he was thirty-four years old he worked as a farm-hand for a man named Thomas Butterworth whose place lay near the town of Biddable, Ohio. He had then a horse of his own and on Saturday evenings drove into town to spend a few hours in social intercourse with other farm-hands. In town he drank several glasses of beer and stood about in Ben Head's saloon-crowded on Saturday evenings with visiting farm-hands. Songs were sung and glasses thumped on the bar. At ten o'clock my father drove home along a lonely country road, made his horse comfortable for the night and himself went to bed, quite happy in his position in life. He had at that time no notion of trying to rise in the world.
It was in the spring of his thirty-fifth year that father married my mother, then a country schoolteacher, and in the following spring I came wriggling and crying into the world. Something happened to the two people. They became ambitious. The American passion for getting up in the world took possession of them.
It may have been that mother was responsible. Being a schoolteacher she had no doubt read books and magazines. She had, I presume, read of how Garfield, Lincoln, and other Americans rose from poverty to fame and greatness and as I lay beside her---in the days of her lying-in---she may have dreamed that I would some day rule men and cities. At any rate she induced father to give up his place as a farm-hand, sell his horse and embark on an independent enterprise of his own. She was a tall silent woman with a long nose and troubled Grey eyes. For herself she wanted nothing. For father and myself she was incurably ambitious.[/COLOR]
【註釋】
lying-in:產期，分娩
By the time they at last came to speech they were alone in one of the rooms-remarkable for a fine portrait over the chimneyplace-out of which their friends had passed, and the charm of it was that even before they had spoken they had practically arranged with each other to stay behind to talk, The charm, happily, was in other things too-partly in there being scarce a spot at Weathered without something to stay behind for. It was in the way the autumn day looked into the hilt windows as it waned; the way the red light, breaking at the close from under a low somber sky, reached out in a long shaft and played over old wainscots, old tapestry, old gold, old color. It was most of all perhaps in the way she came to him as if ,since she had been turned on to deal with the simpler sort, he might, should he choose to keep the whole thing down, just take her mild attention for a part of her general business. As soon as he heard her voice, however, the gap was filled up and the missing link supplied, the slight irony he divined in her attitude lost its advantage. He almost jumped at it to get there before her. "I met you years and years ago in Rome. I remember all about it." She confessed to disappointment---she had been so sure he didn't; and to prove how well he did he began to pour forth the particular recollections that popped up as he called for them. Her face and her voice, all at his service now, worked the miracle---the impression operating like the torch of a lamplighter who touches into flame, one by one, a long row of gas jets.[/COLOR]
[B]妙[/B]
到了他們最後開始對話時，一間屋子裡只有他們兩個人――壁爐架上著一幅精美的畫像，顯得很別緻――他們的朋友都走出屋子了，妙就妙在他們還沒有講話，實際上雙方已約定要留下來談談。妙的是妙處不僅於此，部分妙處還在於韋瑟恩德沒有一處不是值得留下來的。還妙在秋日西斜，那樣照在高高的窗子上；還妙在紅霞在低低的、暗淡的上空盡頭斷裂，化成一長道光澤，在年代悠久的護壁和掛毯上，在陳舊的鑲金和色彩上閃動。最最妙的是她向他走來的樣子，她既然被用來應付比較簡單的遊客，如果他想把整個事情遮掩過去，他滿可以把她對他的適度的照顧當作她一般職責的一部分。然而，他一聽到她的聲音，空白就填滿了，失去的那一環也補足了，他覺察到她態度中帶有的輕微的嘲弄成分也不起作用了。他幾乎對她的嘲弄感到欣尉，這樣好先開口。「好多好多年前，我在羅馬見到過您，這一切我都記得。」她承認她很失望――她一直肯定他不記得了；為了證明他記得清清楚楚，他開始滔滔不絕地講一樁樁召之即來的具體的回憶。她的臉、她的聲音，現在都聽從他的使喚，出現了奇迹――其效果就象點燈人所用的火炬，把一長排的煤氣噴嘴一個個地點燃了。
【作者簡介】
亨利•詹姆斯(1843―1916)，美國文學家，后移居倫敦。重要作品有：《美國人》(1877)，《戴西•米勒》(Daisy Miller)等等。本文節先自其小說《叢林中的野獸》。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-7-31 02:43
[B]Nothing but an Assumption[/B]
As I walked home in a pensive mood, my vanity got the better of my pity. I could not but highly plume myself on my masterly management in getting rid of Bartleby. Masterly I call it, and such it must appear to any dispassionate thinker. The beauty of my procedure seemed to consist in its perfect quietness. There was no vulgar bullying,no bravado of any sort, no choleric hectoring, and striding to and fro across the apartment, jerking out vehement commands for Bartleby to bundle himself off with his beggarly traps. Nothing of the kind. Without loudly bidding Bartleby depart as an inferior genius might have done I assumed the grown that depart he must; and upon that assumption built all I had to say. The more I thought over my procedure, the more I was charmed with it. Nevertheless, next morning, upon awakening, I had my doubts I had somehow slept off the fumes of vanity. One of the coolest and wisest hours a man has, is just after he awakes in the morning. My procedure seemed as sagacious as ever but only in theory. How it would prove in practice---there was the rub. It was truly a beautiful thought to have assumed Bartleby's departure; but, after all, that assumption was simply my own, and none of Bartleby's. The great point was, not whether I had assumed that he would quit me, but whether he would repress so to do. He was more a man of preferences than assumptions.[/COLOR]
[B]不過是個設想[/B]
我走在回家的路上，沉思著，我的虛榮心勝過了憐憫之心。我攆走巴特比，安排得十分高明到家，禁不住自鳴得意起來。我稱之為高明到家，任何不帶偏見看問題的人也定然抱有同感。整個過程的妙處似乎就在於絕對的心平氣和。沒有低級庸俗的持強欺弱，沒有任何形式的虛張聲勢，沒有怒氣沖沖的威脅恐嚇，也沒有在室內大步踱來踱去，氣勢洶洶地嚷著，命令巴特比連同他那叫化子般的隨身物一同滾蛋。這樣的事兒絲毫沒有。我沒有高聲命令巴特比走――才能低下一點的就可能那麼幹了――我的假設是他非走不可，我講的每一句話都是以這一假設為依據的。對於這個過程，我越想越覺得陶醉其中了。但是，第二天早晨我一醒就感到懷疑――不知怎的，這一覺睡走了那虛榮心的迷霧。一個人最冷靜最明智的時刻就是早晨剛剛醒來以後。我的做法似乎仍象以前一樣高超精明――但那只是從理論上講。實踐證明如何呢――定會有衝突。認為巴特比已離去，這確實是一個很美的想法；但這畢竟是我自己的設想，不是巴特比的。根本的問題不在於我是不是假設他願意離開我，而是他願不願這樣做。 他是一個憑意願辦事的人，而不是一個憑假設辦事的人。
【作者簡介】
赫爾曼•梅爾維爾(1819―1891)，美國小說家，名作有《莫比―迪克》。本文節選自其小說《繕寫員―華爾街的一個故事》。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-7-31 02:48
[B]Under the Power of Nature[/B]
During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung up pressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher . I knew not how it was---but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic , sentiment with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible, I looked upon the scene before me---upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain, upon the bleak walls, upon the vacant eye-like windows, upon a few randy sedges, and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees---with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the afterdream of the reveler upon opium; the bitter lapse into everyday life ,the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart, an unredeemed torture into ought of the sublime. What was it I paused to think what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher? It was a mystery all insoluble; nor could I grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I pondered. I was forded to fall back upon the unsatisfactory conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there are combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power of thus affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among considerations beyond our depth.[/COLOR]
[B]在自然威力之下[/B]
那年秋天某日，天氣陰沉、昏暗而又寂靜，雲層低壓，令人窒息。整整一天，我獨自一人策馬行進，穿過一條異常沉悶的鄉間小路；暮色降臨時分，我已經不知不覺來到那幢舉目可望的凄涼的厄謝爾宅第這個地方。但是，不知怎的――頭一眼望見這幢房子，就被一種令人難以忍受的陰鬱窒悶住我的心。我說難以忍受，那是因為即使人們看到最最嚴峻、荒涼或可怕的自然景象時，頭腦里通常還有某種由景象的富有詩意所產生的幾分快感，但此情此景卻絲毫引不起此種感情。我看著眼前的情景――宅第本身，房子周圍單調的景象，光禿禿的牆壁，空空的、眼睛窟窿似的窗戶，幾叢雜亂的菅茅，幾株灰白的枯樹――心情十分沮喪，同人世間任何心情相比，把它比作過足鴉片煙癮的人，從夢幻中醒來，回到現實生活里的痛苦心情，最為適當了。心中一涼，只覺得往下沉，難受極了。還有一種不可驅除的凄涼之感，無論作何設想也不能激起我的興緻。那麼，究竟是什麼――我停下來考慮――究竟是什麼使我在凝望厄謝爾宅第時如此心煩意亂呢?這完全是一個無法解答的謎；在我考慮的時候，我腦海里充滿了模模糊糊的想法，卻無法弄清是怎麼回事。我只好回到那個不能令人滿意的結論上來，即：儘管一些非常簡單的自然景物結合在一起，也無疑具有影響我們的威力，但要分析這種威力卻超過了我們思考的深度。
【作者簡介】
埃德加•愛倫坡(1809―1849)，美國作家，其詩歌和小說受到推崇。本文節選自其短篇小說《厄謝爾宅第的倒塌》。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-7-31 02:56
[B]Accepting The Command of The Army[/B]
From A Letter to His Wife, 1775 by George Washington
You may believe me, when I assure you in the most solemn manner that, so far from seeking this employment, I have used every effort in my power to avoid it, not only from my unwillingness to part with you and the family, but from a consciousness of its being a trusty too great for my capacity; and I should enjoy more real happiness in one month with you at home than I have the most distant prespect of finding abroad, if my stay were to be seven times seven years. But as it has been a kind of destiny that has thrown me upon this service, I shall hope that my undertaking it is designed to answer some good purpose...
I shall rely confidently on that Providence which has heretofore preserved and been bountiful to me, not doubting but that I shall return safe to you in the fall. I shall feel no pain from the toil or danger of the campaign; my unhappy pines will flow from the uneasiness I know you will feel from being left alone. I therefore beg that you will summon your whole fortitude, and pass your time as agreeably as possible. Nothing will give me so much sincere satisfaction as to hear this, and to hear it from your own pen. [/FONT] [/COLOR]
[B]受命統率全軍[/B]
你可以相信我，我極其莊嚴地向你保證我根本沒有追求過這項任命，而是竭盡全力，千方百計地迴避它。這不僅是因為我不願意同你以及全家人分別，而且因為我深知責任重大，非我力所能及。另外，倘若我出門數十載尋求前景非常遙遠的幸福，那還比不上在家中與你相聚一個月那樣真正幸福。但是，既然命運已賦予我這個使命，我希望，安排我來承擔這個任務是為了使我有所建樹......
我將信賴一直保佑我和降福於我的上帝，深信到秋天我將平安地回到你身邊。對出征所帶來的艱辛和危險，我不會感到痛苦；使我難過的是我知道你獨自一人留在家中必然感到焦慮不安。因此，我懇求你鼓起全部勇氣，盡量愉快地過日子。沒有什麼比聽到你過得愉快的消息――並且是從你的筆下聽到這消息，能使我感到更大的欣慰了。
【作者簡介】
喬治•華盛頓：出生於1732年2月22日，美國第一屆總統（1789年4月－1797年3月）。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-7-31 02:59
Letter to Lord Chesterfield
February 7,1755 一七五五年二月七日
My Lord:
I have been lately informed, by the proprietor of the World, that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the Public, were written by your Lordship. To be so distinguished, is an honor, which, being very little accustomed to fervors from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge.
When, upon some slight encouragement, I first visited your Lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your address; and could not forbear to wish that I might boast myself Le vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre; －that I might obtain that regard for which I saw the world contending; but I found my attendance so little encouraged, that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue it. When I had once addressed your Lordship in public, I had exhausted all the art of pleasing which a retired and uncourtly scholar can possess. I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little.
Seven years, my Lord, have now past, since I waited in your outward rooms, or was repulsed from your door; during which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties, of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it, at last, to the verge of publication, without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of fervor. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a Patron before.
The shepherd in Virgule grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a native of the rocks.
Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labors, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it. I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received, or to be unwilling that the Public should consider me as owing that to a Patron, which Providence has enabled me to do for myself.
Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any favorer of learning, I shall not be disappointed though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less; for I have been long wakened from that dream of hope, in which I once boasted myself with so much exultation, my Lord.
