提交 ff16f5cd 编写于 作者: L libinbin106

56

上级 893af4fd
......@@ -418,7 +418,33 @@ have to be as far away as the planet Jupiter to look for life in outer space, be
thinner the further we travel towards the outer edges of our own solar system. Once we detected a
planet, we would have to find a way of blotting out the light from its star, so that we would be
albe to 'see' the planet properly and analyze its atmosphere. In the first instance, we would be
looking for planet life,
looking for planet life, rather than little green men. The life forms most likely to develop on
a planet would be bacteria. It is bacteria that have generated the oxygen we breathe on earth. For
most of the earth's history they have been the only form of life on our planet. As Earth-dwellers, we
always cherish the hope that we will be visited by little green men and that we will be able to
communicate with them. But this hope is always in the realms of science fiction. If we were able to
discover lowly forms of life like bacteria on another planet, it would completely change our view of
ourselves. As Daniel Goldin of NASA observed, Finding life else would change everything. No
human endeavor or though would be unchanged by it.
Lesson 56
形成我们农场东部边界的一条河流一直在我们生活中发挥着重要作用。要是没有这条河,我们就无法生存下去。
泉水只能满足家庭生活用水,因此我们必须从河里抽水用于农业生产。我们向那条河倾诉我们的秘密。我们本能地
懂得,就像养蜂人和他的蜜蜂那样,要是我们不把生活中的重大的事件告诉那条河,就可能大祸临头。
夏天,我们为这条河举办特殊的生日宴会。有时,我们溯流而上来到我们喜爱的回水河汊举办;有时在船坞举办。
那船坞是农场一位前辈在一块草地上盖的,草地紧挨着一个专供游泳、跳水的深水池。天气炎热时,我们便选择
在半夜举办生日聚会,这种聚会是最令人激动的。我们在河边迎接一年四季。春天在河边为最年轻的姑娘戴上花冠,
夏天在河边欢庆仲夏前夜,秋天在河边为丰收而感恩,冬天往河中抛撒一个冬表花环。
The river which forms the eastern boudary of our farm has always palyed an important part in
our lives. Without it we could not make a living. There is only enough spring water to supply the
needs of the houses, so we have to pump from the river for farm use. We tell river all our secrets.
We know instinctively, just as beekeepers with their bees, that misfortune might overtake us if
the important events of our lives were not related to it.
Lesson 57
我停下车,让汽车发动机冷却一下,同时查看一下地图。我本想离目的地已经不远,但周围一切对我仍很陌生。
......@@ -428,5 +454,48 @@ Lesson 57
什么也不缺,他既当父亲又当母亲。他总想将来回国看看,但却不愿长期住下去,因为他与我一样已经把根深深地扎在
异国的土地上。但是,他想看一看家乡的父老乡亲,为我的母亲扫墓。就在他计划回国的前几个月,他突然身患绝症。
他知道自己奄奄一息,于是他要我答应一定单独回故乡一趟。
我下了飞机后租了一辆车,并买了一本详尽的地图册。在乡间行车途中,我觉得它非常有用,但快到家了,我倒觉得
它没什么用了。这倒并非是我背熟了地图,而是父亲曾详细给我讲了,在过了离故乡最近的那个小镇后,在每一个
路标处可见到些什么。因此,我相信这段路对我来说会是很熟悉的。唉,实际我错了,我现在迷路了。
我看了看地图,又查了一下里程表。从小镇出来,我走了10英里。照父亲的说法,我面前应是一个山谷,有农场
与村舍,还可远远望见老家村子里的教堂的尖顶。可现在我却看不出山谷,看不见农舍,也看不见教堂尖顶,看见的只是
一片湖泊。我想一定是什么地方拐错了弯儿。于是我驾车返回小镇,重新按路线行驶。结果又来到刚才那个拐弯处。
奇怪的是那个湖没有在地图上标出。
I stopped to let the car cool off and to study the map. I had expected to be near my objective by
now, but everything still seemed alien to me. I was only five when my father had taken me abroad,
and that we eighteen years ago. When my mother had died after a tragic accident, he did not
quickly recover from the shock and loneliness. Everything around him was full of her presence,
continually reopening the wound. So he decided to emigrate. In the new country he became
absorbed in making a new life for the two of us, so that he gradually ceased to grieve. He did not
marry again and I was brought up without a woman's care; but I lacked for nothing, for he was both
father and mother to me. He always meant to go back on day, but not to stay. His roots and mine
had become too firmly embedded in the new land. But he wanted to see the old folk again and
to visit my mother's grave. He became mortally ill a few months before we had planned to go and,
when he knew that he was dying, he made me promise to go on my own.
I hired a car the day after landing and bought a comprehensive book of maps, which I found most
helpful on the cross-country journey, but which I did not think I should need on the last stage. It
was not that I actually remembered anything at all. But my father had described over and over
again what we should see at every milestone, after leaving the nearest town, so that I was
positive I should recognize it as familiar territory. Well, I had been wrong, for I was now lost.
I looked at the map and then at the millimeter. I had come ten miles since leaving the town, and
at this point, according to my father, I should be looking at farms and cottages in a valley, with the
spire of the church of our village showing the far distance. I could see no valley, no farms, no
cottages and no church spire -- only a lake. I decided that I must have taken a wrong turning
somewhere. So I drove back to the town and began to retrace the route, taking frequent
glances at the map. I landed up at the same corner. The The curious thing was that the lake was not
marked on the map. I left as if I had stumbled into a nightmare country, as you sometimes do in dreams.
And, as in a nightmare, there was nobody in sight to help me. Fortunately for me, as I was
wondering what to do next, there appeared on the horizon a man on horseback, riding in my
direction. I waited till he came near, then I asked him the way to our old village. He said that there
was now no vilage. I though he must have misunderstood me, so I repeated its name. This time he
pointed to the lake. The village no longer existed because it had been submerged, and all the
valley too. The lake was not a natural one, but a man-made reservoior.
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