Your Lordship's most humble,
most obedient servant,[/FONT]
Mrs. Bixby,
Boston, Massachusetts,
Dear Madam,
I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be Yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yours very sincerely and respectfully,
Abraham Lincoln
by Abraham Lincoln[/FONT][/SIZE]
您最誠摯的亞伯拉罕•林肯敬啟
【作者簡介】
亞伯拉罕•林肯（1809-1865）美國第十六任總統（1861-1865），共和黨人。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-7-31 03:02
[B]The Literature of Knowledge And The Knowledge of Power[/B]
All the literature of knowledge builds only groundnuts, that are swept away by sloops, or confounded by the plow; but the literature of power builds nests in aerial altitudes of temples sacred from violation, or of forests inaccessible to fraud. This is a great prerogative of the power literature, and it is a greater which lies in the mode of its influence. The knowledge literature, like the fashion of this world, passes away. An encyclopaedia is its abstract ;and ,in this respect, it may be taken for its speaking symbol---that before one generation has passed, an encyclopaedia is superannuated; for it speaks through the dead memory and unimpassioned understanding, which have not the repose of higher faculties, but are continually enlarging and varying their phylacteries.But all literature properly so called---literature par excellence---for the very reason that it is so play, and the combinations into which the poetry of this planet has thrown our human passions of love and hatred, of admiration and contempt, exercise a power for bad or good over human life that cannot be contemplated, when stretching through many generations, without a sentiment allied to awe.[/COLOR]
[B]知識的文學與力量的文學[/B]
一切知識的文學都在地面上築巢，結果不被洪水所沖堤，就被耕犁所掀翻；只有力量的文學在那巍巍蒼穹間的聖殿之內，或在那高入雲際的森林之巔營造自己的安身之處，那是神聖不可侵犯、也是欺詐所無法企及的。這是力量的文學所獨有的重大特權，而它影響於人類的方式尤為特殊。知識的文學，如時尚一樣，與時俱逝。百科全書正是此種文學的縮影，從這方面來看，似乎可以說是它活生生的象徵：一個世代尚未過去，一部百科全書就陳舊過時了；因為，在它那裡面所講的不外是雖然存留在記憶中、卻已失去新意的東西，以及不帶任何感情色彩的推理，因此，猶如經匣中的教條，即使補充幾句、略變花樣，仍無法使得人的高尚精神恬然寧息。但是，一切當之無愧的文學――最優秀的文學――由於它比知識的文學更能垂之永久，它的影響與此形成相應比例，也就遠為深邃，而象電光石火一般無孔不入。一方面，我們這個星球上的悲劇培養著人的感情，使之朝著某些方向發展；另一方面，我們這個星球上的詩歌又把人的愛與憎、讚美與鄙薄等激情組成種種的結合；這樣共同形成強大的力量，對人類生活產生了或消極、或積極的作用，而這些作用往往會延續許許多多世代，令人考慮之下不能不感到肅然起敬。
【作者簡介】
德•昆西（1785-1859），英國浪漫主義散文名家，其代表作為《一個英國吸鴉片者的陳述》。本文節選自其文章《知識的文學與力量的文學》。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-8-2 23:45
[B]The Power Is Unlimited[/B]
Besides which, there is a rarer thing than truth-namely power, or deep sympathy with truth. What is the ef-fect, for instance, upon society, of children? By the pity, by the tenderness, and by the peculiar modes of admiration which connect themselves with the helplessness, with the innocence, and with the simplicity of children, not only are the primal affections strengthened and continually renewed, but the qualities which are dearest in the sight of heaven---the frailty, for instance, which appeals to forbearance, the simplicity which is most alien from the worldly---are kept up in perpetual remembrance, and their ideals are continually refreshed. A purpose of the same nature is answered by the higher literature, viz., the literature of power. What do you learn from Paradise Lost? Nothing at all .What do you learn from a cookery-book? Something new, something that you did not know before, in every paragraph. But would you therefore put the wretched cookery-book on a higher level of estimation than the divine poem? What you owe to Milton is not any knowledge, of which a million separate items are still but a million of advancing steps on the same earthly level; what you owe is power---that is ,exercise and expansion to your own latent capacity of sympathy with the infinite, where every pulse and each separate influx is a step upward, a step ascending as upon a Jacob's ladder from earth to mysterious altitudes above the earth. All the steps of knowledge, from first to last, carry you further on the same plane, but could never raise you one foot above your ancient level of earth; whereas the very first step in power is a flight---is an ascending movement into another element where earth is forgotten.[/COLOR]
力量無限
此外，還有一種東西比真理更為神奇――那就是力量，或者說，對真理的深切感應。譬如，想一想兒童對於社會的影響吧。由於兒童的幼弱無依、天真無邪、純樸無偽而引起的種種特殊的讚歎憐愛之情，不僅使人的至情至性不斷地得到鞏固和更新，而且，由於脆弱喚醒了寬容，天真象徵著天堂，純樸遠離開世俗，因此，這些在上帝面前最可寶貴的品質也就經常受到憶念，對它們的理想便可不斷地重溫。高級的文學，即力量的文學，作用與此相類。從《失樂園》你能學到什麼知識呢?什麼也學不到。 從一本食譜里又能學到什麼呢?從每一段都能學到你過去所不知道的某種新知識。然而，在評定甲乙的時候，難道你會因此就把這本微不足道的食譜看得比那部超凡入聖的詩篇還高明嗎?我們從彌爾頓那裡學來的並不是什麼知識，因為知識，哪怕有一百萬條，也不過是在塵俗的地面上開步一百萬次罷了；而彌爾頓所給予我們的是力量――也就是說，運用自己潛在的感應能力，向著無際的領域擴張，在那裡，每一下脈動，每一次注入，都意味著上升一步，好似沿著雅各的天梯，從地面一步一步登上那奧秘莫測的蒼穹。知識的一切步伐，從開始到終結，只能在同一水平面上將人往前運載，但卻無法使人從原來的地面上提高一步；然而，力量所抬出的第一步就是飛升，就是飛向另一種境界――在那裡，塵世的一切全被忘卻。
【作者簡介】
德•昆西（1785-1859），英國浪漫主義散文名家，其代表作為《一個英國吸鴉片者的陳述》。本文節選自其文章《知識的文學與力量的文學》。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-8-2 23:51
[B]The Power Is Unlimited[/B]
Besides which, there is a rarer thing than truth-namely power, or deep sympathy with truth. What is the ef-fect, for instance, upon society, of children? By the pity, by the tenderness, and by the peculiar modes of admiration which connect themselves with the helplessness, with the innocence, and with the simplicity of children, not only are the primal affections strengthened and continually renewed, but the qualities which are dearest in the sight of heaven---the frailty, for instance, which appeals to forbearance, the simplicity which is most alien from the worldly---are kept up in perpetual remembrance, and their ideals are continually refreshed. A purpose of the same nature is answered by the higher literature, viz., the literature of power. What do you learn from Paradise Lost? Nothing at all .What do you learn from a cookery-book? Something new, something that you did not know before, in every paragraph. But would you therefore put the wretched cookery-book on a higher level of estimation than the divine poem? What you owe to Milton is not any knowledge, of which a million separate items are still but a million of advancing steps on the same earthly level; what you owe is power---that is ,exercise and expansion to your own latent capacity of sympathy with the infinite, where every pulse and each separate influx is a step upward, a step ascending as upon a Jacob's ladder from earth to mysterious altitudes above the earth. All the steps of knowledge, from first to last, carry you further on the same plane, but could never raise you one foot above your ancient level of earth; whereas the very first step in power is a flight---is an ascending movement into another element where earth is forgotten.[/COLOR]
[B]力量無限[/B]
此外，還有一種東西比真理更為神奇――那就是力量，或者說，對真理的深切感應。譬如，想一想兒童對於社會的影響吧。由於兒童的幼弱無依、天真無邪、純樸無偽而引起的種種特殊的讚歎憐愛之情，不僅使人的至情至性不斷地得到鞏固和更新，而且，由於脆弱喚醒了寬容，天真象徵著天堂，純樸遠離開世俗，因此，這些在上帝面前最可寶貴的品質也就經常受到憶念，對它們的理想便可不斷地重溫。高級的文學，即力量的文學，作用與此相類。從《失樂園》你能學到什麼知識呢?什麼也學不到。 從一本食譜里又能學到什麼呢?從每一段都能學到你過去所不知道的某種新知識。然而，在評定甲乙的時候，難道你會因此就把這本微不足道的食譜看得比那部超凡入聖的詩篇還高明嗎?我們從彌爾頓那裡學來的並不是什麼知識，因為知識，哪怕有一百萬條，也不過是在塵俗的地面上開步一百萬次罷了；而彌爾頓所給予我們的是力量――也就是說，運用自己潛在的感應能力，向著無際的領域擴張，在那裡，每一下脈動，每一次注入，都意味著上升一步，好似沿著雅各的天梯，從地面一步一步登上那奧秘莫測的蒼穹。知識的一切步伐，從開始到終結，只能在同一水平面上將人往前運載，但卻無法使人從原來的地面上提高一步；然而，力量所抬出的第一步就是飛升，就是飛向另一種境界――在那裡，塵世的一切全被忘卻。
【作者簡介】
德•昆西（1785-1859），英國浪漫主義散文名家，其代表作為《一個英國吸鴉片者的陳述》。本文節選自其文章《知識的文學與力量的文學》。作者: xxxxcc 時間: 2005-8-3 09:26
下載不了呀....55555555555555作者: xxxxcc 時間: 2005-8-3 09:27
下載不了呀...5555555555555作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-8-3 13:18
Click here to see if you can download. good luck.作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-8-6 00:50
[B]Aesthetic Criticism[/B]
To see the object as in itself it really is , "has been justly said to be the aim of all true criticism whatever; and in aesthetic criticism the first step towards seeing one's object as it really is, is to know one's own impression as it really is, to discriminate it, to realize it distinctly. The objects with which aesthetic criticism deals---music, poetry, artistic and accomplished forms of human life---are indeed receptacles of so many powers or forces: they possess like the products of nature, so many virtues or qualities. What is this song or picture, this engaging personality presented in life or in a book, to me ? What effect does it really produce on me ? Does it give me pleasure? And if so, what sort or degree of pleasure? How is my nature modified by its presence, and under its influence? The answers to these questions are the original facts with which the aesthetic critic has to do; and ,as in the study of light, of morals, of number, one must realize such primary data for one's self, or not at all. And he who experiences these impressions strongly, and drives directly at the discrimination and analysis of them, has no need to trouble himself with the abstract question what beauty is in itself, or what its exact relation to truth or experience---metaphysical questions, as unprofitable as metaphysical questions elsewhere. He may pass them all by as being, answerable or not, of no interest to him.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[B]審美批評[/B]
「發現某一事物本身的確切內容」，曾被人恰當地說成是一切真正的批評的目標；而在審美批評中，要想發現自己評論對象的確切內容，第一步必須了解個人印象的確切內容，必須對它加以辨別，對它清晰地認識。審美批評所討論的對象――音樂，詩歌，人類生活的種種藝術的、完美的表現形式――實際上都是紛紛紜紜、各種動力和力量的凝聚，它們象大自然的一切產物那樣，具備著各種不同的美質和特性。這麼一首短歌，這麼一幅圖畫，生活中或書本上出現的這麼一個引人喜愛的人物，對我自己來說究竟意味著什麼呢?它究竟在我身上產生了什麼樣的影響?它是否給我提供了樂趣?如果提供了，那麼，又是哪一類和何等程度的樂趣?另外，由於它的出現，並在它影響下，我自己的性情又受到了怎樣的陶冶?――對於這些問題的答案便是審美批評家所要討論的根本事實；而且，正象對於光、對於倫理、對於數字的研究那樣，我們首先必須了解上述那些原始材料，否則，就等於什麼也不了解。一個人只要強烈地感受著這種種印象，並且直截了當地對它們加以辨別和分析，就不必再為了「什麼是美」或者「它與真理或經驗的確切關係如何」這一類抽象的問題而去費神――因為，這些形而上學的問題，如同其他的形而上學問題一樣，都是不實際的。對它們答覆與否無關宏旨，可以統統放過不管。
【作者簡介】
沃爾特•佩特（1839-1894），英國文藝批評家其成名之作《文藝復興史研究》貫穿唯美主義思想。本文便節選自此書。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-8-6 00:52
[B]Change Makes Life Beautiful[/B]
To regard all things and principles of things as inconstant modes or fashions has more and more become the tendency of modern thought. Let us begin with that which is without-our physical life. Fix upon it in one of its more exquisite intervals, the moment，for instance, of delicious recoil from the flood of water in summer heat. What is the whole physical life in that moment but a combination of natural elements to which science gives their names? But these elements, phosphorus and lime and delicate fibers, are present not in the human body alone : we detect them in places most remote from it. Our physical life is a perpetual motion of them ---the passage of the blood, the wasting and repairing of the lenses of the eye , the modification of the tissues of the brain under every ray of light and sound---processes which science reduces to simpler and more elementary forces. Like the elements of which we are composed, the action of these forces extends beyond us: it rusts iron and ripens corn.Far out on every side of us those elements are broadcast, driven in many currents; and birth and gesture and death and the springing of violets from the grave are but a few out of ten thousand resultant combinations. That clear, perpetual outline of face and limb is but an image of ours, under which we group thema design in a web, the actual threads of which pass out beyond it . This at least of flame---like our life has, that it is but the concurrence, renewed from moment to moment, of forces parting sooner or later on their ways.[/COLOR]
To burn always with this hard , gem-like flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life. In a sense it might even be said that our failure is to form habits: for , after all, habit is relative to a stereotyped world, and meantime it is only the roughness of the dye that makes any two persons, things, situations, seem alike, While all melts under our feet, we may well grasp at any exquisite passion, or any contribution to knowledge that seems by a lifted horizon to set the spirit free for a moment, or any stirring of the senses, strange dyes, strange colors, and curious odors, or work of the artist's hands, or the face of one's friend. Not to discriminate every moment some passionate attitude in those about us, and in the very brilliancy of their gifts some tragic dividing of forces on their ways, is, on this short day of frost and sun, to sleep before evening. With this sense of the splendor of our experience and of its awful brevity, gathering all we are into one desperate effort to see and touch, we shall hardly have time to make theories about the things we see and touch. What we have to do is to be for ever curiously testing new opinions and courting new impressions, never acquiescing in a facile orthodoxy of Comet, or of Hegel, or of our own . Philosophical theories or ideas, as points of view, instruments of criticism, may help us to gather up what might otherwise pass unrecorded by us. "hilosophy is the microscope of thought". [/COLOR]
To make a tragedy the artist must isolate a single element out of the totality of human experience and use that exclu sively as his material. Tragedy is something that is separated out from the Whole Truth, distilled from it, so to speek, as an essence is distilled from the living flower. Tragedy is chemically pure. Hence its power to act quickly and intensely on our feelings. All chemically pure art has this power to act upon us quickly and intensely. It is because of its chemical purity that tragedy so effectively performs functions of catharsis. It refines and corrects and gives a to our emotional life, and does so swiftly, with power. Brought into contact with tragedy, the elements of our being fall, for the moment at any rate, into an ordered and beautiful pattern, as the iron filings arrange themselves under the influence of the magnet.Through all its individual variations, this pattern is always fundamentally of the same kind. From the reading or the hearing of a tragedy we rise with the feeling that:
Our friends are exultations, agonies,
And love, and man's unconquerable mind;
With the heroic conviction that we too would be unconquerable if subjected to the agonies, that in the midst of the agonies we too should continue to love, might even learn to exult. It is because it does these things to us that tragedy is felt to be so valuable. What are the values of Wholly Truthful art? What does it do to us that seems worth doing? Let us try to discover.[/COLOR]
The proper force of words lies not in the words themselves, but in their application. A word may be a fine sounding word, of an unusual length, and very imposing from its learning and novelty, and yet in the connection in which it is introduced may be quite pointless and irrelevant, It is not pomp or pretension, but the adaptation of the expression to the idea, that clenches a writer's meaning: as it is not the size or glossiness of the materials, but their being fitted each to its place, that gives strength to the arch; or as the pegs and nails are as necessary to the support of the building as the larger timbers, and more so than the mere showy, unsubstantial ornaments. I hate anything that occupies more space than it is worth. I hate to see a load of bandboxes go along the street, and I hate to see a parcel of big words without anything in them. A person who dews not deliberately dimples of all his thoughts alike in cumbrous draperies and flimsy disguises may strike out twenty varieties of familiar everyday language, each coming somewhat nearer to the feeling he wants to convey, and at last not hit upon that particular and only one which may be said to be identical with the exact impression in his mind. This would seem to show that Mr. Cobalt is hardly right in saying that the first word that occurs is always the best. It may be a very good one ; and yet a better may present itself on reflection or from time to time . It may be suggested naturally, however, and spontaneously, from a fresh and lively conception of the subject .[/COLOR]
[B]適合的才是最好的[/B]
辭彙的力量不在辭彙本身，而在辭彙的應用。一個音節嘹亮的長字，就其本身的學術性和新奇感來說，可能是令人嘆賞的，然而，把它放在某句上下文之中，說不定倒會牛頭不對馬嘴。這是因為要確切表達作者的意思，關鍵並不在文詞是否華麗，堂皇，而在於文詞是否切合內容；正象在建築中，要使拱門堅固，關鍵不在於材料的大小和光澤，而在於它們用在那裡是否恰好嚴絲合縫。因此，在建築物中，砂木釘有時竟與大件木料同等重要，而其支撐作用肯定遠遠勝過那些徒有其表、不切實用的裝飾部件。我討厭那些白佔地方的東西，討厭一大堆空紙盒裝在車上招搖過市，也討厭那些寫在紙面上的大而無實際內容的字眼。一個人寫文章，只要他不是立志要把自己的真意用重重錦繡帳幔、層層多餘偽裝完全遮掩起來，他總會從熟悉的日常用語中想出一二十種說法，一個比一個更接近他所要表達的情感，只怕到了最後，他竟會拿不定主意要用哪一種說法才能恰如其分地表達自己的心意哩！如此說來，考拜特先生所謂最先閃現腦際之詞自然是最好的說法未必可靠。這樣出現的字眼也許很好，然而經過一次又一次推敲，還會發現更好的字眼。這種字眼，要經過圍繞內容進行清醒而活潑的構思，才能夠自自然然的想到。
【作者簡介】
威廉•赫茲里特(1778―1830)，十九世紀初英國著名的浪漫主義散文家。本文節選自其名篇《論平易的文體》。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-8-6 01:04
[I][B]Ignorance Make One Happy[/B]
The average man who uses a telephone could not explain how a telephone works. He takes for granted the telephone, the railway train, the linotype ,the airplane, as our grandfathers took for granted the miracles of the gospels. He neither questions nor understands them. It is as though each of us investigated and made his own only a tiny circle of facts. Knowledge outside the day's work is regarded by most men as a gewgaw. Still we are constantly in reaction against our ignorance. We rouse ourselves at intervals and speculate. We revel in speculations about anything at all---about life after death or about such questions as that which is said to have puzzled Aristotle,"why sneezing from noon to midnight was good, but from night to noon unlucky." One of the greatest joys known to man is to take such a flight into ignorance in search of knowledge. The great pleasure of ignorance is, after all, the pleasure of asking questions. The man who has lost this pleasure or exchanged it for the pleasure of dogma, which is the pleasure of answering, is already beginning to stiffen. One envies so inquisitive a man as Jewell ,who sat down to the study of physiology in his sixties. Most of us have lost the sense of our ignorance long before that age. We even become vain of our squirrel's hoard of knowledge and regard increasing age itself as a school of omniscience. We forget that Socrates was famed for wisdom not because he was omniscient but because he realized at the age of seventy that he still knew nothing.[/I]
[B]無知常樂[/B]
普通人只會使用電話，卻無法解釋電話的工作原理。他把電話、火車、鑄造排字機、飛機都看作當然之事，就象我們的祖父一代把福音書里的奇迹故事視為理所當然一樣。對於這些事，他既不去懷疑，也不去了解。我們每個人似乎只對很小範圍內的某幾件事才真正下工夫去了解、弄清楚。大部分人把日常工作以外的一切知識統統當作花哨無用的玩意兒。然而，對於我們的無知，我們還是時時抗拒著。我們有時振作起來，進行思索。我們隨便找一個什麼題目，對之思考，甚至入迷――關於死後的生命，或者關於某些據說亞里士多德也感到大惑不解的問題，例如：「打噴嚏，從中午到子夜則吉，從子夜至中午則凶，其故安在?」為求知識而陷入無知，這是人類所欣賞的最大樂事之一。歸根結底，無知的極大樂趣即在於提出問題。一個人，如果失去了這種提問的樂趣，或者把它換成了教條的答案，並且以此為樂，那麼，他的頭腦已經開始僵化了。我們羨慕象裘伊這樣的勤學好問之人，他到了六十多歲居然還能坐下來研究生理學。我們多數人不到他這麼大的歲數就早已喪失了自己無知的感覺了。我們甚至對自己一點點淺薄的知識感到沾沾自喜，而把與日俱增的年齡看作是培養無所不知的天然學堂。我們忘記了：蘇格拉底之所以以智慧名垂後世，並非因為他無所不知，而是因為他到了七十高齡還能明白自己仍然一無所知。
【作者簡介】
羅伯特•林德（1879-1949），英國隨筆作家。本文節選自其名篇《無知常樂》。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-8-6 01:05
[B]The Arts of Informal Essay Writers[/B]
We may follow any mood, we may look at life in fifty different ways---the only thing we must not do is to despise or deride,because of ignorance or prejudice, the influences which affect others; because the essence of all experience is that we should perceive something which we do not begin by knowing, and learn that life has a fullness and a richness in all sorts of diverse ways which we do not at first even dream of suspecting.
The essayist, then, is in his particular fashion an interpreter of life, a critic of life. He does not see life as the historian, or as the philosopher, or as the poet, or as the novelist, and yet he has a touch of all these. He is not concerned with discovering a theory of it all, or fitting the various parts of it into each other. He works rather on what is called the analytic method, observing, recording, interpreting, just as things strike him, and letting his fancy play over their beauty and significance;the end of it all being this; that he is deeply concerned with the charm and quality of things, and gentlest light, so that at least he may make others love life a little better, and prepare them for its infinite variety and alike for its joyful and mournful surprises.[/FONT]
He who has much looked on at the childish satisfaction of other people in their hobbies, will regard his own with only a very ironical indulgence. He will not be heard among the dogmatists. He will have a great and cool allowance for all sorts of people and opinions. If he finds no out -of -the- way truths, he will identify himself with one very burning falsehood.His way takes him along a by-road, not much frequented, but very even and pleasant, which is called Commonplace Lane, and leads to the Belvedere of Common-sense. Thence he shall command an agreeable, if no very noble prospect; and the Sunrise, he will be contentedly aware of a sort of morning hour upon all sublunary things ,with an army of shadows running speedily and in many different directions into the great daylight of eternity. The shadows and the generations, the shrill doctors and the plangent wars, go by into ultimate silence and emptiness; but underneath all this, a man may see, out of the Belvedere windows, much green and peaceful landscape; many fire-lit parlors; good people laughing, drinking , and making love as they did before the Flood or the Errant Revolution; and the old shepherd telling his tale under the hawthorn. [/COLOR]
We are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan. Grayed in, and gray." Dream" make a giddy sound, not strong
Like "rent", feeding a wife", "satisfying a man".
But could a dream send up through onion fumes
Its white and violet, fight with fried potatoes
And yesterday's garbage ripening in the hall,
Flutter, of sing an aria down these rooms
Even if we were willing to let it in,
Had time to warm it, keep it very clean,
Anticipate a message, let it begin?
We wonder. But not well! not for a minute!
Since Number Five is out of the bath room now,
We think of lukewarm water, hope to get into it.
[B]廉價公寓[/B]
格溫多琳•布魯克斯
我們是一批物品，屬於枯燥鐘點和非自願的計劃，被變成灰色，灰溜溜，"夢"發出暈眩的弱聲，比不上"房錢"，"養活老婆"，"滿足男人慾望"響亮。
可是，難道夢能夠穿過洋蔥的臭氣
發出純白和紫色?難道夢斗得過油炸土豆
以及昨天留在門廳里腐爛發酵的垃圾?
難道夢能夠在這些房間里飄揚，引吭高唱?
這都做得到嗎? 即便我們願意放夢進來。
有足夠時間溫暖著它，使它非常乾淨，
等待著一個信息，讓夢開始活動嗎?
我們正在沉思。但是不好了!一分鐘也不能想下去了!
現在五號房客剛從浴室里出來，
我們惦記著溫水，希望快進去呢。[/COLOR]作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-8-14 03:31
[INDENT][B]Near The Old People's Home[/B]
Howard Nemerov
The people on the avenue at noon,
Sharing the sparrows and the wintry sun,
The turned-off fountain with its basin drained
And cement benches etched with checkerboards,
Are old and poor, most everyone of them
Wearing some decoration of his damage,
Bandage or crutch or cane, and some are blind,
Or nearly, tap-tapping along with white wands,
When they open their mouths, there are no teeth,
All the same, they keep on talking to themselves
Even while bending to hawk up spit or blood
In gutters that will be there when they are gone.
Some have the habit of getting hit by cars
Three times a year; the ambulance comes up
And away they go, mumbling even in shock
The many secret names they have for God.
A Milkweed
Anonymous as cherubs
Over the crib of God,
White seeds are floating
Out of my burst pod.
What power had I
Before I learn to yield?
Shatter me, great wind:
I shall posses the field.
A Stone
As casual as cow-dung
Under the crib of God,
I lie where chance would have me,
Up to the ears in sod.
Why should I move? To move
Befit a light desire.
The sill of Heaven would founder,
Did such ad I aspire.[/COLOR]
H.W.Longfellow
Out of the bosom of the Air,
Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the wood lands brown and bare,
Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
Silent, and soft, and slow
Descends the snow.
Even as our cloudy fancies take
suddenly shape in some divine expression,
Even as the troubled heart doth make
In the white countenance confession,
The troubled sky reveals
The grief it feels.
This is the poem of the air,
Slowly in silent syllables recorded;
This is the secret of despair,
Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,
Now whispered and revealed
To wood and field.[/FONT]
Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.
But he grew old---
This knight so bold---
And over his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.
And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow---
「Shadow ,」 said he ,
「Where can it be---
This land of Eldorado"
「Over the Mountains
Of the Moon.
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride , 」
The shade replied, ---
「If you seek for Eldorado !」
日子一久，
他終於筋疲力盡，
這時遇見一位朝聖的幽靈――
「幽靈，」他問，
「請問什麼地方――
才是黃金之鄉？」
「在月宮上，
翻過那裡的高山，
穿過幽靈居住的山谷。
騎下去，勇敢地騎下去，」
幽靈回答他――
「如果你想找到黃金之鄉。」[/COLOR][/INDENT]
【作者簡介】
愛倫•坡（Allan Poe，1809一1849），美國小說家，詩人，有「鬼才」之稱，他的詩抒發憂鬱、陰暗的心理狀態，追求一種病態的美，對現代派詩歌有很大影響。《黃金之鄉》以童話的描寫手法諷刺了不講實際的空想家。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-8-14 03:41
[B]I Saw in Louisiana A Live-Oak Growing[/B]
W. Whitman
I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing,
All alone stood it and the moss bung down from the branches ,
Without any companion it grew there uttering joyous leaves of dark green,
And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself,
But I wondered how it could utter joyous leaves standing alone there without its
friend near, for I knew I could not,
And I broke off a twig with a certain number
of leaves upon it, and twined around it a little moss,
And brought it away, and have placed it in sight in my room,
It is not needed to remind me as of my own dear friends ,
(For I believe lately I think of little else than of them, )
Yet it remains to me a curious token,
it makes me think of manly love;
For all that, end though the live-oak glistens
there in Louisians solitary in a wide flat space,
Uttering joyous leaves all its life without a
friend a lover near,
I know very well I could not.[/COLOR]
Beat! Beat! Drums! Blow! Bugles! Blow!
Through the windows---through doors---burst
like a ruthless force,
Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation,
Into the school where the scholar is studying;
Leave not the bridegroom quiet---no happiness
must he have now with his bride.
Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing
his field or gathering his grain,
So fierce you whirr and pound you drums---so
shrill your bugles blow.
Beat! Beat! Drums! Blow! Bugles! Blow!
Over the traffic of cities---over the rumble of
wheels in the streets:
Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the
Houses? No sleepers must sleep in those beds,
No bargainers' bargains by day---no brokers
or speculators---would they continue?
Would the talkers be talking? Would the singer attempt to sing?
Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his
case before the judge?
Then rattle quicker, heavier drums---you bugles wilder blow.
Beat！Beat！Drums!---Blow! Bugles! blow！
Make no parley---stop for no expostulation,
Mind not the timid---mind not the weeper or prayer,
Mind not the old man beseeching the young man,
Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's entreaties,
Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting the hearses,
So strong you thump terrible drums---so loud you bugles blow.[/COLOR]
如果我能變成一隻鴨子，
那時我該有多麼幸福！[/INDENT]
【簡介】
柯林頓•斯各勒德（Clinton Scollard， 1860一1932），美國詩人，漢密爾頓大學教授。他一生詩風多變，有時寫一些極通俗的大眾歌曲，有時也寫具有神秘色彩、宣揚泛神論的詩歌作品。 《游泳》是一首十四行詩，文字淺顯如兒歌，卻討論了一個十分嚴肅的主題：人與自然之間所存在的差異究竟在哪裡？作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-8-14 03:49
[INDENT][B]The Mountains Are A Lonely Folk[/B]
H. Garland
The mountains they are silent folk;
They stand a far--alone,
And the clouds that kiss their brows at night
Hear neither sigh nor groan.
Each bears him in his ordered place
As soldiers do, and bold and high
They fold their forests round their feet
And bolster up the sky.
[B]山嶽是沉默的勇士[/B]
哈姆林•加蘭
山嶽是沉默的勇士；
他們遠遠站著――孑然一身，
雲霞在夜間跟他們親吻。
從來聽不到嘆息或呻吟。
每座山都堅守自己的崗位，
像士兵一樣勇敢而莊嚴，
他們將森林環抱在腳下，
並高高地撐起蒼穹。[/INDENT]
【簡介】
哈姆林•加蘭（1860-1940），美國小說家，作品多以現實主義手法反映美國中西部農民的生活。《山嶽是沉默的勇士》是對山嶽偉大而沉默精神的禮讚。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-9-25 03:27
[B]Night in The Open World[/B]
From Travels with a Donkey by Robert Louis Stevenson Night is a dead and monotonous period under a roof; but in the open world it passes lightly, with its stars and dews and perfumes, and the hours are marked by changes in the face of Nature. What seems a kind of temporal death to people choked between walls and curtains is only a light and living slumber to the man who sleeps afield. All night long he can hear Nature breathing deeply and freely; even as she takes her rest she turns and smiles; and there is one stirring hour, unknown to those who dwell in houses, when a wakeful influence goes abroad over the sleeping hemisphere, and all the outdoor world are on their feet. It is then that the cock first crows, not this time to announce the dawn, but like a cheerful watchman speeding the course of night. Cattle awake on the meadows; sheep break their fast on dewy hill-sides, and change to a new lair among the ferns; and houseless men, who have lain down with the fowls, open their dim eyes and behold the beauty of the night.
【註釋】
under a roof: 在屋頂下，指在室內。
in the open world: 在露天世界，指在室外(野外)。
What seems ... walls and curtains: 主語從句，其中choked between ... 為分詞短語，修飾 the people.
she: 指 Nature.
all the outdoor world are on their feet: all the outdoor world 指室外的萬物，所以動詞用 are, 代詞用their; (be) on one's feet: 站起來。
break their fast: 開齋；吃早飯。
[B]露天世界的夜晚[/B]
在室內，夜是死氣沉沉、單調乏味的時刻。但是在露天世界里，有星星，有露珠，還有芬芳的香氣；黑夜輕快地流逝，而大自然的面貌卻在夜裡時刻變化著。禁錮在室內的簾后的人們覺得夜似乎是短暫的死亡；而露宿野外的人卻覺得夜只是一場充滿生機的微睡。他整夜能聽見大自然深沉的、自由自在的呼吸。大自然即使在休息時也在轉動和微笑。當沉睡著的半球出現蘇醒跡象的時候，室外的萬物都起來了，那種忙碌的時刻是居住在室內的人所不知道的。雄雞最先啼鳴，這時不是報曉，而是象歡樂的更夫在催黑夜快走。草地上牛群醒來；露珠晶瑩的山坡上羊群在進早餐，並且在羊齒植物叢中改換新的羊窩；與禽鳥共眠的無家可歸的人們睜開了惺松的雙眼，觀賞美麗的夜色。
【作者簡介】
羅伯特•路易斯•斯蒂文森（1850-1894）：英國小說家、散文家和詩人。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-9-25 03:29
[B]Happy Life at A Tavern[/B]
We dined at an excellent inn at Chapelhouse, where Dr. Johnson expatiated on the felicity of England in its taverns and inns, and triumphed over the French for not having, in any perfection, the tavern life. "There is no private house," said he, "in which people can enjoy themselves so well as at a capital tavern.」 Let there be ever so great plenty of good things, ever so much grandeur, ever so much elegance, ever so much desire that everybody should be easy, in the nature of things it cannot be: there must always be some degree of care and anxiety. The master of the house is anxious to entertain his guests; the guests are anxious to bearable to him; and no man but a very impudent dog indeed can as freely command what is in another's house as if it were his own. Whereas at a tavern there is a general freedom from anxiety. You are sure you are welcome; the more noise you make, the more trouble you give, the more good things you call for, the more welcome you are. No servants will attend you with the alacrity which waiters do, who are excited with the prospect of an immediate reward in proportion as they please. No, sir; there is nothing which has as yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn."
[RIGHT]From [I]The Life of Samuel Johnson[/I] by James Boswell [/RIGHT]
【註釋】
tavern 英國鄉村中供給酒菜的小客棧
Chapelhouse: 查普爾壕斯，英國倫敦附近的一個小村鎮
expatiate細說;詳述
felicity幸福,得體,巧妙;恰當的語句
triumphed over: 因勝過而表現欣喜
Let there be ever so ...:此句中 Let 表示假設
alacrity活潑;敏捷;輕快
an immediate reward: 能立即到手的報酬，意即小費
contrive發明;設計
[B]小客棧的樂趣[/B]
我們在查普爾壕斯一家極好的小客棧里吃飯，約翰遜博士在那兒詳細敘述了英格蘭的小客棧和小旅館的妙處，得意洋洋地指出法國人沒有任何這等完美的小客棧生活。"任何私人住宅，"他說，"都不能使人們象在一家頂好的小客棧里那樣舒適愉快。＂儘管那裡好東西應有盡有，儘管屋宇是那樣的宏偉，陳設是那樣的雅緻，儘管主人一心一意要讓每個人都感到自由自在，而實際上這是不可能實現的。相反，那裡總是有著某種程度的顧慮和急切的心情。屋主人要小心地招待客人，客人要留神地迎合主人。除了非常無禮的魯莽傢伙，決沒有人在別人的屋子裡會象在自己家裡那樣可以隨心所欲，頤指氣使。然而在小客棧里就根本沒有這種顧慮了。在這裡，你肯定是受歡迎的，你嗓門越大，你越添麻煩，你要的好東西越多，你就越受歡迎。沒有一個僕人會象受到小費刺激的店倌那樣殷勤地侍候你，因為店倌的侍候越中意，你給小費就越慷慨。沒有的，先生；在人類迄今所創造的一切事物中，沒有什麼能象一家優美的鄉村小客棧或者小旅館那樣給人們提供那麼多的樂趣。"
【作者簡介】
詹姆斯•鮑斯韋爾（1740-1795）：蘇格蘭律師和作家。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-9-25 03:31
[B]About Reading Books[/B]
by Virginia Woolf
It is simple enough to say that since books have classes- fiction, biography, poetry---we should separate them and take from each what is right that each should give us. Yet few people ask from books what books can give us. Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices. If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read, that would be an admirable beginning. Do not dictate to your author; try to become him. Be his fellow-worker and accomplice. If you hang back, and reserve, and criticize at first, you are preventing yourself from getting the fullest possible value from what you read. But if you open your mind as widely as possible, then signs and hints of almost imperceptible fineness, from the twist, and turn of the first sentences, will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any other. Steep yourself in this, acquaint yourself with this, and soon you will find that your author is giving you, or attempting to give you, something far more definite. The thirty-two chapters of a novel---if we consider how to read a novel first---are an attempt to make something as formed and controlled as a building: but words are more impalpable than bricks, reading is a longer and more complicated process than seeing. Perhaps the quickest way to understand the elements of what a novelist is doing is not to read, but to write, to make your own experiment with the dangers and difficulties of words. Recall, then, some event that has left a distinct impression on you---how at the corner of the street, perhaps, you passed two people talking, A tree shook, an electric light danced, the tone of the talk was comic, but also tragic, a whole vision, an entire conception, seemed contained in that moment.
【註釋】
blur模糊;使模糊不清
banish 流放,放逐
preconception偏見
try to become him：應努力站在作者的立場上。become在這裡用作及物動伺、解作「配合」、「適應」。
steep陡峭的
acquaint yourself with…，使（你）自己認識（了解）…
impalpable無形的
contained從容的
[B]談 讀 書[/B]
既然書籍有不同的門類，如小說、傳記、詩歌等，我們就應該把它們區分開來，並從每種中汲取它應當給我們提供的正確的東西;這話說起來固然容易，然而，很少有人要求從書籍中得到它們所能提供的東西，通常我們總是三心二意地帶著模糊的觀念去看書：要求小說情節真實，要求詩歌內容虛構，要求傳記阿諛奉承，要求歷史能加深我們自己的偏見。如果我們讀書時能拋棄所有這些成見，那將是一個極可貴的開端。我們對作者不要指手劃腳，而應努力站在作者的立場上，設想自己在與作者共同創作。假如你退縮不前，有所保留並且一開始就批評指責，你就在妨礙自己從你所讀的書中得到最大的益處, 然而，如果你能盡量敞開思想，那麼，書中開頭幾句迂迴曲折的話里所包含的幾乎難以覺察的細微的跡象和暗示，就會把你引到一個與眾不同的人物的面前去。如果你深入下去，如果你去認識這個人物，你很快就會領悟作者正在給你或試圖給你某些明確得多的東西。倘若我們首先考慮怎樣讀小說，那麼，一部小說中的三十二章就是企圖創造出象一座建築物那樣既有一定的形式而各部分又受到控制的東西，不過詞句要比磚塊難以捉摸，閱讀的過程要比看一看更費時、更複雜。理解小說家創作工作的各項要素的捷徑也許並不是閱讀，而是寫作，而是親自試一試遣詞造句中的艱難險阻。那麼，回想一下給你留下鮮明印象的某些事――比如，你怎樣在大街的拐角處從兩個正在交談著的人身邊走過，樹在搖曳、燈光在晃動，談話的語氣既喜又悲；這一瞬間似乎包含了一個完整的想象，一個整體的構思。
【作者簡介】
維吉尼亞•吳爾夫（1882-1941），英國小說家，在她的小說里，縮小作者作為敘述者或評論者的作用。她同時也是一位公認的評論家。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-9-25 03:33
[B]A Little Girl [/B]
From Alyson by Theodore Watts-Duncan
Sitting on a grassy, beneath one of the windows of the church, was a little girl. With her head bent back, she was gazing up at the sky and singing, while one of her little hands was pointing to a tiny cloud that hovered like a golden feather above her head. The sun, which had suddenly become very bright, shining on her glossy hair, gave it a metallic luster, and it was difficult to say what was the color, dark bronze or black. So completely absorbed was she in watching the cloud to which her strange song or incantation seemed addressed, that she did not observe me when I rose and went towards her. Over her head, high up in the blue, a lark that was soaring towards the same gauzy cloud was singing, as if in rivalry. As I slowly approached the child, I could see by her forehead, which in the sunshine seemed like a globe of pearl, and especially by her complexion, that she was uncommonly lovely. Her eyes, which at one moment seemed blue-gray, at another violet, were shaded by long black lashes, curving backward in a most peculiar way, and these matched in hue her eyebrows, and the tresses that were tossed about her tender throat and were quivering in the sunlight. All this I did not take in at once; for at first I could see nothing but those quivering, glittering, changeful eyes turned up into my face. Gradually the other features, especially the sensitive full-lipped mouth, grew upon me as I stood silently gazing. Here seemed to me a more perfect beauty than had ever come to me in my overset dreams of beauty. Yet it was not her beauty so much as the look she gave me that fascinated me, melted me.
【註釋】
with her head bent back: with +名詞或代詞賓格+分詞(或形容詞、介詞短語等)作狀語，表示伴隨情況。
So completely absorbed was she...that...：這是一個so...that...結構的主從複合句，其中主句採用全倒裝語序。address...to：對......說話。這裡是指對著雲彩歌唱或念念不休。that引導的是一個本身帶有時間狀語從句的結果狀語從句。
in rivalry(with)：與......比高低、爭雄、鬥豔、等等。
at another violet: = at another moment (seemed) violet: 一會兒又象是紫羅蘭色的。
Yet it was not her beauty so much as the look...that fascinated me, melted me：not so much...as 作"與其說......不如說......"解釋。It was...that...用作強調結構。melted me：融化了我，即：使我陶醉。
A poor chimney-sweeper, who had not enough money to buy a meal, stopped one hot summer day at noon before an eating-house, and remained regaling his nose with the smell of the victuals. The master of the shop told him several times to go away, but the sweep could not leave the savory smell, though unable to purchase the taste of the food. At last the cook came out of the shop, and taking hold of the sweep, declared that, as he had been feeding upon the smell of his victuals, he should not go away without paying half the price of a dinner. The poor fellow said that he neither could nor would pay, and that he would ask the first person who should pass, whether it was not an unreasonable and unjust demand.
The case was referred to a policeman, who happened to pass at that moment. He said to the sweep: "As you have been feasting one of your senses with the odor of this man's meat, it is but just you should make him some recompense; therefore you shall, in your turn, regale one of his senses, which seems to be more insatiable than your appetite. How much money have you?"
"I have but two pence in all the world, sir, and I must buy me some bread."
"Never mind," answered the officer, "take your two pence between your hands; now rattle them loudly."
The sweep did so, and the officer, turning to the cook, said, 「Now, sir, I think he has paid you: the smell of your victuals regaled his nostrils; the sound of his money has tickled your ears."
This decision gave more satisfaction to the bystanders than to the cook, but it was the only payment he could obtain.
【註釋】
the sweep: 掃煙囪的工人。
feed upon(on)...：以......為食物。
The case was referred to a policeman: 此事提交警察處理。to refer... to：把... 提交。
meat: 這裡作"食物"解。
you shall: shall 用於陳述句的第二、第三人稱時，表示說話者的意向、命令、允諾、警告等。這裡作"應該"解。在現代英語中，表示這種意思時，一般都用should代替shall。
[B]奇妙的裁決[/B]
佚名
有一個貧窮的掃煙囪工人，窮得連一頓飯也買不起。一個炎熱的夏天中午，他在一家餐館前停了下來，站在那兒用鼻子貪婪地嗅著食物的香味。餐館老闆幾次叫他走開，但他雖然沒有能力買食物來嘗嘗，卻又捨不得離開這令人饞涎欲滴的香味。最後，廚師從店堂內走了出來，一把抓住那個掃煙囪工人，說他聞飽了菜肴的香味，硬要他付一半飯錢，不然，就不放他走。那個窮漢子說他既付不起，也不願意付!並且提出要請第一個過路人來評一評這樣的要求是否公道合理。
這時候，一個警察碰巧從旁邊經過，這事就告到了他那裡。警察對掃煙囪工人說："既然你的一個感官享受了這人烹調的食物的香味，你就應該給他一定的報酬，這是公平合理的 ；所以現在該輪到你使他的一個感官得到享受，他的這一感官看來比你的胃口更難以滿足。你身上有多少錢?"
"總共只有兩個便士，我還要買麵包吃呢，先生。"
"不要緊，"警察回答道，"把你的兩個便士用雙手捂著；現在使勁把它們咔嗒咔嗒地搖出聲音來。"
掃煙囪的工人這樣做了。於是警察轉身對廚師說："先生，我想現在他給了你報酬了；你那食物的香味給了他鼻子以享受；他那錢幣的響聲也飽了你的耳福."
這一裁決使旁觀者大為滿意，廚師雖然不滿意，但他也只能得到這樣的報酬了。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-9-25 03:35
[B]Oliver Goldsmith[/B]
By Washington Irving
There are few writers for whom the reader feels such personal kindness as for Oliver Goldsmith, for few have so eminently possessed the magic gift of identifying themselves with their writings. We read his character in every page and grow into familiar intimacy with him as we read. The artless benevolence that beams throughout his works; the whimsical, yet amiable views of human life and human nature; the unforced humor, blending so happily with good feeling and good sense, and singularly dashed at times with a pleasing melancholy; even the very nature of his mellow, and flowing and softly tinted , ---all seem to bespeak his moral as well as his intellectual qualities, and make us love the man at the same time that we admire the author. While the productions of writers of loftier pretension and more resounding names are suffered to molder on our shelves, those of Goldsmith are cherished and laid in our bosoms. We do not quote them with ostentation, but they mingle with our minds, sweeten our tempers, and harmonize our thoughts; they put us in good humor with ourselves and with the world, and in so doing they make us happier and better men.
An acquaintance with the private biography of Goldsmith lets us into the secret of his gifted pages. We there discover them to little more than transcripts of his own heart and picturing of his fortunes. There he shows himself the same kind, artless, good-humored, excursive, sensible, whimsical, intelligent being that he appears in his writings.
Scarcely an adventure or character is given in his works, that may not be traced to his own party-colored story. Many of his most ludicrous scenes and ridiculous incidents have been drawn from his own blunders and mischances, and he seems really to have been buffeted into almost every maxim imparted by him for the instruction of his reader.
[B]奧利弗•哥爾德斯密斯[/B]
華盛頓•歐文
象奧利弗•哥爾德斯密斯那樣，使讀者傾心愛慕其人品的作家，實屬屈指可數，因為極少作家具有他那種把自己融化在作品之中的奇才。在他的每一頁作品中，我們都可看到他的性格，因此在閱讀的過程中對他越來越了解，越來越感親切。他的全部作品中閃爍著赤誠的慈悲之心；他對人生和人性的看法雖離奇卻不乏溫情；他的幽默毫不勉強，揉入了美好的感情與良知理性，是那麼恰如其分，有時夾雜一絲宜人的憂鬱感，更是獨具一格；還有，他的風格醇厚、流暢、色彩柔和――這一切似乎都表明了他的道德品質與智慧，使我們不僅因他是作家而欽佩他，同時還對他本人產生愛慕之情。在我們聽任自命不凡和名聲更大的作家的作品躺在書架上發霉的同時，哥爾德斯密斯的作品卻被我們棒在懷中，視若至寶。這不是因為我們想引用他的作品以示賣弄，而是它們已融入了我們的心靈，陶冶了我們的性情，融洽了我們的思想；它們使我們對己、對人都胸懷開朗，並因而使我們更幸福，更完美。
熟悉哥爾德斯密斯的個人身世使我們得以了解他那些一頁又一頁的天才作品的秘密。我們發現他的作品不過是他內心的表白，是他個人命運的寫照。他自己就是他作品中所描寫的那個仁慈、樸實、快活、散漫、明智、充滿奇想和聰明的人。
他的作品中幾乎沒有一樁事件或一個人物不是取材於他本身豐富多彩的生活經歷。他的許多最滑稽的情節和最可笑的插曲都是來自他自己做過的蠢事和不幸遭遇，看來他傳授給讀者並藉以教育讀者的每一句箴言，都是他在生活中磨練出來的。
Oliver Goldsmith: 奧利弗•哥爾德斯密斯（1730？－1774）英國詩人、劇作家、散文家及小說家，主要作品有小說《韋克菲爾德牧師傳》（Vicar of Wakefield）.
personal kindness: 這裡解為"對作家本人及其人格品性的愛慕"。
put us in a good humor with...: 使我們心緒開朗，不會對......輕易生氣。
lets us into the secret: 使我們分享秘密。
party-coloured = parti-coloured: 變化多的；雜色的。
【作者簡介】
華盛頓•歐文（1783-1859）：美國文學史上最早的著名作家。他的散文和故事以親切的幽默感和優美的文筆著稱。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-9-25 03:36
[B]A Summer Day[/B]
By Charles Dickens
One day thirty years ago Marseilles lay in the burning sun. A blazing sun upon a fierce August day was no greater rarity in southern France than at any other time before or since. Everything in Marseilles and about Marseilles had stared at the fervid sun, and been stared at in return, until a staring habit had become universal there. Strangers were stared out of countenance by staring white houses, staring white streets, staring tracts of arid road, staring hills from which verdure was burnt away. The only things to be seen not fixedly staring and glaring were the vines drooping under their loads of grapes. These did occasionally wind a little, as the hot air barely moved their faint leaves.
The universal stare made the eyes ache. Towards the distant blue of the Italian coast, indeed, it was a little relieved by light clouds of mist slowly rising from the evaporation of the sea, but it softened nowhere else. Far away the dusty vines overhanging wayside cottages, and the monotonous wayside avenues of parched treks without shade, dropped beneath the stare of earth and sky. So did the horses with drowsy bells, in long files of carts, creeping slowly towards the interior; so did their recumbent drivers, when they were awake, which rarely happened; so did the exhausted laborers in the fields. Everything that lived or grew was oppressed by the glare; except the lizard, passing swiftly over rough stone walls, and cicada, chirping its dry hot chirp, like a rattle. The very dust was scorched brown, and something quivered in the atmosphere as if the air itself were panting.
Blinds, shutters, curtains, awnings, were all closed and drawn to deep out the stare. Grant it but a chink or a keyhole, and it shot in like a white-hot arrow.
out of countenance: 感到難堪或局促不安。
the blue: 天空，有時也指海洋。
So did...;so did...;so did...: 這裡so did 代替dropped beneath the stare of earth and sky.
Grant it but a chink or a keyhole, and it...: 那怕只給它一條小縫或者一個鑰匙孔，它就會......。Grant 解作"給予"，it 指 the stares 。此句結構為"祈使句+ and +陳述句"，含義上相當於"條件從句+主句"。
[B]夏 日[/B]
查爾斯•狄更斯
三十年前的一天，馬賽躺在烈日之下。 在法國南部，八月炎熱的日子裡赤日當空，在那時以前或以後都不是什麼罕見的事。馬賽範圍內以及馬賽周圍的一切都凝視著灼熱的太陽，而太陽反過來也凝視著這一切；久而久之，在馬賽普遍形成一種耀眼的色彩。白色的房屋，白色的街道，一段段乾旱的大路，草木曬得枯死的小山都十分耀眼象在瞪著眼瞧人似的，使初到此地的人們手足無措。能看到的唯一不是老瞪著眼使人眼花繚亂的，只有墜著串串葡萄的葡萄藤；熱空氣微微吹動著萎縮的藤葉時，葡萄確實也偶而眨眨眼。
這種普遍的耀眼的色彩令人眼睛發痛。說實在的，要遠到義大利沿海蔚藍的天空，由於海水蒸發冉冉升起的縷縷薄霧，這耀眼的色彩才不致那麼強烈，但是除此之外別的地方，它一點也不曾柔和下來。遠處，耀眼的大路，上面積著很厚的塵土，沿著山坡盯著人看，穿過山谷盯著人看，橫過一望無際的平原盯著人看。遠處，懸掛在路旁小屋上蒙著塵土的葡萄藤，還有路旁單調的成行的曬焦了不能遮蔭的樹木，都在大地和天空的凝視下耷拉著腦袋。長長的大車隊中，發出催人慾睡的鈴鐺聲的馬匹也耷拉著腦袋，慢慢地向內地爬行著；斜靠在車上的車夫們醒來時，也耷拉著腦袋，不過他們也難得醒；田野里筋疲力盡的農夫們耷拉著腦袋。一切動物和植物都受到這耀眼光芒的壓抑；例外的只是在那凹凸不平的石牆上敏捷爬行的蜥蜴和拔浪鼓似地發出強烈鳴聲的蟬兒。連那塵土都被炙烤成褐色了，大氣中似乎也有什麼東西在顫抖，彷彿空氣本身也在氣喘吁吁。
竹帘子、百葉窗、窗帘、遮篷全都拉攏了，把這耀眼的光芒擋在外面。那怕只露出一條小縫或者一個鑰匙孔，它就會象一支白熱的箭直射進來。
【作者簡介】
查爾斯•狄更斯（1812-1870），英國小說家，以《匹克威克外傳》（1837）一舉成名。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-9-25 03:37
[B]Hints for Those That Would Be Rich[/B]
by Benjamin Franklin
The Use of Money is all the Advantage there is in having Money. For ￡6 a Year you may have the Use of ￡100 if you are a Man of known Prudence and Honesty.
He that spends a Grout a day idly, spends idly above ￡6 a year, which is the Price of using ￡100.
He that wastes idly a Grout's worth of his Time per Day, one Day with another, wastes the Privilege of using ￡100 each day.
He that idly loses 5 Grouts』worth of time, loses 5 Grouts. and might as prudently throw 5 Grouts. in the River.
He that loses 5 Grouts. not only loses that Sum, but all the Advantage that might be made by turning it in Dealing, which, by the time that a young Man becomes old, amounts to a comfortable Bag of Money.
Again, He that sells upon Credit, asks a Price for what he sells equivalent to the Principal and Interest of his Money for the Time he is likely to be kept out of it: therefore He that buys upon Credit, pays Interest for what he buys. And he that pays Ready Money, might let that Money out to Use; so that He that possesses any Thing he has bought, pays Interest the Use of it.
Consider then when you are tempted to buy any unnecessary Household stuff, or any superfluous thing, Whether you will be willing to pay Interest, and interest upon Interest for it as long as you live; and more if it grows worse by using.
Yet, in buying goods, it is best to pay Ready Money, because, He that sells upon Credit, expects to lose 5 per Cent by Bad Debts; therefore he charges, on all he sells upon Credit, an Advance that shall make up that deficiency.
Those who pay for what they buy upon Credit, pay their Share of this Advance.
He that pays Ready Money, escapes or may escape that Charge.
A Penny saved is Twopence clear,
A Pin a Day is a Grout a Year.
【註釋】
might as prudently: 結構與一般常用的 might as well 相同。might as well 含有"反正一樣"、"倒不如"的意思。
to be kept out of it: it代表money, to be kept out of...解作"受到阻礙不能享有......"
advance:通常解作"預付款"，這裡作"漲價"或"加碼"解。其涵義是，商人賒賣后很可能有一部分賬款不能收回，因此對每個顧客多開價百分之五，以彌補將來必然會發生的倒賬損失。
clear: 十足的，整整的；相當於without any deduction。
在商業上訂立的契約和其他重要法律文件中常把要緊的術語以大寫字母開始，或整個詞中的字母都大寫。這篇文章也仿照這個習慣做法，主要名詞或片語都用大寫，含有幽默之意。
[B]致富之道[/B]
本傑明•富蘭克林
有錢的唯一好處就在於用錢。 如果你是一個節儉而誠實的人，一年六英鎊就可以當一百英鎊的錢使用。
一天消費四便士的人，一年就消費六個多英鎊，而六英鎊相當於一百英鎊的使用價值。
每天虛度值一便士的時間的人，日復一日，等於消費了每天使用一百英鎊的權利。
一個遊手好閒而損失了價值五先令時間的人，就是失去了五個先令，他還不如把五先令扔進河裡的好。
一個失去五先令的人，不僅失去了那筆錢，還失去了把錢用於經商可能帶來的好處，而一個年輕人到年老的時候這筆錢就會等於一筆可觀的財產。
還有，一個賒帳出售物品的人，對他所售貨物要求的價格相當於貨物的本錢加上他暫時不能利用的那筆錢的利息。因此，一個賒帳購買的人，要為他所買的貨物支付利息。而一個用現金購買的人，如果不買的話，是可以把那筆錢借給別人使用的。所以，一個擁有任何買來的東西的人，都要為使用這東西而支付利息。
當你感到一種引誘，想要買任何並不急需的家用品，或任何不必要的東西的時候，你就要好好考慮一下，你是否願意為它支付利息，並且終身為它利上加利；如果這東西是會用壞的，那末還要付得更多。
然而，在買東西時，最好還是付現金，因為賒帳售物的人，估計由於吃倒帳會損失百分之五，所以把賒售的所有貨物都要加碼，以彌補這筆損失。
那些賒帳購物的人，得支付他們所應分擔的這筆加碼的價款。
而用現金購物的人，則不需或可能不需支付這筆錢。
省下的一便士是不折不扣的兩便士，
每天節約一丁點兒一年就是一大筆。
【作者簡介】
本傑明•富蘭克林（1706-1790）：美國政治家和科學家。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-9-25 03:37
[B]A Wet Sunday in A Country Inn[/B]
by Washington Irving
A wet Sunday in a country inn! Whoever has had the luckto experience one can alone judge of my situation. The rain pat tered against the casements; the bells tolled for church with a melancholy sound. I went to the windows in quest of something to amuse the eye; but it seemed as if I had been placed completely out of the reach of all amusement. The windows of my bed-room looked out among tiled roofs and stacks of chimneys, while those of my sitting-room commanded a full view of the stable yard. I know of nothing more calculated to make a man sick of this world than a stable yard on a rainy day. The place was littered with wet straw that had been kicked about by travelers and stable-boys. In one corner was a stagnant pool of water, surrounding an island of muck; there were several half-drowned fowls crowded together under a cart, among which was a miserable, crest-fallen cock, drenched out of all life and spirit; his drooping tail matted, as it were, into a single feather, along which the water trickled from his back; near the cart was a halfdozing cow, chewing her cud, and standing patiently be rained on, with wreaths of vapor rising from her reeking hide; a wall-eyed horse, tired of the loneliness of the stable, was poking his spectral headset of a window, with the rain dripping on it from the eaves; an unhappy cur, chained to a dog-house hard by, uttered something every now and then between a bark and a yelp; a drab of a kitchen wench tramped backwards and forwards through the yard in patens, looking as sulky as the weather itself; everything, in short, was comfortless and forlorn, excepting a crew of hardened ducks, assembled like boon companions round a puddle and making a riotous noise over their liquor.
【註釋】
judge of: 對......作出評價。
looked out: (房間等)面朝。
commanded a full view of... 俯瞰......的全景；居高臨下，可以全部看見...。
wreaths of vapor: wreath 是煙、雲作螺旋狀的渦圈，這裡的 wreath of vapor 指繚繞升起的水氣渦圈。
wall-eyed: 眼白特別大的；兩眼珠向外斜視的。
a drab of a kitchen wench: 一個邋遢廚娘。drab:不整潔的女人，邋遢女人。英語中常用a...of a...這種名詞結構來描寫人或物，如a fool of a man (一個獃子般的男人)，a beast of a place (一個很髒的地方)等等。
The march to Italy was begun. The soldiers were even more enthusiastic than Caesar himself. They climbed mountains, waded rivers, endured fatigue, faced all kinds of danger for the sake of their great leader.
At last they came to a little river called the Rubicon. It was the boundary line of Caesar's Province of Gaul; on the other side of it was Italy. Caesar paused a moment on the bank. He knew that to cross it would be to declare war against Pompey and the Roman Senate; it would involve all Rome in a fearful strife, the end of which no man could foresee.
But he did not hesitate long. He gave the word, and rode boldly across the shallow stream.
"We have crossed the Rubicon," he cried as he reached the farther shore. "There is now no turning back." Soon the news was carried to Rome: "Caesar has crossed the Rubicon;" and there was great dismay among those who had plotted to destroy him. Pompey's soldiers deserted him and hastened to join themselves to Caesar's army.The Rome senators and their friends made ready to flee from the city.
"Caesar has crossed the Rubicon !" was shouted along the roads and byways leading to Rome; and the country people turned out to meet and hail with joy the conquering hero.
The word was carried a second time to the city: "Caesar has crossed the Rubicon," and the wild flight began. Senators and public officers left everything behind and hurried away to seek safety with Pompey. On foot, on horseback, in litters, in carriages, they fled for their lives ―all because Caesar had crossed the Rubicon. Pompey was unable to protect them. He hurried to the seacoast, and, with all who were able to accompany him, sailed away to Greece.
Gasser was the master of Rome.
[RIGHT]From [I]Thirty More Famous Stories Retold [/I] by James Baldwin[/RIGHT]
【註釋】
the Rubicon: 盧比孔河，在義大利北部。 Cross the Rubicon有「破釜沉舟」之意。
Caesar:愷撒（公元前100一44年），古羅馬統帥和政治家，與龐培、克拉蘇結成前三頭政治聯盟，率軍侵略海外，屢建奇功。公元前49年初，元老院與龐培聯合，解除其軍權並召之回國，同年愷撒率軍越過盧比孔河，進佔羅馬。龐培偕大批元老院議員出奔希臘。公元前46年，愷撒在征服了海外很多國家后，返回羅馬建立獨裁政權，公元前44年3月15日遇刺身亡。
made ready：解作「準備好」，後面常接動詞不定式短語或介詞for所引導的短語。
turn out:出動。
[B]越過盧比孔河[/B]
詹姆斯•鮑德溫
向義大利的進軍開始了。士兵們甚至比愷撒本人還要熱情旺盛。
為了他們的偉大領袖，他們跋山涉水，不顧疲勞，面臨各種艱難險阻而毫無懼色。
最後，他們來到了一條叫做盧比孔的小河邊。這條小河是愷撒管轄的高盧省的邊界線，河那邊就是義大利。愷撒在岸邊停留了片刻。他知道超過這條河就是對龐培和羅馬元老院宣戰，就會使整個羅馬捲入一場可怕的戰爭，其結局是沒有人能夠預料的。
但是，他沒有猶豫多久。他下了命令，並且無畏地策馬渡過了這條淺流。
「我們已經越過盧比孔河了，」他到達河的對岸時喊道，「現在只有前進，決不後退。」
「愷撒越過盧比孔了，」這一消息很快就傳到了羅馬，在那些曾經密謀消滅他的人中間引起了極大的驚慌。龐培的部下紛紛叛離，急忙投奔愷撒的部隊。羅馬元老院的議員們和他們的朋友都準備逃離羅馬了。
「愷撒越過盧比孔河了！」在通往羅馬的大道和小路上到處都呼喊著。鄉村裡的人們都奔走歡呼，準備迎接這位勝利的英雄。
消息第二次傳到羅馬：「愷撒越過盧比孔河了。」於是大家倉惶出逃，一片慌亂。元老和政府官員們扔下了一切，急急忙忙逃到龐培那裡去避難。他們或徒步，或騎馬，或坐轎子，或乘馬車，紛紛逃命――只因為愷撒越過了盧比孔河。龐培無力保護他們。他匆匆趕到海邊，帶著所有能夠伴隨他的人，坐船逃往希臘去了。
愷撒成了羅馬的主宰。作者: 阿袋 時間: 2005-9-26 10:00
感謝作者: z.ww 時間: 2005-11-5 00:48
too terrific to understand well.作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-11-5 05:09
[B]What Is Immortal[/B]
To see the golden sun and the azure sky, the outstretched ocean, to walk upon the green earth, and to be lord of a thousand creatures, to look down giddy precipices or over distant flowery vales, to see the world spread out under one's finger in a map, to bring the stars near, to view the smallest insects in a microscope, to read history, and witness the revolutions of empires and the succession of generations, to hear of the glory of Simon and Tire, of Babylon and Susan, as of a faded pageant, and to say all these were, and are now nothing, to think that we exist in such a point of time ,and in such a corner of space, to be at once spectators and a part of the moving scene, to watch the return of the seasons, of spring and autumn, to hear---
[c]The stock dove plain amid the forest deep,
That drowsy rustles to the sighing gale.[/c]
---to traverse desert wilderness, to listen to the dungeon's gloom, or sit in crowded theatres and see life itself mocked, to feel heat and cold, pleasure and pain, right and wrong, truth and falsehood, to study the works of art and refine the sense of beauty to agony, to worship fame and to dream of immortality, to have read Shakespeare and Beloit to the same species as Sir Isaac Newton; to be and to do all this, and then in a moment to be nothing, to have it all snatched from one like a juggler's ball or a phantasmagoria……
【註釋】
1. to bring the stars near:指使用望遠鏡觀測星辰。
2. Sidon, Tyre, Babylon, Susa: 四個古代國名和地名。
3.引自十八世紀英國詩人湯姆遜的詩《懶散的城堡》"The Castle of indolence"
4. see life itself mocked: mock 一詞兼有「模仿」和「嘲笑」二意。這句話可比較我國過去的諺語，「戲台小天地，天地大戲台」。
5. Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)， 英國大科學家。作者如此說，是因為在十八世紀牛頓由於並非顯貴出身而曾受到貴族人士輕視。
[CENTER]野鴿在濃密的樹林中哀訴，
樹林隨微風的嘆息而低語[/CENTER]；
我們橫絕大漠；我們傾聽子夜的歌聲 ；我們光顧燈火輝煌的廳堂，走下陰森森的地牢，或者坐在萬頭攢動的劇院里觀看生活本身受到的摹擬 ；我們親身感受炎熱和寒冷，快樂和痛苦，正義和邪惡，真理和謬誤 ；我們鑽研藝術作品，把自己的美感提高到極其敏銳的程度 ；我們崇拜榮譽，夢想不朽 ；我們閱讀莎士比亞，或者把自己和牛頓爵士視為同一族類 ；――正當我們面臨這一切、從事這一切的時候，自己卻在一剎那之間化為虛無，眼前的一切，象是魔術師手中的圓球，象是一場幻影，一下子全都消失得無影無蹤.....
【作者簡介】
威廉•赫茲里特(1778―1830)：十九世紀初英國浪漫主義散文家。本文節選自其名篇《論青年的不朽》。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-11-5 05:11
[B]Way to Read [/B]
Milton almost requires a solemn service of music to be played before you enter upon him. But he brings his music, to which, who listens, had need bring docile thoughts, and purged ears.
Winter evenings---the world shut out---with less of ceremony， the gentle Shakespeare enters. At such a season, the Tempest, or his own Winter's Tale.
These two poets you cannot avoid reading aloud---to yourself, or (as it chances) to some single person listening. More than one, and it degenerates into an audience.
Books of quick interest, that hurry on for incident, are for the eye to glide over only. It will not do to read them out. I could never listen to even the better kind of modern novels without extreme irksomeness.
A newspaper, read out , is intolerable. In some of the Bank offices it is the custom (to save so much individual time ) for one of the clerks, who is the best scholar, to commence upon the Times, or the Chronicle, and recite its entire contents aloud pro bone publics. With every advantage of lungs and elocution, the effect is singularly vapid. In barbers' shops and public houses a fellow will get up, and spell out a paragraph which he communicates as some discovery. Another follows with his selection. So the entire journal transpires at length by piece-meal. Seldom-readers are slow readers, and without this expedient, no one in the company would probably ever travel through the contents of a whole paper.
【註釋】
solemn嚴肅的;莊重的
degenerate衰退;墮落
irksomeness厭煩
intolerable不能忍受的
pro bone publics(拉丁文):for the public good.
elocution演說術
vapid無味的;走了味的
expedient方便的;權宜之計
[B]讀書之道[/B]
查爾斯•蘭姆
開卷讀彌爾頓的詩歌之前，最好能有人為你演奏一曲莊嚴的宗教樂章。不過彌爾頓自會帶來他自己的音樂。對此，你要摒除雜念，洗耳恭聽。
嚴冬之夜，萬籟俱寂，溫文爾雅的莎士比亞不拘形跡地走進來了。在這種季節，自然要讀《暴風雨》或者他自己講的《冬天的故事》。
對這兩位詩人的作品，當然忍不住要朗讀――獨自吟哦或者(湊巧的話)讀給某一知己均可。聽者超過二人――就成了開朗誦會了。
為了一時一事而趕寫出來、只能使人維持短暫興趣的書，很快瀏覽一下即可，不宜朗讀。時新小說，即便是佳作，每聽有人朗讀，我總覺討厭之極。
朗讀報紙尤其要命。在某些銀行的寫字間里，有這麼一種規矩：為了節省每個人的時間，常由某位職員(同事當中最有學問的人)給大家念《泰晤士報》或者《紀事報》，將報紙內容全部高聲宣讀出來，「以利公眾」。然而，吊著嗓子、抑揚頓挫地朗誦的結果，卻是聽者興味索然。理髮店或酒肆之中，每有一位先生站起身來，一字一句拼讀一段新聞――此系重大發現，理應告知諸君。另外一位接踵而上，也念一番他的「選段」――整個報紙的內容，便如此這般零敲碎打地透露給聽眾。不常讀書的人讀起東西速度就慢。如果不是靠著那種辦法，他們當中恐怕難得有人能夠讀完一整張報紙。
【作者簡介】
查爾斯•蘭姆(1775―1834)，英國著名的文學家，其代表作有《伊利亞隨筆》(1823)。本文節選自其文章《讀書漫談》。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-11-5 05:12
[B]Andrew's Rulds to Be Rich[/B]
The person of next consideration is Sir Andrew Freeport, a merchant of great eminence in the city of London, a person of indefatigable industry, strong reason, and great experience. His notions of trade are noble and generous, and (as every rich man has usually some sly way of jesting, which would make on great figure were he not a rich man) he calls the sea the British Common. He is acquainted with commerce in all its parts, and will tell you that it is a stupid and barbarous way to extend dominion by arms; for true power is to be got by arts and industry. He will often argue, that if this part of our trade were well cultivated, we should gain from one nation; and of another, from another. I have heard him prove that diligence made more lasting acquisitions than Valero, and that sloth has ruined more nations than the sowed. He abounds in several frugal maxims, among which the greatest favorite is, "A penny saved is a penny got." A general trader of good sense is pleasanter company than a general scholar; and Sir Andrew having a natural unaffected eloquence, the perspicuity of his discourse gives the same pleasure that wit would in another man. He has made his fortunes himself, and says that England may be richer than other kingdoms by as plain methods as he himself is richer than other men ; though at the same time I can say this of him, that there is not a pointing the compass but blows home a ship in which he is an owner.
【註釋】
indefatigable不倦的;不屈不撓的
jest笑話,俏皮話
sloth懶散,怠惰
abound in:大量存在
frugal節約的,儉樸的
perspicuity明晰;簡明
[B]安德魯的致富之道[/B]
理查德•斯梯爾
下一個要說的重要人物是倫敦市有名的富商安德魯•弗利波特爵士――這是一位具有堅強理智、豐富經驗、而又孜孜不倦的事業家。他對於貿易頗有一些恢宏大度的看法，而且，有錢人都愛說句俏皮話(他們若不是富翁，別人恐怕也就看不出那俏皮話到底有何出色之處)，他把海洋叫做英國的公共領地。有關商業的種種事務他都精通，常常說 ：武力不過是主權擴張的一種愚蠢而野蠻的方式，真正的權力是靠著工業、技術而贏得的。他常發議論說 ：只要我國在某一方面的貿易充分發展起來，就會從甲國那裡賺錢，在另一方面發展，又會從乙國獲利。他親口對我說：作戰勇敢，不如勤奮獲利長遠 ；又說 ：懶惰足以亡國，其害甚於刀劍。他肚子里裝了許許多多關於節儉的格言，最愛說的一句是 ：「一便士不花，等於一便士掙下。」跟一個普通的聰明商人打交道，比跟一個普通學者打交道要愉快得多。別人說話機智俏皮，叫人高興 ；安德魯爵士說話直來直去，發表什麼意見明明白白，同樣叫人覺得愉快。他的家私是靠自己掙來的。他說 ：英國只要採用他自己那一套簡簡單單的致富辦法，便可以比其他國家富裕。關於安德魯爵士，我不妨再說一句 ：不管羅盤針指著哪一個方向，都會有屬於他的船隻給英國運來財富。
【作者簡介】
理查德•斯梯爾(1672―1729)是十八世紀初具代表性的英國隨筆作家，與阿狄生合辦刊物《旁觀者》。本文便節選自該刊物。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-11-5 05:13
[B]A Little Boy[/B]
How I never could be tired with roaming about that huge mansion, with its vast empty rooms, with their worn-out hangings, fluttering tapestry, and carved oaken panels, with the gilding almost rubbed out---sometimes in the spacious old-fashioned gardens, which I had almost to myself, unless when now and then a solitary gardening man would cross me---and how the nectarines and peaches hung upon the walls, without my ever offering to pluck them, because they were forbidden fruit, unless now and then, ---and because I had more pleasure in strolling about among the old melancholy-looking yew-trees, or the firs, and picking up the red berries, and the fir-apples, which were good for nothing but to look at ---or in lying about upon the fresh grass, with all the fine garden smells around me---or basking in the orangery, till I could almost fancy myself ripening too along with the oranges and the limes in that grateful warmth-or in watching the dace that darted to and Fro in the fish-pond, at the bottom of the garden, with here and there a great sulky pike hanging midway down the water in silent state, as if it mocked at their impertinent friskiness, ---I had more pleasure in these busy-idle diversions than in all the sweet flavors of peaches, nectarines, oranges, and such like common baits of children.
【註釋】
tapestry綉帷;掛毯
nectarine油桃(水果名)
gilding鍍金
pluck 采,摘,拔
fir-apples:樅樹的一種圓錐形果實
dace鰷魚
dart猛衝,飛奔
impertinent不切題的
[B]一個小男孩[/B]
查爾斯•蘭姆
我在那所很大很大的宅院里滿世界地跑，從來不知什麼是疲倦：那裡有許許多多又大又空的房間和破破爛爛的帷帳，牆上的幔子還隨風飄動，橡木雕花嵌板上的金粉卻已剝落了――我常常到那座古老的大花園裡去玩，那花園簡直叫我一個人獨佔了，偶爾才碰上一個孤零零的老園丁――那園子里，油桃和桃子垂在牆頭上，我根本不去碰它，因為那是禁果，除非偶然一回兩回――因為，我更高興在那些帶著憂鬱神情的老水松樹或者樅樹之間跑來跑去，從地上撿那麼幾顆紅漿果，幾隻樅果，而那些樅果只能看，不能吃――有時候，我隨便躺在嫩草地上，讓自己完全沉浸在滿園子的芳香之中――要不然，我就在桔子園裡曬太陽，曬得暖洋洋的，一邊想象自己跟那些桔子、好些菩提樹一同成熟起來――再不然，我就到花園深處，看那些鰷魚在魚池裡穿梭般游來游去，不定在哪裡還會發現一條很大的梭子魚冷冷落落地停在深水之間，一動不動，好象對於那些小魚們的輕狂樣兒暗中表示鄙夷，――我喜歡的是諸如此類無事忙的消遣，而對於象桃子呀，油桃呀，桔子呀等等這些普通的小孩子們的誘餌，碰也不去碰它。
【作者簡介】
查爾斯•蘭姆（1775-1834），英國著名文學家。本文節選自其散文《夢幻中的小孩子（一段奇想）》。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-11-5 05:14
[B]The Man in Black[/B]
Though fond of many acquaintances, I desire an intimacy only with a few. The Man in black, whom I have often mentioned, is one whose friendship I could wish to acquire, because he possesses my esteem. His manners, it is true, are tinctured with some strange inconsistencies; and he may be justly termed a humorist in a nation of humorists. Though he is generous even to profusion, he affects to be thought a prodigy of parsimony and prudence; though his conversation be replete with the most sordid and selfish maxims, his heart is deleted with the most unbounded love. I have known him profess himself a man-hater, while his cheek was glowing with compassion; and ,while his looks were softened into pity, I have heard him use the languages; of the most unbounded ill-nature. Some affect humanity and tenderness, others boast of having such dispositions from Nature; but he is the only man I ever know who seemed ashamed of his natural benevolence. He takes as much pains to hide his feelings, as any hypocrite would to conceal his indifference; but on every unguarded moment the mask drops off , and reveals him to the most superficial observer.
【註釋】
The Man in Black:這篇文章是《世界公民》 "Letters from a Citizen of the World"中的第二十六封信，原有標題： The Character of the Man in Black; With Some Instances of His Inconsistent Conduct(黑衣人的性格；他言行矛盾的若干事例)。
esteem尊重,尊敬
tinctured著色於,染
humorist:滑稽者;滑稽演員
profusion慷慨
prodigy:奇迹,奇事;奇觀
parsimony吝嗇;過於儉省
replete充滿的,裝滿的
sordid骯髒的,污穢的
benevolence仁慈,善心
hypocrite偽善者,偽君子
[B]黑 衣 人[/B]
奧里弗•哥爾斯密斯
我雖然廣愛交友，卻只願跟少數知己親密來往。我常常提起的那位黑衣人，就是因為我敬重他的為人，這才願意同他做朋友的。自然，他做起事情來顧前不顧後，有些古怪，在一個專出滑稽人物的民族當中算得一個地地道道的滑稽人物。他的脾氣本來是慷慨大方到了揮金如土的地步，卻愛在人前裝出一副特別吝嗇小氣的樣子；他心裡對人們充滿著無限的熱愛，滿嘴裡說的卻是卑鄙自私的口頭禪。我曾經見他嘴裡一邊說自己那麼厭惡人類，臉上卻因為同情別人而漲得通紅，而當他的面容現出一派溫柔悲憫的表情的時候，嘴裡說的卻是性情惡毒的人才能說出的話。有的人假裝仁慈厚道，還有的人生怕暴露自己天生的仁愛心腸。偽君子掩飾自己的冷漠無情不遺餘力，他卻竭力掩飾自己的真情實意；不過，不定什麼時候他一不小心，假面具掉下來，再粗心大意的人也能看出他的本來面目。
【作者簡介】
奧里弗•哥爾斯密斯（1728-1774），十八世紀中葉的著名英國作家。本文節選自其短文《黑衣人》。作者: z.ww 時間: 2005-11-5 07:55
these are most brilliant essays that I have ever seen.
thanks for Adelyn and look forward to more.作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-11-5 13:46
[:439:]
thank you, z.ww!
and hope you come to visit us and share with us more.作者: haoone 時間: 2005-11-5 16:26
This is terrific!
But the downloads are not readable for the Chinsese text. I have to copy paste from web, but worth the effort.
Where do you get them? More please!作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-11-5 18:09
methods to display the characters of downloaded .TXT file:
download, save as a .RAR file.
use WinRAR to decompress.
open Word, open .TXT file from within the Word software, let Word choose the right encoding for you.
when seeing a readable text, click OK to load text into Word.
Save as a .DOC file or as a .TXT with "Encoding:unicode".作者: haoone 時間: 2005-11-6 12:20
Thanks Adelyn, I got it already. Let others try.作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-11-19 07:59
[B]What Should We Do in Our Lives[/B]
Augustus, a few minutes before his death, asked his friends who stood about him, if they thought he had acted his part well; and upon receiving such an answer as was due to his extraordinary merit, 'Let me then,' says he, 'go off the stage with your applause;' using the expression with which the Roman actors made their exit at the conclusion of a dramatic piece. I could wish that men, while they are in health, would consider well the nature of the part they are engaged in, and what figure it will make in the minds of those that leave behind them, whether it was worth coming into the world for; whether it be suitable to a reasonable being : in short, whether it appears graceful in this life, or will turn to advantage in the next.Let the sycophant or the buffoon, the satirist or the good companion, consider with himself, when his body shall be laid in the grave, and his soul pass into another state of existence, how much it will redound to his praise to have it said of him, that no man in England ate better, that he had an admirable talent at turning his friends into ridicule, that nobody outdid him at an ill-natured jest, or that he never went to bed before he had dispatched his third bottle. These are, however, very common funeral orations, and eulogies on deceased persons who have acted among mankind with some figure and reputation.
Augustus (奧古斯都)屋大維 (Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus 63 B.C--14 A.D)凱撒大將的侄孫，羅馬帝國的第一個皇帝，在位時期文治武功甚盛。
in the next：in the next life(根據基督教信抑，人死後，到最後審判時還要復活，由上帝賞善罰惡。所以作家這樣說)。
sycophant讒言者;食客
buffoon丑角;滑稽劇演員
satirist諷刺作家
redound 起作用;有助於(+to)
oration演說,演講
eulogy 頌詞;悼詞
decease死亡
In externals, they were two unobtrusive women; a per-fectly secluded life gave them retiring manners and habits. In Emily's nature the extremes of vigor and simplicity seemed to meet. Under an unsophisticated culture, inartifical tastes, and an unpretending outside, lay a secrecy power and fire that might have inflamed the brain and kindled the veins of a hero; but she had no worldly wisdom: her powers were unaccepted to the practical business of life : she would fail to defend her most manifest rights, to consult her most legitimate advantage. An interpreter ought always to have stood between her and the world. Her will was not very flexible, and it generally opposed her interest. Her temper was magnanimous, but warm and sudden; her spirit altogether unbending.
Anne's character was milder and more subdued; she wanted the power, the fire ,the originality of her sister, but was well endowed with quite virtues of her own. Long suffering, self-denying, reflective, and intelligent, a constitutional reserve and taciturnity placed and kept her in the shade, and covered her mind, and especially her feelings, with a sort of nun-like evil, which was rarely lifted. Neither Emily nor Anne was learned; they had no thought of filling their pitchers at the well-spring of other minds; they always wrote form the impulse of nature, the dictates of intuition, and from such stores of observation as their limited experience had enabled them to amass. I may sum up all by saying, that for strangers they were nothing, for superficial observers less than nothing; but for those who had known them all their lives in the intimacy of close relationship, they were genuinely good and truly great.
【註釋】
unobtrusive不引人注目
secluded與世隔絕的;隱退的
she had no worldly wisdom:她不知世故為何物
her most manifest rights:她自己最明顯的權利。
magnanimous寬大的;有雅量的
warm and sudden:熱情而激烈
subdued被制服的;順從的
constitutional reserve:熱情而激烈
taciturnity沉默寡言;緘默
intuition直觀(能力),直覺
Care-worn people, however, might refresh themselves oftener with day-sleep than they do; if their bodily state is such as to dispose them to it. It is a mistake to suppose that all care is wakeful. People sometimes sleep, as well as wake, by reason of their sorrow. The difference seems to depend upon the nature of their temperament; though in the most excessive cases, sleep is perhaps Nature's never-failing relief, as swooning is upon the rack. A person with jaundice in his blood shall lie down and go to sleep at noonday, when another of a different complexion shall find his eyes as uncloseable as a statue's, though he has had no sleep for nights together. Without meaning to lessen the dignity of suffering, which has quite enough to do with its waking hours, it is this that may often account for the profound sleeps enjoyed the night before hazardous battles, executions, and other demands upon an overexcited spirit.
The most complete and healthy sleep that can be taken in the day is in summer-time, out in a field. There is, perhaps, no solitary sensation so exquisite as that of slumbering on the grass or hay, shaded from the hot sun by a tree, with the consciousness of a fresh but light air running through the wide atmosphere, and the sky stretching far overhead upon all sides. Earth, and heaven, and a placid humanity seem to have the creation to themselves. There is nothing between the slumbered and the naked and glad innocence of nature.
【註釋】
temperament氣質;性情
jaundice黃疸病
account for:解釋，說明
hazardous有危險的，冒險的
exquisite 精美的;精緻的
the creation:宇宙，世界
[B]睡眠小議[/B]
亨特
人在憂慮之中往往不能成眠，其實他們大可以通過白天睡覺來恢復一下精神，只要他們的身體狀況許可他們這麼做的話。認為有憂愁一定不能睡覺，是一種誤解。憂患有時促人清醒，有時催人睡眠。這種差別似乎由於人的氣質不同而產生。不過，在一些最最極端的場合下，睡眠或許是造物主賜給人的一種永遠不變的慰藉, 正如人到了拷問台上就要暈倒,一個血液中有了黃疸病的人一到中午倒頭便能入睡；相反，具有另外一種氣質的人，哪怕一連幾夜未眠，卻仍象一尊雕像似的，苦於不能合眼。筆者無意抹煞受苦受難的莊嚴性， 因為人在清醒的時候所遭到的苦難已經足夠叫他煩惱，然而這也正好說明了人處在兇險鏖戰或死刑處決的前夜，以及其他迫使精神過度興奮的狀態之中，為什麼還能夠酣然沉睡。
最美滿、最身心舒暢的睡眠，只有當炎夏時節的白天，在那遼闊的田野上才能得到：躺在青草或者乾草上面安然入睡，一片樹蔭為你遮蔽著驕陽，你感覺到一種清新、爽快的微風在大氣之間回蕩，高高的天空環抱著自己，向四面八方伸延――什麼能比得上這樣美妙的感受?大地、蒼穹、和平的人類似乎充塞了整個的宇宙。在酣睡的人和赤條條、歡天喜地的大自然之間不存在任何隔閡。
【作者簡介】
亨特（1784-1859），十九世紀英國著名散文家。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-11-19 08:02
[B]The Arts of Informal Essay Writers[/B]
An essay is a thing which someone does himself; and the point of the essay is not the subject, for any subject will suffice, but the charm of personality. It must concern itself with something "jolly", as the school boys say, something smelt, heard, seen, perceived, invented, thought; but the essential thing is that the writer shall have formed his own impression, and that it shall have taken shape in his own mind; and the charm of the essay depends upon the charm of the mind that has conceived and recorded the impression. It will be seen, then, that the essay need not concern itself with anything ; it need not have an intellectual or philosophical or a religious or a humorous motive; but equally none of these subjects are ruled out. The only thing necessary is that the thing or the thought should be vividly apprehended, enjoyed, felt to be beautiful, and expressed with a certain gusto. It need conform to no particular rules. All literature answers to something in life, some habitual form of human expression. The stage imitates life, calling in the services of the eye and ear; there is a narrative of a teller of tales or the minstrel; the song the letter, the talk-all forms of human expression and communication have their anti-types in literature. The essay is the reverie, the frame of mind in which a man says, in words of the old song, "Says I to myself, says I ."
An object which is placed in the sunshine becomes hot and heat causes most materials to become slightly bigger-that is, to expand. An iron bar, for example, whose ordinary length is 5 feet becomes about 1/2 inch longer when it is made red-hot. The sun, of course, does not make rocks on the earth's surface red-hot, but rocks which are not protected by soil and plants do become quite warm in the sunshine. The surface of the rock expands very slightly, but the inside of the rock, which is not heated, does not expand. This causes a little crack, and gradually little pieces of the rock break away.
The wind causes much wearing of rocks, particularly if sand and dust are blown along by it. If the wind blows over sandy country, such as deserts and beaches, it picks up quite a lot of sand and carries it along. The particles of sand rub, scratch and cut the rocks against which they are blown. Soft rocks may be gradually worn away and harder rocks are rubbed so that they become smooth and shiny. Sometimes a rock is made into a very strange shape because softer parts are worn away and harder parts are left. The wind near the ground carries most sand with it and so wears the lower parts of big masses of rock most. The lower part of a cliff may be worn away and then, in time, the upper part falls down.
Sooner or later, the sand and the particles of rock drop from the wind to the ground. In sandy places you can often see heaps of sand forming little hills. They are called 「sand dunes」. Sand is blown along near the ground and some forms a little pile against a small bush, some grass, of a small rock. The pile grows and forms a sand dune. Sand may be carried many miles by the wind. A dry wind called the Harmattan, which blows from the Sahara desert over Ghana and Nigeria, carries much sand and dust. The dust falls to the ground as a fine powder.
wearing磨損的
pick up:捲起
worn away:磨碎，磨損
dune沙丘
放在陽光下的物體會曬熱，而熱能使大多 數材料稍微變大，也就是發生膨脹。例如，一根鐵棒，原長六英尺，經加熱到赤熱狀態時，就會長出約半英寸來。當然，太陽不會把地球表面上的岩石曬到赤熱狀態。但是，沒有土壤和植物掩蔽的岩石，在陽光下的確會變得相當熱。岩石的表面會微微地膨脹，而未受熱的岩石內部則並不膨脹。這就產生小裂縫，逐漸地就有岩石碎片剝落下來。
風使岩石遭到很大磨蝕，風裡裹著砂土和塵土吹來的時候尤其如此。如果風從沙漠和海灘等多砂地帶吹過，它就會捲走大量砂土。風吹到岩石上面，砂粒就磨蝕、刮削這些岩石。
硬度低的岩石逐漸被磨碎，堅硬的則磨得鋥光滑溜。有時一塊石頭被弄成奇形怪狀，因為質地不硬的部分被磨掉，堅硬的部分留了下來。貼近地面的風帶走砂土最多，因此大塊岩石下部磨蝕得最為厲害。一個懸崖的底部可能被磨蝕掉，於是，總有一天崖頂將會倒塌下來。砂土和岩石的碎粒遲早會從風裡落到地面上。在多砂的地區，你常常可以看到形成小山般的一堆堆砂土。這些小山叫做「砂丘」。砂土是貼著地面被吹走的，在碰到小灌木、草叢或小塊石頭的地方形成了小砂堆。砂堆越來越大，就形成了砂丘。砂土可以被風帶到許多英里以外的地方。一種叫做「哈麥丹」(Harmattan)的干風，從撒哈拉大沙漠吹過迦納和奈及利亞，它帶走很多砂粒和塵土。這些塵土就象很細的粉末一樣落到地面上。
【作者簡介】
W.E.FLOOD,M.A., Ph.D.:弗拉德博士是位資歷很深的大學講師和科普作家。本文選自他所著的《The Earth on Which We Live》一書。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-12-8 12:45
[B]Two Exceptions[/B]
Temperature is measured by means of a thermometer. One general form of thermometer depends upon the fact that most solids and liquids expand as their temperature rises. There are one or two exceptions. There is, for instance, a kind of steel called invar (from「invariable」) which does not change its dimensions as temperature changes; it is valuable for making pendulums, since, if the length of a pendulum changes, its time of vibration changes. It is also used for making very accurate measuring scales. In both cases, then, changes of atmospheric temperature have no effect if invar is used.
Another exception is that very odd liquid, water, which has many strange properties. As water gets colder it contracts, which is ordinary behaviour, until it reaches the temperature of 30C. above freezing point. After that, as it gets colder, it expands. This is fortunate---for consider the freezing of a pond. As the water on top gets colder, it shrinks; and so, volume for volume, it becomes heavier and sinks. This goes on until all the pond is at 30C, but after that, as the water becomes colder it expands. Therefore the colder water stays on top and freezes, covering the pond with ice. If the water went on contracting down to the freezing point, the pond would become a solid block of ice in the end. This would not worry people who live in hot climates, but it would be very serious for those who live in cold climates, especially for those who want to break the ice and catch fish which live in the clod water beneath.
【註釋】
thermometer 溫度計 pendulum擺錘;鐘擺
property特性,性能
[B]兩個例外[/B]
愛德華•內維爾
溫度是用溫度計測量的。大多數固體和液體，在溫度升高時就膨脹，普通的溫度計就是以這種原理作為依據的。不過也有一兩個例外，例如有一種鋼叫做殷鋼(從「invariable」一詞而來)，在溫度變化時它的大小尺寸不變；這種鋼對於製造鐘擺很有價值，因為如果擺長改變，擺動的周期就改變。殷鋼還可用來製造非常精密的量具。在製造鐘擺和製造量具時，如果使用殷鋼，氣溫的變化對上述兩種情況就不會產生任何影響。
另一個例外是水，一種很古怪的液體，它具有很多奇特的性質。在水溫降到冰點以上30C之前，水逐漸變冷，它就逐漸收縮，這是普通的性質。但以後水再變冷卻膨脹起來。考慮到池塘封凍，這倒是一件幸運的事。池塘上面的水遇冷便收縮，這樣，水就一塊接一塊地變重下沉。這種變化一直持續到整個池塘中的水溫降到30C 為止。但在此之後，當水溫再下降時，它便膨脹了。所以，較冷的水留在上面凍結，用冰來覆蓋整個池 。假如池塘里的水在冰點以上都不斷收縮下沉，那麼，整個池塘最後就會變成一個固體冰塊。這個情況並不使生活在熱帶地區的人們煩惱，但對於那些生活在寒冷地區的人們來說，特別是對於那些需要破冰捕獲冷水下層魚類的人們來說，卻是非常嚴重的問題。
【作者簡介】
PROFESSOR E.N.da C.ANDRADE, 本文選自愛德華•內維爾編著的《Physics for the Modern World》 (1951)愛德華•內維爾(1776-1961)是大英百科全書的物理學編輯，他還是倫敦大學物理學教授。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-12-8 12:48
[B]Three Physical States[/B]
Most people would describe water as a colourless liquid. They would know that in very cold conditions it becomes a solid called ice, and that when heated on a fire it becomes a vapor called steam. But water, they would say, is a liquid.
We have learned that water consists of molecules composed of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen, which we describe by the formula H2O.But this is equally true of the solid called ice and the gas called steam. Chemically there is no difference between the gas, the liquid, and the solid, all of which are made up of molecules with the formula H2O.And this is true of other chemical substances; most of them can exist as gases or as liquids or as solids. We may normally think of iron as a solid, but if we heat it in a furnace it will melt and become a liquid, and at very high temperatures it will become a gas. We normally think of air as a mixture of gases, but at very low temperatures it becomes a liquid, and at lower temperatures still it becomes a white solid.
Nothing very permanent occurs when a gas changes into a liquid or a solid. Everyone knows that ice, which has been made by freezing water, can be melted again by being warmed; and that steam can be condensed on a cold surface to become liquid water. In fact it is only because water is such a familiar substance that different name are used for the solid, liquid, and gas. For other substances we have to describe these different states directly. Thus for air we talk about liquid air and solid air. We could also talk about gaseous air, but, since this is the normal thing, we usually just describe it as air.
【註釋】
formula:分子式
to be true of:附合與...，對...成立
【作者簡介】
SIR GEORGE PORTER,喬治•波特爵士生於1910年，1944年任謝菲爾德大學物理化學教授。他曾在利茲大學和劍橋大學學習，擔任過許多科學機構的職務。本文選自他1951年首次出版的《Chemistry for the Modern World》一書。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-12-8 12:50
[B]Plastic Technology[/B]
Into the ward were carried men with broken faces, with jaw bones that felt like 「sand under your fingers」. Sepsis and bleeding caused numerous deaths. Many of these men could not utter a word, and lay wrapped in yards and yards of bandage. Some could not sleep. Many could not eat, and feeding was a slow business. Mirrors were absolutely forbidden in the ward. Gillies managed to keep up the spirits of these broken people, telling them he would soon have them looking as good as new, and promising he would give them「new」faces.
Late in the sixteenth century we have one of the greatest names in the history of plastic work: Gaspare Tagliacozzi, professor at the university of Bologna. He described the arm-flap graft for nose and ear, which meant that the repair was done by cutting an area of skin out of the arm and using it to cover the damaged nose or ear. 「We restore, repair, and make whole those parts of the face which Nature has given, but which Fortune has taken away, not so much that they may delight the eye, but that they may raise up the spirit and help the mind of the sufferer,」 wrote Tagliacozzi.
During the first World War explosives of a power hardly dreamed of before were being used. The wounds they caused were more serious than surgeons had ever had to face; they created tremendous opportunities, and tremendous problems. As an artist, Gillies saw the plastic surgeon as a sculptor. His materials, instead of being wood or stone, were living skin, bone fat and muscle. He employed them to remake people. The term「reconstructive surgery」,therefore, describes well what he was trying to do.
【註釋】
sepsis敗毒病
broken people:絕望的人們
arm-flap graft for nose or ear:臂皮移到鼻子和耳朵上
【作者簡介】
L.J.LUDOVICI本文選自Great Moments in Medicine一書。作者L. J. 路多維奇曾在牛津大學學習，以後從事出版工作。戰後，他開始寫作，曾寫過青霉素發明者亞歷山大•費萊明和空氣專家A.C. 羅(Roe) 等人的傳記。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-12-8 12:51
[B]About Temperature on Earth[/B]
For the last fifty years, the globe has been warming up. It is true that the average temperature rise is only about two degrees, but that has been enough to start the glaciers receding in many parts of the world.
A rise of one degree per generation is a large increase. Nature seldom moves as swiftly as this. We may have been helping her. Carbon dioxide(CO2) in the air is mostly responsible for the 「greenhouse effect」；it is a gas produced by all our countless fires, furnaces and internal combustion engines.
The end of the short-lived age of fossil fuels is already in sight；soon---in one or two centuries at the most---we will have wasted all the world's resources of oil and coal. This no longer means disaster, for atomic energy has arrived in time to save our civilization from dying through lack of power .We are moving into a brighter and cleaner age, as the smoke of millions of fires and furnaces and automobiles ceases to darken the sky. But for that very reason, it may also be a colder age.
This suggests that it may be easier to affect the climate---the long pattern of temperature and moisture--- than to control the behaviour of the weather, which is a local and short phenomenon. The climate of Earth is determined to no small extent by the immense quantities of ice locked up at the poles, and that ice remains perpetually frozen, in spite of the twenty-four-hour-long summer days, because the Sun's heat is reflected off the blinding white wastes, and has no chance of being absorbed. If that ice could once be removed, it would never reform on the same scale. The darker, exposed soil would collect and keep so much of the Sun's warmth now lost to us, that the general Earth temperature would be at a higher level.
【註釋】
combustion燃燒
to die through lack of power:由於缺乏能源而滅亡
【作者簡介】
ARTHUR C.CLARKE，阿瑟•C•克拉克是寫天文學專題(包括星際旅行題材)的著名作家。他是理學士和英國皇家天文學會會員。他與斯坦利•庫布里克曾合寫了小說及電影劇本1001:Space Odyssey。本文取自他的The Challenge of the Spaceship一書，該書於1950年在英國首次出版。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-12-8 12:53
[B]Comets[/B]
No account of the solar system would be complete without mention of comets, for these are just as much members of the sun's family as arethe major and minor planets. Quite a large number of comets are discovered every century, but most of them are extremely faint objects, far below the limits of the unaided eye. Comets usually arouse public interest when they are large and bright enough to attract attention and receive mention in the newspapers. But objects of this type are usually few and far between especially so far during the present century. You probably saw the two in 1946, and may be old enough to recall seeing the 1910 appearance of Halley's Comet. I have met quite a lot of people who saw Halley's Comet. Their memory wasn't very good when it came to recalling other things, but they remembered the comet.
If you are fortunate enough to see a comet, don't give it just a casual glance and then vanish indoors. Notice just where it is in relation to the stars and try to plot its path by making nightly observations. At the same time try to judge the brightness of its nucleus (brightest part),and see how far you can trace its tail. Usually the longer you stay in the dark (so allowing the eyes to get adapted to the darkness),the further you should be able to trace the tail. Notice that quite faint stars can be seen through the tail；it must therefore be thinner than the finest cloud. A series of observations like these should show that the comet's tail points away from the sun, and that it usually grows in size and brightness as the comet gets closer to the sun. If it is on its way to the sun, you may even have a chance of seeing it on its return journey.
【作者簡介】
H.C.KING, 本文摘自H.C.金(H.C.King) 所著《Tackle Astronomy This Way》(1951)一書。H.C.金在這本書里，清晰、生動有趣地描述天空的景象。他曾任倫敦天文科學館館長。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-12-8 12:56
[B]The Effect of Light Speed[/B]
Raising our eyes from the earth to observe the heavenly objects, we find a really considerable space of time occupied by light in carrying to us information about those distant bodies. From the moon light takes little more than a second and a quarter in reaching us; so that we obtain sufficiently early information of the condition of our satellite. But light occupies more than eight minutes in reaching us from the sun; a longer or shorter interval in travelling to us from Mercury, Venus, and Mars, according to the position of these planets; from about thirty- five to fifty minutes in reaching us from Jupiter; about an hour and twenty minutes on the average in speeding across the great gap which separates us from Saturn; while we receive information from Uranus and Neptune only after intervals twice and three times as great as that which light takes to come from the ringed planet, Saturn.
Thus, if we could at any moment see the whole range of the solar system as distinctly as we see Jupiter or Mars, the scene would not show the real appearance of the solar system at that, or any other definite, instant. The information brought by light about the various members of the solar system belongs to different times. If man had powers of vision which enabled him to watch what is taking place on the different planets of the solar system, it is clear that events of the greatest importance might have happened while yet he remained quite unconscious of their occurrence. Or, to look at it the other way, if an observer on Neptune could see all that is taking place on the earth, he might remain for hours unconscious of an event important enough to affect a whole continent.
【作者簡介】
RICHARD A. PROCTORi理查德•安東尼•普羅克特(1726-1777)是英國天文學家、作家，曾在倫敦大學和劍橋大學就讀。理查德•安東尼•普羅克特最偉大的著作是Old and New Astronomy，但生前未完成，而是由阿瑟•蘭西德完成的，於1791年出版。本文選自Other Worlds than Ours一書。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-12-8 12:57
[B]Rubber[/B]
Here is the story of rubber. From the earliest time it was common knowledge to the Peruvians that when a cut was made in the outside skin of a rubber tree, a white liquid like milk came out, and that from this a sticky mass of rubber might be made。This rubber is soft and wax-like when warm，so that it is possible to give it any form. The Peruvians made the discovery that it was very good for keeping out the wet. Then in the early part of the eighteen hundreds, the Americans made use of it for the first time. First they made overshoes to keep their feet dry. Then came a certain Mr. Mackintosh, who made coats of cloth covered with natural rubber. From that day to this we have been coating cloth with rubber as Mr. Mackintosh did, and our raincoats are still named after him.
But these first rubber overshoes and raincoats were all soft and sticky in summer, and hard and unelastic in the winter when it was cold. In fact, they might almost have been made of wax, only they were a bit stronger. But the rubber we have today is not sticky, but soft and elastic, though very strong--even in the warmest summer and the coldest winter. There would be no automobiles such as we have today without it。Long before the start of history, man made the discovery of how to make skins into good leather. But every attempt to make rubber hard and strong came to nothing. The early overshoes and raincoats were simply not good enough, and their makers went out of business.
Goodyear was living near some of these poor men and he got to work on this question of making rubber or "gum" as the Americans say, hard and strong. Once started on this work, he was the sort of man who simply had to go on till he had overcome the trouble. First came the discovery that nitric acid (HNO) made the rubber much better, and in a short time he was doing a small business in rubber shoes produced in this way.
【註釋】
Peruvians秘魯的;秘魯人
come to nothing:沒有結果，失敗
nitric氮的;硝石的;含五價氮的
Steam engines were the first to be tried in aero-planes, but they were too heavy to be of any real use. One such machine, made in 1773, consisted of a large number of wings one above the other and was driven by a steam engine. It is said to have risen for a moment off the ground. Another rose, but fell and was damaged. It was not until the petrol engine, which is very light for the power it develops, was fitted to a machine that any real success was obtained.
On December 16,1902,Orville Wright, an American, flew safely in a heavier-than-air machine for twelve seconds, He and his brother Wilbur had made a lot of experiments and had taken immense trouble to study the art of flying in gliders before they attempted to fly their aeroplane. Orville came down safely after the first short flight, and on the same day the experiment was repeated three times. The longest of these flights covered a distance of 741feet and lasted 49 seconds. The machine which was used had an engine developing only sixteen horse-power but the aeroplane reached a speed of 24 miles an hour. The two brothers continued their experiments after their first success, and in 1907 Wilbur gave some exhibitions of flying in France which astonished all who saw them.
The Wright brothers laid the foundation of modern flying. Soon others followed in their footsteps. Louis Bleriot, a Frenchman, flew across the English Channel from Calais to Dover in 1909. Prizes were offered for flights from one place to another. Competition increased. The aeroplane improved more and more as its behavior became better understood. More powerful engines were developed. In 1919 sir John Alcovk and Sir Arthur Brown made the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, and in the same year an aeroplane flew from England to Australia. The age of air travel had arrived.
【作者簡介】
G•C•索恩利,本文選自《動力與發展》(1940年版)一書，作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-12-8 12:59
[B]The Origin of Vaccination[/B]
Jenner was very troubled because there were so many diseases for which no cure had been found, and of which many people died. The worst of them all was smallpox, and every year hundreds of people caught the disease. Of those who recovered had their faces and bodies covered with scars.Jenner longed to find a way of saving people from this terrible disease and he thought about it a great deal and tried to find out all he could about it.
After a time he noticed something very interesting. He found that the girls who were employed to milk cows hardly ever caught smallpox, and he began to wonder why. Many of them caught a disease from the cows called cowpox, which was not serious and from which they recovered quickly. He found that people who had had cowpox seemed to be safe from catching smallpox.
One day a girl came to see him who had a cowpox sore on her hand. Jenner took some of the cowpox from her hand. He then found a little boy of eight called Jimmy Phipps. He made a small scratch on his arm. Into the scratch he put some of the germs of the cowpox. Jimmy caught cowpox and soon got better, but later when he came near people who had smallpox he did not catch it, though other people die.
Jenner was very excited at what he had found. He wrote a paper about it and had it printed for other doctors to read. That was how vaccination was discovered. At first people would not believe that what he had written was true. Many of them thought it was nonsense; and when Jenner offered to vaccinate people they were too much to come forward.Gradually the news spread all over the world and Jenner became a great hero.
We cannot, of course, see the oil which is trapped deep down in the ground.
Men must study the rocks carefully. When they think that the rocks in a certain place may contain oil, a metal tower called a derrick is built. A machine in the tower gradually cuts a narrow hole down into the ground. As the hole is made, a steel pipe is pushed down to stop the sides from falling in, and to keep out water. At last, if the men have judged correctly, the hole reaches the oil. Usually the oil rushes up the pipe with great force, driven by the pressure of the gas in the top of the layer of rock, and it streams high into the air. If this oil should catch a light, there would be a terrible fire. A kind of lid is fixed to the top of the pipe, and the oil is allowed to flow out gently through taps. After a "well" has been used for a long time, it may be necessary to use a pump to get the oil out.
Oil, we see, is obtained more easily than coal. Men must dig coal from a mine, but oil rushes up a pipe. Often several wells are made ,each reaching the same supply of oil in the ground. If a well is made near the middle of the oil-field, gas will be obtained. This may blow out of the well with great force if it is not controlled. In parts of America such gas is sent through pipes to distant towns, and used, like coal gas, in houses and factories.
The oil which comes from a well may be a pale brown, easy-flowing liquid , but more usually it is dark brown, thick and sticky. It is a mixture of many kinds of hydrocarbons. The factories in which the various oils (petrol, kerosene, etc.) are got out of this mixture are often many miles away from the wells; in fact, they may be in another country across the sea. The rock-oil(petroleum)is sent to these places, or to ships at a port, through steel pipes. the pipes may cross hundreds of miles of land, and pumps at various places drive the sticky petroleum along.
【作者簡介】
W•E•佛朗德: 文學碩士、哲學博士，本文選自佛朗德博士寫的《地球的寶藏》一書(1940年版)。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-12-8 13:01
[B]Bee And Color[/B]
On our table in the garden we put a blue card, and all around this blue card we put a number of different grey cards.
These grey cards are of all possible shades of grey and include white and black. On each card a watch-glass is placed.
The watch-glass on the blue card has some syrup in it; all the others are empty. After a short time bees find the syrup, and they come for it again and again. Then, after some hours, we take away the watch-glass of syrup which was on the blue card and put an empty one in its place.
Now what do the bees do? They still go straight to the blue card, although there is no syrup there. They do not go to any of the grey cards, in spite of the fact that one of the grey cards is of exactly the same brightness as the blue card. Thus the bees do not mistake any shade of grey for blue. In this way we have proved that they do really see blue as a colour.
We can find out in just the same way what other colours bees can see. It turns out that bees can see various colours, but these insects differ from us as regards their colour-sense in two very interesting ways. Suppose we train bees to come to a red card, and, having done so, we put the red card on the table in the garden among the set of different grey cards. This time we find that the bees mistake red for dark grey or black. They cannot distinguish between them. This means that red is not a colour at all for bees; for them it is just dark grey or black.
The idea that everything is made up of very small particles, or atoms, was known to the Greeks over two thousand years ago, but it was only about one hundred and fifty years ago that John Dalton put forward the important ideas which made the atomic theory really useful and greatly hastened the development of modern chemistry. What Dalton said was that, although many thousands of different chemical substances are known, these are made up of only a few different kinds of atom combined together in definite simple ways. We now know that there are altogether only about one hundred different types of atom, and about a third of these make up most of the substances encountered in everyday life. Atoms cannot be destroyed or changed in any way by chemical reactions; all that can happen is that the arrangement of the atoms is changed so as to produce another chemical substance with different properties.
Atoms are too small to be seen, even with a powerful microscope, but other instruments are able to detect them, to measure their size, and to count them just as easily and as certainly as if we could see them. We therefore know how much each kind of atom weighs and so it is easy to say immediately how many atoms there are in any piece of material, once we know what it is made of and how much it weighs. Atoms are so small, and their numbers are so great, that it is not easy for the mind to grasp such numbers. It takes about a hundred million atoms laid in a row to make one inch. There are more atoms in a glass of water than there are glasses of water in all the seas of the world. Since atoms can never be destroyed. this means that every glass of water we drink probably contains several atoms which have already been drunk many times by all the great men who have lived before us. With every meal, we consume a few atoms from the feasts of the Roman emperors and from the wine of the Pharaohs.
【作者簡介】
喬治•波特: 文學碩士、理學博士,英國皇家學會會員,大不列顛皇家學院主任、教授，Fullerian式的化學教授。喬治•波特生於1910年，曾在里茲和劍橋大學攻讀。本文選自他的《現代世界的化學》一書(1951年初版)。作者: Adelyn 時間: 2005-12-8 13:02
[B]Fighting with The Loss of Water And Soil[/B]
A serious threat to farmers in many parts of the world is erosion. If a large area of land is cleared of trees and bushes and is then badly treated by the farmer, the rain and winds may gradually wash away, or blow away, much of the fertile top-soil. When this happens, crops of corn of grass become weaker and weaker until nothing much will grow at all, If erosion is allowed to continue, it will turn good farm land into a desert.
The first really bold attempt to do this was started by the Government of the United States of America in 1922. This experiment set a pattern for the world. The district where the experiment was carried out was the area watered by the Tennessee River in the U.S.A. The total area, about the size of England and Scotland combined, contained four million five hundred thousand people. Floods and bad farming over the years had ruined a land that had once been rich, and had made it miserably poor.
Big dams were built across the Tennessee river and its tributaries. In the rainy season there was plenty of water, and the dams stored it for use during the water which could be used for generating electricity. The Tennessee Valley Authority staff also helped the farmers to fertilize the soil, and to plant wind-breaks which would turn the force of the wind upwards away from the land. They taught the farmers to plough across the slopes of the hills (not upwards and downwards)in order to keep the rain-water in the land; and they tried to change the old methods of farming into modern ways.
The great success of the Tennessee Valley scheme has led to similar schemes elsewhere. In many places today rivers are dammed to control floods, generate electricity, and store water for the land in the dry season. But there is much more to do.
【註釋】
be clear of:擺脫，免除
tributary:支流
windbreaks:防風林
hilosophy is the microscope of thought". [/COLOR] 